Winter Camp Draws to a Close

Its plain to see that Winter Camp is drawing to a close.

After this particular winter, I'm feeling like once the Outside opens, I never want to come back in the house again. In preparation, I spent this past weekend finishing the main chores of Winter Camp: mending and organizing.
I don't know why I let it pile up, because when I am mending, I am in love with mending. I love my hands as they reconfigure rips and tears back into Integrity. And I love walking around my home not averting my eyes from rather stunning holes in garments, linens, and furniture.

First, I mended Billy's work on the duvet cover on our bed, which is becoming a scrapbook of wintering over with boxers.

Then the chenille pillow I use to support my back while reading in bed:

On to the futon in my studio where Billy sleeps after he's done his warm-up exercises on our bed:

While in the studio, I felt suffocated by the piles of fabric--even though I have not brought in any fabric for well over a year. I listened to a Radio Lab program about the brain and blew my way through each and every piece. I got rid of two large bags that will go to some hapless Freecycler. And more important, I uprooted masses of stink bugs, who seem to have an affinity for woven stripes. Now I don't feel suffocated, I feel inspired.

Which lead me to my Jewelled Kilim quilt of last summer. I finally put on the binding...

And wove some bases for new pillows to go with my Gridlock cloth:

.And because one organizing leads to another, I cleaned my bulletin board, the better to showcase the collage that Thing One made me for Mother's Day years ago: "Mom is like a good friend who knows a lot about Stuff." Hallmark couldn't have said it better.

And I finally hung the tree upon which grows tiny beaded Indian people.

It started with the small cow head at the top, which is beaded around some sort of vertebra. (Are you paying attention, Saskia?)I found it in a suitcase at a flea market, which cost me 25 cents. Himself decided I need to collect something besides bags of trash of his Stuff to take to the Thrift Shop and so over the years,the cow got some friends.This is how it starts...because then the collection needs a home and the home needs a wall...and the wall needs a room (sing to the tune of "The Green Grass Grows All Around All Around...)

So its raining and the cold is comin' round the corner once again. But inside, Winter Camp is comin' down. At least in our hearts.