Loyal, lazy quilt kitty needs a new home...

As we prepare for our move and new home, Weasley needs to do the same thing...but, sadly, not with us.

We will be caretakers of our new home and family will be there often...some of my family have very bad cat allergies, so we will not be able to have an indoor pet.  He has no front claws, so becoming an outdoor kitty is out of the question.

(Here he is, hogging the heat vent under the kitchen sink...).  We are very sad about this, but there is nothing we can do about it. Losing him will be one of the hardest things about our move.

(He is a big supporter of napping...anywhere or on anyone...)  He does not like car rides, so the 12-hour trip south would be more than he can take.

So, if anyone out there within an hour or so of Ypsilanti, Michigan would like a constant quilting companion, do I have the cat for you!

He will be nine years old on July 4th (he is a Yankee-Doodle-Dandy!).

He's only ever been around one other cat...only briefly.  We invited a kitty in (who used to come to the back door every day to say "hi" through the door...), and they did not really interact, but there was no hostility.

He follows me around all over the house and always stays up with me, even long after others have gone to bed.

He was supposed to be my daughter's kitty, but he loves me the most (ha!).  Riley named him "Weasley" after Harry Potter's best friend (because he is a ginger kitty!).

"always watching, always watching..."

No pressure...I just thought I would see if he would fit a local need (and it is always fun to see kitty pictures...).

In stitches,
Teresa   :o)

There goes my stash...riding off into the figurative sunset...

It's funny...when the POD was delivered to me empty, I looked at it and thought that it wasn't very big and I would have it filled in no time.

Ha!  More than a week later, off it went this morning. The last two days have been a real scramble!  I didn't have enough stuff boxed and ready to fill the POD and I definitely wanted to get my money's worth.  

So I was doing the 'Curly Shuffle' the last 48 hours, sorting out garage sale stuff into piles and filling boxes as fast as I could. Wow!  I finished at 2:45 AM last night!  The house and quilt cave are a complete shambles, but it is done!

I decided to take the first 5 heavy duty, plastic shelving units I ever bought.  I know I will need shelving in the new cave.  It's too expensive to move more of the shelves.

I turned them on their sides and tied them together so they wouldn't shift (one stack is 3 high, one is two high).  The shelves act as support for little protected pockets filled with the family china, fragile, and weirdly shaped items.

This is what it looked like when I finished at 2:45 AM last night. Steve tied off the last section before he left for work this morning and I stuffed in some duffle bags holding Christmas trees at the last minute and ran a bungee cord through their handles.
  

I wish I had invented this moving concept...really cool to watch (I took video...such a geek...).

Houston, we have lift off!

Then, he just backs the truck under it, lines everything up, then puts it down on the truck bed.  Just one guy, a truck, and his fancy hydraulic doo-hicky.

The POD...and my stash... will be in Huntsville in a week in an indoor storage facility.  I will schedule to have it delivered to Tuscumbia and unload it into the RV garage.  I will be unloading it by myself...ugh...

Then, things will be moved into the house as I can deal with them. All my parents' stuff is still there...

I am nervous about stuff shifting inside the POD even though I tied sections off as I went.  I hope I can get the door open!  Maybe they can lower the non-door end and shake it if I can not get into it.

Yikes...I hope that doesn't happen!

Now to get ready for the kick-ass garage sale with my quilting buddies...June 5 and 6 in Ypsilanti, Michigan...y'all come!

In stitches (and sore as Hell!), 
Teresa   :o)

The Quilt POD?

The "pre-move" has started in the Quilt Cave.  The basement formerly full of fun and fabric has turned into the pit of Hell...all that careful sorting and storage has to come apart, come up stairs (ugh), and get carefully packed in this 8'x16'x8' POD.

Yes, it all has to come up the 'stairs of death,' (or 'death valley" as I have named the stairwell).  I am definitely getting my heart rate up to the target zone this week...I wish that I had counted all the trips thus far.  

Steve has been in Philadelphia following his Mom's passing, so it has been a lonely experience.  Thank goodness for friends with strong, good-looking young sons to help with the really heavy stuff (thanks, Mitch!!).

We have an unfinished basement, and after slowly lining the walls with Home Depot plastic shelving over the past 20 years and placing inexpensive rug remnants on the floor, the Quilt Cave has evolved into my favorite, cozy place to be, despite the lack of posh amenities!

Tornado warning??  No problem...  Laundry to do??  No problem... Family room full of teenagers??  No problem...  Hiding out in hopes that Steve will start dinner??  No problem...

I kept my fabric sorted so that I could access it easily.

It is all coming down...

It was all sorted by type, color, theme, etc...

My books used to be at my fingertips, sorted by subject...

Now the books are in small boxes (still too heavy...)...and the shelving is hanging out in the garage until I place it in the POD.

I still have my sewing machine set up...I hope to sew and work on patterns in the weeks to come before we are ready to leave the state.

I used to have all my patterns and handouts in second-hand file cabinets in organized hanging file folders...

Now all those hanging file folders are in boxes.  Just as heavy as books, by the way...

I have ongoing projects and larger scraps and strips in Art Bin boxes (thank you JoAnn's weekly coupons!).

Now those are stacked in boxes, ready to go on the truck.  U-Haul makes a 15"x15"x tall box in which those stack very neatly...(those are my Dad's ties in the box on top...).

My primary sewing area centered around an antique sewing bureau designed and hand-built by Steve's Grandfather Arthur for his Grandmother.  My little busy tool drawers sat on it.  I had plastic drawers underneath storing my larger tools.  

Now, all that is packed up, empty, and ready to heave up the steps...

There are boxes piled everywhere...even the piano is not safe...

And the garage is the staging area...

Each quarter section is like a puzzle...here's the first one...

I have got to get a move on...it is being picked up on Friday!  Do you think I will make it?!?

In stitches...and sweating like a beast,
Teresa   :o)