Men Are From Mars

And women are from Venus. I guess y'all have heard of that book. This title came to mind because G and I have started packing and we are definitely learning that we both think and pack differently. Our most recent challenge was centered around our collection of books and it wasn't about which ones we wanted to store and which we wanted to take with us. We were very agreeable in that sense. The challenge was how we wanted to catalogue and pack them. I was vexed because I wanted to immediately take the books off the shelves straight into boxes to be catalogued while G wanted to catalogue them and then put them into boxes. I had visions of books being strewn everywhere as he catalogued. It took about fifteen minutes of...slightly heated conversation for me to realize that I didn't care about how they were catalogued and packed. I only cared that they were not strewn around the house while being catalogued and packed. G came up with a solution: designate shelves in the bookcase for books to be stored, to be taken overseas, and to sell. That made me perfectly happy and we set to work sorting the books into three piles and putting them on designated shelves. I was a happy camper because there was no mess and G was happy because he kept his system of cataloguing.

Let's put the subject of packing aside. I ordered a beautiful fabric - not quite sight unseen but "touch unfelt" - which I was nervous about but I was not disappointed when I opened the package. It's voile which is the lightest, smoothest, softest, silkiest cotton of quilting weight that I'd ever felt in my short sewing career. I want to make a light summer kimono-style wrap in a serene color from Amy Butler's "In Stitches" book and wanted something soft but not silk. Most quilting cotton isn't the most pleasant fabric to wear and I'm not a fan of making garments for myself from quilting cotton. I put this summer wrap project on the back burner until I discovered viole.

This voile is called "Diamond Mine" in Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks fabric collection. I wish you could reach through your computer screen and touch the fabric and marvel at how soft and smooth this cotton feels.