Reading Room

If you didn't happen to catch Teresa's guest posts on Stash Manicure (one each on fabric and books/patterns), you missed a couple of organizational masterpieces!! Not since stumbling upon Quiltville several years ago (and printing everything on the site -- Thank the Lord Bonnie publishes now so I don't have to support the ink cartridge industry all by myself!!! :-D) have I been so impressed!!

But alas, Teresa, you missed a vitally important place for your quilting reading materials.  May I present my Reading Room:

The room has had many names over the last few hundred years.  In the regency era novels I favor (like The Secret History of the Pink Carnation and others of that ilk! :-D), it's called the Ladies' Retiring Room.

Interesting.  I don't mind a visit from time to time, but I don't think I want to spend all my twilight years there, you know?

Or the Necessary Room.  Practical, on point, speaks for itself.
How 'bout the "privy."
Heheheh.  Right.  Privy! Is there anything private about a bathroom with a mom in it!?! Can you even count the times you sat down to take a load off and hear the inevitable squawk..."Mooooooooommm!!!????"

Not that you could tell it from this photo, but my Will is a worrier.  I think it's because his 11-year old brain can't keep up with his puberty-driven little body (why do boys grow six inches in a single year!?!?!)

Here is a typical conversation with him whilst I'm sitting in the Privy:

From the other side of the door, "Mom, can I have some chocolate milk?"


Breaking my concentration, "Um, yeah, baby. Help yourself."
"Are you sure?"
(What am I, a crack mom!?!) "Yeah, Honey! Knock yourself out!"
"Really?!"
"No. If you take one sip, I'll beat you within an inch of your miserable life."
"So it's OK, then!?"
"Yes, for the love of God, please go get you some chocolate milk!!!"

I need quilt books in my Reading Room.  If Quilting is my therapy -- and Lord knows it is!! LOL -- then I must have access to it when I need it, and never more than when I'm in the privy.  Some of my best ideas are hatched there.  Some of my ideas should be flushed.  It's that simple.  The Reading Room -- the Necessary Room! -- the privy is a significant part of my mental health.

It's just as well I have no privacy. :-P  In the Bible privacy is most often associated with scandal or wicked plans or other sinister stuff.  Joseph wanted to put Mary away privately when she was with child.  Herod talked privately with the Wise Men so he could figure out where the Christ child was to kill him.  Nicodemus talked with Jesus privately so his little Pharisee friends wouldn't see him talking to Him. 

And then there's that jewel (no pun intended) of an admonition from the Old Testament law: "He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD."  (Deuteronomy 23:1 -- KJV)  Hehehe.  If you want your hubby in church with you, better keep the Bobbitt knife in the drawer.  So much for privacy, huh?  Can you imagine explaining that when someone says, "We've missed your husband at church lately!!"  Good thing we are under grace and not under the law!! LOL

So, privacy is probably overrated.  In the little bit of time I have behind that closed door, between Son #1 asking if he can practice driving and Son #2 asking for food ("YES! You may have lunch!!!"), I read. 

I'm reviewing (again) the "Album of Memories" series of patterns from McCall's Quilting 2001.  Thinking about the "Apple Cider" scrap quilt from February 2009.  Deciding I should get all of the Blackbird Designs books. 

And when necessary, I'll use it as a "Necessary Room." :-P

Blessings!