Heat does strange things to people...

That's the only explanation for my compulsive need to clean out the sewing room closet on a day when the heat index reaches more than 105*, in an apartment with no air conditioning.

This is one of two "real" closets in the house. Because the room it is in is only 9' 6" square, and the previous tenant had a double bed in the room, the closet door was removed at some time past. Since I have a fair amount of furniture in the room, I've never lobbied to have it replaced. I did, however, make a nice curtain to hang over the opening (mostly to hide the piles of crap miscellaneous stuff vital sewing supplies contained therein. The closet is 6' wide, 2' deep. The door, of course, is on the far right of the 6" wide side. (Before you suggest cutting a larger, full-width-of-the-closet door to make this a really usable space, bear in mind that the single heat register for the room is on the same wall as the closet, about halfway along the width. It's more complicated than it seems.)

So, what's in the closet?

• A rolled up 6' by 8' rug, propped in the 'way back corner
• Four BIG rubbermaid/sterlite containers - two with current/future quilting projects, one with white/tan/ecru/civil war fabric, and one with a small amount of regular yard goods
• A smallish stack of six plastic drawers on wheels (thread, glue guns, spray adhesive, zippers, interfacing and the like)
• The broom, dustpan and the electric broom
• The cover/carrying case for the sewing machine
• A small bag with the accessories for the treadle sewing machine - including a buttonhole foot and the original leather drive belt
• Two wall-mounted racks for thread
• A six foot white feather boa
• Hand quilting hoops of various sizes
• A small sewing basket and file with almost every color of embroidery floss DMC makes (counted cross stitch phase about fifteen years ago)
• Two smaller plastic containers up on the shelf, with ribbons, trims, buttons, various paints and crochet hooks
• A ream of legal size printer paper
• A box of pendaflex hanging file folders
• Two rolls of scented drawer liners
• A painting my grandmother did of me, age about seven
• Twin size air mattress (not inflated, of course)
• Box of dressmaker's patterns
• A folder containing the originals of mystery stories I wrote in 3rd and 4th grade
• All of my report cards from kindergarten on
• A paper grocery bag containing more paper grocery bags (saved to use as garbage bags)
• A plastic grocery bag full of (you guessed it) plastic grocery bags - ditto
• A shopping bag with two unopened queen size quilt batts
• A large plastic shopping bag with short/odd shaped leftover pieces of cotton batting

People who know me won't be surprised that almost everything is labeled, and the whole closet is pretty neat (call me compulsive, but the small leftover pieces of batting have been measured and labeled before being put in the bag).

Oh - and the reason to dig in the closet in the first place? A six by three by three inch box from Robert Frank Needlework Supply Co. in Kalamazoo, MI, containing the "ready-made" quilt patches for a Trip Around the World quilt. Postage on the box - eleven cents (whole kit circa 1930). It was, of course, in the second of the two "projects" tubs, underneath the rolling rack of drawers.

So - what's in your closet?