Slow and Steady Wins the Race

This week has not seen a lot of sewing or quilting. I spent most of my time at home working on the studio and dejunking. I got a couple of shelves up and put a few other things in place. My son, under the guidance of his father, built a floor to ceiling set of shelves. He needs to add a few finishing touches and then my daughter, Perigrine, will sand and paint it. I am hoping to be able to put things on it by Friday evening.

As I said I have also been de-junking. I have started in my bedroom. I had a lot of fabric bins in there and needed to move them out. I also went through my dresser and tossed stained and torn clothes. I still have too many clothes for my dresser but I am not ready to get rid of quite that much. Next I will be moving on to my closet where I have too many bins of craft supplies. I hate to admit it but I have things I haven't touched in the 8 1/2 years I have lived here. Some of that stuff needs to go.

I won't get too much done this week though. We have friends arriving on Saturday for a week. I need to get things ready for them. I just hope to have the studio somewhat organized and the house in guest ready state. Housework is not my long suit. I would much rather sew, quilt and craft. You would think that in a house of adults there wouldn't be much mess. But we all are working and well come home tired. It is a good night if we sit down to eat as a family.

So like I said I am hoping to get the studio somewhat organized and my closet cleaned out this week. I am not sure what to put where just yet but I need to start somewhere. I expect that I will rearrange things a few times before I find the right place for everything. I hate organizing!!! But I love things to be organized. Whenever I can, I con Tatianna into doing the organizing. I joke that she is more than a little OCD. She just has to have things be in a sensible order. For example fabric and beads organized by color or type. Most likely both. But lately she is not that easily conned. Plus it is my studio and even if she shares it with me, it needs to suit my needs. She is not going to be here forever.

Progress has been slow but everyday it has seen some progress. I am getting things done a little by little. Like Aesop's Fable of the Tortoise and the Hare teaches us, "Slow and steady wins the race."

Better Spirits

I have been feeling much better this week. I am much less depressed and am feeling physically better. I suppose it is due partly to the medicines, partly to the weight loss (I am now below 300 lbs), and partly to the fact that I have decided that I can handle this new lifestyle. I have come to grips with my reality.

I had much more energy this week, despite having to go into work very early Monday and Tuesday.. Which means I have actually felt like doing things. So I didn't come home and collapse on my bed.

I have sewn at least 30 minutes a day during the work week. Sometimes more than 30 minutes. The last three days of the work week, I woke up very early and could not get back to sleep. So I got up and sewed. That made for long days but the truth is I was in a much better mood those days. I have finished the top to the Around the Rail Fence quilt. I really liked how it turned out. It is partially on the long arm now. I hope to start quilting it tomorrow.  I will post pictures when I have it done. I also had enough blocks left to make a lap quilt, the top of which is almost done, I just need to put the outer borders on it. This project had caught me by surprise. I was not expecting it to give me such a boost.

The last couple of days, I have been focusing on the Studio. I have convinced my husband and son to build me a shelf unit. I had given up on finding one to meet my needs. We bought the materials on Saturday. Hopefully it will be done Tuesday night. With the custom shelf unit and the two wall shelves  that I still need to hang, I should be able to make a dent in the chaos that has been my studio.

This weekend I have gotten a few things hung up and am working on the organization of supplies in studio. This afternoon I spent folding fat quarters and putting them in my MSQC storage bags. I love the storage bags and have 11 of them now. All full of my fat quarter stash. In fact I didn't have quite enough bags. I could use another one or two or three. But I am not going to buy them. I am trying to not fill up containers. I have too many filled right now. 

 I have decided to focus on emptying the containers. I have been putting projects in bins until I can get to them. I have decided to put the bins with projects in a visible place in the studio. As I finish one project and get it on the machine, I will pick the next one off the shelf of  projects. If I get tired of the project (and some of them I will) I can put it back in the bin and back on the shelf. But it will be visible. Therefore not out of mind,

I also have decided to work on the studio for at least 30 minutes a day. I can't do it all at once but I figure I can knock things out a bit at a time. Some projects will take more time than others but that is okay. I will work on what I have time to work on and take it from there. It may only be to dust and sweep.

So hopefully my mood will remain positive, my health will continue to improve. and I will continue to progress in my quilting. I am starting to feel like I did a few years ago. I am also starting to dream about owning my own quilt shop again. Who knows what I will accomplish. I just know I am starting to feel like making plans again. Even better I am starting to feel like working on those plans.

Getting Back in the Swing of Things

I haven't blogged for a couple of weeks. In fact, I haven't been blogging regularly at all lately. I have been fighting a little bit a depression, facing some reality and learning how to change my lifestyle to deal with that reality. Add to that my husband has been traveling for work a lot and we have had a lot going on. So when he is home, we are booked up with activities.

One of the reasons for my lack of blogging is I haven't had much to blog about. That is because I haven't been sewing like I should. Now I know darn well that if I had been sewing more than I would not have had the depression or at least not much depression.  I just haven't felt like doing much of anything. With the new meds and lifestyle, I am exhausted by the time I get home. All I want to do is check e-mails and facebook and then crash. Most nights I don't even do that.What makes this even sadder is I am not spending time with my kids. I know that before too long they are going to be moving out to lead their own lives. I need to spend time with them now, but I am too tired to do anything..I just head to my room, bathe, and cuddle down in my pajamas for the night.

But this week things have started to look up a little. A couple of nights, I actually worked on the Around the Rail Fence quilt. I finished cutting the strip sets and started squaring up the blocks. Just a few a night. Friday and Saturday I finished squaring up the blocks and started the assembly. I am closing in on finishing it. I need to do the top and bottom rows of the last round of blocks and then put the outer border on it. As soon as I get that done it will go right on the long arm. I already know how I want to quilt it.

The thing is I am rather surprised at how thrilled I am with this quilt. This was not a project I had picked out for myself. This was originally going to be a project for the young women at church to do. It would be simple I didn't have to worry too much about matching corners etc. I had gotten everything prepped. they would sew the strip sets cut them into blocks and sew the rounds of blocks.  They were suppose to work on it during their spring break. That was the first week in April. But with family commitments, time constraints, etc. they ended up canceling the project.

Since it was all cut and ready to go, I decided to just make the quilt.  I wasn't all that excited about doing it, But I felt it was a waste to not make the quilt after all the prep that went into it. I had cut up fat quarters in strips and really didn't want the fabric, my fabric, to go to waste.  So I started working on it more out of obligation than desire.

My sister in law, Marjean, once told me that she had a hard time doing projects that that other people planned for her. I had a project that someone else had planned for the two of us to do. It was not well planned and it ended up being left for me to do. I had told Marjean about it and how I wasn't making any progress. I said that I just couldn't get excited about it. That was when my very wise Sister in Law explained to me that it was okay to not complete someone else's project. That their goal didn't have to be my goal. That was more than 10 years ago and I never did finish that project. I ended up donating the materials for it to a group working on lap quilts for veterans. I have to admit, I was concerned that this quilt was going to be like that project.

But much to my surprise I am getting more and more enjoyment out of it, The closer it gets to completion the more eager I am to get to the next step. It is really becoming a joy to work on it. I think the difference is I did the planning for this project. I chose the pattern and fabric (with consultation from the young women) So while it was not "my project" I do like the design and the fabric. It is much easier to work on a project if you like it.

I guess I needed to get some perspective on things. But this project has helped lift me out of the doldrums and get me back on track. I am starting to feel like doing things again and this quilt has helped me feel that way.

Have you ever had a project that got you back on your feet? I'd love to hear about it.