This past week went by way too fast. I swear it was just June 24th yesterday and here it is July 1st. While work could have been better, Home went fairly well. I did manage to keep busy after work doing some cleaning, sewing some blocks and a very little bit of Swedish weaving.
I manged to sew 100 more blocks so I now have 250 of them done. I have about 80 more that I can do. I am using 4 inch squares I bought online 15 years ago. When I finish up these particular squares, I will sew them into whatever size quilt I can.
This project I am doing a little differently that previous projects and it is really helping to keep me enthused. I am sewing the blocks in groups. Basically, I am chain piecing 50 at a time. When I have those 50 chain pieced, I am trimming the corners and pressing all 50 blocks. Then instead of putting them aside, like I usually do, I am squaring them up. I find this gives me a nice stopping place. I find I like having a logical stopping place for things.
I am one of those people who has a hard time putting a book down. If I am not going to finish it in that reading I have to end on a chapter. My husband, however, can set the book down with a paragraph left to read. That is just wrong. Finish already! There is something not right about setting a book aside when you can finish it in less than 10 minutes. If I only have 1 chapter left to read I need to go on and finish it. A logical stopping place, it turns out, is pretty essential to my frame of mind.
That being said, I had to be out of the house for several hours on Saturday. Knowing that I wanted to have a productive day, I made some plans. I had a project to do out in the rock shop, but that wasn't going to keep me busy for 4 hours so I took the Swedish weaving out with me.
First I had to pickle the chain mail veil that my husband is making for Tatianna's wedding. It is going to be so awesome. That took all of an hour from set up to clean up.
Then I read for a little bit. My friend introduced me to a great author, Andy Andrews. He writes self help books that don't read like self help books. When you get done reading them you feel pretty good about yourself and encouraged and empowered to do better. I am actually feeling brave enough to get some quilts ready to sell on Etsy.
After reading to a stopping point where I needed to ponder what I read, I settled in to do some Swedish weaving. I do enjoy Swedish weaving but it is a time consuming endeavor. I managed to get 6 lines done before having to take my son to the ER. He is fine but his ankle is messed up. He hyper flexed it on both sides and bruised some cartilage. He is going to be on crutches for the week at least. It was time to clean up and put things away by the time we got home from the ER. But I couldn't let that Swedish weaving alone. You see the pattern is in 3 sections, each section being about 9 lines. I only had part of a section done. Apparently I need to finish a section or it will weigh on my mind until I finish it. Who knew? Well, apparently my husband did because when I mentioned it to him, he just nodded and said yeah that was something I did.
I also realized that I not only have to have a logical stopping point, but if the project is not finished I have to get things set-up to start again. So the for the quilt blocks, I have to have the next group ready to go and the machine threaded and maybe a spare bobbin ready. For the Swedish weaving I have to have the bodkin threaded with the next strand and tucked into the starting point. For reading, I have to have the place marked and it set by my bed (or in my purse, if traveling).
I occasionally joke about being slightly OCD because I like things done a certain way and in a certain order. I have to have my studio set up in a fashion that makes sense to me. Dishes are done in a certain order. Projects are stored neatly in bins and stacked on a shelf. Clutter does make me crazy in my work space. But I didn't realize how much I am a creature of habits until recently. These little quirks affect my happiness so I might as well indulge them. Who needs to be stressed out over the little things.
What are some of the quirks you have when creating?
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