Back in Action

Yes, after 2-1/2 years of inactivity, Millie is doing her thing once again.  I can't even begin to explain how joyful this is to me. I've had a bit of guilt over not using her for this long. There wasn't any real reason to not have used her. It just seemed life kept getting in the way.  

It started with running out of quilt tops to quilt.  Then it was wedding preparations. Then it was the studio itself. It had become a habit to just move things into the studio instead of finding a home for them.  My studio was a jumbled mess and Millie was covered in various boxes and bags.

There were all sorts of things interfering with me getting Millie ready to quilt. Work, projects around the house, health, etc. This last year, I even tried to use a quilt journal to get me on track. As with all things "Journal" that didn't last. When I didn't get things done like I had planned, I just stopped using it. I am going to try a resurrect it but use it in a different way. I'm not sure what that is yet. 

Last August I even toyed with the idea of taking sometime off from work to get Millie ready. But I needed to save my vacation time and well things didn't work out.  In October, Tatianna was here and she helped me pin the leaders to start straightening them.  After a couple of weekends of working on the leaders, I found out that my mother-in-law was coming to visit Thanksgiving week. 

Mom is 83 years old and has quilted all of her life. She mostly hand quilted but between arthritis and just really messed up hands from milking cows, she can't really do it anymore.  She does piece tops and gets one of her daughters or granddaughters to help her tie them. 

I wanted Mom to see my machine in action. So I was motivated to do the maintenance and get it ready. By the time she arrived Millie was ready to go. Friday, I put on a really simple patchwork throw and picked a simple pantograph to quilt it with.  Of course, not having used Millie in a couple of years, meant there were plenty of mistakes and my seam ripper got a good work out.  But I still got it all quilted in an afternoon.  I didn't lose as much skill as I thought I had and the quilt looks good.  

I think Mom was impressed with the machine. She was right there with me the whole time I was quilting.  When I expressed concern about tension she walked around the machine to take a closer look at the back.  She told me that she didn't think it was too bad. She thought that when I took it off the machine it would relax and look just fine.  She was right.

Mom was very encouraging when I had to stop and rip out stitches. She'd comment about how when I was retired and had more time I would get really good at it.  She thought I should plan selling quilts to supplement my retirement income.  I explained that the money was in quilting for other people.  It shocked her that people would pay others to quilt their quilts for them.   I said told her that not everyone grew up in a quilting culture like she did.

All in all it was a good afternoon and I am itching to get going on the next quilt.  In fact there is one on the machine right now. But we have venison to get packaged and into the freezer. But I will be getting the next one quilted this week

I think my Sewjo is back.

Blog Hopping and Tribes

So as part of finding my work life balance, I have a new morning ritual. I am sitting and eating breakfast and reading blogs.  It started with the 2021 UFOvember Blog Hop. When I realized it was going on again this year, it had been going on for 2 weeks. I needed to catch up

I am all caught up with UFOvember 2021 Blog Hop. In one of this year's posts, I found out that there are all sorts of blog hops out there. (Have I ever mentioned that I am totally inept at social media.)
Any was this discovery led to me reading all the posts from last year's Spring Clean Your Studio Blog Hop. That one is organized by Muppin.com and has been around for 7 years. It's nice to know messy studios are not an uncommon problem. I'd love to go back and read all of those posts but that would take a lot of research and I don't really have time for it.

With my new morning ritual of sitting and eating breakfast at my computer, I've found myself looking at blog posts.  Specifically the blogs of the various quilters doing the posts for UFOvember.  I've signed up for a couple of mailing lists, but only those that have several posts that I like.  Basically I am finding my tribe of quilters online.  

While I am enjoying the blogs and podcasts, I do miss the company of in person quilters. When I first moved here to Southern Georgia, there was a tiny little quilt shop about a mile from my house. I took some classes there. I would drop in and chat with the owners from time to time. Then the shop closed due to lack of business. When in Utah, I worked with 4-H and went to Master Sewing training and Leader-mete. And of course there was Mom's Craft and Fabrics (local quilt shop). No matter who was working at Mom's that day, you got conversation, encouragement, and companionship. Especially from Mom. I found out a few week's ago that "Mom" had passed and I felt like I lost a family member.  And that is after not having lived there for 13 years.

So when I found a new Quilt shop in Tallahassee, I had to check it out. It's small and I think most of her business is long arm quilting work. But it does have some fabric and it has a great owner. On my first visit (sept 30th), we introduced ourselves.  I expressed a desire to join a guild since I miss quilting with others.  The two women there (owner and worker) expressed concern about attending guild meetings in Tallahassee right now.  The meetings are held at night and not in a good part of town.  So that was off the table. They did suggest a group in Havana that meets one Saturday a month.  The owner also told me that she is thinking of trying to get a group together in Northern Tallahassee. She just needs to find a place to have it.  I went back last Saturday (Nov. 20th). The owner was by herself and remembered me.

She even asked about things we had discussed. I think I found my new quilt shop.  

During this pandemic many people have lamented the loss of the personal connection. I found that this was especially true for quilters, at least judging by the blogs and pod casts.  For me, the pandemic didn't change anything. I still had to work, I still didn't have a quilting tribe, I still felt pretty much alone in the quilting world.  Even a though we are still being affected by the pandemic, I am slowly finding my tribe. Both online and in person.  

Do you have a quilting tribe?

UFOvember 2021

Here we are in the last half of November and I just found this year's UFOvember Blog Hop. This is the second year Geeky Bobbin has hosted it and I spent this week catching up on the posts while eating my breakfast. (One step towards my work life balance is taking time in the morning before going to work.) The whole point of this blog hop is to get you thinking about your UFOs in a different light. There are 3 areas of focus. Resume - in other words finish it. Rework - change the project to make it more manageable or useful. And Rehome - give it to someone who will finish it. I have enjoyed these posts and learned a few things and found some things to look into. 

 One thing I learned is that everyone has UFOs.(Unfinished objects) Some prefer to call them WIPs. (work in process). But everyone has them. The number they have tends to vary greatly. One poster stated she had way too many to count. Another stated she only had 1-2. I personally have 10 that I've actually started on. There are several in various planning stages but they are not actually projects yet.  I don't count them as projects until I've started cutting fabric. 

 Another thing that was obvious to me is everyone loses track of their UFOs. They get set aside for various reasons and then forgotten. This year I've tried to keep them front and center but so far that hasn't worked to get any of them done. At least not yet.

One of the first steps to conquering UFOS is to inventory them.  When inventorying them you are supposed to list what you need to do to finish them. To help with that you can try a UFO Prevention Tool Kit. Becca Fenstermaker of Pretty Piney has one on her site. You may have to sign up for her newsletter to get it though.

One blogger suggested determining what has stopped you from working on that particular project.  Were you out of fabric? Was it out of your skill range? Did the colors not appeal. Is the project just too big?  Etc. I think would start listing those reason on the inventory sheet as well. 

As I was looking at my UFOs, I realize that the biggest thing holding me back was not having my long arm up and running. The past two weeks I've been working here and there on straightening my leaders.  Yesterday, I got them as straight as they are going to get. This morning I woke up very early (4:00am and not my idea). Since I couldn't go back to sleep, I cleared and cleaned the long arm table.  Then I cleaned the rails and carriage.  All that was left to do was the hook and race.  I needed to use my air
compressor for that so I left it until 7:30am.  While waiting I looked up the directions to do it one more time.  All that is left is to update the tablet and Millie will be ready to get back to work.

Another issue is I've misplaced my design wall.  I need to lay out two quilts, one of them is a new UFO this year.  The other was just barely started last year.  So I only have 1 new UFO this year.  but that isn't saying much since, I haven't done a whole lot in the way of quilting.  This issue may require a deep clean of the studio to resolve.  But I was going to do that anyway.

I also found the clip board with my UFO project sheets.  I think I will probably have to hang that on a wall somewhere in the studio to keep it visible.  Interestingly, I have made progress on some of them.  So they will need to be updated when I inventory my UFOs later today.

Another great idea which was not new to me, but it is worth repeating was: Work on it for 15 minutes each day.  This blogger suggested you pick one UFO to work on one day at a time.  Each day schedule 15 minutes just to work on that UFO.  I think will try to make the my first 15 minutes of each sewing session a UFO time slot.  I think doing it first will keep me from running out of time and then not getting it in that day.  One thing I do know for sure, is if you want to get things done you have to know your work habits  and your limitations to make this hint work.  

There is something that I found in this Blog Hop that I am seriously going to try. Sunflower Stitcheries does a Quarterly Finish Along.  Basically each quarter, you choose a project to finish that quarter.  You post a picture of the project and what you need to do to finish it. The next two months you post another picture and an update.  At the end of the quarter, you post the finish project.  It's all up to you to keep on track and reach your goal. But you do have a group of people cheering you on. I will look into this starting in 2022 if she is still doing it next year.

I think though that the Most Important thing I read in this blog hop was by Exhausted Octopus.  She stated in no uncertain terms that there is NO SHAME.  She reminded everyone there is no shame in creating, there is no shame in starting and not finishing, there is no shame in waiting for the inspiration to finish, and there is no shame is letting go of something that doesn't work for you anymore. 

I think that was probably one of the best messages of the blog hop so far.  There are 10 more days to go and I am excited to learn even more.  Check out the Blog Hop.  It starts on Geeky Bobbin's blog.

Slow Stitching and My EPP Project

After Miss Betty's surgery

 A couple of years ago, I went to visit my Husband while he was working out of town.  I needed a project to keep busy while he was working.  So I got some hexie papers and some fabric. But I didn't jumped into English Paper Piecing until Jeramie was hurt and we had to go to Augusta.  I did a few then and then I did more when he had his heart surgery.  A year later I took it with me when Miss Betty had her heart surgery. 

When I started this, I didn't have any plan in mind.  It was just something to keep busy with. I figured I would just make some flowers and figure it out from there. Truthfully, that is still my plan. The only thing I really have planned about this project is that; It will take a long time and it is not on a time table.

When I had showed the EPP to my daughter Tatianna, she thought that it was awfully fiddly and time consuming. I have to agree. It is fiddly and it is time consuming and I would have never started it 30 years ago. (when I was her age) I have always been a get it done, see progress type of crafter.  Projects that take a lot of time bore me and get often get dropped.  Hence the large number of UFOs in my studio.

My EPP Pouch

So I always avoided such types of projects.  Slow stitching was not for me.  Give me a machine and let me go.  That's not to say that I never did handwork, it was just not my thing.  But lately my time seems to be at a premium these days and I really need to stitch.  So I've dug out my EPP pouch (what I keep my supplies in) and started taking it with me to doctor appointments, car service appointments, etc. Basically anywhere I might have to sit and wait.  

Listening to the quilting podcasts, has shown me, that I am not the only one who has picked up slow stitching.  I have learned that many quilters do it to pass the time.  It is something they can do while watching TV with the Family. They can take it on the road with them.  They can do it on their lunch hour.

For me it is a much better way to pass the time than playing on my phone. I have worked on my EPP while sitting in the airport, doctor's offices, even waiting between church leadership meetings. I spent some time this past week working on it while sitting at the dealership as they were servicing my car. Last year, I worked on it to pass the time between all the different family functions at my father in law's funeral. 

Look how many I've made

Here's the thing about slow stitching. It can be very relaxing. It doesn't take a lot of focus and yet you are still being productive. And you meet people. It has never failed. If I am in a public place, stitching on my hexies, someone always asks about it. Then before you know it, I've made a new friend to pass the time with. People are always fascinated by it. Very often, they will tell my about their mother, grandmother, or aunt who quilted.  They would tell my how wonderful those quilts were and share their fond memories of their loved ones with me. And I am reminded why I quilt.

Slow stitching was never my thing when I was younger. But now that I am getting older (59). I am appreciating it more. Plus I am making some progress on it.  I am going to have to take the covered hexies out of the pouch and store them in something until I am ready to stitch them together.  I have a pretty canning jar that is too old to use for canning, it might work. Oh and I already decided I need to cut out more pink fabric.

Do you ever slow stitch? Has it been a life long hobby or did you come to it as you got older and/or busier?

Fifty Dollar Tip

 Several years ago, back when I was doing a lot of Tole and Decorative painting, I attended an expo of sorts for decorative painters. It was held on the Utah State University campus and I lived just off campus.  I had the best time.  I took lots of classes and spent too much money on different tools and paints.  I immersed myself into everything.  It was a fantastic experience and I learned a lot.  But the one thing that stuck with me all these years was a comment one of the teachers made.  At the start of the class she told us she hoped that the end of the class we would walk away with some new knowledge and skills.  But if not, then hopefully we at least can find a $50 dollar tip. 

Several of us asked her to explain her comment.  She told us that when she comes to these shows, she always takes classes. Classes run anywhere from $25.00 to $75.00 depending on what is being taught, the supplies needed, etc.  One class she took was supposed to be a skill building class. The teacher for said class did a lot of talking and a lot of demonstrating but very little teaching and hands on training. Halfway through the class, she and several others felt like they had wasted their $50.00.  Then towards the end of the class, the teacher showed them a household item that she used instead of an expensive tool. At that point my teacher realized that she was just given a $50.00 tip. Did she get her money's worth out of the class, maybe not but She did learn something, even though it wasn't quite what she expected.  From then on with every class she took she looked for the $50.00 tip. Sometimes she found several and sometimes she only found one. But she always found at least one and she never felt like she wasted her time or money again.

I can't remember the teacher's name but I can see her as plain as day.  She was funny and lively and full of energy. I really enjoyed that class. I don't remember the other teachers or even all of the classes I took but that one stood out and mostly because of the $50.00 tip story.  I have learned from her story.  Now 25 years later, I find myself applying it to things like listening to Podcasts.

Since, I have taken to listening to podcast to fill my daily commute. Here a just a few of the tips I've picked up:

• Don't have your presser foot down as you thread your sewing machine.  When the presser foot is down the tension discs are closed and your thread isn't seated between them.
• Starch your fabrics if you are going to be dealing with bias edges. By starching I mean do it heavily so the fabric is like paper.  That will help keep you from stretching the bias out of shape.
• Use French Fuse when making memory quilts to stabilize the fabric. Especially if using old clothing. French Fuse is a fusible interfacing that will strengthen older fabrics.
• Everyone is at a different skill level of quilting, Do you best and learn as you go. Remember Comparison is the Thief of Joy
• Don't criticize other's work, you will only take away their joy and possibly drive them from the hobby.
• Take chances, take risks, push out of your comfort zone and you be surprised at how much you grow.
• People have a color comfort zone, look at your stash and see what is missing. Make a quilt using colors that are not in your comfort zone.
• Inventory your stash annually and plan quilts just using your stash (I haven't managed to inventory my stash yet but I have made quilts form it.)
• Set One Monthly Goal that you can accomplish. Something like make a new block, add borders to a top, bind a quilt, etc. (I plan on trying this)
• Invest in good thread. (I have yet to do this for my piecing)
• Work on a UFO for 15 minutes a day and you will be surprised at how fast you get it done.
• Not only change your needle with each new project, but also thoroughly clean out your bobbin area. Consider doing a cursory wipe out with each bobbin change.

These are just s few of the tips I've heard.  I think that if we look for that $50.00 tip every time we take a class, attend a workshop, watch a video or listen to a podcast, we will get more out of them.

Do you have and $50.00 tips? 

Podcasts - Are they worth listening to?

As many of you know I work full time at a peanut processing plant.  More than once I have lamented on my lack of time to quilt.  I've also have felt segregated from the quilting world because of the lack of quilt shops in the area. One day I realized that I could use the time I spend commuting to and from work to at least connect with the quilting world. Hence Podcasts.

A month or so ago, I started listening to podcast on my way to work. I find them way less depressing than the news and talk radio.  I started with The Quilter on Fire podcast when Brandy Maslowski interviewed Karen Brown of Just Get it Done Quilts. You all know by now how much I like Karen Brown. Any way I just started listening to all of Brandy's podcasts as I drove to and from work.  Brandy interviews people from all over in the quilting world.  From Thread, to fabric, to average guild members who do great things.  These people are always interesting and very often inspiring.  Many of them have full time jobs and quilt as a hobby. Many started quilting as a hobby and now have a side business in the quilting world.

When I had caught up on all of Brandy's podcasts I listened to the Connecting Threads podcast.  For those of you who don't know, Connecting Threads is a catalog (and I guess now online) quilt shop.  Their podcasts dealt mostly with the people who make up the staff of Connecting Threads and their sister sites.  It was interesting but it stopped and I haven't seen any new posts. The last one was in July 2021.

When I had caught up on all of those podcasts. I started listening to Quilt Buzz. Quilt Buzz is a little different as it has three hosts that basically chat with one guest.  I believe they are all on Instagram and that is where their guests are picked from. I like their motto of "Interviewing all of your favorites from across the Quiltverse"  It has me thinking about getting an Instagram account.

Currently I am listening to Hello My Quilting Friends by Leah Day. Leah has something like 143 podcasts.  Hers is a little different. She invites you into her world and tries to inspire you to learn and grow but also take care of yourself.  Put away the guilt, find the light within yourself. Break rules and find your own way.  She is pedantic sometimes and sometimes my mind wanders while listening to her. And sometimes I replay parts of the podcast to set it firmly into my mind. 

I will have a while before I finish up all of her podcasts. She currently has 143 and I've only listened to 25 of them. So I am not looking for another podcast quite yet.  Plus I have go back and listen to a few new podcasts from the first three I binged.  

Here's the thing about listening to the podcasts, You never know when you are going to get an answer to something you've been pondering.  I heard about some really cool notions, found a source for unusual quilting rulers, even some new websites for fabrics.  You also get encouragement, reminders to let yourself off the hook for not being perfect, and even reminders to just do what you can do.   

Are podcasts worth listening to? I'd say yes if you want some background noise while working on something or driving.  I certainly wouldn't set aside the time to just listen to them.  But while hand stitching or chain piecing or even on long drives, definitely pick one and tune in.  Plus it gives me a small connection to the quilting world that I have been missing. So yes, for me, they are worth listening to.

Do you have a favorite podcast?

Work, Health, Life, Changes, Etc.

 Wow!!! It has been 3 months since last blogged. I haven't accomplished much in that time.  In my last post I talked about Work Life Balance and how I was going to try find it.  Well, that really hasn't happened yet. 

About a month after my last blog entry, I came very close to losing my job.  It was a misunderstanding that got blown out of proportion but with all the crap that has been going down at our plant, Corporate has a no tolerance policy at the slightest hint of impropriety.  This resulted in a suspension that sent me into a slight depression. Once again I didn't want to go to work. Life was out of Balance.

After my suspension I ended up working 12-13 hour days for about a week and half, due to Covid restrictions, vacations and leaves of absences. Believe me, tired doesn't even begin to describe how I was doing. During this time I came down with Bronchitis and basically was in an asthma flare for about 3 weeks.  Consequently nothing got done outside of work. Not much of my regular job got done either.

I am following a woman (Gina Hartzig) on facebook. She is the "Too Much Woman." She dedicated this month to forgiving herself and letting go of things from her past. She also is giving herself permission to let go of unimportant expectations and things like that. Basically giving herself permission to be who she is and not trying to be everything to everyone. It's about self love.  While I am pretty self confident. I've needed to make myself and my family a priority. I am far from perfect and I know it. But I will do what I can do and go from there. I refuse to guilt myself for being human, and I refuse to let others guilt me for saying no.

Part of my Journey for the past 3 months, has been a quest to figure out my exhaustion.  It started getting really bad around the time that the doctor put me on an additional diabetes medicine plus added cholesterols and blood pressure medicine.  While neither my blood pressure nor Cholesterol were really high, they were higher than they liked for someone with diabetes. All of the new medicines had fatigue listed as a side effect.  Despite my concerns, the nurse practitioner at my GP decided it was all in linked to my weight and diet. When called about my test result, I was told to stop eating so much fired food, and fast food and eat more fiber. That was literally what they said were my results. She push my pulmonologist for a sleep study. Which I am fine with but my pulmonologist wasn't. their attitude was they would determine if I needed one when they saw me next. I did insist on a referral to a cardiologist and an endocrinologist. Both of which I got.

The Cardiologist says my heart is strong and not the issue. Endocrinologist says my diabetes is extremely well controlled and no other endocrinological issues are present. My asthma on the other hand is not in control and getting worse. The pulmonologist finally decided that I needed a sleep study. It only took them 4 years. Now I am on a stronger asthma med and my sleep study is a week away.  Maybe I will get the help I need and eventually get some decent sleep. Which will hopefully result in more energy.

All of these doctor visits and tests have resulted in some life style changes for me.  I am actively trying to loose weight but not just dieting.  I am trying to change my eating habits. I am not eating starches right now at the direction of my endocrinologist.  Her goal is to get me off diabetes meds.  Once I drop 50 pounds, we will start working some starches back in. But she does allow me to take cheat days.  They just can't be every week nor complete blow outs.  I have chosen to restrict them to special occasions like birthdays and holidays. I have lost about 14 pounds since my appointment.  But I have lost 25 pounds in the last 6 months. So I am pretty happy with myself right now.

I've also started working on leaving work after 8 hours.  I'm not getting this accomplished all that much but I am doing better than I was.  I am managing to leave closer to 9 hours most days. Which is an improvement.  I've also decided I can only do so much and am learning to hand things off to my supervisor.

I am still spending too much time on games on my phone.  But I am also listening to quilting pod casts in my car while I commute. I'm picking up some good tips and tricks along the way. 

I have finally started working on getting my long arm back up and running.  I've started straightening the leaders.  I think, I need to do a few more rounds of steaming before I will have that completely done.  Then I will clean the rails and wheels. Then finally I will clean out the bobbin area.  This week I will start oiling the wicks to make sure they are ready to go when I start up the machine again.  I am actually getting a little enthused about getting Millie going again.

So where are you on your work life balance? What changes are you finding you need to make to be a better you?  What project are you working on?

Work Life Balance (Is it a Myth?)

Work/Life balance seems to have become the buzz word for working professionals.  To be happy we need to find a way to balance work and home.  The theory is sound.  Life should not be all about work. But it can't be all about play and/or home.  As adults we have the responsibility to provide for ourselves and our children. To do so we must work. But all work and no play makes for a dull life. So we find activities to keep from being bored.  Activities which generally cost money, so we work longer hours, which takes away time from our activities, and so on and so forth. It can be a vicious cycle.  

Since my promotion at work, I have been swamped.  Prior to my promotion I had made a goal to only work 8 hours a day unless absolutely necessary.  I was starting to make head way on that goal.  Then I was promoted. Since then I have averaged 9-10 hours a day.  Add the hour each way commute and I am gone from home approximately 12 hours a day. Take out another 8 hours for sleep and that leaves 4 hours for eating, bathing, cleaning, and quilting.  Guess which one suffers. 

To be honest, it's both the cleaning and quilting.  My house has never been immaculate but now it is a nightmare.  I have too much stuff and not enough storage. As number of people living here went down, the amount of belongings has gone up. Not to mention the number of animals. I swear my husband is replacing kids with livestock.  

Last week as I was catching up on some odds and ends, I was listening to the Quilter on Fire podcast, the one where she interviewed Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts. I don't normally listen to this podcast but she was interviewing Karen Brown and any one who has read my blog knows that She is one of my Gurus. 

Karen was talking about how busy and over whelming this your-tube and blogging has become and how she had to get extra help to do it all. She said that she needed to schedule time to quilt. She also said that she thought some women feel guilty about taking the time to quilt when the house is not clean or there are other family obligations needing tending too. At which point, my son Killian said "Mom, don't ever feel guilty for quilting. It makes you happy and we want you to be happy."  Perigrine, my daughter, echoed his sentiments. Truth be told these two have been taking care of me instead of the other way around. I know I am very blessed.

So back to the work/life balance.  Does it exist?  I have gotten to the age where overtime pay isn't worth the time I have to give up.  Of course now overtime isn't even an option.  I get straight salary now so it's definitely not worth the extra hours.

I have decided that there are times when I will need to put more time in at work. I am still learning my new job. That is going to take time. So a little less time at home has to happen right now.  And Quilting is going to have to be in small doses.

With much encouragement from Killian and Perigrine, I've started yet another flimsy.  I am trying to sew a little each night.  Some nights I do it and some nights I come home and flop. Lately it's been the later.  It wouldn't be so bad if I came home and read or looked at the quilt magazines but I don't.  I watch tv or play Sudoku on my phone or just watch my son play on his Xbox. Basically falling into the time buster trap. But I am hoping to change that.  

My goal is to come home and either stitch for 30 minutes, study for 30 minutes, or work in the studio for 30 minutes. Any thing over and above that is great. Any thing less is a start.  I'm not going to beat myself up over it though.  I am too old to be making myself feel guilty for being human.

So is Work/Life Balance real or is it a Myth.  I guess it is up to you.  I would say if you are getting up in the morning dreading going to work for no other reason that you just don't want to be there, then I would say your life is out of balance.  If you are not finding joy in your activities because work is on your mind, then your life is probably out of balance.  

There are going to be times when our lives are out of balance.  Fate likes to throw us some curve balls now and again. Some times the balance has to be more skewed to work. Sometimes it will have to be skewed more to home. The trick is to find a way to get all those skewed times to average out in balance.

Since my promotion, I am feeling challenged again and so going to work is not as foreboding as it once was.  But I do miss spending time creating and there is so much I need to do in the studio. Eventually work will settle down and I will be able to work a little less. In the meantime to get that balance back I am planning on taking a few days off just to work on my long arm and get some quilts done.  Not sure when yet, but soon.

How is your work/life balance?  How can you get it back?

Life Getting in the Way

 So this past two weeks was crazy at work.  First there was the lighting strike that hit the plant.  At first we thought it only took down the servers.  We were wrong. As we tried to bring different lines back up over the next week, we found more and more problems.  Then there was the commissioning of the new roaster.  That involved running quality tests. then bringing in an outside lab to get it validated for at least a 5 log kill. Which basically means the roasting step kills off salmonella so our peanuts are safe. That took a whole weekend plus.  To top it all off, the window for our unannounced audit is swiftly closing.  So there has been all sorts of stress and finger pointing at work.  There is also a lot of extra hours that need to be worked.

I am exhausted.  I have been putting 10-12 hour days. When I get home all I want to do is just go to my room to chill and then sleep.  I don't know what I would do without the support of the Kids.  They have been waiting on me hand and foot.  

Add to all of that, we are spending our weekends canning.  We have put up so much produce and I really don't know where I am going to put it.  The thing is I am feeling compelled to do this canning.  It is almost as if I am being driven to build a year supply.  So I am.  We may have to stack the boxes of jars in the closets like we did when we lived in married student housing.

But I have at least been working on getting my scraps cut up.  I've tried to spend 15-30 minutes just cutting up scraps.  I now have way more 3-1/4 inch blocks cut for the double wedding ring pattern than I need.  I am thinking it was a throw size so I can just make it larger. Or I can just sew the extras into a simple patch work.  

I really don't know why cutting fabric is so cathartic for me but it is.  Hopefully this weekend I will get around to figuring out how to better use my journal.  That is after I go get peaches and can them.

Do you ever wish you could just stay home and quilt all day?  My sister once commented that I need to quilt my job so I can do all the quilts I want to do.  She's probably right. 

Is life getting in your way? How do you fit in your quilting? Do you have more quilts planned than you can do?

Quilting Journal Regroup

I have been rather depressed. It's been a rather difficult month. I am finding excuses for not doing things I need to do. Part of this, I am sure, is do to the fact that Kim is gone so much.  I find I tend to work longer hours when Kim is out of town.  Kim is struggling with work and has been rather depressed as well. Which since we tend to be very emotionally connected, that tends to bring me down even further.  As a result, I have been very lax in meeting my creative needs. I tend to come home and bury myself in my room.

This month I have tried to break that cycle.  As a family, we have put up green beans, pickles, and apples.  We certainly have built up our larder for the winter. Our fruit trees are producing and we are enjoying the literal fruits of our labors. Plus we have taken to going to Long Farms and picking produce to put up. So while I am tired, I am also fairly content with some progress.

I also decided to do something about my lack of creative progress.  So I grabbed the scrap bin and started cutting it into 5 inch squares and 2-1/2 inch squares.  While doing this I got to thinking about how many 5 inch squares I have.  I really don't need more 5 inch squares.  I have cut enough print fabrics for the lattice quilt. So I decided to find another scrap quilt pattern to do.  I remembered a quilt pattern I have called Twizzle that I wanted to make. When I looked up the pattern, I realized that it was made from Jolly Bars. Jolly Bars are 5 inch by 10 inch rectangles. Not really scrap size. I flipped to the next pattern and that was a paper pieced double wedding ring.  It's definitely a quilt I want to do. So I started cutting my print scraps into the size needed for it.

After cutting scraps for a bit, I decided it was time to pull out the quilt journal.  I hadn't made an entry since the end of March. Obviously, I haven't made any entries since I haven't accomplished anything.  I had kept writing the same thing down every week.  So I just stopped. Today, I decided to regroup.  In fact, today's entry is titled Regrouping. I expect it will be the entries for a few days. I focused on some realities that I have to face today.  I think I may start making daily plans and stop trying to plan out the week.  I am toying with the idea of taking the journal with me to work. If I make my daily plan at work I might work harder at coming home.

Tomorrow, I think I may have to set some priorities.  It is easy to just distract myself with cutting up scraps but I can't just keep making flimsies and letting them pile up.

What do you get back on track?

Road Blocks and Stumbling Stones

 What keeps you from doing what you want to do?  Do you ever make excuses for not going for your goals? Have you lost your inspiration? What is standing in the way of you reaching your goals?

I've been triggered to think about this a few times over the past month.  Some of the triggers have actually been on Facebook. On particular post was simply the question "What is keeping you from finishing your quilts?"  On this particular occasion instead of giving my pat answer of "no time" I actually thought about it.  My answer was honest and accurate. I responded "Insecurity and lack of confidence in my skills".  My sister, ever my champion, commented "in what". When I told her my Quilting she responded "knock it off"

She is correct of course.  I can't expect to be quilting with the proficiency of someone who has been practicing everyday for four years.  Or someone who has taken lessons.  I am basically self taught and I have not taken the time to watch the videos and read the manuals.  My pat "lack of time" answer is still valid. I work full time and commute an hour each way.  I do have limited time and lots of demands on my time.  My progress will be slow but it will happen.  I need to get it in my head that my best is good enough. I need to find a detour around this road block.

Other road blocks I have found are:

• Machine maintenance - I have needed to do a WD40 bath on Millie for some time.  Plus the rails need cleaned and the leaders need straightened.  I am not sure that I got the leaders on straight or even when I took them off to sew the leader grip pockets. I need to get a laser level and check on that.
• Space - laying out quilts is difficult without a large surface.  I did find that I can pull my bed away from the wall and hang my design wall on it.  That has helped a little bit.
• Work - I have found that I tend to be a workaholic.  I am especially bad about it when my husband is out of town. I need to find a work/life balance
• Health - As I get older I find I don't have the energy I used to. This is due in part to Asthma and Diabetes.  Both of which I've developed in the last 6 years. I have the diabetes under control but I am struggling with the asthma still.  I am still getting bronchitis way too frequently. But I am working on it.
• Family - I usually use my weekends to sew and work in the studio.  But when family is in town or grandkids come over, my sewing time is eaten up being with them. Also when my husband is in town (not very often as of late) I tend to be with him and not in my studio.  This year he estimates he will be home 100 days.  So I want to spend as much time with him as possible.
• Church -  I have actually been falling down on the job here.  Quarantining due to Covid the past year has limited my attendance and responsibilities. I need to spend more time in this area.  Not sure what I am going to do about it though.  It's another area where I am lacking enthusiasm and inspiration.
• Comradery - I don't have any quilting friends at least not close by.  I don't have a place where I can go and take a class, at least not that works with my work schedule. I am a social creature and could really use a group to sew with or even one person.  I should join a guild but they meet on Thursday night an hour and half away. I get up early for work.
• Time Busters - I spend too much time on useless activities. I get on face book or play a game on my phone and the next thing I know 2 hours are gone. Even reading is a time buster for me. I can't seem to put books down.  I have been know to lose sleep because I had to finish the book.

I am in a rut and I need to get out of it.  I need to start putting my time to use in the areas that are important to my frame of mind.  I believe that I am struggling a little bit with depression.  Not suicidal mind you just rather apathetic.  That can be dangerous.

I need to get back to using my quilt journal.  I need to start doing the 30-30-30 schedule again. And I definitely need to make some hard decisions.  More thought, lots of prayers and hopefully some inspiration are needed.

What are your stumbling blocks?  What is holding you back?  Naming the beast is a step closer to taming it.  Hopefully I can start taming my beasts.

Time Flying BY

 It's been a month already.  I am not sure where the times goes nor what I am doing with my time.  It seems that the day is over all too quickly. Next thing you know it's the weekend which flies by like it's never even been here.  And poof the month has gone by.  I have been fairly good at keeping my Quilting Journal.  I just haven't made much progress with it.  

I did finally get the shelf up for my Brother's flag.  I have a little memorial corner in my studio for him. I am quite pleased with it and I think Steven would be pleased with it as well.

I have managed to get a couple of pictures put up and am slowly clearing up surfaces that will make it easier to work.  I also got the roll of batting put on the batting bar, clearing up the area behind the long arm.  

As for quilting I have managed to sew together some of the rows of the Windmills and Cobble Stones quilt.  I still over half the rows to sew but it's progress.

My biggest hang up this month has been my health.  My asthma turned into a rather severe case of bronchitis. That in turn has messed up my blood sugar.  I am exhausted constantly.  Then I've been short handed at work so putting in long hours to boot.  I am just going to have to take a day and go to the Doctor and get my A1C checked.  We will probably have to up the doses on the diabetes meds.  I am going to ask for a referral to the endocrinology center at TMH.

I am hoping to do some maintenance on the long arm this week after work. I figure I can probably clean the hook area in an evening. Then clean the rails another evening. Check around the needle bar on a third evening.  I should have Friday off so hopefully I can straighten the leaders then.  It all depends on how I feel after work.

Not a very productive month. Still a little progress is better than no progress.  

Did you have a productive month?  How are your projects coming along?

Time Flying By, Priorities and/or Procrastination, Staying Busy

Here it is the end of February already.  I know it's a short month but it's gone by awfully fast.  I don't feel like I am getting anything done. I guess that is why time seems to go by faster when you are older.  You have so much you want to do and more responsibilities than ever.  It just seems you can't do everything and so you prioritize or you don't do anything. I tend to do the later.  I feel so overwhelmed that I kind of shut down.  

But that hasn't been the case lately.  I've been busy. I just haven't been doing what I planned to do.  I seem to have side tracked myself with worthwhile activities. I am also procrastinating what I need to do to move forward. 

I have not done the maintenance on the long arm. It's not even a very onerous thing. I just haven't settled down to do it. Largely because I then have no excuse to put off quilting the Flimsies I have completed.  Is it because I am afraid that I won't be able to do a good enough job on them?

I haven't gotten the shelf up for Steven's flag.  Is it because I am afraid that seeing his picture will make me sad?  

I haven't gotten the dressers and cupboards cleaned out and organized.  Is it because I am afraid that I can't find a place for everything? Is it because I won't be willing to get rid of my excess?  

I know that I am still working on things but not the things I need to and I need to get the incentive to do it.  I also need to do things around the house and quit coming home and collapsing.  I guess I will just have to take more vitamins. 

As for my worthwhile projects. I've cut up a bunch of scraps.  In fact I got a little carried away with cutting scraps for the basket weave quilt. I still need a lot more of the 3 inch white squares. But I have way more of the 3 inch print squares and 3x8 inch print strips than I need.  I could probably do 4 quilts with what I have cut.  I am going to probably do a larger quilt than the pattern is for. Well, that is once I get the 3 inch squares cut.  In the mean time I have switched to 5 inch squares and 2-1/2 inch squares for scrap management. I am thinking of finding another pattern to cut pieces for in the meantime.  

I also worked on a UFO. I dug out the Windmills and Cobblestones quilt. I have sewn all thirteen rows together.  I plan on finishing up sewing the flimsy together this week. I have an idea of how I want to quilt it as well.  I am really pleased with how it is coming together.  I just need to get to my stash and pull out some backing fabric.

This week I tried my wool pressing mat.  I love it! No steam and a really crisp press.  I actually ended up with two of them, a square one and a rectangle one.  One was given to me because the person didn't like the "smell" when using it. The other one, Tatianna and Zach gave me for Christmas.  For the record, I don't notice a smell but again I am not using steam.  I got a bonus with the mat that the kids gave me, a silicon iron rest. I can leave the iron on the silicon rest, it stays hot and nothing gets burned. So definitely worth getting if you don't have one.

Well that's it for this week.  Time to get out my quilt journal and plan the next month and week.  Not that I have to plan much, I just need to copy over from last week and month.  But there will be a few minor changes. Maybe a little less emphasis on declutter/organization and a little more on sewing.

Fabric Hoarding

 Hi, My name is Amy and I am a fabric hoarder. Now I don't know many quilters who don't have a stash. But I am beginning to think my stash is a little out of control.  Today while looking for a particular bin, I found another bin of scraps. How on earth could I not know it was there. I just cleaned under the long arm the day after New Years.  Yet here it is a bin full of scraps of all sizes.

This bin was stuffed full. so I decided I would start pressing some of the scraps and get them ready for trimming this week.  What I discovered was I had a lot of rather small pieces.  Less than 2.5 inches and that is the cut off for scrap sizes for me right now.  I only got about a quarter of the way into the bin and I had this little pile that was just going into the trash. Some of theses were the ends of strips sets that weren't even an inch wide. Some were bits left over from cutting blocks out of fat quarters and were only about 1.5 inches.  I don't know what possessed me to save these little bits.

I did get a few scraps prepped for trimming this week.  I took them out of the bin and pressed them, then put them in my scrap basket. I probably have more than I can do in a week. But I do enjoy cutting fabric and this will go a long way to getting my basket weave fabrics cut.  My son is actually excited by my find because he thinks scrap quilts are the best quilts. I do enjoy making scrappy quilts.

If you recall I just went through a scrap bin a few weeks ago.  I had the larger scraps to cut still. So I put those scraps in with these scraps and now I only have one full bin to process. Well, after I do the ones in my scrap basket.  I will just have to set my timer and work on these a little every night until they are done and then get more out of the bin.  Of course, as I create more quilts the scrap pile will grow, so it's important to stay on top of it.  Any new scraps, I will continue to put in the scrap basket for processing that week. Old scraps will be processed as the basket is emptied.  

Before I know it, I will have this bin emptied too.  I already have 2 empty bins set aside.  I can easily fill them with stuff I have on hand. But that will wait until I decide how to organize things.  One thing I know is that I don't want to be buying any more bins.  I just fill them up and I don't even know what I have. This is not going to be a quick and easy project.

I may be in denial but I've decided that I don't like the term Fabric Hoarder. Instead of calling ourselves fabric hoarders, let's call ourselves fabric dragons.  Fabric Dragons sounds a lot more romantic and fanciful than Fabric Hoarder.  Fabric Hoarder has negative connotations.  I am a Fabric Dragon and my hoard is made up of fabric.

So are you a Fabric Dragon?  Is your stash out of control? How do you organize it?  

Cold and Rainy Equals a Slump

The gray skies and cold temps we have had this week put me in a slump.  I tend to suffer a little bit from Seasonal Mood Disorder. Gray rainy weather tends to slow me down.  When I lived in Washington state, I baked all of the time.  We replaced the light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs and the lights were on all of the time and I still struggled with depression. Here in Georgia, I don't tend to have that problem as much.  Even when I leave for work in the dark and return home in the dark, its not that bad.  But this week, it was cold, it was rainy and it was miserable.  Even the bright lights of my studio didn't seem to work.

On top of all that, I have learned that when the weather turns cold, my asthma acts up.  When I am in an asthma flare, I get exhausted just doing everyday things. I was in bed by 8:00pm most of nights this week. The flares also make me very sensitive to my triggers, many of which are at my work place.  And I worked Saturday this week so I lost a whole day in my studio. This has been a dead week for quilting and working on the studio.  That has me a little bit down as well.  

Today, I tried to break that slump.  I finally unpacked my Big Board Ironing Board. I think I have had it about a year.  I attached the hinge and put the cover on. Then I got my batik strip quilt down.  I really like the Big Board.  Not having the taper at one end is great. I can't wait to press some yardage on it.  I think it will be a lot easier.

As for the batik strip quilt I did get 5 rows attached with some difficulty.  The longer I worked on it the more the fabric seemed to slip.  I am now putting in extra pins and trying to keep seam allowances going in the right direction.  It is not being as relaxing as I wanted it to be. Oh well, I will just have to slow down and take a break.  In the meantime, I need to come up with a better name for it. I am thinking Island Fields. 

It is taking a great deal of self control to not just start another quilt.  One where I just sew squares together. Simple patch work is a great stress reliever but another UFO is not.  So I am going to get some of these UFOs over the finish line before starting another project.

On another note, I have developed a new appreciation for applique scissors.  I don't really do applique so I hadn't really used the 3 sets that I have been given. I almost threw them out when I was decluttering. But they were gifts and so I kept them. Besides my daughter loves them for trimming the baby's nails. Today I found out that they are really great for trimming threads that come through to the right side of the quilt. The curved edge makes it easy to get close to the surface without risking cutting the fabric.  I really found them useful.

How does weather affect you and your sewing?  

How is your UFO pile coming along?

What is you favorite project to work on when you are stressed?

What tool did you find was more useful than you thought it would be?

SQUIRRELS (Okay, Scrap Management)

 In the movie UP, the dogs that are supposed to be tracking down the "bird" will every so often blurt out Squirrel.  For a brief moment the dogs are distracted by a passing squirrel.  Karen Brown of Just Get it Done Quilts uses the term Squirrel to refer to thoughts ideas and chores that distract us from the task we are really supposed to be working on.

This week there were squirrels everywhere.  Grand kids dropping in because they need a hug from grandma. Definitely work the distraction. Videos that needed watching for work. Need to do my job if I want to be paid. A trip to the nursery for a couple of new trees. Got to make sure the hubby doesn't blow the budget. And then the biggest there was the biggest squirrel of all. Scraps!

For the past 3 weeks, I have been involved with the Just Get It Done Quilts' Declutter Challenge.  I did pretty well with it.  Some of it was easy because I had already attacked that particular task.  Some of it I kind of cheated on because I was restricting the focus to the studio.  I still have some reorganization to do and well that is going to take a little time.  Funny enough it was a declutter task that became the biggest SQUIRREL.

The plan, at least my plan, was to work for 30-60 minutes a day on the challenge and then do the tasks in my Quilt Journal.  Well, that worked for a little while. Then the task was scrap management.  I thought I had that one in the bag.  I had been trying to stay on top of the scraps ever since I watched Karen Brown's video on Scrap Management.  So I did find a few scraps that I could take care of and mark that particular task off the list.  

Then the next day while were were supposed to be working on sorting batting scraps (I only have one kind and again I had done this task earlier). I dug into my stash for a little bit. I had found a 10" square that I wanted to put up the others. While I was looking for the right bin, I found two bins that I had marked "Scraps". 

I believe what happened is that I had piled stuff into the bins a few years back and never looked at it again. Then I when was trying to inventorying my stash last year, I marked them scraps with out really looking at them.  A lot of the fabric was from a BOM from 2009.  I gave up on that project a couple of years before I got my long arm and I have had Millie for 4 years. So the scraps had been out of my mind for at least that long.

So I dove right in and started slicing and dicing the first bin into my designated sizes.  I have a quilt that I want to do that calls for 3" squares and 3x8" strips. So those were my priority cuts.  Everything that didn't work for those sizes is either cut in 5" squares or strips and 2-1/2'' squares or strips.  So limiting myself to those sizes, I got started. Once I started, it almost became a compulsion to get it done. I was looking forward to coming home after work so I could get back to trimming up the scraps. I was enjoying the whole process.

It took me the better part of three evenings and most of the day Saturday but I got quite a bit done. It was very satisfying to get all of these pieces cut into usable and ready to go squares/strips from what were scraps.  It has gotten me looking forward to doing the quilt. What's more I had always planned to make it completely from scraps. So I am well on my way.  I still have a long way to go but there are lots of projects I still need to work on first.  And those will produce more scraps.  

I did not finish off both bins of scraps. I was pleasantly surprised to find that one bin was actually yardage.  It was fabric that I had purchased and stuffed in a box to keep it clean.  So that was a relief.  I still have some larger pieces of fabric to trim down. But these scraps were a wrinkled mess. I needed to press all of them and some of them were too big to press on the pressing side of my 12" cut and press mat. I just didn't have the room to get out the ironing board at the moment. They will also be easier to cut on a larger cutting mat.  So I need to get my dining room table cleared to do these.  I expect that I will get some longish 2-1/2" strips and maybe even some 5" strips.  I'll just have to see how big each piece is before cutting. So that will have to wait until I get back on track with my studio organization. One thing is for sure, my scrap file is not big enough anymore.

This whole thing got me thinking about what is a scrap? What size is left over yardage and what size is scrap. I asked others what they considered to be scrap. Some say that it is anything left over after a project, no matter what size it is.  Another person told me that anything less than a yard is scrap. Still another felt that anything less than a 1/2 yard was scrap.  I suppose the type of quilting you do has something to do with what you consider scrap.

My current working definition of a scrap is anything that is smaller than a fat quarter.  So the piece must be at least 18" wide and 20" long to not be considered a scrap. If it is 10" inches wide and 36" long it is still a scrap and should be cut down even though it has the same area as a fat quarter. This is because to me dimensions mean more than square inches when it comes to cutting for piecing.  Plus since I got the long arm, I am trimming down the backing and that leaves long narrow strips of fabric that really isn't yardage.

What is your definition of a scrap?  Do you save scraps? Do you have a mountain of scraps that need to be managed? If so, Check out Karen's video.

Hopefully this next week I will focus more on studio organization and not have quite so many squirrels.

 

  

Busy, Busy, Busy (and slow going)

 I haven't really thought a whole lot about what to write this week.  I've been busy with work. I have been doing the Declutter challenge though and I continue to make progress in the studio even if it is slow.  One thing I became very aware of is that my husband is not a good declutter partner.  He grew up poor and has a hard time parting with things.  I do as well but I also am feeling like I am being buried alive. The fact that I am giving a lot of it to my daughters makes it easier.

Surprisingly I am finding that the Quilt Journal is helpful. I draw it up every week and that helps me re-focus. It also helps me see that I am actually getting something done even if the progress is not as fast as I would like.  I can always readjust and move what I don't get done to the next week. Hopefully things will come together. 

I did get the batik strip quilt rows reconfigured and now I am ready to start putting the rows together. I feel good about that.  It's progress. This week, the plan is to sew 30 minutes a night.  Maybe I will get it put together this week, maybe not and that is okay. I will have to find some border fabric for it.  I think I have some in my stash but I have to be able to get to it. Which means digging. Eventually I will get my stash inventoried

I did get the wire shelf cleared off and straightened out.  It looks a lot better. That leaves the brown dresser to attack and well I am not sure what I am going to do with it.  I definitely will use it to store machine parts (presser feet, etc.) but not sure what else. Plus I found that the one little bead organizer I've used doesn't fit in the drawers so I will need to switch that one out.  

I also should go through the white drawers under the long arm.  I am going to turn that into long arm stuff only. That means fabric and color catchers need to go in another spot.  

I still need to do some maintenance on the long arm and I hope to get that done this week. One thing I need to do is straighten the leaders.  I've read up on how to do it and I will need to dedicate some time to do it. I am thinking that will be a Saturday afternoon project. I will try to take pictures for a blog about it.

I guess I've rambled enough.  I haven't made any big discoveries this week. I haven't had any real AHA! moments. This week has just been a lot of little jobs.  That is fine.  We can't be amazing all of the time and as long as I am progressing that is all that matters.  

Interestingly enough, I am finding Joy in the whole process.  Imagine that, I am finding joy in cleaning. That's almost scary.

   

Declutter Progress.

 I have made it through the first week of the Just Get It Done Declutter Challenge. To be honest, I was ahead of the game because of all the purging that was done before the Holidays.  But I also have made it through some boxes and shelves.  I am not done by a long shot but I am a lot closer.  Plus I am having more energy to attack other parts of the house.  I am really proud of the progress I have made. I feel like I can start quilting again soon.

My sewing desk is cleared and ready to go. I even got the shelves above it cleared up and organized.  The top shelf is for books.  I did end up purging a few books but only ones I will never use or I have moved beyond. But now I have the portrait of Mom, that my son Evan drew, is back on the shelf. She is once again watching over my work.  She was always a great supporter of my creative hobbies.

I do have a lot more work to do.  One, I need to sort through the wire shelf. All those projects need to be organized and prioritized. I need to go through the drawer of the brown dresser and determine just what I am going to keep in them.  There is the brown cupboard and what I need to use that for.  I know I want there to be a shelf dedicated to supplies that the grand kids can use. I think I may need to use most of it for jewelry supplies and maybe paper crafting supplies. 

The bullet journal is actually helping me to stay a little more focused.  Plus I have been doing a regular journal as well. Not every night but more than once a week.  I am also writing in my dream journal.  If you don't remember, I have a dream of owning a local quilt shop.  So I do have a lot more to do before the studio is perfect but I am getting there. And I am at the point where I can start sewing a little each week.  

It's nice to feel like I can get things done. Especially since I was sure that it would never happen without help from the rest of the family.  So far it has only been me.

How is your studio? Did You join the declutter challenge? 

Declutter Challenge Accepted

 As I've lamented about in several posts, my studio is a disaster area and I completely lack motivation to get it cleaned up and organized.  So when my favorite blogger/you-tuber, Karen Brown announced a declutter challenge, I felt like I had to join.  It is to be a 3 week daily challenge to help you get your studio together.  It starts on 1/11/21 and goes to 1/21/21.  I am excited to see what I learn.

But I did not wait to get going on this project. This is half of my studio. The floor has been swept and mopped, the bins have been re-stacked and somewhat organized. This took me most of last weekend and a good deal of work each evening. My long arm has at last been uncovered.  I think she is happy to finally be free. I did not get nearly as far as I would have liked. But this is definitely progress. And I am feeling pretty proud of myself. 

But unfortunately this is only half of the studio.  The other half  contains my sewing desk, a wire shelf full of bins and boxes, a small dresser and a rack of drawers, among other things. This is the other half of my studio.

As you can see a lot of stuff that had been piled under the long arm has made it to the sewing desk.  A lot of this is stuff that has been dropped in boxes instead of being put away.  This week, I believe, the evenings will be occupied with emptying boxes and finding homes for things.  I will probably continue with the tough call of keeping or tossing.  I know that part of the declutter challenge will be getting rid of stuff.  I have done some of that already but it is going to be harder and harder to do as I get further into it.  

But that is not all. There was a lot of stuff in the studio and it had to go somewhere.  This is my dining room/studio annex.  I am not putting anything back in the studio that doesn't belong there.  So that means I need to figure out where I can put it.  The house is too small for all of our possessions. Interestingly enough, the shed we finally got usable for storage is getting pretty full.  So I am going to struggle to find homes for everything. 

I guess I really do need to declutter. I need to find my timer under that pile on the desk before the challenge starts. Plus get some questions put on post it notes to help keep me focused. Oh and a project book to make notes in so I don't start new projects.  I know I have all of those things on hand and I am pretty sure I can find them. There is hope after all.

How about you? Is you sewing area usable or are you fighting piles of things? Are your drawers stuffed to the brim? When is the last time you couldn't find something and ended up buying another?

Maybe you should check out the De-Clutter Challenge.

Breaking the Insanity Cycle

I was wide awake at 1:00 am on Saturday morning.  The house was all asleep and I could not be productive without waking someone.  So I jumped on Facebook and was perusing quilting posts.  I came across the Just Get It Done post about reviewing 2020. Karen Brown started it by asking should she just burn her 2020 bullet journal. That got me thinking.

I turned and looked at my studio and thought something has to change. I haven't used my long arm in almost 2 years.  I didn't have a quilt to go on it and things got piled on it, the studio is a mess and I can't find things, etc.  I have been clearing my sewing desk and stitching from time to time but that has only created more UFO's. I have not been putting fabric up as I buy it.  Lots of things contributing to the mess.

I've been saying for more than a year that I was going to inventory my stash and organize my studio. But I have failed to follow through.  I lacked motivation, I lacked energy and I lacked inspiration. I lacked planning.  There is an old saying the says "Failure to Plan is Planning to Fail"  Is that what I am doing? Am I planning to fail? 

Karen Brown did a video about Bullet Journaling for Quilters & Crafters. After watching the video, I thought "Not for Me".  I am not a journaling person.  I've started to journal several times and just never kept it up.  Plus I don't really plan quilts I sort of let them evolve. So bullet journaling wasn't for me. 

Or is it? If the definition of Insanity is continuing to do the same things and expecting different results, than I am in a cycle of insanity.  Time to break this Cycle.  While I am not a journaling type of person, I like having journals around.  I picked up this one on clearance just last Wednesday.

So in the wee sleepless hours of the morning I started a Bullet Journal.  I didn't really know where to start other than what I would like to accomplish. So I started with 2021 Ideal Achievments. It was just a quick off the top of my head list of what I'd like to achieve this year.  Sort of a jumping off point.  It's at the very front of the journal so I can keep it in the forefront of my mind.  I can always edit or amend it but it is the start of my Quilting Journey this year.

I believe all epic journeys are done in stages.  And My quilting Journey is going to be epic if I can manage to keep it up. So I decided to set monthly goals.  Then break those goals down into weekly segments.  I doubt I will do daily segments but maybe I'll include daily to do lists later on.  Right now I am not sure how much time or energy I will have each day.  I still work full time for a living and my work schedule is kind of all over the place with the pandemic and all that brings.

So the title of my January page is "January's Lofty Plans"  I am still not convinced if this is going to work or if I am going to keep it up.  I'm also not sure how much I will be able to do each evening.  I am going to shoot for 30 minutes on the house, 30 minutes on the studio, and 30 minutes on a project.  So hopefully I will have the energy to commit to an hour and a half each evening. 

I then wrote a page for this week.  What I would like to get accomplished this week. The plans for this week are a little more detailed and I hope to get most of them done.  I do think I have over planned but that is okay.  What doesn't get done gets moved to next week.  

My bullet journal isn't terribly creative.  It's just lists. Plus I am not sure how long I will keep this up.  I am hoping to develop it as a new habit.  Because I really want to break this cycle of insanity.  The clutter, the wasted energy, the wasted time, it all adds to depression and hopelessness. I need to break that cycle.  I need to stop planning to fail.

On a positive note, I got up Saturday morning and started cleaning in my studio.  I continued to clean on Sunday as well.  I still have a long way to go but right now I feel like I can do it. So Maybe there is something to this journaling.

How about you? 

What destructive cycle do you need to break?

Do you have a bullet journal?

A New Year - A Change of Perspective

It happens every year, on December 31st we ring out the old year and ring in the new one.  People make resolutions that are usually broken by the end of January.  It's a annual cycle that is steeped in tradition and lore.

2020 has been a trying year for many of us.  Many of us are happy to ring in a new year.  But I don't think 2021 is going to bring the changes everyone hopes for.  I believe that we are in for more of the same as last year.  What can change is our perspective.

I was chatting with a co-worker.  She commented that she's made black eye peas every year but it doesn't seem to work for her. I then mentioned that we at least were still working and many had been laid off or their business closed due to the pandemic.  She brightened up at that. Her perspective had been changed. She told me that she was going to go ahead and make the traditional new years meal. For those of us in South Georgia that means black eye peas, pork of some kind, greens, and corn bread. Right now those things are cooking in my kitchen.

I am not a native of the south and I don't think we really had New Year traditions growing up. Well, beyond staying up to ring in the New Year and watching parades and football on New Years Day.  But it is fun to adopt some the cultural traditions of the places where you live. That is as long as you keep things in perspective. I don't believe that what I eat on New Years day is really going to affect my financial outcome for the next year. But it is a fun tradition here in the south and I don't have to come up with a dinner plan for that day.

One New Years tradition that I do believe in is reflecting on the past year and making goals for the upcoming year.  Last year and again this year, I did a Facebook post on 15 little things that make me happy. Interestingly enough Quilting related activities took 2-3 spots in that list. 

Since I have been a little lax on quilting this year and my studio has been a complete disaster, I have been a little down on myself and my quilting. So I decided to see if I can come up with 15 quilting related activities make me happy. Maybe change my perspective a little bit. 

Here is the list.

1. Piecing - the very act of sewing is a stress reliever for me.  I love to run fabric through the machine.

2. Cutting - I like using the rotary cutter and ruler.  I like getting things prepped for a project. If I am without power for any reason, cutting is something I can do as long as there is natural light coming in. Cutting is the first actual part of the construction the quilt.

3. Folding new fabric (or any fabric) Silly as it sounds, I enjoy folding fabric to store.  It gives me a chance to look at the fabric, to see the patterns and colors. It is a time to dream of what I could do with the fabric.

4. Finding a new quilt shop - This usually happens when I travel. The first real quilt shop that I shopped at as a quilter was Mom's Crafts and Fabrics in Delta, UT when I lived there.  She had a huge array of fabrics and no matter when I went in or who was working at the time, I felt like I was part of the group. I currently don't live close to a real quilt shop. But just about every quilt shop that I enter, I feel like I did at Mom's. Welcomed and part of the group. Part of the quilting community.

5. Trying new techniques. I love to learn and am always willing to learn something new. Even if it is not my style. It is knowledge I can use at some time or another.

6. Using fabric from my stash.  This year I made a couple of flimsies from fabric that had been in my stash for years. It is very satisfying to use fabric that has been laying around. Especially fabric that I have had for a long time.

7. Binding a quilt.  I guess it's because it's the last step.  Finishing a quilt makes me happy.

8. My quilts actually being used.  My son has the quilt I made him on his bed.   My granddaughters use theirs and really do love them. I would rather the quilt be used than sitting in a cupboard some where.

9. Sharing my projects with my daughter.  Tatianna is a great supporter of my efforts and a good critic.  I always look forward to sharing my projects with her.

10. Actually quilting the quilt - Since I've gotten my long arm, I enjoy quilting the quilts a lot more than just tying them.  Quilting on a domestic machine was not fun for me but my machine did not have a large enough throat nor a stich regulator.  I just couldn't get the hang of it so I tied them.

11. Quilting with others. I enjoy doing a quilt project with the women at church. I like to have company when I sew. I don't mean all of the time but once in a while it would be nice.  I guess I need to join a guild and go on retreats.

12. Good deals on fabric.  I like hitting the clearance section at quilt shops. I also like to hit the sales on discontinued fabric.  I generally buy 2-3 yards of fabrics I like. Getting a bunch of pretty fabric for a good price puts a smile on my face.

13. My husband's support for my fabric/quilting addiction.  I have found that I will spend more money at a quilt shop if my husband goes in with me.  He buys fabric that he likes and I buy fabric that I like and it generally all goes with something in my stash.  Also when I bought my long arm, I didn't have enough to buy the computerized system. My husband encouraged me to get a loan and get the computerized system.  Then a couple of years later he used his bonus from work to pay off that loan.

14. New quilting gadgets - I love gadgets. One of my favorites is my slotted ruler. Another is my binding tool. Still another is the 1/4 inch ruler. I have a bunch of rulers and gadgets, some which I haven't used, yet that is.

15. You tube Videos and tutorials.  I learn a lot from other quilters. Since I haven't joined a guild or found quilting classes that jive with my work schedule, they have become sanity savers for me.  

It took a little more effort to come up with 15 quilting things that make me happy.  Maybe because I haven't been doing enough of these things this year. That is one resolution I intend to make and keep this year. Quilting more regularly.

 What makes you happy? What's you resolution?