Life In General

Wow!!! I can't believe 3 weeks has gone by already.  I wrote my last post while I was in Missouri visiting my husband for a few days. (not any where close to Hamilton unfortunately) And before any of you get concerned, he does still live here. He just spends more time on the road than at home. So I go visit him for a long weekend now and again. This last trip I drove, so I took my sewing machine with me.  That was a great idea.  I got Athena's quilt top pieced. And because I drove, I also brought back some 4th of July celebration supplies.

Anyway, Since I've been back, I haven't been doing a whole lot of sewing.  We spent 2 weekends canning tomatoes.  I also have been working 10-12 hour days. All those long hours have taken a toll on my health.  I've picked up a stomach bug twice in the past 2 weeks. 

Between picking and canning tomatoes and work and being sick, I really haven't had the energy.  I still have the put labels on the 3 quilts that are ready to go to their owners.   

My friend, Liz, Keeps telling me I need to start slowing down.  Last night, she reminded me that I will be turning 60 a full month before she does. Which will be happening this fall.  Liz is coming up on her first year anniversary of being cancer free. But she has suffered some neuropathy, It is very frustrating for her because she can't do the things she used to. Liz was more of a go getter than I ever was. She worked full time and baked and sold cakes, pies, etc on the side.  Her side hustle kept her very busy.  Cancer forced her to slow down. She keeps telling me that if I don't start slowing down, God will make me slow down.  She has a point.

So how do I do find the balance? I was doing really well with the morning sewing. But getting sick made it difficult to get up on time to do that. I was sewing a little in the evening but not getting home until 8:00pm makes that difficult. I do need to slow down but right now work has too much going on. When did I become a work-a-holic? 

Hopefully, things will slow down once our department is back to full staff.  I have to hire 2 more people. And my supervisor will be back in a 3 weeks.  That should take some of the pressure off.

As for canning season, My kids want to spend a weekend each month canning. This month will hopefully be peaches. Next month who knows.  But it is a good idea and we spend time as a family.  

This week finds me traveling for work.  I am taking my EPP project with me. that will be my sewing this week. I will do it on the plane and in the hotel room while watching TV.  When I get back it will be back to getting up early enough that I can sew in the morning. If I am not sewing I can be trimming up scraps, pressing blocks, squaring up blocks or prepping backs. Hopefully in the evenings I will work on EPP or labeling quilts.

I still need to organize the studio as well as find a place for all of my stash.  Right now I am going to just take everything one step at a time. Do what I can and then move on to the next thing. Mostly I need to get my head around what I need to do.  I have been unable to focus on any of it. I guess I need some selfish down time. Time where I am only doing what I want. But I don't know how to do that right now.

How are you doing? Are you finding the need to slow down? Have you found a Balance?

UFOs or WIPs and the Five Why Method

 On my drive to work every morning I listen to pod casts.  As I listened this week it occurred to me most people have multiple projects going at one time, Several mention getting stuck on a project.  Others get bored working on just 1 project. Some just get too excited about a new project to wait. Of course there are the Unicorns out there that do one project at a time and don't start another until its done. For the most part though quilters, crafters, and/or makers tend to have multiple projects going at once. This then results in UFOs or WIPs. 

UFOs are UnFinished Objects. Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts defines a UFO as any project that you haven't worked on in the past 6 months.  Karen also says it's not a project until you start cutting the fabric. WIP stands for Work In Progress.  So WIPS are projects that you are either currently working on or have very recently put aside to work on something else. I currently have 6 UFOs and 7 WIPs. (Not counting the scraps I am cutting for future projects but that is another post.)

A couple of moths ago, I joined a Facebook Group call "Queen of the UFOs"  The whole point of the group is to not make it to the top of the list. To get your name bumped to the bottom of the list you just have to post a completed project. There are some rules of course.  It has to be a project started before January of that year. There is a limit on how many small projects (think place mats) and a bonus for large quilts. The purpose of this small group is to help motivate quilters to finish their projects. 

I love seeing the finish projects from this group. Some of these quilts are 20 plus years old.  In the post you can feel the pride of the woman who has completed the project.  It can be inspiring and motivating to be a part of this group.  I am currently sitting at the 3 spot on the list.  I have not finished one quilt since joining the group at the beginning of April. The thing is I have 3 quilts that are completed except for the label. A couple of hours of hand sewing in the evening and I get bumped to the bottom of the list.  I just need to do it. 

I guess the question to ask is why? At work when we are trying to solve a problem, a method we use is asking "why?" For example: 

1. Why was the line down for 15 minutes? Because the capper was acting up? 
2. Why was the capper acting up? because the caps kept getting jammed. 
3. Why did the caps get jammed? because there was a slight bend in the rail and they don't flow as they should? 
4. Why has the bend in the rail not been fixed? Because we need to replace it. 
5. Why hasn't it been replaced? because the part is on back order.

Usually by the time you ask why 5 times you can get to the root of the issue.  So maybe I need to start applying the Why method to UFOs. Today I am going to just do a general or broad questioning of Why I have UFOs instead of each one.  I may list each one separately in another post. I am also going to combine the the WIPS and UFOS for this exercise.

A UFOs needing a label.

Let's start with the 3 easy finishes. These are 3 quilts that just need labels on them. 

1. Why isn't it finished? - needs a label
2. Why does it need a label? - to document the quilt for history, because it's one of my goals to label quilts, to claim my work
3. Why isn't it labeled? - label isn't finished.
4. Why isn't the label finished? - needs heat set and cut.
5. Why haven't I heat set and cut it? - printed a different size than usual and I am not sure about stitching it on.

I came to realize the whole issue is I am concerned about the size of the label and turning under part to stitch it on.

The next group of UFOs are the Flimsies or finished quilt tops.  I have 7 of those.  

1. 

   Flimsy ready to be quilted

   Why aren't they finished? - They need to be quilted
2. Why haven't I quilted them? - Need to go on the long arm and it's cluttered
3. Why is it cluttered? - I have to move fabric bins
   
4. Why haven't I moved the fabric bins? - don't know where to put them
5. Why don't I have a space for the bins? - not finished organizing the Studio
6. Why haven't I organized the studio? - too much stuff for the space

I could keep going with this line but what it comes down to is finding a solution. So for now the plan is to put the fabric bins under the dining room table while I get some projects out of the way. Long term solution is to shop from my stash to reduce the amount of bins and storage containers so that it will fit in my space. Also to reduce the amount of other crafting supplies to increase other storage space.

If I am being honest though there is are a couple of splits at the second question. It could also go like this:

Another Flimsy

1. Why aren't they finished? - They need to be quilted
2. Why haven't I quilted them? - Quilt Path software was updated and I am intimidated by it
3. Why am I intimidated? - Second update since I bought the machine. Not comfortable with it using the long arm yet, I haven't read the new information
4. Why haven't I read it? - too little time, not set as a priority
5. Why isn't it a priority - other things on my mind, not accessed it/ printed it out
   
6. Why hasn't been printed out? - lack of ink or paper (now corrected)

Or a third scenario would go like this:

1. Why aren't they finished? - They need to be quilted
2. Why haven't I quilted them? - need backings
3. Why don't I have backings? - need to make backings
4. Why haven't I made the backings? - need to measure/need fabric 
5. Why haven't I measured/gotten fabric - time/money - need to prioritize

Again it does come down to priority doesn't it. So much of getting things done is simply prioritizing

quilt top needing borders

Now for the last group, the unfinished tops. I have 4 of these. One needs piecing, two need borders, one needs reworking. I don't need the 5 why's for these. The one needing piecing is currently bein worked on. The two that need borders were waiting on my finding the border fabric, that has been found for both so I can get those back into production. the last one is stalled because I need to reconfigure the quilt. It was a completed top but it wasn't well planned and is way longer than it is wide.  This will require ripping out and re working the top. So a major under taking.

All this asking why hasn't gotten any of the quilts done has it? My husband might call this exercise a waste of time. (he doesn't believe in making lists either) And No, it hasn't gotten any of my quilts across the finish line. YET.  But it does get one thinking about what has stalled out the projects. Once we understand why we are stalled, we can work the problem to get un-stalled. 

For the quilts needing labels - I figured I would edge the labels with narrow bias tape and the kills two issues with one stone. I hate hand stitching through the label material and it makes the label bigger. 

For the Flimsies needing quilted - move stuff off the long arm, make backs, and set aside weekends to get them quilted.

For the tops needing finished - Piece in the mornings before work. (doing that now) measure/cut and make borders in the morning and/or evening as time permits. For the one needing reworked, use TV watching time to rip out and re configure, that is once labels are on the three mostly finished quilts.

How many UFOs and WIPs do you have? What has you Stalled out? How can you prioritize?

Yardage Sorted and Now????

Wow I started this blog entry over a month ago on April 29th. It is now June 2nd and I am just now getting back to it. On April 29th I was sitting at the airport and just heading out to my daughter's home to visit the grandkids and get the baby blessed.  But I never got back to writing it.

As usual time has gotten away from me.  Work has been crazy busy and while I've gotten another supervisor, we are still down 3 techs.  Plus our big Audit was supposed to be June 1st and 2nd.  In preparation for the audit we get lots and lots of people down from Corporate.  It has been a very busy month. And the Audit has been postponed until the end of this month.  I don't know how I would have gotten through it without my morning routine. Well without further ado here is the blog I started at the end of April.

I have finally finished going through my yardage.  I thought I was never going to get through it, but I finally did.  Going through it was the best idea from the declutter challenge yet. I should have done it last year. I found fabric that I had forgotten all about. I found fabric that will work for backings on a couple of projects. I found the fabric for a quilt for Emerson. Best of all I am recharged and wanting to start planning more quilts. I have come to believe the statement that the fabric will inspire us.

Going through the yardage did reveal some less than pleasant discoveries. I already mentioned the mice issue.  I was lucky. Only two bins were affected. I discovered that I had a lot of apparel fabric that I will never use.  I didn't think I would be getting rid of any fabric but I have weeded out 3 bins worth. Most of it is going to my daughter Tatianna. Some of it is going to my daughter Arianna.  I also found a bunch of scraps.  I actually have more scraps now than I did before I did last year's challenge. So I now have to catch up on my scrap management. 

The biggest challenge I have right now is where to put all the little clear bins of fabric. It will most likely be going into my dining room. I use my dining room table as a cutting table. The dining room very convenient as it is adjacent to my studio. I have some other rearranging to do in the studio as well.

As for stitching this week, I've basically just done some EPP.  I actually finished covering the Hexies and now am sewing the flowers together. I got two done this week. I am finding this is a good project to do when I am sitting watching TV.  It keeps me from snacking, which is always a good thing.  Now I am thinking about getting some hexagon punches to make my own papers.  

Since I wrote the above, my daughter TaKayren has grabbed my Circuit and figured out how to use it. Turns out the model I have can be connected to the internet. So now I am wondering if there aren't programs for cutting EPP papers? If I ever get some down time I will have to do some searches.

As for other progress, I have cut up a bunch of scraps into various sizes.  I also got the blocks cut and sewn for Haper's and Athena's quilts.  In fact I managed to get the top for Harper's quilt pieced.  Just about 30 minutes each morning sure helps to get things done.

I guess that is it for this installment.  More to come later.  Hope you get to quilt today.