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?