Managing Craft Projects Amid Busy Life

Life is BUSY! At least mine is.  I have to snatch at free time and hold tight to it to work on any projects that I can.  Many projects get laid aside for many moons before I am ready to get back to them.  If one throws a move (planned or unplanned) into the mix, projects or pieces of projects can really be mislaid.

I have set some rules for myself about project, fabric and yarn accumulation:

1. No starting new projects!  At least, not until there is some progress in finishing many of the current Works In Progress (WIP).
2. Do not buy any more fabric/yarn unless they are needed to finish a WIP

This is only 2 rules.  I am hoping to stick by them.  Being that I recently moved, there are still boxes that have yet to be unpacked.  As I unpack them, I find a place for the contents or the contents are donated.  I am tired of managing too many belongings. This situation can easily be translated to clutter and these terms can be used interchangeably. If the box holds WIP(s), I work on them and get them finished.  This process is slow. Still, I hope it will yield big results by the end of the year.

Friday evening was raining.  It was WONDERFUL!  There has been so much pollen in the air.  My sewing machine is near a window.  I opening the window fully to listen to the rain on the metal roofs of my surrounding neighbors cottages. The sound filled me with contentment and a sense of well being.  I had finished all the “Let’s Make Cake BOM’s” that I found. 

Wild Roses Quilt

In looking around I saw that I hadn’t finished all my blocks from the previous years “Quilt Club”.  Last year’s club was called “Wild Roses.” It featured stories of women in history. These women did things out of the ordinary for their time.  They were also based on a 36 block grid.  A little more complicated than the 16 block grid from this year’s program.

Swing in the Center Block

Thunder & Lightening Block

On Saturday, it was Quilt club weekend!  😀  This means that I got three new blocks! Two blocks from the Let’s Make Cake series and one from the Snips & Snails series.  I watched my wonderful grandsons the rest of the day on Saturday. Then, I attended a going away party for friends. As a result, I didn’t sew any blocks.

Sunday started early, in a good way.  I had already cut the fabric for the next Wild Roses block. So, I decided to finish it before starting on my most recent blocks from my current series.  At first I felt that I was anxious to get the blocks DONE! I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and listened to the rain. Deciding to take my time, I chose to ENJOY the process.  My process often includes ripping out stitches, re-matching seams, and re-stitching. This isn’t really a surprise to most people who know me. I don’t necessarily enjoy having to do things over. Yet, I do enjoy seeing the seams line up and the blocks coming together.  I didn’t really do anything differently than usual. I just adjusted my outlook. That was all it took to make the whole process much more satisfying.

About 11am I headed to Portland.  I needed to stop at the friend’s house from the night before to pick up my forgotten jacket.  Then… headed across Portland to spend the day with two other lady friends.  I hadn’t seen my friend Lisa in over a year and my friend Lin in many years.  It was an amazing visit!  We started with mimosas, chatted about everything under the sun & checked out Lin’s house. It was newly reconstructed after a fire two years ago. She will move back in this week. We ended up having a wonderful salad. It was topped with the most tender brisket. I think it was the best I have ever had at Podna’s BBQ.  If you are a meat eater, you NEED to check this place out.  It is super duper!!

After my lovely visit with my lady friends, I got home. I planned to finish up the couple of blocks I had just gotten on Saturday. I decided to cut all the fabric for each block before starting to sew any of them. finishing this one:

Let’s Make Cake Quilt

Pinwheels Block

Pixie

Pixie usually just sits next to me and stares until she beams her thoughts into my brain. Sometimes she jumps up on my bench seat. That is where I had been using my cutting mat and rotary blade.

She wanted to make sure that I understood.  She was finished with my sewing and wanted the dog-petters to get busy with their job. Quilt blocks can be made anytime, I snatched her up and loved and loved her until she fell asleep.

Poison Caramel Apple Scarf

I haven’t made any progress on this scarf this week. But, I had promised you a photo, so here it is.

Moving Furniture

Monday morning was the first day that I met up with friend Daisy for walking.  Pixie and I walked to her house.  All three of us walked back to my house. Daisy got to see my place for the first time. Then D walked back to her place. When Daisy entered my Parlor, she suggested turning my quilt table around. She said it should face the other direction.  (I had wondered if that would be the case.) I agreed. The day proceeded to unfold as usual.  It was a Monday so: work, followed by Monday Run-Day, followed by dinner for Pixie and myself. Then I tackled the quilting frame turnabout.

Ever since I was little, I have enjoyed the little slide puzzles.  You know the ones that I am referring to.  They are cheap plastic. At least the ones that I got to play with were. They are square in shape and have square plastic ’tiles’ with numbers or pictures on them.  There is one less tile than it would take to fill the whole face of the board.  This is so the tiles can be slid around to either make the picture or put the numbers in order.  It’s a good thing that I enjoy those puzzles. Moving furniture around my tiny little parlor was very like it.  For the rest of the evening Pixie hid and I moved furniture.  Finishing up right at bedtime.  I was pretty chuffed with myself for succeeding.  I also filled my little car with another whole load for donation!! (SCORE & SCORE)

More Let’s Make Cake Quilt

Tuesday after work, my dinner plans evaporated.  So I decided to sew.  (hahaha) While moving all the furniture, I found many of the missing blocks. I haven’t actually checked yet, but maybe I found all of them.  I tucked in to see how many could be finished before bedtime.  It turns out, it was 5:

Helen’s Choice Block

Snips & Snails Quilt

Monkey Wrench Block

Sailboat Block

After finishing them I decided that marathon sewing isn’t all that enjoyable for me.  My shoulder aches from sitting in only a couple of positions for a long period of time.  It also makes me feel like my life gets unbalanced that way.  I decided that I will sew only one block each day/night that I have time to.  Once that block it done, I do something else.  Play with Pixie, knit, clean, anything else.

Balance is a good thing to work towards.  What do you do or not do to stay balanced?

Quilting Updates: Theme – Let’s Make Cake