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 able 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 regarding project, fabric and yarn accumulation:
- No starting new projects! At least, not until there is some progress in finishing many of the current WIP’s!
- Do not purchase any more fabric/yarn unless they are needed to finish a WIP
This is only 2 rules. I am hoping to be able 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 being the custodian of way too many belongings (this can easily be translated to clutter and used interchangeably). If the box contains WIP(s), I work on them and get them finished. This is a slow process, but I am hoping that 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 be able 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 the “Let’s Make Cake BOM’s” that I could find. 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” and featured stores of women in history that 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.
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. Due to watching my wonderful grandson’s the rest of the day on Saturday and then attending a going away party for friends, 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 could feel that I was anxious to get the blocks DONE! Then I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, listened to the rain and decided to take my time and 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 that know me) I don’t necessarily enjoy having to do things over but I do enjoy seeing the seams line up and the blocks coming together. I didn’t really do anything differently than I usually do, I just adjusted my outlook and that is all it took to make the whole process much more satisfying as a whole.
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 (newly reconstructed after a fire two years ago) before she moves back in this week, and ended up having a wonderful salad (topped with the most tender brisket I think that 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!!
When I got home, after my lovely visit with my lady friends, I planned to finish up the couple of blocks that I had just gotten on Saturday. I decided to cut all the fabric for each block before starting to sew any of them. I had just finished this one:
When Pixie, who normal just sits next to me and stares at me until she beams her thoughts into my brain, jumps up on my bench seat where I had been using my cutting mat and rotary blade.
She wanted to make sure that I understood. She was finished with 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.
Although I haven’t made any progress on this scarf this week, I had promised you a photo, so here it is.
Monday morning was the first day that I met up with friend D for walking. Pixie and I walked to her house. We, all three, walked back to my house (D got to see my place for the first time), and then D walked back to her place. Upon D entering my Parlor, she mentioned that I might want to turn my quilt table around to face the other direction. (I had wondered if that might be the case) I agreed that I would and 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 lease the ones that I got to play with were), square in shape, 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 is a really good thing that I enjoy those puzzles, because moving furniture around my tiny little parlor was very much akin to 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)
Tuesday morning started out with Pixie abandoning me. Monday she had walked 1.5 miles in the morning (she got to ride in the puppy backpack for the other 1.5 miles) and 2 miles at Monday Run-day. She was REFUSING to get out of bed. When I asked her if she wanted to “go”, she just looked at me and tucked herself into a tighter and tighter doggie doughnut. I got the message.
Tuesday after work, my dinner plans evaporated. So I decided to sew. (hahaha) While moving all the furniture about I had found many (if not all, I haven’t actually checked yet) of the missing blocks. I tucked in to see how many I could complete before bedtime. It turns out, it was 5:
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 remain balanced?
