So, this last weekend I was all excited about the fabric I had received from Connecting Threads that I just had to sit down and make some Disappearing Hourglass blocks. About one and a half blocks into it, John walks in the room and says, "What are you doing?" Uhhhhhhhh.... (goes my brain) "Sewing?" I answer, wondering where this is going. He looks around my sewing space (about 10' x 8' room that is PACKED with stuff, mostly in piles) and says to me, "When was the last time you sat down and made a list of what you haven't finished? If you want to feel better about your organization and time spent quilting, you may want to look into it" and then turns and walks out. Subtle, but effective that man is. You may be picking up that we had been having conversations about never feeling like things get finished. But look at all the things I've done in the last couple weeks!
Aurifil BOM-click on photo to visit the website
I laid out a Valentine's herringbone table runner, which is now wrapped up in that towel and under my cutting table
Two more Snapshots QAL blocks done, only 4 to go!
The National Rifle Association is hosting a banquet with a theme of Guns and Roses and I plan to donate this to their auction. The banquet is on the 13th of February, 11 days away.
My tumbler-leader/ender project is making great strides! I even added more pieces to my darks and lights. This will eventually be a REALLY busy and fun quilt. My tumblers are 2.5"...
So here's the skinny:
I made a list of how many projects I have tops of, or piles of fabric for, or that are even partly quilted and just need to be finished, and I have filled the 20 lines on my sheet! That's just the ones I can remember!!! Holy Cow! I truly thought I was doing better than that, I thought I was closer to 10. You know what though? This is a good thing, as I obviously have enough projects to keep me busy for a couple months then I can set up achievable milestones for myself. I am going through my sheet and prioritizing the projects (such as Susie's birthday present which I had wanted done at least in her birthday month, urg, too late now) and am writing down target dates to finish them by in a little calendar my grandma gave me for Christmas. My plan is to whittle my list down to 10 before starting a new project. I believe it to be achievable because all my projects are at different stages in the quilting process and so if I get tired of one stage, I can switch to another WIP but still be working on this list.
Here's the rest of my open honesty today, behold my stuffed sewing space!
View from the seat at the sewing machine.
This is what is directly behind me, the Macy's bag is where I put my cut-offs of fabric. This is my cutting table... it's hard to be efficient in this mess.
The hardest thing is that my little haven is so overwhelming when you walk in, that John doesn't often venture in to visit. I adore my husband, and want to be around him as much as possible, but he won't stick around when I'm sewing. The cat's barely come in here too, how bad is that? I think they are afraid of being buried.
I have come to the conclusion that John is very much in the right, and I need to restructure myself, and my room (obviously...) so that I can feel GREAT about sewing for others, and for myself. I love this hobby, and am limited on space, so some things will need to change if I want to keep this up. Thank you for letting me share these thoughts with you today, do you have any ideas that might help me along? Or do I just need to buckle down and make things happen? I appreciate any assistance I can get :)
~Brandy
By the way, here's what started all this in motion:
Linking up to Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
