Archive for February, 2011

To-Do or Too-Much-To-Do, That is the Question…

Monday, February 28th, 2011

I spent a great deal of yesterday outside. It actually reached 60 degrees here! Cleaned the chicken coup, drained water from the pool cover now that the ice is melting, pulled the old morning glory vines off the fence, planned a garden layout, chatted with a neighbor and even contemplating letting the dog go for a swim in the river – ended up crashing on the couch instead!  Don’t feel bad about the dog – she went swimming in the water-logged pool cover so she got her dip in the water! It was an absolutely beautiful and rejuvenating day – don’t you just love those?!

So now that my energy is renewed from a busy month of teaching and and creating and grown children coming and going on top of the snow and dreariness, I have set goals for myself this week. Got to finish another Amish Star!!! Absolutely have to get the pattern completed! Just finished this one! Its in my gallery now – check out the daisy fill in the background there!

Meanwhile, back to my to-do list – another sample for Hand Applique by Machine, then perhaps  another quilt waiting in the queue  will get loaded on the long arm too! I’m not sure I can do it all by Friday but am going to try!

Got to work on getting plumbers in the house this week and I think I need another sample for my Machine Quilting class…. my husband says I need to get the oil changed in  my car before the $10 coupon expires…And then there’s the big sale at Sauder’s Fabrics in Denver, Pa. It starts on Thursday…and I have money in my checking account.  The week’s goals are growing exponentially as I sit here and contemplate them. I’m am probably better off just not thinking about it. I think I’ll go sew now.

Creativity Creates Paperwork Which Leads to Procrasitination!

Friday, February 4th, 2011

I sit here procrastinating. I have made a list of everything I really need to get done today and beyond – none of which includes sewing. It all appears to be paperwork.  Oh wait – there is one item, Rip out Quilting.  That will stay at the bottom of the list, for sure. However, the lower that gets to the bottom of the list, the lower the Re-quilt Cats item goes too since its the quilt that requires the ripping. It always annoys me how it takes five hours to rip out 10 minutes of machine quilting but I digress…

Back to procrastination – I have even managed to take a break between paragraphs here and call the dog out of the neighbor’s yard, contemplate vacuuming up dog hair and once again, wander through the kitchen under the guise of trying to figure out where that smell was coming from.

I spent the last few days finishing up another version of my Amish Card Trick which now means I am ready to write the pattern – hence paperwork hence procrastination. Having taken copious notes as I constructed the third incarnation of this quilt, and even bought fabric for a fourth, I am pretty sure I can cruise through this technical writing task quickly if  I would only get started. Perhaps, a cup of tea will help keep me on track…. I’ll be right back.

Okay – got a cup of tea and have taken the time to snap a picture of my latest quilt top – note how it is casually draped over the long arm to inadvertantly hide the “ripping” task lurking underneath. How convenient that it will need to remain displayed there as I write the directions for its construction. I will use the old Out of Sight, Out of Mind tactic to avoid that other item on my list for a while!

I know that the sooner I start all this paperwork stuff, the sooner I can get back to sewing and quilting – And I do have a backlog of quilts to quilt and tops to piece and projects to get out of my head and down into fabric…and then there is that whole Rip Out Quilting thing…