Just keep working.................

Wow - so here it is the middle of the year - OK - so it was the middle of the year a couple of days ago. By the month - who knows in days.

I thought I would take a peek into my "accomplished book" to see how I am doing. Now why would I do that???   I was looking at my shelf of projects for 2012. Hmmmm - doesn't seem to be going down at all.

See what I  mean - looks as full as when  the year started. And the goal of this shelf was to CONTAIN all the stuff I was working on in 2012. Yet........................

Look at the work tables - COVERED with stuff. Most of this is the $10 quilts, but still................

Here is my sewing table - actually looks in GREAT shape. The black pile on the left is PJ pants that M  made for her boyfriend. He is tall, so she made them LONG, but a tad TOO LONG so she has to shorten them today. The red/white raffle quilt is here, a pair of pants to fix and a couple of small blocks I am working on. All in all - pretty decent shape and the cutting mat and ironing board AND the floor are clear!!!!

But that other table - YIKES - what am I going to do about that?????    Well - just keep working!!!!!!!!!!!


I broke down my list of accomplished things into categories - and here are the totals................   (there is NO double counting here either)

Completely finished projects - SEVEN projects - including bindings - labels - the whole thing and they are all GONE.

Borders/backings/bindings - SEVENTEEN - they are now waiting in the "TO BE QUILTED" pile. I was hoping to have more done, but 17 is better than none.

Stuff completed for guilds - THREE small lap quilts
                                       - 120 gift bags (and thanks to Liz, Suzi, Nancy and others) for helping to insert the                                                  
                                                         ribbon for the top
                                      - THREE generous lap quilts (OK - so I didn't hand stitch the binding down - I
                                                      gave them to the guild and someone else sewed the binding down.

Customer quilts quilted - TWENTY-THREE (including binding one of them including the hand stitching)

Stuff for exchanges - HHQG Block of the Month - SIXTEEN blocks    (PROJECT DONE)
                             - Postcards - NINE     (PROJECT DONE)
                             - Christmas Club Tinners - SIX blocks (I am ONE behind)
                             - Brampton Tinners - NINE blocks       (PROJECT DONE)
                             - Retreat Tinners - SEVEN blocks (2 big, 5 small)   (I am BEHIND)



WOW - OK - so I can't really say I am getting nothing done!!!!   And the best part - I haven't added anything new - well there are three projects that I have started this year (because of teaching) that have fallen into the NOT DONE category, but I'm not worried about them.


Never mind the stuff I have done that hasn't hit my list yet - the 12 for (20)12 projects, the raffle quilts, mystery quilts that are not quilt finished, $10 quilts. Oh yes - these machines of mine are SMOKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The best part - I feel great about this. I am happy with my machines. Makes me laugh because I see someone on Facebook who is all excited - they are going to start a blog and take a year sabbatical so they can sew. HA - that happened to me TWELVE years ago. It was July 2000 (I think) that I took a year off "to get quilting out of my system". And the rest is history.................



Well back to work - got yet another customer quilt done.

Customer quilt

 Could there really be a light at the end of the tunnel?????   Well there are STILL TONS of quilts to quilt, for customers, me and some pro bono work that I took on.  The light isn't going to come on for a while yet, but GREAT PROGRESS and I am VERY excited about that.

And I managed to get this quilt border/binding/backing DONE!!!    DING DING DING!!!!!

Finished BBB project. This border is NOT my usual border (my borders are usually DARKER than the quilt). Nor is this my usual size of quilt. It is huge - 75 by 85 - too big for a lap quilt, too small for a bed. Well I should get it quilted and hang it up by the quilting machine. Time I changed those quilts in the background anyway. And the corner fabric  - well I just wanted it done and I didn't have enough of that fabric to play with. But you know what - IT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!   It  is NOT an heirloom. 

DONE DONE DONE

So while those tables still look amazingly FULL, I can't beat myself up for not getting anything done. And just when I think  - AH all the quilts are done. NOPE - I still have TWO quilts to get done this month and then more next month. Oh well - the idea is to get them done and NOT add to the huge stack waiting to be finished. And so far I have kept pretty much on track as well as finished off some that have sat for a while.


I know this is going to sound like a VERY simple thing and why doesn't every one do it - but my lists and blocking out days in my calendar for quilting/sewing has helped ENORMOUSLY. No I don't follow everything religiously and if I had kept to the lists and dates - heck - I would have accomplished twice as much.

And I have a CORRECTION to make - I am killing my sumac with a HERBICIDE not a PESTICIDE. I am not sure where that came from, but sometimes words just tumble into my brain and I don't give a second thought to them!!!!!!!!!!!!


On that note - I am going out to garden for a bit. OK - let's not make that out to be as glamorous as it sounds - I am going to pull the #$%%^ weeds from the garden!!!!!

Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



PS - Yes Kaylee went home yesterday. It was a pretty uneventful walk this morning, except when my girls chased TWO different raccoon families up the tree. They do not bark - they just get the coons going up the tree and leave it at that.


Happy Birthday Marian!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    (thanks for the reminder on my calendar which I flipped this morning).

My calendar and can you read the caption about the PLAN???
A GOOD PLAN TODAY IS BETTER THAN A PERFECT PLAN TOMORROW  - I love those inspiration calendars!!!!!

OK - I'm out of here!!!