Reflections

January 2 and life gets back to normal (whatever your normal is). My normal is going to take a few days longer than usual as I battle this stupid cold. While I am feeling much much better, I am still very tired and I HATE that.

But I did start the year on a positive note! Lifetime was having a COMMITMENT DAY run/walk. It was 5 KM and since I am NOT a runner, I got bundled up and walked the entire distance although there were times when I felt I could do a bit of a shuffle, but why bother. I didn't take my GPS with me (for the distance - not the directions!) but I do believe the 5 KM was more like 5.8 KM and I finished in 53 minutes so I was happy about that.

As the new year starts we get all excited - I want to do this and I want to do that, but what is in fact realistic? Well NOTHING is more realistic than writing it down. Making a verbal commitment is NOTHING - no one knows you made it - not even yourself and it is so easy to forget - I don't know how many verbal commitments I have made to myself and then promptly forgot about them.

One of the things that I promise to do this year is go live a healthier lifestyle. I know - you are all rolling your eyes and saying that I live a pretty healthy lifestyle, but it is not enough. I need more stretching, more yoga, healthier eating habits - get out and move more!!!!!!    I am going to work on it a baby step at a time. We got a book from our walk yesterday and hopefully I can use that to help me. My fitness goal for this week is simple - get to the gym three times and I was there already once yesterday (hey - outdoor walks count) - so just twice more and I am done with this week's goal.

As for the quilting, well it was a BIG deal to keep track of those five categories - and to recap - here they are..................

Completed Projects (this means the label was on and the project winged it way to its' new home)
EIGHT (a pathetic paltry EIGHT of which FOUR belonged to me). BUT - it is eight projects that are NOT UFO's and that is what it is all about. Finishing up!!!!!

Backings/borders/bindings (these items are ready for quilting). I tried to do one a week
THIRTY-ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!    (that is exciting and given that TEN of those are already quilted! - those darn Halloween quilts!)

Stuff that I completed for guilds community outreach programs
 - Senior lap quilts - SIX (these are small quilts with no batting)
 - Quilted SIX quilts (and put on the binding which then went to someone else to stitch down)
 - ONE log cabin block for a raffle quilt
 - 120 gift bags (with a little help from my friends to insert the ribbon)
 - TWO quilts from jelly roll (both of these were fairly intricate), I quilted them,
               attached the binding and let someone else hand stitch the binding down.

Blocks completed for exchanges

SIXTEEN blocks for the block of the month
NINE postcards
ELEVEN blocks for the tinners projects at Christmas Club (one more to finish this year)
SIX blocks for tinners at a guild
NINE big blocks (at least eight inches) for the retreat exchange (one more to finish this year)
THIRTY-ONE small blocks (4 inches) for the retreat exchange
ONE mini quilt for the retreat exchange


Customer quilts
Sixty three customer quilts (all of which were trimmed and some I made the binding, backing and stitched on the binding and in one RARE instance, hand stitching the binding down!!!!!)


And this doesn't even begin to look at what I worked on, but didn't get to completion. Or some of those quilts needed a bit of work to get it so it could be quilted - like a raffle quilt.

All in all - keeping these lists has been extremely telling. WOW - while I didn't get everything done that I wanted to - I still accomplished a HUGE pile of stuff. I am very happy. I now have my 2013 shelf in place and hope to get to work soon, but first I need to get through this mess so that I can feel like working.


I am going to keep the same categories for this year - needless to say, the BLOCKS completed for exchanges is going to be considerably smaller as I complete stuff that I owe people and NO new commitments.

One thing I am going to add this year is magazines. How many magazines did I get rid of!!!!!   You laugh, but it is a time consuming thing and I really really do NOT want to just rip through those magazines. I LOVE magazines and I want to enjoy them and then pass them on. Otherwise -- why did I buy them????   Just to throw them out? That is just so senseless. I went through another 6 last night and I think I photocopied a maximum of eight pages. NOT BAD!!!!!!   And someone else gets to enjoy the magazine - there are some very interesting articles in these magazines.

Well - I am off to make a "dent" in the mess.


Have a good day!!!!!!!!!!!!


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