Motivational Monday - progress report

So how is everyone doing with their Task Master?  I have to say that mine is yelling at me. I'm getting loads done, but I seem to be in a bit of a crisis mode and so a couple of things that I wrote down are not getting done. And every weekend I say, NEXT weekend I'll have nothing urgent and I can catch up. Hmmm - doesn't always work like that.

I did make good progress this past week. What did I accomplish???  Well, I finished off the five blog posts for QUILTsocial. If you didn't get a chance to follow along, check them out as there are two super projects in there and tons of sewing tips.

Monday - http://quiltsocial.com/physical-features-of-the-husqvarna-viking-sapphire-965q/

Tuesday - http://quiltsocial.com/tips-for-successful-sewing-on-the-husqvarna-viking-sapphire-965q/

Wednesday - http://quiltsocial.com/key-tips-on-sewing-your-binding-by-machine-and-thread-choice/

Thursday - http://quiltsocial.com/5-tips-for-topstitching-and-its-purpose-in-sewing/

Friday - http://quiltsocial.com/making-a-sewing-machine-needlecase-using-the-sapphire-965q-embroidery/

That's a lot of work to take pictures, write the text, edit the text. But I LOVE it and need to get better on the timing. Heck - I need to get better at the timing on most things!!!

And the little needlecase?  Yep - I made that this week. 

Needlecase

Inside the needlecase

Let's see - what else did I do???  I had already made a sample of the below project, but it wasn't in the office and we needed one for photos. So this got quilted and bound. I've now placed all the Canadian pins in the map and it looks awesome.  I need to make a sleeve and a label, but it's good for the moment. 

Canada map with pins

The panel and pins are part of Northcott's Sesquicentennial celebrations for this year.  The Block Party starts on Feb 1 and so there will be more details at that time. I can't wait!!!!   Road trip!!!!

And here is my Radiant Light quilt. I made half square triangles, I made flying geese units and I made square in a square units. I sewed almost all day long and I finally said - "enough!".  It's good enough that I got the direction to press all the units and hopefully can get that darn pattern off my desk tomorrow.

Radiant Light - almost complete

The five blocks in the middle part are all sewn together so just the four corner blocks to go and two of them are ready to assemble.  A few more flying geese and half square triangles. 

Oh - let's not forget my two blocks for the on-going quilt class. 

Quilter's Patch block

Kaleidoscope block

And I did a ton of enders and leaders for the second quilt that I was working on this weekend. 

So while I feel like I got a lot done, there's a lot that I haven't got completed. 

Here's my tip for the week.  It's the end of the first month (or almost) and I still have my January UFO to complete.  It's time for a reality check.  Are we being a tad over ambitious compared to the time we have to sew?  Are we putting too many things on the list?  Are we agreeing to things that we know we don't have time for?  Are we putting things on the back burner??   If yes - then you have to figure out why that is happening. 

In my case, there are two reasons that a few things have slipped.  It's NOT because I don't have time. I sew tons every week. The biggest culprit is that I sew for work and MOST of that sewing gets done at home after hours. That is a BIG NO-NO.  That means that I have to find time at work to sew work projects so I can focus on my own stuff when I'm home.  That's going to be tough, but I NEED to find a way to make it work. Two of the three quilts that I wanted to get done this weekend are for work. The second problem is that I'm playing catch-up to stuff that should have been done a while ago.  So now that I'm behind the eight ball, it's hard to catch-up.  

That means, that I'm going to say NO to anything new - yes even for work!  But QuiltCon is coming up and I have demos to prepare and several quilts (all small) to make. OK - I will say NO to work quilts unless it gets sewn at work.  I have to!  As far as the catch-up stuff, there are still a couple of lagging things, but not too bad. 

How are you making out on your lists????  I see some of you are very diligent in your weekly goals and that's great. It's the only way to get stuff done. Since I started The Task Master, I'm super focused. I don't deviate to a side project. That's the good news - the bad news is sheer volume!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

If you're interested, don't forget we have a Facebook group to encourage and share our work.