Teaching old dogs new tricks

You know the saying - you can't teach an old dog a new trick.  Well - I'm the old dog.  I mean what is wrong with me?  

I have that brand new cutting mat - remember?  It was hidden under stuff on my cutting table. Then I decided to clean up the cutting table and move the mat to the other side where I always cut.  No problem.  Well - guess where I'm cutting these days?  YEP - on the old mat on the opposite end of the cutting table!  I mean really!

Still cutting on the old mat

However, that really isn't what today's post is all about.  Nope  - I wanted to share with you how crazy my life has become.  That isn't true either. Let me explain.

Some of you may know this story, but years ago (1998), I started to seriously quilt. And in a very short time, I became addicted to the hobby. Sometimes, I wonder how I managed to be a Mom!  M probably thinks I wasn't a good Mom!  Anyway, in 2000 or thereabouts, I decided to take a one-year leave of absence from my very good job with an excellent salary so I could get quilting out of my system.  Little did I know how obsessed I would become.

Needless to say, I never went back to that job and was lucky enough to make a career out of quilting - a part-time career of teaching, making quilts for others and long arming. I had NO TIME for a day job.

Then the ultimate day job came along that was an offer too good to refuse. So I went to work for Northcott. Imagine when your hobby, part-time career, and full-time job are all one and the same thing? Oh yes - we're talking a very serious addiction here.

The reason I mention all that is because guess what I did last night?  Yep - I was sewing until 8 PM. I try not to sew past 8 PM. Usually, it's because I'm just too tired at that point and well, I guess that's it - I'm just tired by then. But guess what I do when I wake up?  Yep - about 10 minutes after I'm up, I'm downstairs plugging in the iron, turning on the sewing machine and turning on the radio - ready to go.

Shoot - that wasn't even what I wanted to tell you either!  What I really wanted to tell you is how lucky I am to have a dedicated sewing space. When I shut things down last night, my cutting table had stuff all laid out ready for the morning to start sewing. Imagine if I had to put things away every day?  I'd never make anything!

Even if my house were small, I'd still make that happen. I'd give up the dining room, the living room and most of the kitchen to quilting if I had a small house. Gosh - even the bedroom. It's all about priorities. And should DH ever say anything about the mess, if it were to invade the rest of the house or the amount of time that I spend at the sewing machine - goes in one ear and right out the other!

Now I wonder if there is a quilter anonymous? I might need to join one day.  What will I do when my body won't let me sew anymore?

The best part is that I'm having a blast. Last night after I finished the quilt top that has to be in the mail TOMORROW (I'll be quilting it later today), instead of working on the next quilt top that has to be in my suitcase on Wednesday, I thought I deserved a little bit of fun. So I started to work on one of my "would like to have done by Wednesday" projects.  It's a bit of an experiment and I just needed a break from the other stuff.  OH - I'm loving it. The first row is almost on. This one is the hardest because everything had to be fussy cut. The next rows are just grunt sewing. I'm super excited about it. Not sure it would make a good class - it's very dependant on the fabric and the first row is very tricky. ZERO room for error.

Oh yes - the quilt top that I finished last night? It's for a magazine. It's so funny to actually see the quilt top made. I've been carrying my design for a couple of weeks and OH - the actual quilt looks just like the design (thankfully!)

On that note, I've a ton of stuff to arrange to ship. Whenever I get to my hotel on a trip, there is always lots of boxes waiting for me. It's like Christmas!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!