Why buying fabric is like eating food.................

Another great day yesterday - we had our group classes for machine quilting and Vintage Farm Girl. I've got pictures - they are loaded in the editor and I'm going to post them this week. I have a Sit  Sew today and so I don't have time to edit the pictures.

I did a bunch of cutting for my new projects that have deadlines and I'll be doing the preliminary sewing on those today. The deadlines for a couple of them are not far away!  The world of magazines sometimes leaves you plenty of room and sometimes it does not. I have several that don't have a lot of time - thankfully they are small!!

When I got home from class, I had some grocery shopping to do (almost all in the outer aisles of the grocery store which are the healthiest aisles in case you didn't know) and then I vegged in the chair with my book. And just the most exciting point of the book was approaching, I fell into a sound sleep - I blame those darn flannel quilts - they are just too snuggly.

Doesn't matter how exciting the book is - when my body says it needs sleep - I shut down. Not sure why I was so tired - I blame the quilt. I did finish the book before I went to bed. A highly improbable ending giving that this is a series and we can only presume that the hero lives on. But how did he live and everyone and everything else was decimated? Well - now you have to get the next book and hope they say. But that next book isn't on my list - time to move to a different author. Which one of the 60+ in the series will I choose?  I have some non-fiction books that I should finish first. So one book non-fiction and then a fiction - that's my goal for the moment.

My problem is that when I go to the library, I search around the new books to see what's interesting. And I always seem to come home with a book or two - mostly non-fiction. But the last two times I was there, I didn't pick anything up so that is GOOD! I'm learning restraint in all aspects of life!

I'm doing OK on the eating thing. However, every once in a while, there's a day when you just can't seem to eat enough. Why is that? So I've decided to track my food. It isn't hard - there are lots of apps on your phone (Oh god - another technology app!). I downloaded the app this morning and input my goals and then off to make breakfast. Yikes - by the time I input my breakfast - steel cut oats, blueberries and a scoop of protein powder - 1/3 of my calories for the day are GONE. This will be a bit of an eye opener for sure and hopefully, it will be the deterrent to NOT overeat. Not that I do - much, but if the goal is to lose a pound or two, then one is supposed to eat less than you need.

I'm thinking it's going to take a day or two to adjust to this.

And I cheated - well sort of. That day I was hungry - I ate chocolate. But not just any old chocolate - I had dark chocolate which is supposed to be good for you. But look at the chocolate that I ate. 90% Cacao.

That chocolate should have been bitter as ever, but it actually tasted not bad. I ate a couple of squares in tiny pieces and I savored it! It really isn't that hard to resist the "bad" foods even when they are in the house. I have regular chocolate and I have cookies and I haven't touched them in over 6 weeks. Not sure what to do with them - I hate to throw them out.  I guess DH will get my chocolate stash.

Now - here's the thing. I need to take these same disciplines and translate them to quilting. When I go to a quilt shop, I need to think about my "calorie - i.e mean fabric intake" for the day. How much do I need? Am I trying to loose "stash weight"? And how does one go about doing that? Wouldn't it be funny if there was an app to track your purchases for the year (OK - so I could do it on a spreadsheet, but that's boring). Yikes.  Well, I was at the new quilt store twice this past week and I bought a few things and I'll say more about those in a post later this week. And I was in my regular store yesterday and I bought ONE pattern there. I think I'm doing good. But it all goes back to my column on the advice to the fabric companies. There's going to be a market correction - it's going to happen, but when and who else will go down?

For fun - here are some comparisons to eating and buying fabric:

• We eat/buy for comfort - that makes us emotional eaters/buyers
• We eat/buy out of guilt - oh Aunt Sue made those cookies for me/oh the owner showed me this fabric and I feel like I should buy it or I popped in for a book - the book isn't there, but I feel like I should buy something
• We binge eat/buy - I just want MORE and lots of it without thinking of the consequences
• We eat/buy because of peer pressure - as your friend says to you  "oh come on  - it doesn't matter - you know you want to eat/buy that"

I'm sure there are more scenarios, but I bet those four cover most of the reasons why we overeat/overbuy.

Hasn't one or more of those things happened to you?  I'm guilty of all of them.  No more - I won't encourage anyone and I won't encourage myself. I want to do things that I want to do, not for guilt, not for a friend, not for comfort (that's going to be the hardest one!). I guess I'll be hugging and petting the dogs a lot! They can provide plenty of comforts.

On that note, I'm out of here.

Have a great day!!!


Ciao!!!!