1001 Ways to Take Out the Trash and Still Finish Your Quilt

I have been saying that I’m nearly halfway done with my quilt for months. Yesterday I completed the 7th large block so one more will put me at half. I have decided that I need to just accept the fact that I’m never going to pick up a project and finish it and then move on to another one. I get bored, and if I don’t pick up something else that project will go on sitting there for a long time and I’ll get nothing done until I’m interested in it again. As it is I have at least 8 things that I have started and I’m rotating in and out of my schedule. Most of them are sewing projects and the others are knit or crochet. I would imagine this sounds rather chaotic to many of you but as long as I am only working on one or two at a time and not pressured by deadlines, it is not stressful to me. The quilt is a constant and it sits and waits for me whenever I have time to sit down and make a few stitches. Some days I sit in my little window and just stitch and stitch, some days I’ll do one tiny row and feel good that I worked on it all. The other projects are a little more consuming in that I cannot have them all sitting out at once. I have them in a drawer near my sewing machine. Right now there are two projects sitting on my sewing table, one is very small so it really isn’t cluttered at all. The other is mainly just a bolt of fabric and it gets smaller and smaller as I make cushions. The great thing about all of this, is that I am getting things done because I can leave the sewing machine out. The front room downstairs is basically my creative domain and I’ve been able to spread things out as well as pack them up again and put them away all in one area that has no other purpose except to please me. There is no…pack it up quick we have to eat dinner on that table…anymore, or take the quilt down, the sewing table and get rid of all this stuff…we have family coming to stay. I have been so much more productive and in my accomplishments I have felt so much more inspired. I look at all the possible projects I could do and I’m excited instead of thinking…I’ll never get that done. Since moving all my sewing things into a designated space I have made two sets of pillows for the couch, curtains for the living room four tablecloths, curtains for the patio door, a cushion for the living room, four out of eight cushions for the patio furniture and I should be able to finish two baby blankets today. I was trying to remember when I put the quilt and sewing machine up and I think it was in August so that’s not too shabby.

The other aspect that keeps all of this from becoming utter chaos, is my list. I have an excel spreadsheet that lists all my projects and they are coded in colors according to importance or urgency. This list is part of a larger list with all my daily, weekly, monthly and even annual chores. There is a box each day that I check off when I complete some portion of those projects or chores. I love checking off lists…it is part of my melancholy makeup and I know that some of you who read this have expressed the same addiction to it. Lists relieve my stress…when I feel overwhelmed with all there is to do, I can put it on a list and suddenly I feel like I have a handle on it. There are times when I put my list of tasks on paper and realize…I don’t have that much to do…it just felt like it until I took a better look at it. Lists separate what I can do now, from what I can’t do until something else takes place, therefore easing stress and organizing my day.

Well, this blog sounds more like a chapter in a self-help book but that’s okay…it’s what I felt like typing today.