Yep, life gets away from you. But it’s all about taking the small steps, right?
As you can tell, it’s been a long time since I posted—it’s been a long time since I got back in my sewing room. In fact, the day I made the last post is the last time I did anything at all quilt-related.
This (still-relatively-new) position hit me like a ton of bricks. Although I’m not feeling as overwhelmed now—I can actually answer a lot of questions now, with a reasonable confidence that I know what I’m talking about—I’m still having difficulty sorting out the schedule.
In fact, this morning Outlook sent me one of their little analysis things about my working habits in February. 3 days. I had 3 days where I didn’t work “outside of working hours.” Now, to be clear, “working hours” don’t always apply in my world as I’m working with churches and volunteers so a lot happens on weekends and evenings. But regardless of definition, I’ve not been good about making sure I’m taking commensurate time off.
So I’m writing this blog post on a Monday morning, after I realized I have calls all afternoon and into the evening, and could legitimately—and should legitimately—take some time to myself for a few hours before the calls start.
When I decided to take the morning, I thought, “What would feel the most satisfying to do right now?” And the answer came immediately, “Cleaning my sewing room.” It was fun to open up the couple of Sew Sampler boxes I hadn’t gotten to and put away the goodies inside, and it feels really good just to be touching fabric, rulers, and rotary cutters, even if I’m not producing anything with them. As for the rest of the cr*p stacked on the cutting table? It was satisfying to stash it away where it belonged so it wasn’t in my face every time I walked in the room.
I’ve designated Friday as another day off to make up for another busy weekend, and I’m hanging onto it by the skin of my teeth. My plan for at least part of the day? Mess up this cutting table again but for realsies!
That being said, I’ve also cut myself some serious slack in my quilting expectations. My last post was about a quilt I was going to make for my niece’s wedding. That wedding is at the beginning of April. About 6 weeks ago, I admitted to myself there was no freaking way I was going to be able to get that done, even if I vastly simplified the pattern. I also have a new baby niece on the way in early March. Their baby shower was a couple of weeks ago. I’d bought fabric and a pattern for that one too. Finally decided I wasn’t going to worry about getting it done in time for their shower. Will I get it done by the time the baby is born? Who knows?
I’d have loved to give them quilts. But it would have so totally stressed me out, it wouldn’t have served the purpose that quilting is supposed to serve in my life. For the time being, I’m only quilting if it can be relaxed and fun.
New Rules:
Being more attentive to my creative life as emotional and mental recovery
Consequently: Taking time to play with fabric and/or thread (embroidery counts) every week
Only do either of the above if they’re relaxing and fun, not stressful and obligatory.
Now that my sewing room is ready for some fun, I have to decide what I’ll work on. Do I do a new, fun, fast, easy project? Do I work on the BOTMs I have stacked up? Do I finish up a UFO or two, to get them out of my head? I’m trying to decide what sounds enjoyable, not what I feel I should do. What are you working on?