Hello friends,
I'm almost 4 weeks in to life without legal work, and I can see that this is going to take some adjusting. All good, I might add. I have worked from home for many years, so I am used to powering up my laptop first thing in the morning, working for much of each weekday, and carrying the constant knowledge that there is always more to do. My daily life has involved balancing work-at-home and home-keeping chores (laundry! Housecleaning! cooking! shopping!) and the sudden absence of work leaves a very pleasant, large gap in each day. More important than the freeing of time is the freeing of mental energy. It feels like a huge weight has been lifted. And I am amazed at the prospect of having a whole day -- or two! or three!-- to work on a project.
So far, the biggest problem is remembering what day it is. Such a lovely, vacation-like problem to have! I will confess that I have been acting like a squirrel in a field of acorns. So many options of fun things to do! So many tasks that I've had on my list for "when I have time. I've been darting between starting some, and then remembering that there is no rush, and I actually can sit and read a magazine or even nap in the middle of the afternoon. And then something else occurs to me that I want to do, or try, or read about.
There are all good things, you understand. And I expect that I will settle down into some sort of normal pace. I think I do need to focus on finishing one thing before I start another ... but to be honest, the love of starting new projects has been an issue (ahem) for all of my life.
So what have I been doing?
Well, I finished that quilt up there, which I am calling "By the Sea." There was a bit of delay while it was in progress because my long arm machine needed servicing, but I finished quickly once it was all fixed.
One of the things on my to-do list is to get reacquainted with the machine embroidery abilities of my main sewing machine. It has a lot of fancy embroidery features and aside from a few small projects, I've never become conversant in using them. So, I've signed up for an online machine embroidery class (in the "everything you need to know" vein) and my first project will be a quilt label for this quilt.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I tried a new binding technique on this, which involved doing everything by machine with the help of some washable Elmer's glue. You can see Camille Roskelly demonstrate the technique here. It worked well and made for a speedy and neat binding. I will use it again.
My friend's recent visit caused me to finally unpack the boxes that had been sitting in the guest room. I used fabric to pad a lot of moving boxes, so of course the unpacking meant ironing and putting away still more fabric. That, in turn, has led me to spent a lot of time down in the "workshop" room that is attached to the house and which I am using as an extra storage space and workroom. And look what I did:
I made a rolling batting holder! This idea came straight from some genius in a longarm quilting group. I found an inexpensive office chair at a thrift store, disconnected the rolling base from the chair, and now have the perfect upright holder for my roll of batting. I'm quite pleased.
Sorting fabric reminded me that I have a lot of batik fabric from my art quilting days when I used them because I loved the painterly effect they create. Folding and sorting those batiks led me to start another project. I've had an Accuquilt die for the "Crossed Canoe" block, and I spent a happy afternoon cutting blue and green batiks.
I really wanted a batik back for this but didn't have any large pieces -- so while out running errands one afternoon I did some further exploring and found the "Quilter's Workshop" in Oak Harbor. I was told by the proprietor was Whidbey Island's only remaining fabric shop. They had a bit of everything, and I found a suitable blue/turquoise batik for a backing. So that was a fun discovery.
Ok, friends, I'm off to have a quick lunch before doing some sewing -- and maybe some reading outside on the deck later on. So many fun possibilities!
