Learning to Juggle

Lately I have been trying to multi-task and I feel like I am becoming quite the juggler.  I do feel like I live at the circus sometimes so I guess this is a good outlook on my life right now.

 I spent the last month making items to sell, custom work, gift quilts and all this at the same time I was decorating, cooking, baking and shopping. 

Just as I thought life was going to settle down I realized I still have custom orders to finish, make items for my Etsy shop, a gift quilt to make and I am still cooking, cleaning and shopping.  Life is never dull around here and thank God I don't have little ones to run after or else I would really be in trouble.

my UFO project

Some of my Quiltsy Team members on Etsy have actually listed the number of UFOs they will work on this year, but honestly, I am overwhelmed by the  task of making a list.  I admire them for their commitment and their ability to organize themselves in this manner but for me that would require more time than I feel I have in one day. 

Mult-tasking, I guess the reality of the word is being able to work on more than one thing at a time and still accomplish a goal of finishing.  I don't know if I will ever be able to be a true multi-tasker in the real meaning of the word as I understand it. Maybe I am wrong but if you don't finish anything are you truly multi-tasking or just disorganized?  Time will tell if I am a true multi-tasker, but at least for today I feel like I am accomplishing a few smaller goals.

Happy New Year!

Okay the new year has started and as I promised myself I am starting to tackle my UFO stack today.  I was very industrious this weekend gathering supplies for my project list and completing a lap top that will be for my Etsy shop.  I selected a nice dark purple to be the backing on my wall hanging and I searched through my stash to find the right color of green flannel and other coordinating fabrics to add to the Rose Garden rag quilt. .

The first step in finishing my wall hanging is to make a quilt sandwich and this is not my idea of fun since I purchased my HQ16 mid arm quilting machine.  This wall hanging will be quilted on my domestic machine and that requires the making of a quilt sandwich.  For the non-quilters, a quilt sandwich is not edible, but it is what we call layering the backing fabric, the batting and the quilt top together and either pin baste it together or baste it using needle and thread. I prefer to pin baste using curved saftey pins with grip covers and a handy little tool called a kwik klip that helps you clip the safety pins closed and it saves wear and tear on the fingers.

This task took not more than 30 minutes from setup to completion of basting and now I am ready to start the next phase which is the actual quilting.  Unfortunately today I do not have the time to play in my sewing room.  I am a wife and mother and not always free to work on my sewing projects when I wish, so the quilting will have to wait till tomorrow, besides I have till the end of the month to finish.  Don't I?

As I whittle down this UFO list I still need to continue creating items for my shop and my monthly trade day shows that will resume in March 2010, so I expect each month to be full of activity in my sewing studio.  Working on the quilting will have to fit in with the housework, the taxi mom service and other family commitments, but it will get done.  I have commited myself to finishing at least 2 UFOs a month so there will be early mornings of getting housework and errands done to make sure that I have the free sewing time that I need.

I join other members of the Etsy Quiltsy Team that are working and encouraging each other along the way as each of us works on our own UFO list.  I hope that we may all be successful in our commitment to rid ourselves of all these projects that have been set aside midstream. 

Good Luck to all of us!