Stitching Stuff: Week 14 of 2023

Hope your Easter has been full of family fun and blessings.  This is our first Easter with out Grad Girl, so this year has hit a little different. We've been lucky that we've mostly been able to get together for holidays, but this is just too short a holiday for a quick trip to or from Texas.  

It's the beginning of a new week so it's time to review how much stitching happened last week. 

 My stitchy week went pretty well.  

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/Apr = 7/8 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 77/98 days
• Success rate = 78.57%

My success rate is up another 0.5% this week.  There was one day this week I ran out of day and energy before I made it to the sewing room.  That's just going to happen some times.  

Were you able to work in stitching time along with the egg dying and baking/cooking for the holiday?  

1. Ivani 2. Julie in GA 3. Karen 4. Marti 5. Frederique

6. Shasta @ High Road 7. DonnaleeQ 8. Janice - Jannimary 9. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 10. Jennifer in Indy

11. Amanda 12. Quilting Gail 13. Andre

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Stitching Stuff: Week 42 of 2022

 

It's been a rough week for me. The company I work for has been undergoing major restructuring over the last year. As part of that process my position was eliminated this week. It wasn't a complete surprise, I've been around long enough to read the tea leaves.  Even so, it hurts a bit and it will take me some time to adjust. My Guy has been really supportive. He's encouraging me to take some time and decide what I really want to do. I can retire, but not sure I'm ready for that. I'm lucky, there are many options for me to choose from. I'm going to follow My Guy's suggestion and take some time to figure out what's next.    

It was really stressful early in the week and the sewing room just didn't appeal.  So this week's metrics aren't so hot. 

• 15 minute days/week = 4/7 days
• 15 minute days/Oct = 18/29 days
• 15 minute days/2022 = 158/302 days
• Success rate = 52.32%

Getting into the sewing room every day still hasn't become the habit it was.  I'm OK with that.  My stitching time has been slowly increasing since August. My success rate was only 32% in August (but that was up from 0% in July). I should finish October with a success rate of over 60% for the month. So I'm slowly getting back on track.

In spite of the dry conditions and the sudden freeze, we did finally get some beautiful fall foliage in parts of town.

One bright spot in the current situation, I've had more time to get out with my camera and walk.  

So how did your stitchy week work out?  

  

1. Gretchen 2. Karen 3. Ivani 4. Julie in GA 5. maggie f

6. DonnaleeQ 7. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 8. Quilting Gail 9. amanda 10. Stitching Loving Nana :)

11. Frederique 12. Andre at Quilting and Learning 13. DawnyK 14. Andre at Quilting and Learning

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Stitching Stuff: Week 43 of 2020

It wasn't a great week on the stitching front.  End of year projects have picked up and it's been a struggle to get home on time. Thankfully no real late nights, just enough to really sap my stitching mojo. Hopefully as the weather has started to turn colder, your stitching mojo has been going up. 

Most evenings I only had the energy for 15 minutes. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/Oct = 23/24 days
• 15 minute days/2020 = 267/298
• Success rate = 89.60%

I took a day off last week to go visit my mother.  I hadn't been home since July, so it was definitely time. The Scientist in Training showed up Friday evening after her last midterm. We had a nice couple of girls days, just hanging out and doing just a bit of shopping. I didn't get in any stitching time that first day, but that's OK.  I'm still doing well on my 2020 goal to stitch at least 85% of the days this year.  

So how did your stitchy week go. Were you able to find at least 15 minutes to move a project along or start something new? 

1. Julie in GA 2. Chrisknits 3. Meloney 4. karen

5. Sherrie 6. Michelle 7. Loulee (Manxgirl) 8. Amanda

9. DawnyK 10. Shasta @ High Road 11. Quilting Gail

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Week 5 of 2019: Stitching and De-Stashing

Thank goodness for weekends.  I needed this one.  Work has been super stressful, which is probably contributing to the sciatic nerve issues that have slowed me down this week.  It's been hard to climb the stairs after work, so my stitching time has been more focused on playing with quilt designs.  I can stand at our bar height table and play on the computer. Necessary as sitting has been painful too. How have you been doing with finding 15 minutes to stitch each day this week?

I did manage the sewing room a couple of nights, with that and the design time here's how the week worked out.

15 minutes stitching days/week = 7/7 days

15 minutes stitching days/Jan = 29/31 days

15 minutes stitching days/Feb = 2/2 days

15 minutes stitching days/2019 = 31/33 days

Success Rate = 93.94%

You can link up at the bottom of the post to share how your stitching week went. 

A lot of the time in the sewing room was spent prepping The Christmas Mystery quilt for quilting, so what time there was in the sewing room wasn't at the machine.  I did get in a bit of actual machine time yesterday. 

Fabric out this week = 0.11 yards

Fabric out in 2019 = 7.68 yards

More in then out for 2019

The plan this week is to get the borders on the Christmas Angels quilt, so usage should go up for next week.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report. 

Some of my design time this week was focused on the lay out for all the Wild and Goosey blocks.  There are a lot of little pieces in these blocks so it takes a while to color them all.  Here's version one. 

Hmm, not sure I'm a fan.  I'll play a little more to see what else I can come up with.  

How did your stitching week go? 

1. Chrisknits 2. Meloney 3. Julie in GA 4. maggie f

5. Marti 6. Amanda 7. Shasta 8. Jennifer in Indy

9. Deana 10. Angie 11. Christina's Handicrafts 12. DesertSky Quilting

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Stash Report - Week 39 of 2014

Wednesday will start the last quarter of 2014.  That means I will soon have to wrap up my accomplishments for the year at work.  Since my thoughts are already headed in that direction, I've been doing some thinking about my quilting accomplishments for the year and what I might want to change.  Starting with the stash report as that's what's on my mind this morning.  

I've been tracking my stash additions and subtractions for 4 years.  

It's a pretty simple graphic, what was bought, what was used, and the difference.  My job requires me to analyze a lot of data and make draw conclusions from it.  This one is pretty easy. 

I don't think that's going to change any time soon.  Obviously 2015 needs to look more like 2011 than 2014.  On the other hand, a lot of my purchases this year have been of tone on tone blacks and whites to use as backgrounds.  I've also filled in some of the colors I don't have much of.  Finally, most of my purchases this year have been made when fabric has been on sale.  Retirement is looming and it's hard to think that I'll regret having made these purchases when I'm living on retirement savings.  

Still, a bit of moderation next year is definitely called for. I could also do a better job of using up fabric.  That's really what I want to focus on in the future.  That probably means the 15 Minute Challenge is coming back next year, but probably not in the same format.  The challenge helped me get into the sewing room on a more regular basis and I definitely need some motivation in that area for 2015.  

So here's my plan for the rest of 2014.  Focus on fabric out, so that's all I'm going to report on my weekly stash reports.  The large incoming has become a big distraction for me, so though I'll continue to track it, I'm not going to focus on it.  Second, I'm going to work to find 15 minutes most days to get in some stitching time.  From experience that will help with using more fabric.  So starting on October 1st, I'm going to work on that goal. I'll report back on the 16th of October as to how it's going. 

Is anyone interested trying this experiment with me?  It would be a great way to get and stay focused on any holiday stitching you need to do now rather than having to find time closer to Christmas to finish all those gifts.  Let me know if you want to give it a try by leaving a comment.  If there is enough interest, I'll host a linky party so we can encourage each other. 

Oh yeah, the stash report.  

Used the last 3 weeks:  1.23 yards
Used in September:  1.23 yards
Used year to date:  20.49 yards

Let's see if I can make it to 40 yards out by the end of the year. For more stash stories, check out Patchwork Times.  

The Last 15 Minute Challenge Post

The 15 Minute Challenge post is a bit late today.  In part, because I've been reluctant to write this last post.  The challenge has been part of my weekly posts since March of 2011.  It started as a way to get me upstairs into the sewing room most days.  I found the biggest motivator to making that happen was the prospect of having to blog about my failure if I didn't make it up there.    

Over the three years of the challenge, I've met some incredible quilters.  I've learned so much from these wonderful people.  We all struggle to find time to unleash our creativity while dealing with weekend sports and funky work schedules.  Thanks to everyone who linked up weekly and to those who made is every once in a while.

I wish I could say that the last two weeks of my 15 minute challenge report was fantastic, it's actually pretty pathetic.  

Early December was busy with end of year wrap up at work, late December has seen me laid up with a pretty severe cold.  Both contributed to make this the least productive month I've had since I started the challenge.  I sure hope this isn't a premonition of how it's going to go once I stop the challenge!  Only 5 sewing days in the last 2 weeks.  Definitely not ending on a high note here.  

Even though I'm late this week, I hope you'll take the time to link up just one last time and share how well you managed holiday commitments and sewing time over the last 2 weeks.  

Happy New Year!  

Delayed 15 Minute Challenge Post

Christmas is over for another year.  I hope everyone had a very merry one.  We certainly did.

Due to a lack of Internet access, the 15 Minute Challenge post did not go out this week.  Since my blogging technology is currently limited to the Nook, it is not possible for me to post a linky party, so next week's post will catch us up on the last 2 weeks of 2013.  Sadly it will also be the last 15 Minute Challenge post.  I hope you'll come join me for that New Year Eve's post.

See you next week.

15 Minute Challenge - Quilter's Guilt

It's another swim practice morning, so I have to be out the door in a little over 30 minutes.  Last week was busy with lots of holiday stuff, Christmas shopping and holiday parties.  I spent a lot of the week working on a photo calendar that will be the "family" gift for My Guy's siblings.  So there wasn't a lot of stitching going on last week.

Tuesday:  Nada
Wednesday:  Nada
Thursday:  Nada
Friday:  Nada
Saturday:  Nada
Sunday:  Celtic Solstice
Monday:  Nada

Just one day of stitching out of the last 7.  The track record for last year was about the same, so I'm beginning to think it's just the time of year.  Hopefully after Christmas, I'll get in a one or two personal retreat days and catch up for the lack of stitching the last two weeks. 

I did a little web surfing on "quilter's guilt", the fostering creativity theme for December.  Besides a blog and a few guilds of that name, I did find a few posts that deal with the subject.  I recognize my self in a few of them.  So what do quilter's feel guilty about, here's a list (in no particular order)

UFO's
buying fabric/spending money on quilting
quilting rather than spending time with family
quilting rather than doing housework
the money spent on supplies (fabric)
not quilting enough

Are there other's on your list?  Which one of the above is your the source of most of your quilter's guilt?  At one time or another all of the above have been sources of my quilter's quilt.  

Link up below and share how your creative week went.  

1. Julie in GA

2. Kate @ katiemaequilts

3. Melanie J.

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Very Late 15 Minute Challenge Post

It's after 7 PM central time and I'm just now getting to the 15 Minute Challenge post.  Since the hard drive died on the lap top, I'm having to wing a few things.  I do have some key files backed up so I'm not completely dead, but I have lost access to specialty programs, like EQ and My Memories Suite, that are not on My Guy's desk top.  I haven't lost any of my pictures, but they are all on memory cards, not on a computer at the moment.  So I can restore all of those, but it may take a while.  

The real reason I didn't get to post this morning is due to a deadline at work.  I was up late last night getting it done and just didn't have time this morning to write a post.  So I'm just going to have to plead for mercy and hope that late truly is better than never.  

Last week was the worst week I've had all year for finding time (and energy) to stitch.  

Tuesday          Nada
Wednesday     Nada
Thursday         Nada
Friday              Nada
Saturday          Celtic Solstice
Sunday            Back to Square One
Monday           Nada 

Just two days worth of sewing room time.  In part, the absences are due to holiday activities.  Deadlines at work have also impacted my ability to sew when I get home.  Some nights I've had to work.  

I could beat myself up for the last week, but I've decided that sometimes that's just the way life works.  This month's fostering creativity theme is about not feeling guilty when things don't work out as we had hoped with our crafty endeavors.  Dictionary.com gives the definition of guilty as "a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offense, crime, wrong, etc., whether real or imagined."   So what offense do we commit that we feel we have to be remorseful for when we don't quilt or a project doesn't turn out right?  Is it that we paid $$ for the fabric and we aren't using it or we did use it, but it didn't work right, so we wished we hadn't?  

It was easy to forgive myself this week as I had real deadlines on other things that had to get done or I would risk not staying employed.  It's easy to forgive under those circumstances.  But what about those weeks (or for some us, months) where we don't venture into the sewing room.  Those times we'd rather read a book, play on the computer, etc.  Is it so bad that we aren't creating, that projects aren't getting done?  I don't have any answers to these questions. I suspect that what answers there are would be different for each one of us.  

Hopefully your creative life was more successful than mine last week.  Please link up and share how your crafty side is doing.  

1. Julie in GA

2. Melanie J.

3. Kate

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15 Minute Challenge - Guilty

It's another swim practice Tuesday, so I have less than 15 minutes to get this post together.  Have I considered writing a post the night before?  Yes, I have but Monday evening stuff seems to take over and before I know it, it's time for bed.  

On the sewing front, I had an excellent week.  Which should be expected as I was on vacation all week.  

Not a lot of sewing, but I did get a lot of hand work done.  I washed the fabric for Celtic Solstice last night so I can start cutting.  But that won't happen tonight because Drama Teen has a swim meet.

It's a new month, which means a new fostering creativity discussion topic.  It's a topic that most of us are familiar with, feeling or not feeling guilty as the case may be when we do or don't find time for our creativity fix.  Not sure where this topic is going to take us, but we'll look at it all month.  It's a good topic to lead into the new year as most of us will start thinking about next year's goals before too much longer.  

Well that's all I have time for this morning.  Link up below and share how your holiday week went. 

1. Julie in GA 2. Kate @ katiemaequilts

3. Melanie J. 4. Amanda

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15 Minute Challenge - A Month of Moods

Monday didn't go exactly as planned.  I ended up at work for a couple of hours, so ended up getting a rather late start to my sewing day. Then when Drama Teen got home from school she asked for a girls "early dinner" out, I agreed.  We've not been able to have our weekly girls night out with all her practices.  So my sewing session ended at about 4, with about an hour more of stitching later than evening. 

I managed to make a start on the Starburst quilt, got a label sewn onto another quilt, the binding cut and partially assembled for Mon Ami.  So it really was a productive day even though turned out not to really be an all day sew in.  

Overall it was a productive week.  

I managed to stitch six out of seven days, one of my better weeks recently.  

It's the last Tuesday in November (scary thought as that means December is almost here), so it's time to wrap up this month's theme of using mood boards to foster your creativity.  Mood boards are collage of colors/images/text often used by designers to convey a look or concept.  Last week I showed a mood board for the Starburst quilt.  After doing a bit more looking in the stash, I updated the board to include some other potential stash fabrics as well as mock blocks. 

I can see where this might be useful if you don't finish a quilt immediately and it gets put away for a while.  You'd get an idea what you were contemplating at the time if you kept the mood board with the project.  It's definitely a design tool I'm going to explore further.  

One last note this week.  After two years of the 15 Minute Challenge posts, I've decided not to continue the challenge in 2014. The challenge has been very good for me and I've met some very lovely people through all the challenge link ups.  But it's starting to feel stale and I'm ready to move on to something else.  At this point, I don't have any thoughts on a replacement challenge, but something may come to me in the next month.  There will be 5 more challenge posts in December, the last being on New Year's Eve.  I'll have to think of how to end the challenge with a bang, so I hope you'll stick with me for the last month.   

So how did your week go?  Did you find any time to stitch?  Link up below and share you success or challenges with time management.  

1. Julie in GA

2. Melanie J.

3. Kate @ katiemaequilts

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15 Minute Challenge - Capturing a Mood

No rushing out the door this morning.  Since Drama Teen was sick yesterday and was still running a fever at noon time, she won't be going to swim practice this morning.  Her fever has dropped, but she was still feeling queasy when she went to bed.  I'm hoping she feels better this morning and can make it to school.

I thought this week was going to be slower paced.  I was in denial. Somehow My Guy roped me into a business dinner tonight with a vendor we both work with.  Wednesday is work out night since DT has swim practice and then Friday and Saturday we have another swim meet.  Last week was a whirl wind of stuff too and consequently there were only 4 days where any time got spent working on quilt projects.  

At least that's one day more than the week before.  I did find a lot of time to stitch on the weekend, so it really wasn't a bad week in terms of what I managed to get done.  

This weekend I also spent some time contemplating what this month's NewFO would be.  I've been looking at two different projects, one is Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice Mystery and the other is Little Bunny Quilts Starburst Quilt Along. Bonnie's will start up when we have family stuff going on with Thanksgiving, so I won't have a chance to get any of it done before the end of the month.  So it's looking like the Starburst Quilt Along is my best option.  Since we've been talking about mood boards for this month's fostering creativity theme, I tried to put one together to check out a potential color palette for the project.  

These bright tone on tones are left over from a previous project.  I'd use black as the background, with the heart print as the large border.  I don't have enough of any of these to use in each block.  I wonder if I have a yellow in the stash that would work?  Hmm, definitely something to look into to.  

I used My Memory Suite to create this mood board.  But you could use Photoshop Elements, Power Point or Publisher as well.  There are a few online tools as well.  One is Polyvore, which is free as far as I can tell (There is a good tutorial for this one over at HouseTweaking). One site had a tutorial on how to create a mood board in Picasa. SampleBoard is another option, but you have to buy it once your 14 day free trial is up. I'm sure there are other tools as well.

I'm still playing around with the best way to use mood boards in my quilting.  But that's part of the creative process, finding out what works for you and what doesn't.  It's always good to try new approaches, no telling what you'll discover.  

Did you have a go at the mood boards?  How did that work out for you?  Did you find time to be creative this week, stitching or otherwise?  Link up below and share how you found 15 minutes or more to let your mind play.  


    

1. Julie in GA

2. Kate @ katiemaequilts

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15 Minute Challenge -

I'm starting to not like Tuesday.  It's become my morning to get Drama Teen to 6 AM swim practice.  After years of working in a facility with shifts that start that early you'd think I'd be used to getting up and out.  But I've been spoiled, it's been a few years since my schedule required me to be at work by 6.  It's a fast a furious pace to get out the door by 5:45 AM.  I'll be glad when we get to the end of swim season in February!  

I'm still in wrap up mode at work, lots of report writing and performance review discussions.  For some reason that's put me off sewing when I get home at night. I've been more inclined to curl up in the recliner with a good book in the evenings.  This week was even worse than last week in terms of wanting to find stitching time.   

Only three days of stitching this week.  The weekend was my saving grace.  I spent all of Sunday afternoon stitching away.  I did a bit of pinning this evening so I can sit down and stitch up a few blocks the next time I have a chance to get into the sewing room.  Drama Teen has a swim meet tonight and I'm on tap to be a timer.  I doubt we get home in time for me to do much in the sewing room, so it will probably be Wednesday before I have a chance to get to any stitching. 

Though I've not been sewing much, I have been using the time in the recliner to give some thought to this month's fostering creativity theme of making/using mood boards.  It's common in the interior design industry, many who commented had not seen them employed by quilters.  I found a few quilter blogs that explored their use for making quilts.  

Blossom Heart Quilts did a series of mood boards focused on quilting.  Those included fabrics that fit a theme, quilts in specific colors, etc.  She was linking up with Mood Board Monday over at Life as We Know it.  Some of her recent themes have been floral, metallic, taking flight and neon.  After checking out several of their posts, I've got a few ideas on how a mood board might work for me. 

More on mood boards next week.  Now it's time to head out the door to get DT to swim practice.  I've got just enough time to add Mr. Linky so you can share how your stitching went this last week. 

1. Julie in GA

2. Lesley A

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15 Minute Challenge - What's a Mood Board

It's a swim practice morning, which means I have to be lightening fast on the post this morning.  I had really planned on writing this last night, but My Guy had other plans for my time.  So this week, it will be short and sweet.  

It wasn't a stellar week on the stitching front, in part because I really needed to work on some photography projects that are going to be Christmas gifts this year.  So just 4 days in the sewing room this week. 

Back to Square One is moving along and so is the newest project, Jigsaw.  This week will probably be about the same, holiday stuff is going to start being a bigger part of my evening hours. 

It's a new month, that means there is a new fostering creativity theme for November.  I'd never heard of a mood board.  Have you? Wikapedia defines a mood board as a collage of sorts made up of images, text, photos, and samples of objects assembled according to the whims of the maker.  These boards are commonly used by designers to work on concepts and or communicate ideas to others.  Hmm, sounds like an interesting concept.  

More on mood boards next week.  For now link up and how much creative time you've been able to carve out for yourself.

1. Kate @ katiemaequilts

2. Julie in GA

3. Lesley A

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15 Minute Challenge - An Abbreviated Post

Drama Teen has 6 AM swim practice today.  Guess who forgot that she'd have to be out of the house by 5:45 this morning?
Consequently this will be a very brief 15 minute post this morning.
  
I had a really good week, finding at least 15 minutes to stitch (or in some cases play with a fabric layout) for seven out of the last seven days. 

No breaks for me this week, I've felt really energized about being in the sewing room.  There's not a lot of changes up on the design wall, but I can see the evidence of progress with all the little pieces piling up by the sewing machine.  We've been taking about taking breaks this month as part of the discussion on fostering creativity.  Sometime we need short breaks to energize ourselves when we are lucky enough to get a few hours to spend stitching.  Even during shorter stitching sessions stretching is a good idea to keep one from getting stiff and keep the blood moving.  If we've been stitching a complicated project or have just finished a project that had a deadline, sometimes a longer break is needed.  We go do other things for a day, two, a week or sometimes even a month, until our stitching mojo comes back.

So take a break, write a post about how you are doing finding 15 minutes to stitch.  Or are you on a more extended mojo building break?  

1. Julie in GA

2. Lesley A

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15 Minute Challenge - Breaking for an Energy Fix

Thank you to all who've left notes expressing sympathy for Drama Teen.  I'm happy to report she is mostly back to her normal teenage self. Apparently it was the pain medication and not the antibiotic that caused the digestive problems.  I knew she was getting back to normal when I got the text at 5 PM yesterday asking when I was coming home, which was quickly followed by a text asking if would I pick up tacos for her on my way home. 

Since I took off a couple of days to be home with DT after the wisdom teeth came out, I did get a lot done.  Not all of it was in the sewing room, but that's good too.  Even spending most of one day on some paperwork, I still managed to spend 6 days out of the last seven working on quilting related projects.

  
I've been doing a lot of stitching recently, so it was nice to take some time to work on a new project.  Drama Teen and I have just about decided on the fabric layout for her new quilt.  I hope to be able to start cutting out the pieces by the weekend. 

Changing things up in the sewing room occasionally is a good thing.  As much as I'd like to finish up the older projects, it's energizing to be working on a new project, especially one that has an aspect to it I've never tried before.   We've been exploring the idea of taking breaks to enhance your creativity this month.  Even when doing something you really enjoy, you sometimes start to flag a bit. Especially if you discover you have to "unsew" something or you are working on a project that takes a lot of focus and attention.  WebMD had some interesting ideas on how to boost your energy in just 10 minute increments.  Some of their suggestions included:  

• take a walk in the sunshine
• have a coffee break
• stretch (we covered that last week)
• write in a journal
• laugh
• drink some green tea
• splash cold water on your face
• listen to music
• have some chocolate (my personal favorite)
• organize your sewing space

Did you find time to stitch for 15 minutes most days this week or were you on a break from the sewing room?

1. Lesley A 2. Julie in GA

3. Melanie J. 4. Kate @katiemaequilts

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15 Minute Challenge - Stretching Your Breaks

When you are a child, you think your parents decide what gets down when.   When you are the parent, you realize just how much your parents had to make adjustments to deal with your school/activity schedule.  Drama Teen finished up with high school volleyball last Tuesday and on Wednesday started attending practice for the high school swim team.  Volleyball was relatively easy, she rode the bus from the mid-high to the high school for practice, then I picked her up there once I got off work.  Swim practice is going to take some adjustment as she has practice at 6 AM on two days of the week, then 7 PM practice on two other days.  My Guy took her to 6 AM practice this morning.  We've been scrabbling since 5 AM to get lunches made, breakfast eaten and trash out so they could get out the door.  It's going to be a long 4 months.  

I'm not going to think about that madness any more.  Moving on to the more fun stuff, this month's fostering creativity theme is taking breaks.  Last week I talked about taking breaks from the sewing room and doing something else for a bit to bring back your sewing mojo.  Taking breaks while you in the midst of a sewing frenzy is important too.  Most of us don't get often get the chance to sew for hours on end, but when we do, mini breaks are a great way to keep your energy levels high.  Stretching can help get your blood moving and keep you from getting stiff if you are planning to sit at the machine for several hours.  There are all kinds of sites that have stretches for quilters.  Here a few of my favorites.  

American Quilters Society
QNNTV.COM 
Sandi Quilts
Parkway Physiothearpy

Hopefully you'll find a few stretches from the above that help you get the blood moving and re-energize you during your longer sewing sessions.  

If you've not been able to wrangle an hours long session, have you been able to find just 15 minutes a day to sew?  I did pretty well on that front last week. 

Tuesday was DT's last volleyball game of the regular season, so I didn't get home in time to sew.  I ended up asleep in the recliner on Friday and just didn't make it upstairs to the sewing room.  Still, 5 out of 7 days isn't bad.  

If you'd like to share how your sewing week went, write a post and link up below.  

1. Julie in GA

2. Kate @katiemaequilts

3. Newsurfiegirl

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15 Minute Challenge - Cleaning the Palette

Autumn is my favorite season.  The cooler temperatures invite one to spend more time outside.  Plus at our latitude, the late afternoon light becomes incredible.  It's a prime time to get out with a camera.  The only fly in the ointment, is that fall plays havoc with my sinuses.  I appreciate all the well wishes over the last couple of days.  I'm still dealing with a low grade headache, hopefully this one will be like the one yesterday and it will fade once I get busy with work stuff.  

Autumn must energize me, it's been easy to find at least 15 minutes to sew most days.  

Six out of seven days isn't bad.  Scheduling conflicts kept me out of the sewing room last Tuesday.  These were last minute conflicts due to a lack of planning by the other two people who live with me. Like other things in life, that happens occasionally. 

This month we are talking about how taking breaks can foster your creativity.  Earlier this year I was madly trying to finish up 5 quilts as gifts for some amazing teachers that Drama Teen had in middle school.  There was definite motivation there to get them done before the school year ended.  I had a lot of 7 days in a row in the sewing room.   Looking back I had 3 months where I managed to spend 7 days in the sewing room 3 weeks out of the month. After school ended, I dropped from 7 days to 3 days during that next week.  It was time for a break.  As much as I love quilting, sewing to a deadline is not fun.   

I switched from sewing every night to taking it easy in the recliner with reading some books I just hadn't had time to read.  It was a relaxing week.  Kevin the Quilter was just talking about the need to have a "palette cleanser" while working on intricate quilts with a deadline.  The need to start something new and fun in midst of all those projects with deadlines was just overpowering.  But what a great way to re-energize yourself!  Doing something completely different like reading, knitting, and gardening; or starting something fun and different while you are working on deadlines or tough projects are both ways to take a break.  Other suggestions I found for taking a break to refresh your creativity include cleaning your sewing room, buying new inspiring fabric, or reviewing all your quilting books.  

How do you take a break when you get overwhelmed or just tired of sewing?  Have you been taking a break recently or does your sewing machine have you in its thrall.  Link up below and share how your quilty/crafty life is going.  

1. Julie in GA

2. Kate

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15 Minute Challenge - Do you need a break?

October usually brings cooler weather our way.  In a couple of weeks the leaves will start to change.  The fall foliage should be glorious this year since we've had ample rain all summer long.  Besides all that Drama Teen and I have reason to celebrate the first of October.  Today is My Guy's birthday.

Since DT has an away game tonight, we celebrated last night. Happy birthday My Guy!  

The new month also brings a new fostering your creativity theme.  This month's topic is "take breaks".  First there's the, "I need to stretch and walk around" break that you need when things are moving along and you are so close to a finish.  Then there is the "It's not working and I'm frustrated" break when you really should walk away from the sewing machine for a while.  We'll talk about both kinds of breaks and how to make the most of them in subsequent posts. 

The break I took last week when I only managed 3 days in the sewing room, really paid off this week.

Seven out of seven.  A really good week on the stitching front.  I even spent a couple of sessions working on a new project, which was a lot of fun.  

So how did you do this week?  Did you stitch or take a break?  

15 Minute Challenge - Benefits of Leaving the Rut

It's the last Tuesday in September.  Next Tuesday will be the first of October.  That's a scary thought.  As is the fact that last weekend I ordered the first Christmas present for 2013.  I wasn't consciously thinking about Christmas shopping, but there was a sale at PBTeen and I saw something that Drama Teen would enjoy, so it went into the shopping basket. I'm not thinking about it anymore or else I'll scare myself.  

Since it is the last Tuesday in the month, it's time to wrap up the fostering creativity theme of "learn something new every day".  That's definitely a challenge, especially for those of us who are already over scheduled.  There are on line classes that make that type of learning more schedule friendly.  But learning something new isn't limited to just taking classes.  Reading, UTube, Google are all ways to quickly find tips about how to do just about anything.  

In wrapping up this month's creativity theme I Googled "benefits of learning something new".  Those lists included everything from developing a sense of pride and accomplishment to the fact that learning something new improves memory and brain function.  My favorite benefit that showed up on one list was that the funniest stories are often the result of trying something new and failing.  I enjoy a good laugh, which is one of things to remember when trying something new, don't forget to bring along your sense of humor.  

The few days I've sewn this week, I have been learning something new.  I bought a specialty ruler a couple of years ago and finally found a use for it this week.  I'll have a post on that later this week. It's a good thing I've been working on something new because I sure didn't spend much time in the sewing room the last seven days.

There were only three days where I found both the time and energy to get myself into the sewing room.  There was just a lot going on at work last week in terms of deadlines.  Hopefully this week will be much better. 

How did your stitching go last week?  

1. Thea 2. Julie in GA

3. Kate 4. Pat

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