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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15 Minute Challenge - It's not the How, It's the When

I overslept this morning.  My Guy didn't realize I hadn't gotten up, and didn't think to check on me until he'd finished his coffee.   So now I'm a bit behind this morning.  It seems on days like this that once I'm behind, I just stay that way all day.  Thankfully there is not much on the work calendar, so hopefully I won't feel like I'm running late all day.

Feeling time pressured isn't conductive to learning new things, which is this month's fostering creativity theme.  It's an hours drive to the nearest quilt shop, so taking classes hasn't been much of an option since we moved back to Oklahoma.  Thankfully there are a number of on line options for taking a class on a new technique.  Craftsy is one of the more popular ones and right now they have a number of classes that are 75% off.  I've signed up for 3 of their classes, but haven't found the time to watch them.  The first on-line quilting classes I found were at Quilt University.  I've never taken a class from them, but have seen pretty positive reviews from others who have.  Of course these days all you have to do is go to Google and type in what you want to learn then hit return to see everything from pdf files to YouTube videos that will show you how make most anything.  

Still with all the options open, I'm more likely to tackle things that I've done before rather than learn something new.  With the schedule we have around here, when I get the chance to sew, I want to relax and de-stress.  Learning something new can be frustrating, for me that's counter productive.  Or maybe I'm just learning so much new stuff at work that I don't have any room in my brain to add any when I get home?  

It's time to get serious about getting out the door and on my way to work.  So I guess it's time to get to talk about how last week went in terms of finding time to sew. I didn't do too bad, 6 out out of 7 days. 

Tuesday was a training day in Houston and the evening was taken up with flying home.  But other than that, I did pretty well at getting in at least an hour most days.  

Did you find some time to stitch this week?  

1. Pat 2. Kate

3. Thea 4. Lesley A

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15 Minute Challenge - From Houston, TX

I'm still in Houston this morning, getting ready to head out to a training class related to my job.  This class covers some software I need to use for an upcoming project.  Learning new software is not my first love, but it's going to help me do some cool stuff this next year.  So I'm excited about that, which makes spending 8 hours straight on the computer bearable. 

This month's fostering creativity is "learn something new every day".  Since I'm taking a training class this week, it got me to thinking that learning something new every day isn't really very realistic.  In this software class we are working through real world examples, starting first with ones that use just one module and working up to ones that use all the modules.  The examples have nothing to do with my project.  So that means that when I get home, I'll have to figure out how to make those modules work with those specific situations.  Well, maybe that is learning "something" new every day.  I guess it depends on how you define "something". 

Learning how to machine quilt is on my "to do" list and I think of that as something you "learn" then practice to get good at it.  I've read posts from quilters learning that skill.  Most mention "I learned, how to adjust my tension, how to hold my hands, do this to get better....." Sounds like my definition of "learning" needs to be adjusted too. 

Well, while I've been learning new software, not much stitching happened the last couple of days.  I did manage 4 days last week, but a couple of those were really not much more than 15 minute sessions because that was all the time I had.  Still every little bit adds up to progress. 

So how did you do last week in finding time to stitch, knit, craft or learn something new? 

1. Julie in GA 2. Pat

3. Kate 4. Lesley A

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15 Minute Challenge - Learn Something

Sadly the holiday weekend has come to an end.  I was fortunate enough to get to spend most of Monday in my sewing room after doing some serious deep cleaning around the house during the weekend.  I'd been neglecting the house a bit, but now the more "public" rooms are at least presentable should someone drop by.  

Last week was a pretty good one on the sewing front.  I managed to spend 5 out of the 7 seven days stitching for at least 15 minutes. 

Mon Ami became a finished flimsy last week and with the marathon sewing session yesterday, the back is almost assembled. So hopefully it will be ready to send out for quilting before the end of this week.  I probably shouldn't be too optimistic on that front, we have two home volleyball games, a volleyball tournament, a church youth group dinner and swim team tryouts this week.  I'm not likely to get much more than 15 minutes in the sewing room on any of those nights.  Some weeks are just that way.  

It's already September, which means we are three quarters of the way through this year's effort to foster creativity.  This month's theme is "learn something new every day".  The more you know, the more resources you have to solve problems in your quilting and in the non-quilting part of your life.  If you solve those non-quilting problems quickly, you have more time to stitch.  Works for me.  We'll definitely explore resources for learning something new about quilting with maybe one post focused on non-quilting stuff just so we stayed balanced.  

That's it for this week.  If you had a chance to get some stitching in or even if you didn't, link up and share how your week went.  

1. Pat

2. Julie in GA

3. Kate

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15 Minute Challenge - Beauty Sleep

Is it really Tuesday again?  The weeks seem to go faster now that school is back in session.  Maybe it's just because there is so much going on.  Well, I do know that school being in session has impacted my ability some evenings to find 15 minutes to stitch.  With parents night on Monday and a home volleyball game on Tuesday, not a lot of stitching got done those two nights, but I didn't do too badly the rest of the week.  

Four nights of stitching isn't doing too bad for a busy week. Since we have a holiday weekend coming up, I'm hopeful that lots of stitching will go on this weekend.  

In addition to finding time to stitch, I'm supposed to be fostering my creativity each week.  For August, the focus has been on getting a good night's sleep, so I feel like being creative rather than cranky.  It's definitely an area that I need to do a better job in for both myself and for Drama Teen.  It's amazing how your kids pick up your bad habits if you aren't careful.  So though I've not done enough to improve my sleep habits, at least I've been more aware of them.  Last week's post included a list of 10 sleep hygiene tips.  If you scan the "sleep" sites on the web, most of those are included as good sleep habits to form.  

One tip that is not on that list is regulating your melatonin levels.  Melatonin is the hormone that helps regulate your sleep/wake cycle.  It's production is very sensitive to light, exposure to light reduces the amount in your brain, staving off sleepiness.  The problem is that many modern evening entertainments can retard the production of melatonin, such as TV, computer screens and e-readers.  So if you spend your evenings with any of those devices, melatonin production is reduced and you don't feel as sleepy as you should.  Most authorities recommend turning off all such stimulation about 30 minutes prior to bedtime to allow your melatonin levels to rise.  

So how did you do on stitching this last week?  Did you do a lot or were you too tired?  Link up and share your creative activities for the last week.  

1. Julie in GA 2. Pat

3. Thea 4. Kate @katiemaequilts

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15 Minute Challenge - Broken Beauty Sleep

For some unknown reason I've been waking up at 3:30 AM and can't go back to sleep.  That's been happening a few mornings for the last few months.  This was one of those mornings.  After 30 minutes of tossing and turning, I just got up.  It's handy that this month's fostering creativity topic is "get a good night's sleep" because I felt better about spending some time doing a bit of research to fill in my "extra" coffee time this morning.  According to Harvard Medical School, what I have is sleep maintenance  insomnia. Basically this type of insomnia means you go to sleep just fine, but you can't stay asleep.  Turns out this form of insomnia is more common in women then in men, especially during "mid-life".  It is often associated with depression, stress and hot flashes.  Probably 90% of that age group are dealing with one of the three.  So I'm in good company it seems.  

Unfortunately according to the Harvard article, there's no magical treatment for this type of insomnia.  Certain medications can cause it, but typically it's more complicated than that.  The site offered some "sleep hygiene" tips.

1.  Stay away from coffee, tea, sodas after 1 to 2 PM
2.  Stay away from alcohol. 
3.  Don't smoke
4.  Don't nap more than 15 to 20 minutes if you need one and don't do it in the evening before bed.
5.  Get regular exercise
6.  Set a sleep schedule
7.  Make your bedroom a sleep sanctuary. Keep it cool, dark, and quiet
8.  Eat dinner several hours before bedtime.  If you have a late evening snack keep it light.
9.  Establish a relaxing evening routine.
10.  Limit fluids before bedtime.  Don't drink anything the 2 to 3 hours before bedtime.  

Most of this is common sense, but with busy schedules some of this is hard to do every night.  By the time I picked Drama Teen up from volleyball practice and got home there was just enough time to head over to the school for parents night.  It was after 8 PM by the time I got home to a very late supper and then bed. So no stitching last night.  But it I did pretty well last week anyway. 

I managed to find at least 15 minutes to sew 5 out of the last 7 days. It shows too as I've made a lot of progress on Mon Ami.  Probably not much sewing tonight as Drama Teen has a home volleyball game and I'm working concessions for most of the evening.  But the rest of the week looks clear.  So I have hope.  

So how did your week go?  Did you find some time to stitch?  

1. Pat

2. Julie in GA

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15 Minute Challenge - More Than Beauty Sleep

It rained again this morning.  If the temps weren't so high during the day, you might think it was April rather than August here in Oklahoma.  And to be honest our highs in the upper 80's to low 90's aren't really high for the time of year either, our average temp the first few weeks of August is usually over 100 F.  So it's been cooler than normal by quite a bit.  It's really been a weird August here in Oklahoma.  

Drama Teen goes back to school today.  It's been hard to wrap my head around the fact that she's a freshman in high school now.  I'm looking forward to the more stable schedule we tend to have when she's in school.  This last week of getting her to volleyball practice has played havoc with my work schedule, which means it's also messing with my sewing time.  Though I didn't have a bad week by any means.  

Not a lot of machine sewing going on except for last night.   I did get 3 quilts labeled over the last week and they were gifted yesterday to 3 very deserving teachers.  It was a good week, 6 days of sewing and three quilts were moved out of the fabric closet.  

In addition to finding time to stitch this year, I wanted to do more to foster my creativity.  This month that effort focuses on "get a good night's sleep".  Being tired is probably the number one reason I don't get more stitching time in.  As I noted last week, most of us don't get the 7 to 9 hours of recommended shut eye each night.  Besides not wanting to get a needle through your finger, there are some other good reasons to get the recommended hours of sleep. Here's a few.

1.  Avoids brain blight.  Habitually sleeping 7 hours or more has been linked to decreased dementia risk.
2.   Sleep decreases your sensitivity to pain.  
3.  You'll eat less.  Being short on sleep increases the hormone ghrelin which stimulates your appetite.  
4.  Being short on sleep can make it hard for your body to clear excess glucose from the blood stream.  
5. Sleeping less than 7 hours a night has been linked to a 62% increase in breast cancer risk.

I wonder now if can sleep your way to a skinnier you?  Points 3 and 4 would suggest that. 

That's it for this week.  How are you doing on finding time to stitch? 

1. Pat 2. Julie in GA

3. Kate @katiemaequilts 4. Thea

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15 Minute Challenge - It's Not Just Beauty Sleep

Life is getting back to normal after our 10 day vacation.  Laundry is pretty much caught up, I've caught up on sleep, but still working to get caught up on stuff at work.  Two out of three is not bad.  As much as I enjoyed vacation, I was so ready to get back into the sewing room last weekend.  Mon Ami is ready for borders, so a finished flimsy is a near thing.  I always get energized when a project gets close to being done.  It always takes longer to get the borders on than I expect, but even so, it's nice to get one more project to that stage.  

As much as I itched to get back into the sewing room after vacation, my energy level last week had other ideas.  

The siren song of the recliner caught me in it's web 3 of the last 7 days, so only 4 days of sewing last week.  Not a bad week, lots got done on the weekend.  Maybe it was being at a higher altitude for a week, whatever the reason, I was pretty much exhausted after work each night last week.  One night My Guy had to wake me up twice before I managed to make it from the recliner to the bed.  It's hard to want to sew when one is that tired.  

Not getting enough sleep is a big creativity killer.  It's hard to focus when you are tired, so you make more mistakes.  If I'm feeling really tired, sewing is usually a bad idea. More unsewing goes on than sewing in those instances.  According to the most of the references I found, most people need 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night.  But the National Sleep Foundation says that most women only average about 6 hours and 49 minutes of sleep on work nights, plus have more problems then their guys do in getting to sleep and staying asleep.  

After all that you've probably guessed that August's Fostering Creativity theme is "get a good night's sleep".  The reading I did getting ready for this post was pretty eye opening.  Recent research into chronic sleep deprivation is turning up links to some scary longer term health effects.  Just an hour of research had me deciding that improving my sleeping habits should be one of my goals for the rest of the year.  Look for more on the health effects, causes of poor sleep habits, and tips for better sleep over the next month.  

How was your week?  Did you find the time and the energy to spend some creative time in your sewing room or with your yarn and needles?  Either way link up and share your success and challenges in being creative this last week.