Category Archives: love

Last year around this time we brought you some very handy Rules for Living with a Quilter. Now it’s
about time for a refresher course. Let’s take a look at a few more ways to coexist with these creative
creatures:
1. Couch hazards – Always be careful where you sit.
2. Never sit in your Quilter’s spot – Your Quilter chose their spot because it has the best lighting in
the house, and you can just as easily watch Stargate from the dark side of the couch.
3. Competition for horizontal space – Do you like doing puzzles? Stamp collecting? Perhaps
building model ships? You are going to have to find some other place to do that because your
Quilter will use up all of the horizontal surfaces in the house.
4. No sit-down dinners – Get used to eating on the couch or while standing over the sink because
your Quilter needs the dining room table for layering together their latest quilt, and the kitchen
table probably has a sewing machine and a pile of fat quarters on it as well.
5. Never enough fabric – Your Quilter is just as surprised as you are that they didn’t have just the
right shade of green to finish that quilt. Put your coffee in a To-Go cup and have a little trip with
them to the fabric store!

As a busy Mom and small business owner, I’m always busy. Everyone and everything is always demanding my time, and most of the time I just want to be quilting. Although I can’t be sitting at my sewing machine all the time, I’ve found ways to sneak in some quilting time.

• Graph Paper Notebooks – It’s no secret that I love office supplies and none more than graph paper notebooks. I have them in my car, on the couch, on every desk I own, even in my work bag (back when I used to have a respectable day job). I prefer the 4 square to the inch variety. I can sketch out a quilt idea and play with block design while enduring other must-do tasks like: waiting for an appointment or suffering through a boring teleconference.
• Project in a Bag – Have some hand sewing to do, like a Grandma’s Flower Garden or Yo-Yo quilt?I just pop those little parts into a zip lock baggie and take them wherever I’m going. Grade school recital? Visit to the in-laws? You can sew the whole time and still look like you are sort-of paying attention!
• Pretending to Clean – My family still hasn’t caught on to this one yet. Fortunately (or not?) they spend so little time cleaning themselves that they wouldn’t recognize the act if they saw it. I just tell them I’m “cleaning” my office/studio, when I’m really re-arranging my stash and trying out different fabric and color combinations in preparation for my next quilting project.
  However you manage to find it, I hope you can sneak in some quilting time today!