By the Yard®

When I was an undergraduate, my roommate caught me making a list of homework assignments. He looked at me with mild disgust and sternly warned me, “Don’t be a list-maker”. I believe his intention was to encourage me to “live in the moment” and not be constrained by lists, more specifically, some pre-conceived idea of what I should be doing for the day. At the time, I didn’t understand his point at all because we were both going to MIT, a notoriously difficult school. I could not figure out how he expected me to get anything done without making a list. After all, there was so much to do!
Years later, when I was in graduate school at the very same Institute, we had an in-class project to take the Myers Briggs personality test. I resisted this like the plague but eventually had to acquiesce. In the end, I found out I had the type of personality that would go so far as to make a list of things I’d already done specifically so I could check things off the list. All these years I thought that was just me. It turns out, there’s a whole bunch of people like that and they have their very own “type”! I was greatly relieved by this discovery and went on to make many more lists with complete impunity.
Today, I make lists for my quilting projects. They help me to know what supplies I need to acquire, remember where I am on project, decide which project is more important, and more. Is it a gift? If so, it needs to get done sooner. Is it for a quilting pattern I have to get published? Well then, better put that at the top of the list!

I can lose anything, including the glasses right on top of my head. One of the problems with quilting is that it involves the simultaneous use of many things, and that means losing things all the time. Searching for stuff is a huge waste of time – time you could be spending quilting! It’s very frustrating and it’s enough to make you want to take up a simpler hobby, like reading. Do not despair, my creative friends, there are ways to stop losing things (as much). Consider these:

• A place for everything and everything in its place – I’m sure you heard your Grandma say this many times, but it really is true. Try to have a place for the important things that you use for every project (scissors, rotary cutters, rulers, etc.) and make an effort to return those things to their spot every single time.
• Take time to clean up – It’s hard to find time in our busy lives for fun things like quilting, so it would follow that it’s even harder to find even more time to clean up. But, if you can take just 2 or 3 minutes and the end of each day to straighten up your crafting space, it will be much less of a disaster and “finding things” won’t become an archeological dig.
• Containers, containers, containers – I can’t say enough good things about containers. Put all the “stuff” for a particular project in one container. It will be easy to clean up and easy to take out when you have time to start working on it again. A perfect example of the value of containers occurred over the summer when I suddenly had to move. I put all the things I was going to need (pattern, fabrics, trim, buttons, thread and other notions) for a special Christmas stocking project I had been planning into a big Ziploc baggie. Incredibly, I was able to make that stocking for my BFF even when my house was still a mess from the recent move.
• Have spares – lots of them – For the cheap stuff, sometimes it pays to just have lots of them. This is how I solved my problem with my glasses. I keep lots of cheap “readers” everywhere. I also have about 40 pairs of tiny thread scissors. However, I have only one pair of “good scissors”, the ones for cutting fabric. Which brings me to my final point…
• Never let anyone borrow anything – Especially your good scissors.

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Everyone is very busy these days. “Working from home” is basically like working around the clock. A recent poll conducted showed 64% of folks “working from home” are spending an additional 8 hours working on the weekends! How are we supposed to find time for quilting? Here are some tips on finding time for some much needed relaxation through our favorite hobby:

• Keep your sewing station set up – I had a small place and I used to sew on my kitchen island. This meant setting up and cleaning up multiple times per day for meals. It was such a hassle that I was discouraged from even getting out my sewing stuff in the first place. I later moved to a tiny sewing table in the corner of the living room, where it could stay set up all the time. Now I can sit down to sew for just a few minutes here or there. Even a few minutes a day makes a world of difference to me.
• Get up earlier – My other half grew up on a farm and always jokes about “getting up earlier”. I am not a morning person, but I gave this a shot and it really works! Instead of working all day and waiting to have your “me time” after you are exhausted, try getting up an hour earlier so you can get in some sewing while you’re fresh and optimistic about the day. I’ve also found that starting out the day doing something fun makes the rest of the work day seem less tedious.
• Double dinners – Everyone needs to eat, but why waste time cooking every single day? Cook a double batch one night and enjoy no cooking and less dishes the next day. Fill your freed up time with more quilting. Get your other half to do the same thing and now you are only cooking once every four days!

I hope you can be creative and find some time for quilting today!