I Tried to Clean Once

I tried to clean my sewing room once – it didn’t really work out. I ended up making a quilt, or a really cute rag doll, or another tote bag. Anything but cleaning.

Failure to clean is not just my problem, it is a weakness of all creative people. We keep getting distracted by all the good things we find! I am reminded of a now famous-in-my-family incident involving my father, an aerospace engineer and lifelong boating enthusiast. My father built our boat. As a matter of fact he built many boats. This terrified me as a child. His biggest endeavor was a 30’ wooden sail boat. Many times while he was building it, I remember nervously asking him “How do you know it won’t sink?” His answer was a perfunctory “because I designed it not to”. As it turned out, it didn’t sink and he went on to build many other boats, much to the chagrin of my mother. Our yard was always covered in boats and the garage never once saw a car in it.

One day, my mother had enough. She insisted it was time to “clean the garage”, a.k.a. the wood shop. She would not wait another day. She was smugly satisfied with her mandate as she heard clanking, banging and the shuffling of wood and tools emanating from the garage all day. It was nearly dinnertime then she surmised, “The garage must be really tidy by now… he’s been busy in there ALL DAY!”

She walked out to the garage to summon my Dad for dinner when she received The Big Reveal. It turned out that not only had he not cleaned the garage that day, but my father instead spent the entire day building another boat. Not the whole thing, but he had it all framed up and was already starting on the sides of an 18’ fishing boat.

My mother exclaimed in horror “Not another boat!!” The garage never did get cleaned. So, the next time you fail to clean your sewing room but produce yet another quilt, take some comfort in knowing that you’re not the only one.

The Perfect Tree

Quilters know how to put up the perfect tree

I’m a huge fan of Christmas trees. I grew up in New England so for many years, I was a devotee of the “real” Christmas tree, you know the kind where you trek into the woods at some upstate tree farm, cut down your own tree, then after copious amounts of swearing, wrangling it onto the car roof, messing up your new mittens and coat with tree pitch and raining a trail of needles all through the house, you are too tired to decorate the darn thing. Surely there must be a better way?

Since those far away years, I’ve tried lots of other kind of trees, including:

  • The Beer-Bottle Christmas Tree – My mother is to this day horrified by this one, but for a mere 10 cents apiece, an abundance of Rolling Rock bottles resulting from a neglect of timely recycling made for a glowing pyramid of green glass for my first Christmas on my own.
  • The Green Styrofoam Ball Tree – The result of a short lived fantasy about “making” all my Christmas trees. This lasted exactly one season.
  • The No-Brainer Artificial Tree – The perfect solution for the “I have 3 kids and a job and I’m a tired Mom” me. I even bragged about getting one for only 20 bucks!
  • The Norway Pine Tree –Technically, it’s a house plant so your ecologically minded 5 year old won’t accuse you of “murdering a real tree”. Sadly, they are impossible to keep alive after the holiday is over.

This brings us to the Quilt Christmas Tree. There are many very cute versions online everywhere, including a cleverly arranged collection of green Log Cabin blocks, a tree made from dozens and dozens of gathered Yo-Yo’s, and even the “advent calendar” version, festooned with an array of buttons so you can attach an ornament once per day. Whichever version you chose, take heart in knowing you won’t have to water it and, after the holidays, you can simply roll it up and tuck it away for next year.
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In My Head, I’m Quilting


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!