Fifteen Minute Challenge with Kate

A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I needed Kate's 15 minute challenge to keep me motivated to work in my quilting room.  She explains it here: http://kate-life-in-pieces.blogspot.com/2012/02/15-minute-challenge-february-28th.html.  Well, I didn't realize that I would actually have to keep track of the time I spent!  LOL Of course, that's what it's all about--the idea is that when I look at what I've done, I'll be  motivated to keep at it.

Since I decided to do this, I''ve spent some time in the sewing room every day except on the weekends--and in the evenings after work.  That leaves only 3 days in the week when I've quilted.  Not a very good start.  The good thing is that when I go to the sewing room, I'm there for HOURS, not minutes!  On the days when I've quilted, it's been for 4 or more hours at a time, so I'm making very good progress on Lily's quilt.

Here's my progress report:  Mon--several hours; Tues--several hours; Wed and Thurs (work days)--nothing; Fri-several hours; Saturday and Sunday (weekend visitors) -not a stitch.

That's what I'm working on now, a Disappearing 4 Patch twin-sized quilt for my 8 year old granddaughter.



I started this last fall and the poor child has gone all winter with her old blankets while I've farted fooled around with it.  Now I'm doing the actual quilting and have nearly finished the center part--with luck I'll get that done today and be ready to move on to the borders.  I'm doing a "fancy" design in each block and am using Golden Threads paper. That means I have to stop and tear off the paper after I've stitched each block--so time consuming!  But the borders and the sashings will be done FMQ so it should go a bit faster.

That's my week's report on Kate's Fifteen Minute Challen ge.

Fifteen Minute Challenge

I just discovered Kate's blog here http://kate-life-in-pieces.blogspot.com/ and thought I'd join her 15 minute challenge. Maybe this will get me in gear to spend more time at the sewing machine and less in front of the TV!  Anyway, she's having a giveway to celebrate one year of the 15 minute challenge and I want to win it!  I love charm packs but don't have great ideas on how to use them so this book would be a great addition to my quilting library.  Like I really need another book! (Groan) 


A couple of weeks ago, we rearranged the basement storage area so hubby could work on remodeling part of the basement into a "nice" exercise room. I had to bring bins of my quilting and knitting stuff up to my sewing room--at least temporarily.  I can hardly move in that room now and I have to use up more stuff so I have space.  If I spend a little time each day working on projects, I may get enough cleared out to have room in there again. 


I use the small spare bedroom to sew in and there's a queen sized bed in there as well as all my sewing stuff.  Take a look at the chaos!

                                           My fabric stash

                                            My sewing table with quilting in progress

                                              More bins of stuff next to the bed


After I re-read this post and looked at the pix, I think I'll need more than 15 minutes a day to work my way out of this mess!  :)

Favorite Thing Friday

I haven't posted about a FTF for a long time but today I found something  that really excites me. If you want to know more about FTF, go to Shay's blog here:   http://fairybreadmusings.blogspot.com/2012/02/favourite-things-friday_10.html.  

I read my daughter's post this morning about the "Good Book." This  Good Book is one that a person makes for themselves.  It's a record of the good things that each of us have in our lives.  As members of the human species,( at least most of us are :), we tend to focus on the negative things in our lives--the mistake in our quilting, the comment from a co-worker, the cake that flopped, the garden full of weeds, and on and on.  I'm sure we all can come up with a lengthy list of these kinds of things.

In creating a Good Book, we focus on the positive things in our daily lives--the cookie fortune that is perfect, the flower that was exceptional, the smile from your partner in the morning, the dinner that was sooooo good, the scale telling you you're 5 pounds less than before, your child/grandchild telling you how much he loves you, etc.  In creating a Good Book, you put these kinds of things --pix, cards, notes, and thoughts--in a journal that you keep at your bedside or purse or somewhere you'll see it daily.  Everyday, you think of the positive things that occurred and make a note of that in the Good Book.  

On those days when you feel like life is nothing but crap, the whole world is crazy, nothing you do ever turns out right, and "No one loves me!", you can go through your Good Book and realize that there are many, many good things in your life.

I will begin my Good Book today and make more effort to focus on the positive.