I know I struggle with focus, have my entire life. Long term focus. Short term, if it is something I really want to do, I have laser focus, to the point of blocking out the entire world. Longer focus really doesn’t exist for me. That’s why quilting is such an odd thing in my life. I’ve been quilting for over 30 years.

Lately I’ve been noticing that I have spurts of creativity, but there’s been more finishing. That’s also kinda different for me. I’ve been doing a lot of quilting (not piecing, actual quilting) lately and it’s interesting. I have fought my equipment for years, not being able to do what is in my head, and I think maybe (don’t want to jinx anything) I am getting over that hump.

I’ve had the new software on my long arm for over a year now, and I’ve quilted more stuff in the last year than I think I’ve done the entire time I’ve had the long arm, which is shocking when I think about it like that. Bessie is still kinda temperamental. She only likes King Tut thread. She’s picky about the kind of patterns she sews off, but I have finally found a Baptist Fan pattern that she likes and will do reliably. I’m getting the hang of a lot of the little pieces of the process and it’s been delightful.

This weekend I quilted 3 different quilts. The weekend before I finished two things. Yes my binding pile is stacking up, that’s a separate discussion, but that’s ok. I know how to do that. So somehow, my focus and my ability have come together and I feel like I can complete things the way I want. That’s making me want to finish piecing more quilts because I know I can quilt them. Huh. I don’t think I’ll ever be without UFOs but it sure is interesting to have that mental block feel like it’s lifting. Maybe at the end of this year I’ll count my UFOs. Maybe. We don’t want to get carried away or anything.

This weekend I made an effort to spend the weekend with friends in a number of different ways, and the effect was actually dramatic.

For a start, quilters have been getting very creative with all kinds of computer media, and honestly they have been since the mid 90s. For a traditional hobby we are really a tech savvy crowd. I had Zoom teleconferences with three different groups over the weekend. We talked, we laughed, we sewed, and we connected. Two of the groups, it felt like a retreat, the sound of sewing machines and talking as we worked. We are getting very good at holding things up to the camera for show and tell and working through design discussions as we sew.

I also worked on a swap project and got the top completed this weekend. I have one group and we average a swap a year. We decide on what to swap, sometimes it’s a block, sometimes it’s just stacks of cut fabric, sometimes it’s a mix, geared towards a particular pattern. The swaps can be a one time thing, and some have stretched out over months. One swap in particular was 288 sets of light and dark 5″ squares. That swap is becoming legendary in the group. Number of quilts have been made, and yet we are all still finding 5″ squares. There’s a joke they are like Tribbles and keep showing up.

This weekend, working on the swap quilt seemed to be even more important. Not only was I talking to friends, and sewing with friends, but they were right there in the fabrics I was touching and the blocks i was sewing. My friends were all around me as I worked to put the quilt together.

I finished the quilt top this weekend, and it’s ready for quilting. I will try to get this one done over the next couple of weeks. It’s important to remind myself that my friends are all around me and as close as my computer. We all enjoyed the time we had together this weekend. I have more sewing calls scheduled in the coming weeks., we all need the connection.

Well here it is Monday already and no post up on the blog. I took Friday off of work and had myself a 3 day weekend, and here it is Monday already. I got a lot done, I finished part 3 of the Quiltville Mystery, I did some sewing for a friend and got that done and dropped off, and puttered around the house a lot. I do find it highly ironic that the post following the post about keeping up is late. Oh well.

I also realized this weekend that my Applique circles project is down to the last 4 dozen circles. They are just large circles that already have the seam allowance pressed so they are easy to do, just rhythmic mindless sewing. When I started this last year, I figured I needed 256 circles and that seemed GINORMOUS. I thought it would take me years to finish those and yet here I am, only 4 dozen to go. Before I know it I’ll be piecing this together, and getting it quilted and bound. I don’t know what I will work on next, however, I was so convinced this would take so long, I didn’t ponder what my next hand sewing project would be.

This strikes me as a bit of a metaphor for what we are going through right now. When we started all this social distancing stuff, it seemed GINORMOUS. Completely new and alien and yet here we are. I can’t make plans and we are all uncertain about the future, but I do know that time will march on and we will come out of this hibernation and that will come at us as a bit of surprise too, sooner than we expected. I know I don’t have a huge plan in place, but I’m ruminating on some ideas so that when the time comes I’ll be ready to go.

So have another cup of coffee, and while you tackle your Monday, give a few thoughts to the future and the things you want to do next.

For me, this is the end of week 4 of social distancing and working from home. Week 4 of having my entire calendar wiped clean. No lectures, no guild meetings, no classes to teach. For the first time in a very long time, I have no demands on my time in the evening after working my day job is done. Since I’m not going to the office for that, there’s not even commute time to eat into my time at home and for the first time in a very long time I am keeping up.

In the yard, the butterfly garden is weeded, the grass (such that it is) is mowed, and the weeds are trimmed around the foundation of the house. In the house, I vacuum every day (I have a big dog who is blowing his winter coat right now) and the laundry is done every week. I cook all my meals at home and do the dishes every night after dinner. No more waking up to a sink full of dishes because I got home too late and too tired to clean up. After I eat, I wander into my studio to sew for the evening. It has literally been years since I have sewn in the evening on a weeknight. I normally have something planned 3 out of 5 evenings and the other 2 I’m tired enough that I just want to sit in my recliner and hand sew. Now I go sew from 6-8pm or there about, then sit in my big chair for an hour before I get ready for bed.

I have finished piecing and quilting a quilt for a dear friend. I have started and kept up with the first two weeks of the Bonnie Hunter Unity Quilt Along. I have dug out and finished the piecing on a hand piecing project I started a good 10 years ago; and am now prepping for the Applique that is the next phase of that project. I have also knitted a cardigan since the beginning of February and am half way through another one.

All of this is making me really question the life I live. I enjoy getting out and seeing friends and participating in quilting activities, but I am also really enjoying being in my house, keeping it neat, and spending time in my studio. I know we are all talking about what we plan to do when things get back to some semblance of normal, and I am realizing that one of the things I want to do is have more time at home. Not sign up for so much. Not make plans to be gone from my home so much. There will still be commitments, I like to teach and lecture too much to give that up completely, but I’m finding I also really like the feeling of keeping up.