Sewing Discipline

My first thought was to title this post with "Di-Sew-Pline," but then I knew you'd pronounce it with a long "i" on the last syllable, and the whole thing would be lost. And you'd be walking around saying, "Huh?" Or..."I really think she's losing her marbles in the quarantine." And, of course, we can't have that. So anyway...in a minute or two, I'll take you on a tour of the white board in my sewing room. It's how I stay organized. But first...let's just take a little walk outside, shall we? The weather is beautiful.

Can you tell the lilacs have captured my fancy just now? I kind of decided against making any jelly from them. For one thing, I have more jelly than years left in my life, so maybe next year. And I can't bring myself to cut all the blossoms off the bush just as they're getting so pretty.

The bleeding heart is getting more flowers as it gets taller.

I meant to show you the mint yesterday, but somehow that picture didn't make it onto the post. When I went down the list of herbs growing in the herb garden, I forgot about the mint. It's not actually in the garden, but in a whiskey barrel nearby. Now here's the thing about mint: It will spread out and take over if you don't watch it every second. Ours was first planted in the garden, but when it started taking over, we dug it up and planted it in pots, and then buried the pots in the garden. Only then...it escaped from the pots and started taking over again. So we dug it up and yelled, "Be Off With You!!!" Only then, it snuck back into this whiskey barrel, where we allow it to grow. As I've mentioned, anything that will grow in the whiskey barrel is allowed to stay. It shares this barrel with a few other volunteers. Occasionally, it still tries to invade the garden, and then it is pulled up faster than you can say, "Bob's Your Uncle." Not that I ever say that, but you might.

While I was surveying the blooming things, I heard a crashing in the cherry tree nearby and looked up to see Smitty just jumping from the branches.

Sadie was up there too. Partners in crime...always.

It's a sure sign of spring when the Goldfinches make an appearance. We're still awaiting the Black-headed Grosbeaks. They'll be here soon enough, I imagine.

So our grocery shopping trip wasn't too bad yesterday. Our list was fairly short. On the way through the front door, I spied these yellow calla lilies. I thought if I brought home a pot, the ones in the yard might be tempted to poke their heads above ground. And if not...well, I'll just plant these and be done with it. In fact, it really doesn't matter what the calla lilies do. When these are finished blooming, we'll plant what's left and mark it with a stake this time.

Back in the sewing room...Sadie's tree climbing efforts resolved into a nap on the quilts to be quilted pile.

Working with so many little pieces for the poppy mosaic, and trying to keep the color values organized, she's been banned from my work space. I had just two more sections to bring this up to 80% complete, and here's how it looked.

Before I quit for the day, I had two more sections finished.

Okay now about that white board...and sewing discipline. I keep track of my projects thus:

Where "embroidery" is concerned, I'm generally working on four large projects and one that can be finished in a single go-round...ordinarily #3. Only, the snowflakes snuck in there while we were traveling, and so all of these are more long-term projects. Mulligan Stew is the hand-quilting project that always has me dragging my feet. And that's where I am now...Mulligan Stew. I've grown to hate working on it as much as I really, really, really want to finish it. And there's the dilemma, right? You want to finish because you hate working on it. And, besides, I just want to finish. Period.

And I've not yet found a way to force myself to work on it. And since I'm sew disciplined, I haven't allowed myself to move back to "I Believe in Snowmen," until I make some progress. So yesterday, I decided to do what I always do when I can't discipline myself: I'm breaking it in to ridiculously small pieces. My newest commitment is to finish up one corner of the quilt interior and then move on to something else. When it comes up on the list again, I'll finish another corner, then another, then another. Then, I'll start with one side of the border, then the next. And with all of that, I figure another year will go by before it's finished...which will be faster than the rate I'm finishing it now. So anyway...let's see if this new commitment works. Starting this morning. (Bangs gavel. Dismissed.)

Okay, and so then there are my WIPs. Five WIPs seems manageable to me, and everything gets a chance at my work space approximately every month. When I've worked my way through the first five, I get to choose something not on the list. The Poppy Mosaic is my current "Quilter's Choice." It's like dessert after the meat and potatoes.

And these are various categories I can pick for my Quilter's Choice. The Poppy Mosaic is a PINS (Projects I Never Started). In general, I try to keep these to projects that can be finished before month's end. I'm not quite there with the Poppy Mosaic, but I'll only miss it by a day or two. For my next "Quilter's Choice," I'll make one of the many panel quilts I have waiting in the wings...and just know those also fall under the PINS category.

And that brings me to this...the tops that need finishing. I have so many quilts with all the blocks made, that just need sewing together. These are those. My goal each month is to finish one of these. The "Triangulation" designation is a continuation of the "trashy" series. I think I can get one more quilt out of those bonus triangles, but I was kind of tired of them. They were put on the list for later this year.

For May, I'll be working on the "Sweet Land of Liberty" table topper. The embroidery for this was finished months ago. My OMG for May will be to get it to a finished flimsy stage.

Here's what I have so far.

It shouldn't take long. I'll be adding some borders to it and then tossing it onto the Quilts to be Sandwiched pile, which currently contains these quilts:

And it makes no sense to sandwich anything until I've finished with these quilts that are ready for quilting.

For May, I'll be finishing up the Shop Hop quilt. It's been waiting very patiently for an impossibly long time. It's the quilt I made with all those regional fabrics collected during visits to quilt shops from all over the country.

So there you go. A little tour of my white board method of staying organized and cracking the whip. Somebody's got to do something. Cats can only do so much.

Finally, I received a little surprise in the mail from my friend Doris. You might remember when I visited a quilt shop in Cottonwood, Arizona, and I saw this pattern:

I really liked the pattern, but I didn't purchase it. And my friend Doris knows begging when she hears it. She had the pattern and sent it to me. It arrived in yesterday's mail. Thanks, Doris. Very sweet of you. I have some great fabrics to use for this quilt. It'll be added to the white board soon.

Okay, so I don't know how much sewing I'll get done today. It's going to be a kitchen day. I'm getting some bread dough going, and I'm making a potato salad, and I'm making a 7-Layer Dip. Tomorrow I'm making a lemon meringue pie. If you're looking for me today or tomorrow, that's where I'll be. It's going to be a beautiful day here at the Three Cats Ranch. I hope your weather treats you well today too.