Saturday Updates

August is almost over with and has been pretty much productive.  I am starting to adjust my schedule to try to make my time awake more productive.  Take today.  I woke up around 2 a.m. after going to bed last night around 10:30.  It seems that my body likes to wake me up after around 3-4 hours.  So as I laid in bed this morning, trying convince my body that I really should sleep more.  Then I got up because I was laughing at myself for thinking that, and worked on my House Blocks.  This quilt has been given many names including Coronaville, Home and Heart, and House Block Quilt.  Even I change up the name of what I call it.  Most of the time I call it the House Block. I am making progress on it.  This morning (see?  I can get back on topic) I sewed the top row together.

I'll start to work on the next row next week.  That will be three tree blocks and two house blocks.

Also next week I will be doing some more work on the lattice layer cake quilt. 

I have cut some more of the layer cake but haven't finished matching up which triangles will be paired together.  There will be plenty of repeats since it was a layer cake.  

With the last week of August looming around the corner, what are my plans for September?  I will be working more on my  Mini Owl cross stitch, the cross stitch quilt blocks, Christmas in Jacksonville, and the Simple Yet Elegant blocks.  I think there are more that I've slotted but I'll write about them when I remember.

It's time for me sign off for now and perhaps get some breakfast or take a nap.  I'm never sure which will win out.  

I hope everybody has a great day and enjoy your weekend!

Retirement

 I was asked the other day how is retirement.  Actually I have been asked that quite often since I have only been retired for a couple of months.  That question is usually hypothetical but I thought I'd answer it anyway.

When I went for some retirement meetings and lectures, it was mentioned that retirement is like a vacation.  The first two weeks would go by fast but what about after that?  Will you still feel like you are on a vacation or will the vacation be over and you come back to reality?  That got me to think and I wondered what MY retirement would be like.  I am loving it.  

My financial situation is what is taking me the longest to adjust to.  I find myself dipping into my savings as I try to get used to living on half of what I made before.  It's doable but let's face it, do we ever like to pull in the reins and force ourselves to be on a stricter budget?  Of course not.  I'm doing OK on meeting my bills so far so I'm not worried.  The house I rent is a fixer upper and is taking the landlord longer to fix up than anticipated, partly due to COVID.  He is a friend so I feel fine talking to him about what I want fixed up and in what time frame.  There is a list of things on my refrigerator door that I want done before winter and when he comes over we look it over and change it up.  Things are coming along according to my schedule.  My basic needs are met and I am comfortable. 

My days and nights are what I dreamed retirement would be like or what I hoped it would be like.  I wake up when my body tells me to and go to sleep when it tells me to.  I went to bed last night around midnight and got up around 4 a.m. this morning.  I do not set an alarm clock.  It was when my body told me it was time to get up.  If I get tired I can take a nap.  :)

I get to craft when I feel like it without the strain of trying to work it in between work and other commitments.  My days are usually sleep for 4 hours, craft for 4 hours, nap for 1 hour.  Get up and repeat.  Oh yes, somewhere in there is yucky things like cleaning.

I am enjoying cooking more than I did before since my kitchen seems so large compared to what I had in Illinois.  I no longer have an apartment sized stove.  It's full size and oh look...baking pans fit in it!  I had to make an apple pie (yummm) and tuna quiche (yummm) to test it out and they turned out great.  Even when it was in the 90s outside, my kitchen stayed cool.  That is because I have a window a/c unit in it.  There is another a/c unit in my living room so overall the house stays in the 70s.

Am I completely unpacked and settled in?  Nope...not at all.  I'm not even sure I will EVER be unpacked.  Most of my boxes and totes have craft things in it so once my craft room is where I want it I might.  Does anybody EVER get totally unpacked?  I'm not in a hurry and a lot can't be unpacked until I get shelves up in the craft room.  I did pick up two DVD/CD shelves and put them in the craft room for some of my fabric.

I am happy with how it looks so decided I had better quickly take a picture to share with you before it gets all cluttered up.  

So, all in all, my days are spent doing what I thought I would like to do.  I guess I might still be on vacation then.  :)  I guess that means the answer to the question of whether or not I am enjoying retirement so far would be YES!

It has enabled me to finish up some projects.  Last night, while chatting via Hangouts with a friend, I was finishing up a table runner.  Here is the front of it...

And the back of it looks like this...

That's it for now.  I hope everybody has a great day and hang in there.  The weekend is right around the corner.

Today's word is lethargic

That's what I am feeling today - lethargic.  My energy seems to have been zapped for today so this will probably be a short post.

It's not a bad day or week just every once in awhile I get into a lethargic mood.  Do I have things to do?  Of course.  Are they written down so I will remember them?  Of course they are.  Will I remember to look at the journal so I know what I wanted to do?  Well I'll try. 

I am working on some UFOs yet as well as the BOMs, etc.  Found out I have to get more green DMC floss for  the Christmas one.  I've got it ordered so that isn't bad.  I do have something new (to me) that I am excited about.  I went to a garage sale and picked up two DVD/CD books cases and put them on top of my table in the sewing room.  I think it looks good there.  I decided I had better take a picture before I fill it up too much.  Little steps to get organized at a time.  :)

Another step in getting my sewing room organized!

That's about it this time.  I have started a new project which shall go together (at least the top) pretty fast.  It is supposed to be simple and perhaps that is what I need.  A quick simple project to kick me back on track.

I hope you all have a good day and I'll chat another time.

Updates and Words to Contemplate

This week started out well and I have made progress on some projects. As some of you know, I am working on various projects as well as trying to finish up some UFOs. Th Simpe Yet Elegant blocks are coming along nicely. I need 4 tulip blocks but have only finished one so far. I will pick it up in between doing other blocks.

The second block is fused down but I am taking a break from it for a bit to work on other projects.  Then I will go back and stitch this.  I need to pick out my DMC thread that I will use yet but once that is done I can get stitching. I hope to have this all stitched down by the end of the month so I will be ready for the 3rd block.  

Another project that I am working on is Christmas in Jacksonville. I have stitched and completed the first two embroidery blocks.

I will probably get the third block ready to stitch next week.  This project also has some pieced blocks that I need to get the fabric picked out for.

Yet another project that is taking shape is the house block exchange from my Our Time To Quilt group,  Those who were wanting to participate exchanged a 8 1/" house block.  I will be adding more 8 1/2" blocks in order to make it a wall hanging.  In order to do that, I will need to figure out what put in those extra blocks and then I figured it out.  Hopefully I have figured it out.  I will be appliqueing a couple of small trees in the squares.  I saw it in the September/October 2014 issue of Quiltmaker Magazine.  it was called Parkview Lane.  I know the greens I will use for the threes and sashings.  I need to pick out my background fabric and then I can start to put it together.

Since I am who I am, I always have more projects then time so of course I decided to add another one to the list.  It's a small one.  It's Sindy Rodenmayers Merry Christmas Wall Hanging from Fat Cat Patterns.  I'll talk about this in upcoming posts.  Perhaps I can call it an UFO since the pattern goes back to 2018?

Speaking of UFOs, I'm almost done with another one.  It is a log cabin table runner from Jordan Fabrics.  It's all ready for the binding to be put on.  I might even finish it this week but if not then next week.

I will be using a light green for the binding.

I know that this post is a little long but I seem to have more words to say.  In yesterdays mail I received my American Quilter Magazine and found it to be one of the best issues (in my opinion).  Besides a lot of eye candy in "A Retrospective Exhibit:  Quilts by Judy Niemeyer and Quiltwork", there is an excellent article by Karen Kay Buckley whose scissors I LOVE!  She wrote an excellent article on how to keep seam allowance "shadowing" from happening.  It was another article that REALLY caught my eye though.  It was about "Peaceful Quilting" by Diane L. Murtha.  While I don't agree with all the tips there were a few that I wanted to share with you.  These tips can apply to life and not just quilting.

One tip talked about making plans and what happens when you don't finish everything that you added to or have on your "to do" list.  It should not surprise anybody if I just condense it by saying that you probably get more stressed.  Right?  How many times do you carry over projects to the next day, the next week, month, year?  Maybe we need to cut back a bit on the list.  Make the list more doable,  If you know you can't get a project done in one day, week, or whenever, put it on the list for another day.  Why not just put it on the list for when you realistically can finish it.  Let yourself feel better by seeing what you DID accomplish instead of looking at what you didn't.  Keep things as positive as possible instead of concentrating on the negative.  There is enough negative thinking going on right now.  Let's start to try and tip the scales towards positivity.

To help with that, "Establish Positive Rituals."  Surround yourself with things that make you happy.  A picture that makes you smile or perhaps play music that you like.  What is your stitching area like?  I "managed" ok in my old apartment but it wasn't until after the move that I realized that my stitching area is so much better now and that inspires me to tackle more projects and UFOs.

It was the last point in the article that made me smile.  It was about how to designate time for certain things.  Boy did that section hit home.  I don't know how many times I've told people that I don't do math after Noon.  While I say it in jest, there is some truth in that.  When I was working, I always tried to do my excel projects in the morning.  I am more alert in the morning.  That wasn't always possible but it was preferable.  You need to know what your best time s are to do things.  Then find other things to do in the other times.  Is morning best for your sewing?  Perhaps the afternoon or evening is good for planning on what craft you will be doing the next morning.  Perhaps you can use the other time to gather some things to work on so you will having everything all ready to start the day in a more productive day.  

Basically, no matter what you do, find out what works best to hep you be more peaceful and positive.  No matter what project you do, if you are not positive or at least calm, it will affect your work.  Give it a try.  Maybe pick one thing each day to find about the day that is positive.  Today I would pick the weather.  It is a cooler start to the day and a high of 80F predicted.  Also no rain in the forecast.  That's a good thing.

I've chatted enough.  Now it is time for me to plan what to do for the rest of the day, besides eating the apple pie I baked yesterday.

Have a wonderful day my friends.