What does DONE look like?

Does anyone else struggle with prioritizing your own projects?

I'm really good at prioritizing other people's time but not so good at my own.  I wonder if that's why so many women go outside of the home to work, even when they don't have to do it for financial reasons.

Not only is it a struggle for me to prioritize my projects, it's really easy for me to feel overwhelmed with ALL the things I want to complete.  Shall I list all the quilts I've already put fabrics together to make?  How about the foreign language I want to learn?  And don't forget sewing for my own wardrobe or re-learning how to play the piano.  See what I mean?

One of the things I've struggled with is whether to do my own quilting, and I have decided not to do it myself right now.  There are several nearby women who charge really reasonable rates so I'll hire one to quilt my Hunter's Star quilt.  I need to get it completed by mid-July.  Totally done.  I hate the fact that I'm so far behind on my husband's Minecraft quilt so that might allow me the luxury of catching up on those blocks.  I really need some clothes too.  All of mine are too big.  Hooray!!!

My husband has been teaching me to apply AGILE project management techniques to everything I do, starting with the idea of knowing when I am done.  We just painted our main living area that houses the kitchen/dining/family rooms.  My husband painted the ceiling and I painted the walls with some help from my daughter.  I'm super happy with the result!

The room used to be a slate grey and is now a sand dollar color.  I need to buy about a quart of paint more to finish the kitchen.  Then it will be DONE!  I love the room so much more now.  Slate grey is not a color that encourages a family to gather around.  It's just a more warm, inviting place to be now.  For the first time since we have moved into the house, I go into the family room to sit and read or visit.  I think we bought 7 different colors to try on the walls before we found the one we liked best.

My Hunter's Star quilt tormented me all the while though.  It's fully pieced together, but the borders haven't been cut out or added.  Like I said, so had the Minecraft quilt so Saturday I talked it out with my husband and dropped some projects and prioritized some.  Most of the quilts will wait until next fall and winter so I have time to spend with my husband and daughter! I also decided to let someone else have the fun/headache of quilting the Hunter's Star.  Done for the Hunter's Star means to complete the quilt top in time to give it to my selected recipients (a secret.)  It does NOT have to be quilted by me.  I have gone through a Craftsy class to learn to quilt with a walking foot, and I've figured out how I could quilt that blanket, but I have a super short time frame to learn to do it well enough and then have to do it on such a large piece.  I've done just enough to begin to believe that I really enjoy the design and piecing part but not the quilting so much.

Today, though, I'm taking a break from all of that to do the Zombie Pigman.  We're heading out on vacation as soon as my daughter finishes her last final so this may be my only chance to do anything creative.  I have doctor appointments tomorrow and Tuesday and then I'm checking my daughter out of school early on her last week so she doesn't have to sit in the hall while her English class watches an R-rated show that I don't think appropriate.  (She agreed with that assessment and doubly so when she found out I was fine with getting her out of school a couple of hours early.  Bonus!)  Next week will be soon enough to add the borders onto my Hunter's Star quilt.

My colors are selected for the Zombie Pigman and I will be beginning as soon as I sign off here!

The lesson for the day is a simple reminder to allow yourself to take time for creativity, don't burden yourself with too many projects, and define what DONE looks like.

How do you define easy?

Has anyone else felt a little bit of rebellion when you hear something like "Easy Peasy Fat Quarter Quilt"?  Would it be safe to say that anyone who has ever pieced together a quilt top might feel that way?  Then again, I have seen quilters do exactly that, but they have been quilting for a l-o-n-g time and are pretty fast.

Personally, I think we need a Quilter's Dictionary.  I nominate a couple of definitions.

Easy:  Relative easy with repetitive cuts and sewing.  1) Often is used in conjunction with buying precuts and using them as they are and then sewing them together.  2) Sometimes it means that you will be joining like pieces of fabric cut in the same shape (usually square) into a block, then sewing the blocks together.  3) Frequently used to suggest that the designer found a way to make a very complicated quilt in a more simple manner for the same end result.

Quick:  This has nothing to do with the phrase "in a minute" unless your minutes stretch into HOURS.  This is a relative term used when comparing a more complex, larger quilt to a more simple and smaller table runner,  baby quilt, placemat, or wall hanging.  It may have more relevance to a fast piecer/quilter.  This term often describes projects using precuts.

Precut:  Fabric already cut off the bolt in some shape throughout the stack of quilts.

Stack:  For all the reading demons out there, this term has nothing to do with books.  It has everything to do with fabric stacked in some fashion on shelves inside a sewist's or quilter's home.  Or in their arms or carts in a store.

Seriously, folks, when I read that the quilt I chose to make was "quick," I took it literally.  I thought I could get it done in a day or two.  Me, who took a whole day to make a 50s-style felt, full-circle skirt with a dog on it.  Umm, yeah, NOT.  

So my Christmas quilt that I started in high hopes of finishing in a week or so?  I've set a new goal of completing two blocks a day because I have other things to do.  I have (older) kids and a husband.  Enough said.  My daughter has set several sewing tasks for me that she doesn't have time to do with schoolwork (and mid-terms.)  She is more of a beginner than I am too, but at least she is grateful for those things I have created for her.

I am very pleased to report that I have finished 21 blocks.  Maybe it will be done by the new year? The blocks will be finished if I complete two a day anyway!

Oops--said daughter needs a semi-formal for a dance on the 30th too.  That one is not something I would classify as either easy or quick!  The costume she needs for Saturday is both of those.