If you haven't reached the age of Medicare, you may not realize what a scary question that can be. You see there are these nice, well-meaning (younger) medical types who ask us mature ones that question regularly. It's part of the question battery to confirm one's mental condition.
I'm pretty sure I would have flunked that question this week!
It seems everyday, I've had to figure out what day it is -- thank goodness for date books and calendars!! That and a conversation with a friend a couple days ago made me realize September is on the way out and I've not done one thing to reach my studio goals for the month!?!
I haven't even been in my studio for a week! What is that all about??
It didn't take a genius to figure it out once I walked through the door! It's a mess . . . again. And avoiding it means it's time to tidy up. So I tackled this mess just inside the door.
As usual, it was a treasure hunt! I found long-forgotten teaching samples most of which I discarded (!!!) but I kept this cheery stack that will make a sweet little 9-patch quilt.
And my photo album from high school and college -- made quick work of this and pared it down to 10 pictures to keep!
(I feel like I should point this out to my kids so they know I'm trying to thin things down.)
It really didn't take long until I could sweep the rug and then I was entitled to sew!
These are step samples from teaching Double Irish Chain -- I can't even remember the last time I taught that -- why am I saving them??? One of the challenges of dealing with sample pieces is that it's hard to toss them when they are made from pretty fabric and skillfully pieced!
But I've gotten pretty good at wrangling them into something usable. I don't do improv piecing but I do organize random blocks and bits improvisationally!
It's a little runner (I think) and it's in the "to be" box with that hunk of fabric now, so in the future who knows what it's destiny will be?
A clean floor and a little pieced top entitled me to cut this new charm pak up into 2" hexagons
and lay out a little Christmas runner. It can be my "sew-off" project over the next couple weeks while I get that set of blocks on the design wall into a finished top.
This morning, I got up all perky from yesterday's studio time and layered up my temperature quilt from 2017 so that I can start hand quilting it this fall!
So back to what day of the week it is -- I woke up this morning wondering if time was as important two hundred years ago as it is today (probably thanks to history musings related to my current genealogy research, which is also why my desk is so messy).
I suspect it was important to know day from night and recognize the seasons but I don't believe the exactness that we live by now was important. These past six months have given us a taste of that and might be why I'm experiencing this sense of being adrift in time.
I am getting comfortable with the lack of commitments and a thin schedule.
How about you?
I wonder if I'll slowly drift back into the modern frenzy when this is finished.
I don't think I want to do that, but I don't want to flunk the date question either!?!
That desk needs a good tidy-up . . . . tomorrow.
Mary
I am going away more again, but I think once the weather changes I'll be staying home again. The neighbors produce stand will be closed away. I'm definitely not going to get back into all the quilting events I attended before. Less shopping too. I love not having commitments and a thin schedule. I'm less stressed for sure.
ReplyDeleteLife is about the same for me, just missing visits to my family, especially granddaughter who is growing so fast. I thought the retirement clock (one hand rotates around the days of the week) I received was a gag gift, not so! I look at it very often!
ReplyDeleteI finally realized why I liked to work. I had things that had to be done, and places to be at certain times, and I had to do them in the order they were set. Now? Feel adrift.
ReplyDeleteI am so happy to see the photo of you studio; it is the way mine often looks. Like you, I find that I avoid working on anything when the mess is so overwhelming. You are much more productive than I.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing I have to do on any specific day. Sunday morning was the anchor in my week but now I can watch church services online anytime I oversleep. Lately I am beginning to miss a more orderly routine because without it I waste a lot of time.
I don't worry about not knowing what day it is as long as I know where
I am and who that man is in the other room.
The state of your sewing table is much like my own, Mary. Nice job on the floor clean-up and using up those old sample blocks! I think that new Christmas project is going to make a great Leader/Ender. LOVE your 2017 Temp Quilt!! Out of curiosity, what are those rectangles I see scattered around the quilt?
ReplyDeleteI’m thinking the same thing about what these changes have meant, what has worked or not. I too like not having commitments outside the home and having time to reflect on the simple things. I think I am more creative. Since I keep a planner/journal I do have a good since what day it is. Not that it means much.
ReplyDelete