Giving Thanks

Hmmm. Beautiful rainy day outside. Not too frigid but certainly cold enough to make one wish to stay indoors with a good book and a a warm quilt. Don't forget the hot chocolate. On Sundays the TV and radio stay off. Music is usually classical or from our own instruments. Once in a while we'll invite people over for dinner but mostly it's a day just for family and church. 

After reading many books together the little ones are now all piled on daddy. Sort of a low key wrestling match but it seems they are all enjoying it. I really, really, love taking a day off to slow down once a week. No errands or shopping, no running here and there.

This week has been absolutely lovely. No lessons or sports or activities to run around to. No homework to hound. Visiting family and lots of great food and time together. Maybe I appreciate the peace and simplicity more than ever this year in contrast to the pressure of my every day life and events.

Time to Breathe

I look back on my earlier life and often wonder how I could have ever thought I was busy. I was stressed out and overwhelmed with two toddlers. Now I have two toddlers at home, plus two talented teenagers and a sports nut boy who all want to go places and do things but can't drive themselves there. 

I have a career that is part-time if you average it out but in reality it's more like these overwhelming crunches of time just before a trip then back to almost nothing. Or it would be if things weren't going as wonderfully well as they are. It seems I've always got a deadline waiting for me as soon as I finish something up.

I used to whine about my husband working long hours when I needed help with the kids. Now his job has an exponentially greater amount of responsibility involved. He still works long hours. Plus he and I both have church responsibilities that take up a good 6-8 hours every week.

When do we take time to breathe!?! 

We make time. Today we made time. We climbed trees. We rolled in leaves. We ate junk food.

We let go of things that aren't important. Like matching socks. We remember what's important.

PLAY TIME!!!

I've decided that instead of rushing from one deadline to another - I'll give myself a day to play as a reward for each deadline met. Actually - once I turned in all of my book work I gave myself several days. I sewed up a blouse I've had cut out for a while, turned a couple of dresses into skirts, pants into capris, and made several long overdue repairs. I haven't done any garment sewing in ages and I miss it. 

The best project? Almost a year ago I purchased a box of scraps from Carter Smith's cutting room floor. He is an absolutely amazing artist using shibori as his main technique, and a gracious person too. I spent a couple of days piecing together my favorite scraps and now I have an absolutely lovely jacket. You really have to feel it. Pure luxury. If you see me at the International Quilt Festival in Houston this year, feel free to touch it. Yummy.

Now back to the next deadline. I need to photograph a new class for Quilt University. Screen Printing this time. I think I'll do double duty and call that "play time" too!

Quilting Arts Gifts

Fun stuff again! I just received advance copies of Quilting Arts GIFTS, a fun issue full of quick and easy projects that are perfect for Christmas. It should be on the stands by the end on September.

It's been years since I've had time to make hand-made gifts for people so I don't usually pay attention to projects like this. If I were to do something from this issue however, it would most definitely by Lois Jarvis' Travel Scarf. You'll have to look it up. Here's a sneak peak at my project.

As sort of an "aside" I thought I'd share my Christmas gift philosophy. We have lots of kids in our family. We live in an affluent area of the United States. We love Christmas. I do, however, try my level best to raise my children without that sense of entitlement that seems so prevalent among children today. I think they get tired of my telling them that we are put on the earth to make it a better place, not to be entertained.

The kids get one gift from "Santa" and a small something in their stockings. They love to make or buy gifts for each other. We don't put presents under our tree until Christmas Eve. After they go to bed each child is allowed to sneak up, pull out the gifts for the family that they have hidden, and put on the elf hat and arrange it under the tree. Then we put the rest of the gifts there. 

We give family portraits to our parents every year and among my siblings we have traded names in the past. Lately we have written down our different memories of a common experience instead of buying things. Eventually we will have a family history book that will be a treasure for generations.

We try each year to choose a service project, such as sponsoring another family, and go all out spending a day shopping and wrapping and when possible, anonymously delivering gifts for them. The kids know Christmas is not their birthday - it is Christs'. 

Quilting Arts TV

What an adventure! I spent half of last week taping a couple of segments for Quilting Arts TV. 

What lovely people and what a wonderful opportunity. Patricia Bolton is one of the hardest working (honestly - I don't know when she sleeps) people I know. It has been such a pleasure to watch her add on projects and succeed with every step. I give most of the credit for the wonderful leaps my career has made over the past several years to her.  You can read her blog here.

And I learned some interesting things. The most interesting is that being the Hostess of a TV show requires three brains in one head. Pokey had to make up questions and comments on the fly, watch the crew's cues, listen to the producer in her earpiece, and remember things like who she was supposed to introduce for the next segment. Oh - and change outfits every 30 minutes for a week. Sounds like work to me. Can't wait to see how it turns out. I'll have to order the DVD's though as PBS doesn't hasn't picked up the show in this area. Write your local station and request the show - I have. Didn't work but I keep writing. Hopefully it will happen eventually.

Making Progress

Whew - getting there. I feel like the entire day today was one continuous interruption (that's an oxymoron, I know) with kids needing something every few minutes. I think I've got most of the samples done that I need for the book. Now on to a couple of "step-outs' and a few miscellaneous illustrations. Oh - I keep forgetting an entire sketchbook to fill. And the props to gather. And a few final edits to the writing. That's next week. This writing a book business is looking an awful lot like a lot of work.

My heartfelt thanks goes out to all the intrepid and wonderful friends who were willing to try some design exercises. They are trickling in and looking wonderful. I might actually make this deadline yet. Um - perhaps wishful thinking on my part.

heads down - working hard

I've got some serious deadline issues. All the artwork for the book needs to be done in just the next few weeks. Plus getting ready to shoot a couple of segments for QATV. I'm trying my best to dovetail the two - using some of the same work for both. Here's a pretty picture of my new baby... getting ready to sandwich and quilt a funky color wheel.

I'm averaging six small pieces per day. No time to photograph and blog - barely enough time to feed my children and get them where they need to go. I can't believe I'm missing the Olympics. Hmmm.... maybe it's time to do some of the sketchbook work - in front of the telly? Looking at the list - maybe not. Sigh.