15 Minutes to Stitch

I used to go to a $10 Quilt Class at my local quilt shop. The class I went to met in the mornings a half hour before the store opened. It became a very popular class with 35-40 women packed in a small classroom smaller than my quilt room here at the farm. I found it a bit claustrophobic so entered the room just as the shop owner greeted the participants. I often pulled out the stool from under the cutting table and sat in the doorway. I once sat on the ledge at the back of the room but my back hurt for days after. The game became getting there first to get a front-row seat, but even then, we sat elbow to elbow and that was a bit too close for me. You could say social distancing had not yet been invented. At the end of the half-hour class, there was roll call and we had to show our completed block from the previous month in order to receive the next free block pattern and fabric. 

Going in the mornings was a bit of an accomplishment for me in those days. I started my day at 5 am by milking my cows. A quick breakfast and shower before driving into town for a waterfit class. After another quick shower, I drove the 4 minutes to the quilt shop. We were free to shop and everything was 10% off for participants. Everyone wanted the 10% off. I would not sit through the whole instructions on how to put the block together because I liked to play the game of figuring it out for myself. Then I went for groceries or other errands and eventually got home for a late lunch. So in the end, I did not start working on my newest block until, not don't be too surprised, the night before the next class a month later. So the pressure was on to complete the thing and I usually chose the more challenging block because that is more fun.

Eventually, the class was so popular that in addition to the 3 weekly classes, they opened up an evening class. Five pm on a Friday. I signed up one year and a friend joined me. We came back to the farm and cut out our blocks and talked. It was great. It was easy to sew the thing up with lots of time to spare each month.  

And why do I say all this? Because here it is nearly midnight and I have not yet done my 15 Minutes to Stitch today. It is not a big deal. It is only 15 minutes. I have learned through experience not because I listen to reason, that if I want to have some stitching to pick up throughout the day, I need to have some stitching prepared and waiting for me. I do love to prep several applique blocks at a time. Last month I prepped 6 Ella blocks. I already had another 6 or 8 partly done. Some of the blocks are on the design wall in the quilt room. I put together a small project box with thread, scissors, and a block or two. Last week I  set up my new floor lamp by my chair in the living room and started watching movies. We are watching The Dig for our Sewing at the Farm class this week. 

However, I now have a new workspace upstairs with my new laptop all set up to write. I took up a new kettle I bought last fall in anticipation of having this space and be able to make my tea and not have to go up and down the stairs because that is not fun when you have arthritis and the knees resist all the fun exercise and those stairs are bigger than the ones I have traipsed up and down for the past 49 1/2 years and there is a bathroom up there and all that sort of logic. Then what did I do? I took up another small project box to that room and it is sitting up there and not down here. Seriously. I do overthink things sometimes. And over prepare things. Somehow today I have no stitching to do by hand here or by my armchair. And we watched about 4 episodes of The Great Canadian Baking Show. It was decadent to say the least. 

Monday the newest Ella blocks will be released. There are only 4 more months of blocks in the program. I will probably print off the patterns, pick some fabrics and begin the prep work to have yet more blocks to stitch by hand for at least 15 minutes each day. In my Swiss Cheese brain, if I miss a day, it will be so easy to miss another and then forget that I was doing it at all until the next month when the new blocks are released. 

So even though I have worked on at least 4 different blocks this week, I only completed this one so far. It will sit on-point in the final layout.

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: Slow Sunday Stitching, 15 Minutes to Stitch

patchwork-quilts quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

katiemaequilts.boms-away-  design-wall-monday- -friday-night-sew-in- needleandthreadnetwork.

midweek-makers-  wednesday-wait-loss  myquiltinfatuation  off-wall-friday. 

wendysquiltsandmore.  can-i-get-whoop-whoop- tishnwonderland.