Happy Thursday! What’s going on? Here in the Finished Fibers studio I have been working on studio updates….a new old trunk (Cedar, 1937) to help with storage and desk space, reorganizing order storage, and a design wall! OOOh, and a new bowl of buttons! I will have pictures and more information once I get everything finished…I still have to rework the pole for the design wall, but I am excited and organized. I spent last weekend working on these studio changes, but what have I been up to all week?

This week I have been prepping two orders, a baby memory quilt and a few bears, while I have been custom quilting a custom memory quilt and planning several future quilts. Of course I cannot share photos of those until the owners receive them! In addition I met with a few customers to finalize plans for new orders and to deliver a few finished quilts. I have also been working on the hand applique for the How to Make an American Quilt quilt. I visited both Cary Quilting Company and Bernina World of Sewing…I have had a full week and it is only Thursday!

You may wonder how a self employed business owner structures her day, and I mentioned in the “Flexibility” Blog that I am a person who likes a schedule, but I am also very fond of building variety and choice into my day as well. I cannot and should not stand all day and quilt on the longarm, nor can I or should I cut and prep all day or hand sew all day (though sometimes that sounds so so lovely!), so I try to build variety of tasks into my day, and I try to have six to eight projects on the go at once. Haveing a variety of tasks allows me to choose what suits me best to do that day, and it allows me to work for a resonable, healthy amount of time on particular tasks. Interestingly, variety also allows me to get lost in a task…I don’t feel guilty about not working on something else because the task in front of me is best at the moment.

I am rather regimented about studio time and lunch time. I like to be in the studio working by 8 or so, and I like to eat lunch around 12:30. Of course there are days when those times shift and move…I might be later coming back from a walk or busy finishing a task at lunch time, so I finish it and then eat. I feel very lucky to get to dictate my day this way, especially after years of ringing bells and prescripted time tables.

I am also careful to pay attention to my best work times. I am best in the morning, especially for thinking tasks, so I usually try to put those first in the morning. I leave more zone tasks…ones I know by heart…to the afternoon.

I would love to hear how your day is structured and how you make the most of yourself in a day. I haven’t mentioned it yet, but I do take rest seriously, too. Sometimes taking some time to stare at a wall in silence is the best thing I can do for my creative and busy mind. The studio is full of exciting projects, and I am excited about them all…I’m going to keep sewing!

Sending Quilty Love,

Ginger

Reading Now: I finished the third Lockwood and Co. book, and I picked up Mozart’s Starling by Lyanda Lynn Haupt, and I am enjoying it thoroughly! I am deep into the middle of Middlemarch, and I am totally invested in Dorothea and Ladislaw…I have read the novel before, but just like A Tale of Two Cities and Sydney Carton, I get invested every time. I think it may be time for some Sydney Carton…sigh. I found a biography of Wilfred Owen at the ReStore; yes, I bought it. Dulce et decorum est…What are you reading?

Destruction of books, destruction of individual and personal rights, and destruction our democracy is happening in real time. Please stay informed with unbiased sources like NPR and PBS News Hour. Don’t let anyone take away your ability to think and consider.