Accountability and getting things done

There are too many quilts-in-progress in my house. Some don't have their own space and are stepping in my way regularly to remind me of the need to get them finished. Some others are hidden away in their own little corner, and only confront me now and then. Generally, these quilts-in-progress (is QUIP a known abbreviation?) deserve to be finished. I like them still - well most of them - and even though they got overtaken by an other project, I would not like to leave them as they are. They are worth it! And since their existence alone is making me feel too guilty to start a new project, they NEED to be finished, and the sooner, the better. There are just too many new ideas tumbling about in my head, fighting for their turn to be worked on... I need the old ones to be finished so I can enjoy starting some new!

QUIPs in different stages vying for my attention

So, when my boys all went back to their respective educations, I started my project "getting it done". I am focussing on one unfinished project at a time, which I will stick with until it's completely done-done-DONE!

First up: My bed quilt, the feathered star medallion. It is awaiting some more hand quilting and I will only be able to receive my course certificate when I show it to my tutor completely finished. So while the course administrators are writing out my cert (all approvals are in place bar "finished"), I am putting the last quilting stitches in my quilt. It is the last step for this one; since it had to go to an exhibition several months ago (as a work in progress) it is already bound and labelled. I know, not the usual order of things, but well, sometimes protecting your work with binding is more important than finishing the quilting completely before the binding goes on.

And, for the sake of accountability (which will keep me focussed, too, I hope) I am keeping track of my progress. The eighty spaces between the HSTs each needs a drop shape to be individually marked and quilted. Eight were done before the exhibition to show which way the work was going, so two weeks ago the score was 8/80. Now the score is up to 43/80 and all 80 drops are marked, too. And I am considering finishing off with a few more waves added to the existing one on the very outside border. Anyone interested in more detailed progress reports can follow along on Instagram, too.

For now I'll be spending some more time with this QUIP, so I'm off to sew, of course!

Sandra

Just Curious

As well as trying to keep this little blog going, I love to read other people's blogs! There are so many lovely things to read, patterns to find, tips to absorb you could spent whole days reading blogs (I don't think anyone could have enough time to read it all, though). Now, I read my favourite blogs through Bloglovin' which kindly lists any new posts that I haven't read yet. If I want to comment on any post I also need to be logged into my email, which is a gmail account. And since a while that only works properly if I do that by logging into (or opening) Blogger as opposed to logging into gmail alone. This all works fine for me.

It has an unexpected side-effect though. Every time I open my Blogger account I see this little graph right below the name of my blog. And while that usually gives a rather flat line and gets ignored, sometimes it spikes unexpectedly and that makes me sit up a bit straighter. Like a few days ago:

Blogger stats today, showing the spike of a few days ago

On that day, I had not published a new post for more than 6 weeks (my previous post was only published hours later). A new post sometimes causes a spike of interest, be it usually small (after all, this is only a little blog, and I have never actively worked at getting more readers or followers). This time the interest could not have been caused by a recent post.

Now I do know strange things happen on the internet, artificially changing statistics. But I have not otherwise noticed anything odd or suspicious. No spam, no hacking, no strange website coming up in the list of traffic sources.

I like to think there may have been someone(s) looking at my blog. Browsing the pages, looking around a lot. Sitting at their screen, clicking and clicking. And apparently, finding it very interesting. It makes me curious about my readers, and such an unusual reader in particular. What makes you find this blog? What makes you click and click and click, maybe browsing several pages?  And even for my followers (I do have a few), what makes you coming back, again and again?

While it feels enough for me at the moment to just write for myself in this blog, it is nice to know that now and then someone (apart from my mum, hoi Mam!), somewhere actually reads this blog. And I know that it can be a bit much to comment on every blog you're reading, I don't mind at all. After all, many people have not enough hours in the day to even read all the blogs they find interesting. However, if you find my blog really, really interesting it would actually be nice to hear that in some way. Just to satisfy my curiosity, you understand. I usually even reply to comments or emails, though never if you let me know you don't want me to.
 

Sandra

Hello, I'm Back!

After being away for so very, very long (I had to look for the "new post" button!), it feels as if I am starting afresh.

It kind of fits in with the time of year, I suppose: New school books for the children, brand new notebooks - "copies" they call them here - with lovely crisp blank pages. New school clothes, mostly slightly too large. A new start, but also (for my boys at least): Back to the same schools, same class rooms, same friends. They have the same teachers as last year, too.

In similar way it is for me here: I'm back to sewing, or at least to sewing more, and also I am back to the same blog, with the same style, and similar content. Yet a new start after being away for so long. It feels as if the blog has been lying dormant in the far reaches of the internet, waiting to be woken up whenever the "Studio" would be opened up again and the sewing would resume. For a short while I did consider to stop blogging altogether, but I do enjoy putting together a post and reporting on what I have been up to. So yes, I'm back!

And to leave you with an idea of what I did sew, I'll show you some free sashiko style stitching I did recently. It's part of a bigger project, all to be revealed soon!

Sandra