A Stitch Here ~ A Stitch There

For the past month or so,  I've been setting my alarm to wake up really early so I can spend some much needed time with my sewing machine.  You'd think that since my job is all about quilts that I'd be piecing and sewing all the time.  Wrong!  Make no mistake, I love my job and I'm lucky and grateful to get to do what I love, but I really don't get to sew much anymore.  I've been missing it terribly.  I know that many of you work, take care of the house, the kids, hubby, and often extended family members, volunteer, etc, and don't get to sew much either.  There are loads of reasons why we don't get to sew as often as we'd like.  I really wanted to change that....to find some time to sew, and it seemed that getting up a zero dark thirty was the best way to make that happen.  (I'm a morning person, so that's what suits me.  I can't stay up late.)  Do you do that, too?  

I wanted to make a few small quilts as gifts for Christmas.  There are several people on my list whom I know would appreciate them.  So, in the early morning hours, when the house is quiet, I've been spending time in my sewing room piecing.  J*O*Y!!

I don't piece a thing unless the fabric has been starched sized first.  I'm a big, big believer in sizing or starching yardage.  It helps ("helps" is an understatement of epic proportions!!)  in all aspects of piecing from cutting, to sewing, to pressing. (I have lots of tips and hints all about this in my Heartspun Quilts Hints book, including how to starch fabric in your washing machine!) I have lots and lots of scraps.  You, too?!!  

I keep my large selection of scraps organized in several ways, and one of them is to keep a big (unorganized!) bag of pre starched sized scraps handy, so I can be ready to sit and sew when I have a few minutes to make units, and blocks, and in this case, little quilts.  

This morning, I put the last border on the fourth (and final) little quilt I'll be giving as a Christmas present.  I'm feeling on top of the world, not only because I've been piecing, but also because I made the four little gifts I wanted to make.  Win, win!!  I'd like to show you what I made, but the recipients are regular readers of my blog.  

I think we can all say we never have enough time for all the things we'd like to do.  There's a never ending amount of tasks we have in any given day, and if we don't make time to do the things we love, and that make us happy, then we live to work, not work to live.  

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you may remember that at the beginning of the New Year (2013), I set two goals for myself.  The first was to find good soup recipes and make more soups.  I love to eat soup, but I didn't have many really good soup recipes.  I'm happy to report I've done a fair job of making some good soups this year.  The other goal was to learn to make pies from scratch, especially pie crust.  I haven't been successful at this....having found no time to even try, and here it is November.  

All this "not having more time to do the things I love, and that make me happy" got me to thinking how quickly time flies by, and if I (read "we") don't make the time, then what?  This quilter ain't gettin' any younger!  Hence, greeting the crack of dawn at my sewing machine.  So, a few weekends ago, I decided enough was enough.  It's apple season and I wanted an apple pie!

Here's my first attempt at pie crust and apple pie filling from scratch.  Not bad.  Not good either!  Teehee!

It looked pretty as a whole pie and as a slice, but it wasn't all that great.  My family doesn't agree as they scarfed it up, but I know I'll keep searching for the perfect crust and filling recipes.  I am very happy that I took the time to play....to try.  It was very good for my soul.  

So, the moral of the story is, let's try to find time to do the things that make us happy.  That lift our spirits and fulfill the soul.  A cup of soup, a slice of pie, and a stitch here and there!