Friday, April 23, 2010

Spring to Finish Challenge 2010

The other day Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio extended an invitation for her readers to join a Spring to Finish Challenge 2010.  The whole goal of this challenge is to work on and/or finish some projects that have been either stewing in your brain or laying around your house.  They don't even have to be sewing projects!  The best part is picking a reward for yourself upon completion of said project. 

Lately I've just been feeling like a have a million things hanging over my head.  I'm the type of person who needs to finish a project before I start a new one.  I can hardly even concentrate on fabric for an upcoming project until I've put the other one to bed and then cleaned up the house.  So lately I've been feeling lethargic and uneasy and a little overwhelmed.  I think documenting my projects and reporting on their progress is a great way to get motivated.


From afar
Up close

1.  My "garden."  This one is time sensitive.  I used to love gardening but have increasingly have lost my fervor for the weeding, weeding, weeding.  My goal is to give my flower garden a big giant cleanout,  preen the heck out of it and then just let it go for the rest of the summer.  This project should be done first because the longer you wait... the more back-breaking and heart-breaking it gets. I just want to get this over with and then ignore for the rest of the year. Reward -- Mani/Pedi and Coldstone Creamery's Coffee Lover's Only ice cream.  I'll need it after all that dirty work! 




2.  My sewing workstation (aka my dining room).  I used to set up my cutting board on my kitchen table at night after cleaning up from dinner and then cut there, run to another room to sew, run UPSTAIRS to my bedroom to iron a seam, run back to the kitchen to cut, etc. etc.  A while ago it occurred to me that we only use the dining room table three times a year (Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas) so I could set everything up there and leave it.  I even got a little ironing board and another iron.  Due to antiquated wiring (you people with old houses will understand this one)  I can only plug my iron into the outlet behind my sewing machine.  My goal for this area is to reorganize it and get some moveable storage devices for my sewing utensils so when I sew I can grab everything I need and move seamlessly from one area to the next without leaving the station.  Reward -- Coldstone Creamery's Coffee Lover's Only ice cream.




3. The wonky star quilt.   I was taken by a brown and orange quilt I saw on someone's quilting blog last fall (sorry ... I've looked and looked and can't find it again) and I bought lots of orange and brown for a quilt.  Of course it's spring now and everyone is making gorgeous colorful and bright wonky star quilts that I'm ACHING to make but I have to finish this one first.  Even if it turns into a baby sized quilt.  Reward -- Coldstone Creamery's Coffee Lover's Only ice cream.



4.  The purse.  My niece knit me a cool edge for a patchwork purse that I also started last fall.  I would like to finish it.  Enough said.  Reward -- Coldstone Creamery's Coffee Lover's Only ice cream.



5.  Hexagon quilt.  I started the hexagon quilt a long that Jaybird (hee hee ... we call my son Jason Jaybird too) is leading on the ORBC Flickr group.  I'm all on task with that and my goal is to stay on task and not fall behind.  Reward -- Coldstone Creamery's Coffee Lover's Only ice cream. 

I'm sensing with goal #2 of not having to move when I sew I may end up with a unintended problem from all the rewards.  Hmmmm..... may need to add some exercise to my list.  Next update on these five projects will be on May 10th.  Stop back and see how it's going.  Encouragement welcomed!!

7 comments:

  1. ok, you've been checked on! great list. i'll meet you at coldstone...that's my fav too!

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  2. That's an awful lot of icecream! You can see I have every confidence you are going to tick them off one by one.. Go go go girl!!

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  3. I can totally relate to needing to finish one project before moving on to a new one. It makes me crazy to have too many UFO's and it certainly drains my energy. Good move to the dining room, it looks like a spacious one. And I'm really liking your hexagon quilt, great fabrics. Although I cannot appreciate coffee, I can definitely appreciate Coffee Lover's Only ice cream, as that is a different story.

    And yes, the pups are wearing me out a bit. Sewing has taken a back seat this month, while adjusting to life with pups. Double trouble, you might say. Not to worry, I'll be back in the saddle soon enough, as I have plenty to accomplish. You'll appreciate this: The pups LOVE sticks - all kinds. Chew, chew, chew of course. The funniest part is that Sara now enjoys sticks too. They play keep-away, and continually steal each others sticks! With all the chew toys they have, sticks rule as a top favorite. Sara has adjusted nicely to the pups. She plays with them outside and matches their energy. But in the evening when she's relaxing and resting, she doesn't want to be harassed by them and let's them know it. This got a bit long, sorry. I should have put this in an email.

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  4. all of your projects look great! And I love your ice cream reward system :)

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  5. Good luck on finishing those projects! But oh my goodness, that brown and orange star quilt will be fabulous! I cannot not tell you how inspired I am from it!

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  6. Love the brown and orange star quilt. Also love your sewing space - we moved to a smaller space in part because we had so many unused rooms in our house, including the Dining Room!

    I laughed out loud at the fact that all project rewards are ice cream. Awesome!

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  7. Hmmm something tells me you have a thing for "Coldstone Creamery's Coffee Lover's Only ice cream".

    I'll tell you what... for every item checked off your list I will have "Coldstone Creamery's Coffee Lover's Only ice cream" too. You better go get sewing! ; )

    ps- I love that fabric on your dining room chair!! :)

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