An End of Year Plan of Attack

I realized that life got in the way, and I never published my Pile and a Plan post. I will soon, but here's my general ramblings that came up as I thought about my pile of fabric and patterns that I've yet to begin on. 

Due to minor health issues and an overwhelming influx of sewing orders for Christmas, I’ve yet to complete any of the items of clothing I planned to sew for myself. I made myself cut out the first pair of pants the other week before our last minute trip, but have yet to get anything sewn since we’ve been back. Hence, the implementation of a stricter schedule for myself. I’ve got to get things together if I want to accomplish anything in by the end of the year.

I like to try to start the year with a fairly clear schedule of projects. I like starting the year out with finishing a project, and starting a project, it's good luck, I guess. And having a clear schedule makes me feel excited about all the potential I have to get accomplished in the coming months.  So, I’ve got to finish as many of my WIPs as possible in the next six weeks. As someone who only gets weekends off, and Thanksgiving weekend and Christmas day, I don’t have a lot of extra time lying around in my schedule to get things sewn.

I’ve started diligently taking my knitting to work with me, and actually knitting on my lunch break. It lets me end each day knowing that I made some progress on something each day, even if no sewing gets done.

As difficult as it has been, I’m forcing myself to get up early again so I have time in the morning to get things done too. I’m very behind on an editing job, hopefully my last one for the year. And super behind on sewing orders due to our last minute trip. But the sewing ones are easy to catch up on once I find the time and motivation.

And, I really do want to regularly write. Here on the blog, as well as for myself. Stay tuned for updates!

And pictures. I’ll be better at getting pictures in my posts too. 

#seweveryday

Along with the yarn stashbusting going on this summer, I also am working on stashbusting fabric. I have quite a collection.

Well, honestly it's not as big as it used to be, but I've been working on simplifying the past year or so. A few months ago I went through my stash and gave away quite a bit of it. Now, I have a manageable stash and I'm focusing on using it up this summer. I have plenty of things that I would love to make and have the supplies for.

Last year I tried a challenge called #100daysofsewing. While this was a great undertaking, I don't remember if I actually made it 100 days. I know I made it 100 days without buying yarn or fabric... but sewing every day for 100 days? Don't think I made it.

This time around, I'm endeavoring on a #seweveryday challenge. For me, this does not mean I have to sew every day when I start out. I have to work up to that. My current goal is to sew more days than I don't sew during the month.

An added benefit of this is one I noticed last year with the 100 days of sewing. I made some good progress on finishing projects. Over the course of the summer, I hope to finish quite a few projects at the same time I'm making a dent in my stash.

Stay tuned! And keep an eye on the Finished Object posts the last day of each month to see how I do.

100 Days of Sewing- Sort of

So, awhile back I decided to sew every day for 100 days straight. And I almost made it.

You see, I started in the summer when things weren't as crazy as they could have been, so I did awesome. Then, two weeks ago, I started a new job. New job, new hours, new responsibilities. It was a bit overwhelming (and still is). On the night of day 72, I crawled into bed exhausted. As I drifted off to sleep I realized that I hadn't sewn that day. At all. Had this been a few months ago during school and all that, I would have dragged myself out of bed and sewn a seam, lost sleep would have been no big deal.

But I just couldn't. I was waaaaaay too tired, and stressed, and worried about being late to work and falling asleep in training, and all that stuff that could make the new bosses not look too kindly on me. I decided it was okay to take a break, and it's been a couple of weeks now.

Today is day 50 of no buying yarn (minus ones needed for a custom order placed). 50 Days! . And it's day 31 of no fabric. I'm on a roll! So I decided to go ahead and take advantage of the streak and start 100 Days of sewing again. I'm sure I can make it, no problem. I've got quilt blocks, quilts, a skirt, and an alteration already lined up to be done. Not to mention the giant box of stash that needs to be used too!

Here's a look at what all got finished-finished in the first round of 71 days:
(Not pictured, yet, a vest for myself and a bean bag that I will be posting on in the near future)