Focused

After a couple of extremely nonconstructive days Thursday and Friday dealing with plans for the Guild Quilt Show that I’ve volunteered to organize for next April (more on that big fun at a later date, when I can be a bit more positive about it all), I spent today tracing quilting designs on the outer border of The Misery Quilt. I think I put in about ten or eleven hours on it, and could probably do the same tomorrow, if my back will let me, before it would be ready for basting.

I can really use the life break that is a Quilt Retreat

I’m beginning to see the light at the end of that tunnel, but I know that if I break to work on something else, I’ll lose that focus. If I lose the focus, I may not make that Christmas completion deadline like I’d like to. So, despite the fact that this is a show quilt and I need to be able to concentrate fully on the machine quilting, I’m considering taking it to the Quilt Retreat next weekend to work on it there. The four solid days of quilting would be a great way to get a lot of it done, but I’m not sure I can do my best machine quilting in a room full of 25-30 other quilters and machines. Hopefully, I can be in sync with my Bernina like I was at the last retreat, but no guarantees. Hmmm. Have to think on that some more.

If I don’t take the show quilt to the Retreat, then I have to spend some time between now and Thursday morning whipping something else into shape to take with me to work on. Not that I don’t have enough projects in progress around to just pick one, but it’s a detour that I’m not sure I want to take at the moment. If I can squeeze out the time (and that’s a big IF), I may have to ready another project or two and take them all, and that way if I find that there are too many distractions to work on the show quilt, I can whip out something else.

However it turns out with the projects, I can really use the life break that is a Quilt Retreat. Four days of nothing but quilting as the focus, with someone else cooking for you (five times a day, no less), cleaning up after you, and making the bed in the morning. Heavenly! ITMan’s taking a couple of days off from the office to be with the kids, so we’ll all have a little break really, and hopefully I’ll come back all refreshed and ready to tackle the holidays. We’re headed to Klosterhospiz Neresheim this time, which is a bit farther away than the last retreat at Kloster Schoental, but not too much. I’ll try to update on the projects going in the suitcase before I leave, but the coming week is crammed and I’m leaving on Thursday, so if you don’t hear from me, see you on the other side!

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