How ironic that I check my old blog tonight and see that it's been exactly 8 years today since I made my last post. 


8 years ago I was going thru health, personal, and work problems.  I basically worked and slept.  Quit sewing.  Packed all my quilting stuff up and moved it to the shop outside.  I felt so bad all the time and couldn't focus on anything and was just overwhelmed with the shear volume of STUFF I had.  Fabric, books, UFOs, just too much stuff I could barely breath to think about it.  So I just stopped doing anything.   For 8 years. 


Yep, I've just recently started sewing again.  Over the years I did think occasionally that I'd take quilting back up and I'd dig a UFO out of the shed or buy fabric for a quilt.  But I never got very far with any project.  A few blocks here and there.  A quilt cut out but never sewn.  Just couldn't get motivated.  Even after I retired on disability 6-1/2 years ago.  I just slept and read and played stupid computer games.


So now I'm sewing again and taking it slowly trying to not get overwhelmed.  I participated in a mystery quilt with a FB group a few months ago and really enjoyed that.  Not my favorite quilt I've ever done but not bad.  Just have to get the borders on.  LOL!  I always did stall when it came to borders.  :-)  I have a few small projects I've completed.  And I mean really completed.  Quilting and all!  Of course they were both very small.  A Memorial Day wall hanging.  A small miniature sailboat quilt (Quiltmaker's July mini block).  I'm currently working on a scrappy bricks quilt because my box of 2-1/2" bricks was overflowing.  And Bonnie Hunter's new Tumbler leaders/enders challenge.  That cleared out a lot of 3-1/2" strips and squares.  I plod along slowly working when I feel good and sitting with my feet propped up and reading or working on handwork when I hurt too bad to sit at the sewing machine.


I've started to make hexies and LOVE IT  I never "got" EPP before but it's really relaxing and fun!  And I'm actually HAND QUILTING again.  Yes it takes longer but I really, really, REALLY suck at machine quilting and you know what?  I no longer have to work.  Which means I have plenty of time to hand quilt.  And I don't have to turn out 20 quilts a year.  I can just plod along and have fun as I go.  And I AM having fun.  I told David a few weeks ago, it's GOOD to feel excited about something again.  It's been so long since I felt anything but apathy.  Just plodded along days passing without doing much of anything at all.  But now I get up and sew for a while each morning while it's still cool in the office where my machine is set up now.  Once noon hits, it gets too hot in there so I sit in my recliner and play on the computer or do handwork.  Or I sit at the kitchen table and sort totes .  I bring a tote at a time inside and dig thru to see what I have.  Stacks and stacks of tops.  Lots of fabric.  2, 3, 10 yards cuts!  Fat quarters out the wazoo.   And 2 large totes FULL of scraps!   I've wrapped all my yardage on magazine boards so they fit neatly in my stash cabinets.  Wrapped 1/2 to 1 yd cuts on boards cut in quarters as they fit nicely on the shelves in front of the yardage.  And invested serious bucks on plastic shoeboxes for the small cuts of fabric (fat eight thru 1/2 yard cuts).  Anything about 6"X12" up to a fat eighth goes in a sweater-sized box for making scrappy samplers type quilts or just to try out block patterns with.  Anything smaller gets cut into strips, squares and bricks.  I'm just doing a little each day and trying not to let it overwhelm me.  So far, so good.


Once I relearn how to do pictures on here I'll have photo documentation of my new journey.  Until then I hope to posted progress a few times a week.  I find that as I work on stuff I want to blog about it like I used to.  I guess quilting and blogging will be forever linked in my brain. 


And now it's midnight and no longer officially 8 years since my last blog post so I need to get to bed.


Happy stitching. 
nancyquilts