Sew Thankful Blog

For those curious about the status of my knee:

I’ve been off crutches for over a week.  I’ve had the MRI and a follow up with the surgeon.  The ACL is total blown but thankfully the meniscus still looks good.  I will have same-day surgery in March to replace the ACL.  In the meantime,  he (the surgeon) wants me to spend lots of time pedaling on a stationary bike.  And I can swim. Music to my ears.

After the surgery I will have a couple weeks of earnest down time so I’m working on a list of sewing and quilting projects I can work on either from bed or limited mobility (chair with leg elevated).  YAY…I’ll have yo-yo making time!

This all means a bit of re-juggling business ideas and plans but I am confident that it’s going to come together just fine.  I am thankful for every day and every opportunity to learn, love and grow.

Life is REALLY good…and sew on…

When is a setback an opportunity? When we decide to make it one.

This week I suffered a minor personal, physical setback. While I was working out on Monday morning I tore the ACL (one of 4 ligaments) in my left knee. I may have also damaged the MCL & meniscus – we are waiting for MRI to know the full extent. I’m now on crutches.

On one hand this is a big disappointment. It will slow down my training and I will probably need surgery. It may take 6 months or more until I am fully rehabbed.

On the other hand, I am gaining new insights from this experience that have stimulated exciting new sewing and quilting related ideas. I have a whole new perspective.  Hopefully, these are  “worthy” project ideas that I will be able to share with you this year. AND…since my wings have been clipped so to speak, I have more time each day to develop them.

In the end, I know my destination and I have confidence that I will make it eventually. I am not in a competition. Each day I  remind myself that I need to savor each step of the journey and explore the insights and richness found in the opportunities as they come.

Time is the most valuable resource we have.  How we spend it matters. Once it is gone, we can never get it back.  Not for any price.

How about you? Do you have a setback that you can turn into an opportunity? Tell me if you’d like to share.  I’d love to hear about it.

Last year I spent a lot of time working on my physical well-being, working out and revamping my lifestyle to become stronger.  This year I will continue on that path, but I need to get back to feeding my creative well-being. I think I only quilted once or twice in 2009. YIKES! Poor Maximus (the longarm) has been screaming for some attention.

Good news.  I finally have loaded a quilt top on the longarm. This top is one I inherited a long time ago and I do not know the maker.  Bless his/her heart…they must have had very poor eyesight and definitely did not own an iron. This top has virtually every problem you can imagine:  extremely poor piecing resulting in curvy seams & DD cups, selvage edges exposed on the top side where seams were less than 1/4″, none of the blocks have seams that match and most of the points have been destroyed, not to mention the old poor quality polyester fabrics fraying galore. Definitely not a show quilt.

Oh no….this one will never be seen in public. BUT, if I quilt it densely enough to keep it held together, we can use it to cuddle & keep warm in our family room.  No stress required!

I have to admit…one of the reasons this top has gone un-quilted for so long (6 years) is that I worried it wouldn’t turn out perfectly.  WHAT a  joke! There is NO way that thing is ever going to look good, no matter what is done to it. Reality check: Nothing I could do to this quilt could make it worse.  So I decided to scribble quilt or whatever…in all the wonky blocks.  But what about all the open white spaces? Yes! Lots of dense pebbling. I love pebbles but I had never developed that skill so this quilt is the perfect practice, practice, practice candidate.

White on White Practice Pebble Quilting

I’m using  Bottom Line Thread top & bobbin for this quilt since the quilting is so dense (approx. 1/4″ pebbles in the white areas and dense scribbles in the wonky blocks). I love this thread and the fact that it blends right into the quilt without a lot of thick build up even if I happen to backtrack over the same area multiple times.  I have heard that some longarm quilters have difficulty using it in the top of their machine, but that has not been my experience at all (at least so far).  I love it and have had very few breaks unless I did something irregular (such as a sudden jerk).

It may seem a little crazy to spend so much time (and so much thread) on such a poor quality quilt/top, but I’ve got to say it’s helping me BIG TIME to get comfortable with Max and to fine tune my fine movements. I’m LEARNING and this feels fantastic!  Yes, I still have a ton to learn and I’m OK with that but I can definitely see improvement in my pebbling from when I first started.  That’s a great thing.

The best part of this: I’m taking a big item off my to-do list, finishing it and making it a useful item to keep my family warm.  That’s an AWESOME thing. 

No more fear, no more excuses, and absolutely ZERO regret.

How about you? Do you have a project or several you’ve been putting off finishing because they aren’t necessarily your idea of  “the best”? Isn’t it time to just get ‘em done and get some use out of them?  What’s holding you back?  Feel free to share your stories or comment. I enjoy reading your responses.

I love the feel of a fresh new year–so full of wonder and possibility!

I don’t know about you, but I no longer bother with making resolutions. They never seem to last despite my best intentions. I do generally try to set some specific goals for myself each year. That said, I’m not quite ready to share them publicly; however, I am doing something new this year that I can share.  I have chosen two “focus” words for 2010.

My words are: Live and Love. Both verbs. Both requiring constant choice, effort and action on my part. I want to truly ‘live’ and ‘love’ out loud this year.

It seems impossible that 2009 is nearly over. I guess I blinked. I hope your 2009 was healthy, productive and sprinkled with an extra measure of joy.

During the days between Christmas and the New Year, I like to reflect on the goals I set last year while developing new goals for the coming year. Did you reach all your goals for 2009?  I reached many but fell short on a few. Within those short comings (failures to meet the desired goal) were hidden lessons of immense value.  I learned more about myself and what living really means than I ever imagined. There were a few setbacks and surprises along the way; but overall, I’m exceedingly pleased with 2009.  Likewise, I am quite optimistic for 2010. New products, new ideas and new goals… I’m looking forward to sharing them with you.

At the end of every day, I’m very thankful for our family, friends, customers and eNews subscribers.  Your friendship, kindness and encouragement has meant so much to me and the SewThankful crew over the years and especially in 2009.

As 2009 comes to a close, we are finishing year-end activities and physical inventory accounting. Additions will continue to be made to the bargains page until we’ve finished cleaning up, clearing out and close the book on 2009.

If you’re looking for our most recent additions, click here.

Be safe and enjoy your New Year’s Eve celebrations! Let’s ring in 2010 with joy in our hearts. We truly have sew much to be thankful for. Life is good.