Balance sought, not yet found

At the start of this teaching session I warned you it might take me a while to find some balance, but now, here we are 7 weeks into classes and it'll all be over next week (we teach 2 sessions each university semester), and still, I never found a way to balance work, quilting, blogging, and housekeeping.  Well, that's not exactly true.  Life does have a balance, but blogging just never made it smoothly into the equation.  I go to work, prep after class, clean the house as necessary; we've scaled back on our play-date schedule, but we spend lots of quality time the 3 of us.  Every night I cuddle with George in bed as he falls asleep and I've somehow found a way to slow it down and really enjoy those moments, instead of wishing he'd fall asleep faster so I could get up and go do something else.  I think AmandaJean's new year's resolution to be more intentional has found a place in my life as well, but I'm not just trying to be intentional with my sewing, but with all of my actions.  If it's not worth it, I don't do it, and then I release myself of the guilt and don't worry about it either.

A few weeks ago I sorted through all the big pieces of fabric in my stash (haven't tackled the fat quarter bins yet).  This was brought on mostly by the fact that they had migrated off the shelves and onto lopsided stacks all over the futon and the rest of the room, and I needed the futon to be cleared off so I could use the space to organize another project.. but the process was really insightful.  I touched each piece of fabric and decided if it was something I wanted to work with this year, or if I should shelf it for "later".  I have this goal to bust stash, and you can't really bust efficently if you don't know what you have.  You can't make quilts you like if you can't find the fabrics you love, and for me, they were all there, I just couldn't find them.  So I sorted and I thought, "What colors and patterns do I want to have around me?"  Out came all the strange prints that I loved but didn't know what to do with, and a stack emerged of balanced neutrals, small prints, and sentimental fabrics collected on trips here and there.  those are the ones I want to live with..  I'd take a picture if the light in the sewing room weren't so bad (damn overcast day)..
But hopefully you'll see those fabrics put to use over the next few months. 

I'll end with a photo of the pillow I made for my mom for Christmas.  I sent it off to her before I could get a good photo, but snaped this one when we went to Chicago in January.  The center fabric is one in my "neutrals" pile.. I'd like to use up the rest of that piece this year..