Back to Blogging - No Excuses!

Okay - I'm back, and I'm not going to let over 2 months slip by before I blog again. I have to laugh at myself because I remember thinking when I first started writing that I would write almost every day. I even saw a few other bloggers that had participated in a blog every day for 30 days challenge where you could get a little icon for your blog that showed that you had succeeded. I thought, "I could do that". I guess not - at least not then, but now I'm turning over a new leaf! Last time I blogged, my obsessions were in the areas of cooking and baking. As you might recall, I was quite proud of myself for planning and cooking sit-down meals for the family and for keeping up with the Bread Baker's Challenge. Unfortunately, that obsession is long gone and I'm on to sewing, and I'm really not exaggerating when I say obsession. It's really actually pretty unhealthy, but I really can't stop myself. I have to work on finding a better balance. As I'm typing those words, I can hear myself thinking, "Yeah, but as soon as I finish working today, I'm going to start working on my next quilting project." Yikes, sigh, I really do need to find a way to fit in everything I love to do and everything I need to do. I really, really HAVE to work, so that's pretty easy, but what I find the hardest is when I get home and have to choose between making a dinner that the kids will probably hate anyway and spending some time with my sewing machine. Oh yeah - and about those kids - I should probably spend some time with them, too. The other thing I can't stand is spending precious crafting hours in the car carting kids around to their various activities. Yesterday, I had to be in two places on opposite ends of town at the same exact time. I suppose the whole work-family-hobby balance issue is an age-old dilemma. I'll definitely share if I figure it all out, and please post a comment if you've figured it out and are willing to share. On the positive side, my hours spent sewing have made me really happy. I will post some photos of my projects soon, but one of my favorites is this beautiful quilted Advent calendar by Oh, Fransson. All of her quilts are just gorgeous. I love her white sashing (which I actually didn't know was called that until I read some of her posts). I've made a few quilt tops before and had even tried some machine quilting on one, but I didn't really get the backing on right, so I had little puckers everywhere which really bugged me. I had never gotten as far as the binding, but Oh Fransson has some great tutorials that walk you through how to do EVERYTHING, so my Advent calendar came out perfectly. Oh - just typing about it makes me want to start another one right NOW!