practicing patience

Being with children all day and sewing are alike because both test my patience. I try to be calm and deal with each in a way that doesn't stress me out.

While in the States I bought several things I thought would help tackle being with the girls day in and day out. I love them to death but being with them 24/7 is sometimes a lot to take. And, I should admit that they do go over to their Grandma R's house a few afternoons a week, sometimes even the whole day. Thank God for that!

Even with all those lovely toys they have, kids always prefer something made up...like a fort made from a blanket and a table and couch for the supporting walls. Sometime things like this help occupy them and allows me to not feel the need to pull out my hair. It just takes the right tools.

With sewing it is a different kind of patience, but patience none the less. When I start something I like to complete it within the same sitting as when I started it. The project I have just started it is not even possible to finish anywhere near when I start it. I am making a blanket/quilt for the girls' bed. I plan to make two, one for each of them for when they get older.

I got all this really cute fabric from Hobby Lobby. I got a yard of 8 different prints. I figure I would use all of them in each blanket. That way they can be similar but I plan to make them different.


My parents got me a self-healing mat for my birthday. I used to have a rotary cutter that I had sold at my garage sale pre-moving to Mexico (May 2008). Heather was the one to buy it and found it in her house not too long ago and gave it back to me. She is so sweet. I bought one of the rulers that goes along with the mat. So now I am set.

After spending about 20 minutes and cutting 2 of the pieces of fabric, I am ready to be done with it.

After having done only this much I took a small break, went out back took some laundry off the clothes line (you know, our dryer caught fire...still waiting for the Whirlpool guy to get here) and folded them. That gave me a small enough break to come back and cut two more pieces of fabric. So now I have cut half of what I need in order to START sewing.

You might remember I started a different quilt a ways back. It is still *started*. Hopefully I can finish that one day too.

I can tell you, just like that blanket for the fort, there are certain tools that definitely help the process. That self-healing mat and rotary cutter are sent straight from heaven. If I didn't have those it would have taken me...well, let's just say I would haven't started this new blanket.

I am still a work in progress. The first step is admitting a problem, right? Just wish me luck!