Thursday, February 19, 2009

Electric Quilt, Decisions

Playing With Design

Thanks to the wonders of EQ software, I have scanned the fabrics for the baby quilt into the computer and uploaded them to the design software.

Bammo! I'm on my way. Now, if I could only choose between the thirty-five permutations of the same design. I think I have it narrowed down to one of two designs:




Help!!! I gravitate toward one, because of my own prejudices toward color. But that doesn't mean it's baby-appropriate. Keep in mind, though, that I'm making a larger quilt so it can stay with the kid longer than just being a baby. I'm so torn!

Tell me what you think!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Focus

Here it is: My Achilles Heel.

My eyes are too big for my stomach. Literally and figuratively. For now, let's focus on the figurative.

Outside of my day job, I am a writer. I am a quilter. And I am beginning to see myself as an artist. Right now, all of these are dreams competing for my attention. Since I do have the aforementioned day job, which in a good week takes up 40-50 hours of my time, it doesn't seem like I have enough hours in the day for all my dreams.

So one of them has to take a backseat.

Unfortunately, I think that has to be the quilting.

The dream on the writing front is to revise my novel, get it published, and somehow magically become a full-time writer. My reasoning goes that this is a shorter, more certain road, than making a living off my quilting. But, when the day does come that I set my own schedule, am my own boss, I should have more flexibility for working my quilting into my life in a big way.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not going to stop cold turkey. I'm not even planning to stop, period. I just think that I need to downgrade the quilting to hobby for now, with fewer competition goals, less time set aside for quilting. Rather than spend time on the quilting every day, I am going to start spending time on the writing every day, setting the quilting aside for weekend fun.

In the meantime, I'm setting the artichoke quilt aside for now. Almost. I'm going to try to get to a good stopping place this weekend, then set it aside. I will then turn my attention to the baby quilt, due to a shower at the end of March.