wip wednesday & 100 days with ann

summer, or at least the school break, is over. i thought summer would be a perfect sewing time since our over-heated desert summers are like winters elsewhere - we survive them by staying indoors. however, after just a friday quilting bee day or two with jill, we never seemed able to hook up again and then the travel started. so no sewing. but now i'm home, settled in, and my stash is calling. with homeschool looming large and other obligations, i could do little more than glance at my pretties in passing. then ann inspired me with her "3 ways to make a new habit" post to pick up the needle just a few minutes a day at the least. and voila - just like that i'm sewing again!

ann suggests picking three habits to work on for 100 days, one habit in each category: new habits, creativity, health. she says do it and see where you are in 100 days, what you've added to your life.  her words over creativity struck me:

creativity: A project that’d be bliss to finish in 100 Days? Each day for 100 days, write it down… and after working on it — after even spending 10 minutes — check it off for that day!

i thought, "there are a dozen or more projects i'd like to have done in 100 days. but the way i'm going, i'll never get one of them done much less started. if i did pick just one and work on it for even 10 minutes a day, eventually i'll have something done - and something is better than nothing. i can do that! i can do 10 minutes a day."


love that caterpillar and lady bug - i'm inching forward on this project just like my little green friend there

and so i started.

monday nearly an hour spent making four rows of stictches on oopsy daisy. the baby it was meant for, almost 10 months old now, climbing all over the unfinished portion that draped down my knees onto the floor. "soon, little one, soon," i thought. "soon it will be done and yours for all the crawling and cuddling you want." she doesn't know it, but i do.
 


the row of ladybugs showing the colors used in the print on the selvage caught my eye this morning, and that bright red bird next too them

tuesday was right awful and i laid down in bed not caring about 10 minutes of anything but peace and sleep. but after a while, when sleep didn't come immediately and the house was still humming with activity, i got up and did one more row. just one. and it felt good.

now i have 11 rows completed. with approximately 8 rows per section and 6 sections total, that means i have about 37 rows to go. by the end of 100 days, i'll be long past this project and maybe the next one (finishing off out on a limb).

and then it'll be like ann said:

Use the 100 Days Calendar & Make a New Habit
Perfect for a good start
on a project, a dream, a prayer, a plan,
to number the days and get a good start
to do the real important,
to tend to the paramount,
like scheduling the time
so there’s more than enough to
smell a ridiculous amount of flowers.



a look at progress on the backside

 

i'll be cuddling those mass of flowers, not smelling them. but wrapping my baby in them will be a fine replacement for smelling. and these flowers won't fade much, will last for a very long time.