A Continuation: How I get it all done….

So last I left you nap time was still happening and I had finished a blog post.  Well I ran around the kitchen trying to get everything I could done before the kids were awake.

I knew I wanted to tackle as much supper prep as I could so I put potatoes in the Instant Pot, then took a pan put carrots and brussel sprouts in it and laid that on top of the potatoes.  I do this all the time…cooking several things in the Instant Pot at the same time.  As long as their cooking time is close to the same it’s not a problems.  I put extra carrots in purposely..I’ll warm them up in the microwave for the kiddos tomorrow.  I also added extra potatoes as Karl and like fried potatoes.

All of this saves time later.  I also put a ham in the oven so it would be ready when Karl got home.  This was a Tuesday of last week and he has a night class on Tuesdays.  I like to have supper ready the minute he walks in the door.

The kiddos woke and I finished out the day of childcare.  I’ve learned a few tricks like setting an alarm to go off 15 minutes before childcare closes.  That was the kids can have their stuff picked up before their parents come and I don’t spend the evening doing it.

This day I got a message from a mom asking if her guy could stay late.  I said sure.  I close at 5pm and she was hoping to be here by 5:20ish.  After hours care is super laid back.  I let myself do my own things and the kids hang out…more like grandma care.  Well I asked this guy if he wanted to help me quilt.  He said yes.  He brought a stool up to the kitchen island and we “quilted”.  He was my counter.  I grabbed this that I told you I had in this morning’s post and started cutting.  We got done in about 15 minutes.

I didn’t cut up the pieces at the bottom of the photo.  All the other strips were brown based.  Although these match, I’m not sure if I want them for something else.  That stripe would make a great binding if there’s enough.  Being I really have not idea what this quilt is going to be, it’s okay if I wait on these.

There were these finished pinwheel blocks.  These are what started me on thinking about making pinwheels.  Hmm.  These are bigger than what I cut.  That’s okay.

I cut them down.  Rather than taking them apart…I just cut the block apart.
This all went on the stairs to take up to the sewing room tonight.  I’ll set the tote by the sewing machine and get to it sometime.

My little guy was still here so I grabbed these bonus triangles that were gifted to me and started squaring them to the size of the smallest square which was 3″.
The little guys mom came.  We visited a bit.  Karl came home.  We ate supper and I cleaned the kitchen.  I left the squares there for tomorrow and decided to write another blog post.

I was halfway through with that and Kalissa called.  I put my phone on speaker, went out to the kitchen and finished trimming the square while we chatted.  
We were still chatting so I grabbed the white based fabric and started cutting it.  I’m out of white based strings.  Anyway, after I had cut a few strips I decided that I really didn’t want this for the baby quilt.  I kept cutting anyway.  I’m going to make a red, white and black quilt as graduation gift so I’ll just have these cut out way in advance.

Kalissa and I got done chatting and I went back to writing my blog post….

Once that was done it was about 8:45pm and decided to go up and sew.  Borders went on the baby quilt that I had cut borders for but while that was happening, I started sewing the half square triangles that I had cut out in the morning as a leader and ender.

I was a little nervous about how that wild Kaffe fabric would look on this small baby quilt….I think I like it.
What do you think?

The colors are a more true to the first picture.

I dug around and found something that could work for a backing.  I set the top and the backing aside.  I would take that downstairs in the morning and over nap time I would prep it.  It’s a sheet so I need to trim off the edges, iron it and size it up.

By now it was 9:30pm.  I could go to bed but nope…I thought I would do a little tidying.  I did for about 15 minutes cleaning up the fabrics I had leftover from the baby quilt I just put together and other things.

I looked up at the clock.  Hmm.  9:45pm.  Ah.  I was going to sew the rows to that little topper together.  I laid it out and ugh.  These fabrics were so close together.  In a big quilt I wouldn’t have cared.  This is small and will be noticable.  I decided to rip out one more seam and reposition the row.

I did and then sewed the rows together.  I looked for a fabric that would go with the black background and found one.

I put the topper and the fabric in a tote and set that by the door.  I’d deal with that tomorrow.  By now it was 10:10.  Past time for bed.

So I shut off the lights to the sewing room and got ready for bed.  I went through my typical nightly regiment and shut my lights off at 10:50.  I could start again the next day at 5:30am.

That’s a fairly typical day for me.  I’m scattered across several projects.  That’s why at time when you’re reading the blog you say, wow.  You just started that and now you’re finished.  In all reality, I like started working on the project in bit and tiny pieces a week before I ever showed it to you.

I try really hard to squeeze little things in…finding the coordinating backing fabric one day…cutting it the next day and so on.

I often have at least this many project going at once.  Besides what I showed you this day, I have two other active projects in the sewing room.

I have no commute time to work.  I don’t have to change out of my work clothes.  I can prep supper during my work day.  I can do most of the laundry during the work day.  It’s just my laundry and the childcare laundry so it’s about four baskets a week.  I’m low maintenance.  I don’t fret about my hair..I don’t wear makeup.  I don’t sleep a lot.  I’ve only ever slept about 7 hours a day.  I don’t nap.

I have a lot of habits that free up time to sew….If I was a person that required more sleep time, would have less sewing time.  If I commuted to work, I’d have less sewing time.

I’ll admit.  After Kramer died I thought about getting a “town job”.  I decided no.  I was a stay at home mom…I wanted to be a stay at home grandma if I could (it’s not quite the same when I’m doing childcare for others but close) and I liked the lifestyle not commuting to work offered.  I like that I can throw in a load of laundry in the morning and change it at nap time.  I like that I have my “work break” during naptime and I can prep something to sew.  I like that I can bake with the kids and have leftover baked goods for our family.  So I’m sticking with childcare.

I do want to point out that this is my schedule now.  I have a new childcare baby due in January.  Things will change once that little one is here as babies don’t fit in the schedule and allow me to do much.  I’ll take what comes though as I really like the lifestyle childcare affords me…as in personal time…(Not so much the money).

So I hope that gives you a peak into a typical day for me so you can see how I get so much sewing done.  If you’re looking to sneak more time in…one of the easiest things to do is have more projects going at once.  It allows you to do bits and pieces of projects as your day allows.