Busy, Busy but still Focused, Focused - Part 14 - I think?

Well here I am, still here plugging along getting things done. Although I haven't had much time to pieced my Focus, Focus project, I have been very busy and very focused on getting stuff done and that feels good.

Muslin stuffed forms for the sale are already for paint.

This is one project that is taking a lot of my time lately. As you know I have a home show in October and I am still feverishly working on the projects for that. It would not do to have nothing to show at the Home Show, now would it?

My sewing room is doing double duty as a craft and paint
station.

Now that the forms are made I must get them painted and finished. I also have half a dozen other projects I would like to finish, but I am thinking they may have to be for another show. Wow, time does fly!

These are the Rosettes for my daughter's room, which I have
also decided, needs to be finished!

These are the boards that go with the Rosettes.
They are all cut primed and painted, just have
to be installed now!

Not bad, huh, I have been getting many projects caught up, but time it seems is catching up with me as well.
The plan is to install the trim this afternoon and make the curtains in the next couple of days, but it is time to go back to work, pray my energy holds out.

I have also been working on fall cleaning and other odd jobs around the house, everything seems to be getting done. I still have the kitchen floor to paint and the stairs to retouch before the sale, but I think we will make it.

In the mean time....

Focus, Focus, nearly completed top.

                                          ....will have to wait, but when I get there I will have just a couple rows to add and voila - it will be done and ready to be quilted! I can't wait to put it on my bed!

So in the mean time, enjoy Fall and ...

                                                  KEEP ON KEEPING ON!

Take care, Joanne

Focus, Focus Part 13 - New books and busy work.

The last couple of weeks I have been busy reading. The culprit of my reading and new book acquisitions is mostly due to The Temecula Co. blog which has been displaying adorable doll sized quilts and the books that inspired them. Viola, I have Childhood Treasures and Small Endearments!  I have also always wanted the Barbara Brackman books, I love American History so they are a really good read for me, with the bonus quilt patterns as a prize.

These are all great books for inspiration!

I always buy the Fall issue of Country Gardens, it gives me something to ponder for next years garden. Well at least a wish list for the gardens I wish I had, if I weren't busy quilting. This one has a neat little building made of cord wood and an even neater bottle placed in the wall for the birds to nest in. Very Cool!

Fall issue of Country Gardens by Better Homes and Gardens.

Walt Whitman has a simple way with prose that
keep me grounded in what is here and now.

Walt Whitman's Songs of Myself written in 1881 seems soothing in a world moving at a dizzying pace.

The Spirit of the Quakers is an anthology of letters
written by Quakers old and new.

While this book doesn't actually teach about the religion its self, it does give the reader an insight to what it means to the writers of the letters contained within.  I enjoy their descriptions of the meetings and what the movement means to them personally. I think maybe it might be a better way to view different religions, to see it through the eyes and hearts of the practitioners. I think you really can't understand a society or its history unless you look at the various religions that are practiced and are important in shaping the people of that society.

As for Focus, Focus, I have to admit that I have been lagging. It has been a busy couple of weeks and it was my week to work a stretch, leaving little time for focused sewing. I have been busy rearranging the house for the sale in October, which it occurs to me that I should let me neighbors know is happening. Oh well, add it to the list.

My days off last week were used reclaiming a under used guest room and making it a reading room, which will also work much better to display items for the sale. Out went the twin bed and all the quilts on it and all the stuff under it, in went a small table, a tall narrow chest of drawers, and a book shelf. Out of the closet comes the small bureau and doll's house that was my mothers. All that is left is to quilt the tablecloth and deciding what to do with the books on the shelves behind the door.

It occurred to me this morning that I still have to repaint the kitchen floor and stairs, and repair the wooden scarecrow that will serve as a sign by the road. Oh and I probably should clean the carpets and finish a few bazillion projects to sell. Maybe, I will just settle in with Walt again.... hummm, I guess that won't do. Time to go and get it all done!

Have a great and happy day! I hope all in your world is as busy as mine, enjoy! Joanne