Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Today is"Blursday"...

Every day is "Blursday"

When this business of staying home and physically distancing from everyone first began I fiddled around for the first week trying to get used to things... 

each day feeling the same as the last, knowing that when I went to bed at night it would be set to "repeat"
 over and over again
then waking up and having to think about what day it was, the days all blurring together in a strange mix of sameness...  it was very disconcerting and and so I came up with a sort of plan for my days...

an hour of this, an hour of that - time every day for housework and yard work, quilting and hand-stitching - even cooking and baking

each day was like a marathon, running from one thing to the next

tick, tick, tick went the items on the daily "To Do List" but there wasn't much satisfaction in it-sure I accomplished something every day, but everything seemed to take such a long time to finish

like the quilt you see in the photos below
(not the best pictures but lately it's either been way to bright and sunny or way too dull and dark to get a good photo)

 three years ago, the plan was to make a queen-size quilt using the pattern "My Three Stars" by the Buggy Barn
I pieced the large stars but then things came to a standstill for three years, so this was first on the "Finishing Old Projects List"

28 large stars
26 medium stars
28 small stars

it took two weeks of one hour per day to get the medium and small stars done and when I started laying out the blocks on the living room I didn't like what I saw - half the blocks are light stars on dark backgrounds and the other half are dark stars on light backgrounds

and so the quilt looked like a hodge-podge, a mish-mash

a mess

after stewing on it for a day or two I decided to give up on a new bed quilt, separate the blocks by background and make two lap quilts, one dark and one light

below is the dark one laid out


and here is the light version


here is what I'm thinking of for a border

since these kind of match I want to make the borders the same size and keep the match thing happening


working on these for an hour each day, day in, day out...day after day

it got tired, and I got cranky

flitting from here to there and back again... so I decided a change of approach was needed and I made a new plan

each day I do one thing  - a day for house and yard work, one for quilting, another for painting/ sketching

more focus, better concentration and I think even some time savings

it's so easy to get distracted these days - do you find that too? 

I'm hoping working in this way will help with that by allowing me to fully immerse myself in what I'm doing without having to keep one eye on the clock and not constantly assessing what I got done and what needs to be done the next day - I can work knowing I have the whole day 

I figure it's worth a try...



7 comments:

Christine Barnes said...

Jillayne, what a post to wake up to! Apart from the stunning images of your quilts you have tapped directly into my own current frame of mind. Like everyone else I am wallowing in so much more free time because of the lock down and like you I am fortunate that have plenty to do to keep myself occupied. I have relished the extra time but also find myself dividing up my day too tightly with time blocks for this and that, one eye on the clock, feeling the opposite of relaxed and feeling unsatisfied and exhausted with my day by evening.

This lock down home time for me is a transition into redundancy and early retirement into which I will enter strangely and surreally seamlessly in just over a week. I suddenly realised that I will not be returning to work... no last day or run up. So this has been a kind off practice period for retirement and I find that I need to consider a different way of structuring my life. The division of time on a daily basis is not working.

I like your idea of seeing time as units of a week divided by whole days rather than days divided by hours and the possibilities that brings. I will try that. I have made my peace with my redundancy and am now relishing my retirement... I need to get it right! Thank you for bringing your thoughts to me this morning. They have cleared a space to see a bigger picture in my own head.

oldgreymareprimitives said...

We're all just stumbling along. I have been in semi isolation for over 2 years now. I beat myself up a lot at first when I did not accomplish my plans. As time passed I decided to follow what I felt like each day. Some days were just a series of naps- others exhausting and not a good idea for me. Now total isolation for going on 8 weeks and I accomplish even less it seems as I have learned not to sweat the small stuff and just float on the flow. I have no where to be and no one to see. The only things I miss,: my kids and library books. I sorely miss reading.

Your quilts are lovely. Very much my style.

susan hemann said...

I'm struggling the same way, day in and day out without fulfillment
I'm getting things done but it's not satisfying

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

*Blursday*, what a perfect description of time these days. I like how you've made the large quilt into two smaller ones that you are happy with. They are really nice. Love, hugs and prayer ~ FlowerLady

Rachel said...

We're all going to learn a new sort of time and self-management during the period. In some ways I have it easy, because since my current project is goldwork, I have to do it before the sun hits the frame!

Magpie's Mumblings said...

You'll notice it's taken me awhile once again to comment - but you know I wait until I have a nice space of time to savour your posts. This one gave me pause for thought once again and I so agree with you that these are odd times and it's hard to settle ourselves into any sort of routine without flitting off into tangents in entire other directions and forgetting what the original plan was. I was doing okay up until a couple of days ago when I was hit with knowing I have to make at least 40 more face masks on top of the nearly hundred I've already done. There's nothing creative about doing them....they're boring....they're repetitive...and, at least for me, they're depressing. There have been several stern self-talks and a realization that I shouldn't be whining because so many others have it far worse than I do. I must keep reminding myself that using up my stash is a good thing. Now, as for your wonderful quilt(s) - I'd be tempted to put them together so they're reversible. Then you could change the look by simply flipping from one side to the other. Just a thought! Either way, I do like them but I know I'd find it hard to resist adding some embroidery. Take care of you!

Karen said...

this whole situation is very unsettling. Although my day to day hasn't changed at all I still find my time filling skills lacking. The day is gone before I really accomplish anything and I make plans for the space afforded by the next day but then am scratching my head again wondering how I managed my time before all this.
I am starting to think it's a subconscious anxiety, a disruption which also disrupts my thought process, makes me dither, delay, faff too much...hours are spent worrying about children who are miles away, elderly parents also miles away....none of this is normal so how can we be 'normal?