Schizophrenia or Multi-Tasking?

I've heard about quilters who begin a project and don't even purchase fabric for the next project until the project is complete. I've admired and longed for that single-minded focus. It's just not me. Not only do I have many works in progress, I seem to make the best progress by working on several projects at the same time. Case in point, this week I sewed the rows on my red, white, and blue Firecrackers top, pinned the rows to the Autumn Ridge top and pinned parts of the 16 patches on my blue and white Strawberry Pie. Sometimes, all three projects were under the sewing machine needle as I chained sewed.

I seem to buy items in multiples, too. When shopping if I find a shirt or pants that fit, I almost always buy two of the item. If I really like it, I go back and buy two more in other colors or prints.

It struck me that I have the same pattern in my reading. This week I was following three different story lines. First, there was the book that I read in the evenings before going to sleep, Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber. I started bringing a book to son's swim meets. I don't want to bring a book from the library in case it gets wet. I grabbed a paperback copy of Quentins by Maeve Binchy to read just at the swim meets. I like to listen to music, podcasts or aubio books while sewing. I like to listen to something that I've already read so I don't have to follow the plot too closely. My choice this week is At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon. The Mitford series is one of my favorite "comfort" books. About once a year, I read or listen to the entire series again.

The thing is that this ability to work on many projects at one time is a big strength in my job. We definitely multi-task.There are times when our school media center library is a real three- ring circus. I thought I had adapted for the job, but maybe I've structured the job to my personality. Strength or weakness?

Peace in the Mountains

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

 Robert Frost's wonderful poem kept going through my head on our sewing retreat in the North Georgia Mountains near Blue Ridge, Georgia. Peace. Quiet. Humming sewing machines. Brenda, Pat and I spent three fun, productive days with no distractions at Brenda's mountain home. 

On the way to Brenda's house, Pat asked me "Do you think it has air conditioning?" Hmmm. I think Brenda would have told us if it was that rustic. Well, Brenda and Joe's "cabin" was a wonderful mountain retreat with air-conditioning and a dishwasher. We traveled several miles off the main road, through the woods, to their "subdivision." Once we were at the cabin,

the only other living creature we saw was the deer that came each evening at dusk to eat the corn that Brenda set in the clearing. Not one car, voice, animal - other than the three of us and our sewing "babies" - our little machines. We brought cooked food, but that was just because we needed to eat. There was coffee, wine, diet cokes, blueberry muffins, spaghetti pie, salad, chicken and more. On the second day, we never got out of our p.j.'s. Bra's were discarded almost immediately once we arrived :) 

Ironically, all three of us - Brenda, Pat and I - had major surgery in the last 12 months. We had "parts" taken out and parts replaced.This "me" time was need by each for us. The peace and quiet was so healing.

I worked mainly on my Autumn Ridge project from the book, The Best of Black Mountain Quilts. I probably did more reverse sewing (Pat helped me in that department, too) than actual block construction. I did finally settle into sewing one colorway log cabin block at a time instead of trying to chain-piece several at a time. The project is well on its way. I have it organized to resume sewing this week. I must have miscut one of the gold/tan/yellow logs. I couldn't find it once  at the cabin. Of course, I didn't bring extra strips so I had to move on to my other project. I'm making Pat's Strawberry Pie in blue and white fabric - left-overs from my Blueberry Pie Project. I'm renaming this one Blueberry Ridge. It's in great shape. I'm ready to pin the 16 patch blocks. I'll do that in the evening while watching TV with DH. 

Brenda has unique moose and bear items in the cabin. I kept noticing one-of-a kind items that I hadn't noticed before. This towel rack in the bathroom was one of my favorites.

Click over to Brenda and Pat's blog to read their accounts of our wonderful, peaceful, blissful retreat! I "borrowed" some of their photos for my blog. Thanks, ladies for an unforgetable three days!