Deadline
What did you feel when you read the headline “Deadline”? Did it fill you with dread or perhaps get your adrenaline pumping? When I hear hear the word deadline, I chuckle. I expect this is a rare reaction, although there is a good reason for my response. It is something my mother, an editor and writer, once shared with me that causes me to giggle. She said she would like the epitaph on her tombstone to read “She never missed a deadline.” Ultimately, that wasn’t what she chose, but it still cracks me up.
Panic
When I was a child and my mother faced a deadline I felt and took in her panic. My father frequently did things last minute, too. He did his Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve, cavalierly stating it was the best time to shop since the crowds had thinned. No panic there. He saw doing things last minute as a benefit. It took me years to develop a system that works for me that is a compromise between panic mode and total relaxation.
Calm
What is my secret? Planning. I live by the motto, “Failure to plan is planning to fail.” I intend to submit In the Beginning to a call for entry with a July 31st deadline. I started working on it at in early January. I know from past experience how much I can piece in a week. I also know that I need to double that time for everything that must be done after the top is stitched together. Don’t forget the cushion! Life has funny way of tossing in the unexpected. So far, so good. I only have 3 more rows/weeks to go to complete the top. There is plenty of time to go from stitched top to finished quilt. I am calm, since I have the confidence this deadline can be met.
Rainbow Scrap Challenge
Ta da! Another deadline met. I have completed my two pink blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I even stitched them into their background. I wonder what next month’s color will be?
I’m linking up to the following posts:
Love those pink flowers! They look so cheerful!
Thank you, Mari. I’m hoping my fabric garden will provide year long blooms. 🙂
Love the way it is all coming together to create the bigger picture.
Maggie, I was tempted to post the full progression to date row by row. Like you, I love watching projects reveal themselves over time. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
The progress on your quilty version of Pillars of Creation is stunning. I love your RSC flowers, too. Thanks so much for linking up to TGIFF!
Thank you for providing the opportunity to link to TGIFF. Your positive words about In the Beginning are greatly appreciated.
Deadline and panic just send me into a tizzy; I seem to cease thinking. So I’m a planner too, so as to work calmly and enjoyably.
Good for you. I may be prejudice, but I believe planning is not only good for the planner, but for many their orbit, too.
Your pink flowers are wonderful! I am enjoying watching your Pillars of Creation quilt come together. It is a work of art!
It should be fun to see how the various colors and styles of flowers come together at the end of the year. It is one thing to design a quilt, another to execute it. Only three (technically 2 2/3) rows to go and I will have finished piecing In the Beginning. I just found what I hope will be the perfect backing for phase 2 of the project – quilting.
Hmmm, planning is not my best quality, and I admire you to work consistently on your project. For sure you will be ready on time!
Pretty pink flowers, well done with the RSC color of the month!
Thank you for sharing, and linking up 😉
It took me years to plan. Not sure it is a trait that comes naturally to many. Sometimes you learn from necessity. There was a time when I was a part-time college student, full time worker, married with a child. It taught me to compartmentalize and plan. No quilting then. 🙂 Thank you for sharing you thoughts.
Oh gosh – deadline makes my stomach drop – but then I get like you, make a plan, set the timeline and bam!! Get er done!! I like your In the Beginning – that is going to be so cool!!!
and those pink flowers are just gorgeous!!!
Good for you, Alycia, for not allowing a stomach plunge to keep you from making a deadline. I appreciate your kind words about regarding my current WIPs.
I can’t wait to see this all come together I, still absolutely luv this block,they remind me of the little plastic pinwheel toy you blew on to make it spin around,yea I’m m that old😄I believe I s going to be a beautiful quilt
I’m with you, Helen. I have a plan for how the garden will come together. It is one thing to design a quilt; another to actually create it. I drafted the flower blocks based on my favorites in a book titled Fantasy Flowers by Burbank. I must have purchased the book three decades ago, but at the time it felt too complicated for a novice quilter. Those flowers do look like pinwheels, don’t they?