The beauty of procrastination...

This past week I had about ten things that really needed to get done around the house. When faced with this intimidating list, what did I do? I broke out the Bali Pop and started a new project!

The initial layout:  a sneak peek

You know how it is when you get an idea in your head and nothing's quite right until you follow through with it? It's a great rationale for putting off doing something else, and it happens to me a LOT. Half the time I get started and don't like where it's heading (which is why I have such an astounding pile of UFOs) -- that makes it a little easier to return to The List, but in this case, I was loving where it was going and The List, for the most part, got neglected.

Given the snow (~6") and cold (in the teens all last week and ZERO yesterday!), it was perfect weather for sewing. Well, rearranging, mostly -- I got all the blocks on my design "wall" (three yards of white felt suspended from the kitchen cabinets -- Archie's quite disappointed), made a big mug of hot chocolate with steamed milk (yum!) and started moving things around to get it balanced. Not one to rush the process (and not wanting to fix the toilet), I rearranged for a couple days, walking past and squinting, looking at it in different light and without my glasses, until it finally looked good. In between I got around to a few to-do's, but not as many as I should have, and I'm feeling a little guilty.

I wasn't as quiltingly productive in 2009 as I'd hoped to be (feeling a little guilty about that, too), so I'm hoping that this little quilt will help kick-start a whirlwind of creativity. That UFO pile isn't going to finish itself, and I have a lot of stash to get through!

So quilting today...then I fix the toilet.