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Permalink Reply by the rogue quilter on May 8, 2012 at 1:30pm

i do stay home all day - most of the time. sometimes i take a day and go join a group of quilters in a nearby town that meets every tuesday. such fun and welcome break from being unemployed and staying at home. hahahaha.

am in right now, taking a break from a too warm morning sun. started out back this a.m. 5:30 - been cleaning weeds etc from backside of house where i hope to get the deck rebuilt and extended to cover the bare area where the weeds like to grow. i will be going back out to install a couple of gate valves that i didn't get put in last week - for drip lines. then finish turning on water system and walk down lines to ck for bad sprinklers or breaks so i can start watering trees. fruit and ornamental.

you wish you didn't have a job so that you could stay home all day and quilt? ...heehee so do i!

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Permalink Reply by Danielle Braley-Winkle on May 9, 2012 at 7:41am

I would love to be able to stay home, improve my skills/knowledge and turn my enjoyment into $$$$.... but that's not my reality today. My husband & I both work ft, recent emptynesters=more free time for ourselves, and are early risers. There are days that I will get up at 3:30 a.m. to sew and leave the house @ 6am for work. Get home @ 5pm and do my best to give myself another hour to relax in my room and do what I enjoy. Life is short, the dishes, dust, etc will be there waiting~that was hard for me to adjust to, but I've managed & my hubby as learned to do a bit more fending for himself, while still encouraging me with my projects.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra Kerrigan on May 9, 2012 at 7:56pm

I completely understand.  I work full-time from a home office, travel fairly consistently and have 2 children left at home. My schedule is incredibly full. Sometimes I make time to sew/quilt, and find that I try to fit in all the lost time into a 4 hour window of sewing, which will also wear me out.

 

I agree with one of the earlier comments though - dust, laundry, housework etc. will always be there. However, it doesn't go away either. Just builds up. Where's the balance?

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Permalink Reply by the rogue quilter on May 11, 2012 at 12:13am

danielle, sandra...hooray for the permission i granted my dust bunnies to roam free and happy years ago!! my dh still enjoys telling folks about my stuffing all the dirty dishes in the oven when i was expecting him. i worked regular shifts and was invariably asked to stay over to help out...it seems all the crises occurred at shift change. lollollol....then there was the wee one that joined our little nest...and back into the oven the dishes went...i needed to take every moment i could to snuggle and love on him before he was too old for such "nonsense" :)

and now we are empty nesters...dh leaves at 5a and i am up and out to work on our rural property by 5:30a in summers later in winters...need that daylight! fixing irrigation pipe, moving dirt/gravel, building retaining walls whatever...it is a ft job ...no bennies, low pay....excellent job satisfaction, tho when i do finally end my day...unfortunately i am, like you tired from my day of work...and do what i can to steal a few moments [after the dirt and sprayer slops showered off] to play with my fabric and ideas.

so cudos to all the ladies here that still find the time and energy to care for family needs, job expectations and still find time to exercise their creative spirits.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra Kerrigan on May 11, 2012 at 10:45am

Rogue quilter! You made me smile! I am approaching the big "50" in February. As you can imagine I've been working for several years... I never thought I'd see the day when I would actually look forward to retirement ( hopefully someday). That is when I envision I will pour myself into quilting. I am learning as I get older... and older... that you can only eat an elephant 1 bite at a time. With that said my dust bunnies have lots of flexibility to fly. I try to take my house work a little bit at a time most days... rather than trying to do it all at once. Always working for the weekend!!!

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Permalink Reply by the rogue quilter on May 12, 2012 at 12:46am

Lollol...my bd is mo day this yr...& I will not publish the stage of decrepit that I am reaching .. Hahaha. Needless to say. I know for a fact that we can wander merrily into the future for ever & ever, & never get to that mythical time in our lives when we, miraculously, have TIME!!! But keep the dream alive!!!

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Permalink Reply by viki hagan on May 12, 2012 at 10:24am

I too stay home all day, mostly because of an illness now, which means I can't work as hard as I once did. I also gave my dust bunnies free range, I have so many more interesting things to do with the little energy I have than to clean house with it. The decor is now early stages of a tornado hit it. I try to keep it from getting much past that stage, lol. And I do spend most of my time working on quilts. Just like everything else in life, burn out happens, it's a wonderful dream but reality is always a different story. Enjoy working and the extra paycheck while you can, you'll be home all the time soon enough...what I wouldn't give for a day out of the house, someplace they actually pay me to be.

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Permalink Reply by the rogue quilter on May 12, 2012 at 2:41pm

Here-here ..to paraphrase the Brits. Again ..well said. When my empty nest finally happened, I was informed that I, too, have a permanent little medical issue - I just call it my forever flu - cause thats what it feels like. thank the good Lord that He brought the friend who brought quilting into my life, ...when I can't see to knit or other hand work. ..I can still sew & piece. And to paraphrase that busy busy lady Martha .... "that's a good thing."

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Permalink Reply by Cheri Foster on June 25, 2012 at 3:43pm

I work full time and then come home and I see housework that needs done, the garden needs tending, the dog wants to play and the dh says whats for dinner? I also need my daily time with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So that does not leave me alot of quilting time. I set aside the third Saturday of the month when we have our women's crafting day at the church. But I will have three uninteruppted days of quilting when me and my besties go to the Wild Rose Quilt Shop in Orting WA (check them out)http://www.thewildrosequiltshop.com/wild_rose_retreat.asp. They have a small self contained retreat center upstairs. Sleeps 10. We leave Thursday June 28 at 7:15 am and return home saturday June 30 at 7:30 pm. I am so excited I can hardly wait.

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Permalink Reply by Cheri Foster on June 25, 2012 at 3:51pm

This will be my first time getting away just to quilt. I don't know if I can contain myself. My house is not immaculate, but comfortably cluttered.

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Permalink Reply by Cheri Foster on July 6, 2012 at 11:57am

Hi everyone, I am back from my quilt retreat and this is the first chance that I have had to tell you how lovely it was to do nothing except eat, sleep and quilt for 3 days. I had delusions that I could complete my entire quilt in that time. I was doing a sunbonnet sue quilt. But I got all of my blocks done and started putting it together there. I finished putting the rows together on the 4th and got one of the borders on. I will put on the remaining borders on saturday. I will post a picture of it as soon as it is quilted. Toodles.

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Permalink Reply by the rogue quilter on July 6, 2012 at 5:45pm

looking forward to seeing it! i love sunbonnets...tho the only one i have made into wallhanging & potholder for xmas swap was the one imade a pattern from of my grmmas quilt top. will posr pics of ot sometime. only one ihave ever seen.

glad ya had funonyoir retreat!

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