If you want to join in the Stocking Swap it's not too late!!! You just have to have everything finished and ready to mail by the first week in December. This is a good thing since I haven't even started on January's mug and mug rug much less anything else. I am so far behind!!! I think I will try to make one thing every week or every two weeks if I am being practical, to try and catch up. Maybe by July I will be caught up and can continue on with making on item a month. Let's see, besides January's mug and mug rug, I need to make February's pillow cover for a 14" pillow form, March's - 2 matching pillow cases. Hmmm, I just made two, but I am not sure I could give them up. (they are Alexander Henry's men of Halloween. I also recently made the men of Christmas and blogged a picture of them), I think I will make other ones to give away. Since I don't know who my box will go to, I am not sure they would appreciate my men pillow cases. Plus, I want to keep them for myself. LOL Okay, April's pin cushion and a set of pins will almost get me there - I will also need to add in May's 4 placemats since tomorrow is the beginning of May. What happened to April? What??? We only have 5 weeks of school left? This is crazy! Really, can someone tell me where April went? I think it blew out of here with all the dust and wind we have been experiencing lately. (58 mph on Sunday and 25 - 30 everyday since. That doesn't include the gusts!)
The good thing is, I think I have two placemats finished and all I need to do to the other two in that set is to hand stitch the binding. That one can almost be marked off. Yea!! That is all I have to concentrate on for now to catch up in the swap, so I guess this weekend I will crank out the easiest thing for me, pillow cases. I have a few sets made (not just my men) and I could and may give one of those sets, but I have purchased fabric in the past year just to make into pillow cases so I need to make at least one set and maybe 4 or 5 sets. Now I have a sewing goal for this weekend. Okay, I know, the binding thing - I sewed all my black strips and trimmed them, but they are not pressed or ready to be used yet. That is another thing that needs to be done this weekend. One thing at a time, but those are at the top of my to do list. Do you have a to do list? I am going to have to put several things on mine to keep me focused in my studio or else I will go off on a tangent and make fabric or start a new quilt. I almost did that tonight and didn't get the binding done. But I did get it sewn and I also went through a ton of mail and threw away and shredded 2/3 of my stack. That always feels good. Do you let junk mail and magazines just pile up? I usually pick my mail up in the morning on the way to school, sift through it quickly when I get back in the car, pull out and read the personal letters and then put the rest in my school bag. Then when my bag gets heavy, I take it all out and stack it together. That is what I went through tonight, one of those stacks. Solicitations from credit card companies and insurance companies, advertisements from local stores and churches for special services or guest speakers, all those political flyers that the majority of the universe doesn't read (what a waste of money) and last but not least and one of my favorites, coupons from local eateries. Now, those, most of them, I will use. Well, not all of them, but at least one or two from each of my favorite places. I will sometimes take the rest up to school and share with my students.
