The ledger

Armed and ready.

The pump is primed.

Locked and loaded (shouldn't that be 'loaded and locked?').

However you say it, I am rarin' to go! The cats have been fed (and may be content for a little bit); I've cleaned and oiled the machine once more; wound the new color on a bobbin and threaded the works, and; I've got my glass of chocolate milk nearby.

Let's quilt!

Bud has an early shift at his store today, and plans to play after work, so that just leaves Karl and me to worry over - and let's face it, that boy is about as low maint as they come.

I began a book (a ledger, if you will) to keep myself on track and on task with the quilting projects, because let's face it - quilters and fabriholics need reigning in from time to time in order to keep it real.

Oh, I know. Boo, hiss, no fun.

Well, being unemployed has cast a rather harsh reality light on the business of buying fabric "because it's pretty and I'll be able to use it in that quilt, you know the one, someday." Or, "if I don't get it now, it might not be here when I'm ready for it." Or, "it's on sale...I have to."

Yeah, yeah. After the other four (or fourteen) projects already in the works are finished, you'll get right to it. Ri-i-i-i-ght.

I hear ya. I've been there.

I'm still there, and that's why I am trying to keep it real with a ledger. Keeping track of everything on the written page keeps me honest with myself, and I have the added beauty of keeping all of my notes and little sketches about my little beauties in one place! Not pinned to a wall, scribbled on the back of an envelope, or in a folder in a desk drawer (or, worse yet, on the desk somewhere covered with mounds of other stuff). Nope, it's easily transported to any place around the house or to the car, etc. I keep it with me when I change locations and/or tasks, that way if I have an idea - poof! - I can write it down and then relax.

My list is long, too long in fact, but it was longer and with the help of the ledger I have been whittling away at it.

I gave myself permission to start (and work on) this current project out of turn, but it was for a very good reason. Now that it's almost done, I am ramping up to get back to work on the items listed in my ledger. Toughest decision there will be to figure out which project to work on first, but that's something I have been giving some thought to these past couple of weeks.

Do I work on those quilts closest to completion, or the pieces that have been longest in the pipeline (in various stages of quiltedness), no matter where they are in the process of becoming a quilt?

Maybe I should start a section in my little notebook for "decisions." Ha!

Well, however you do it, here's to your list of tasks and quilting promises. Let me know where you're at and what you're working on.