Today we discussed how to fit your crafting into your schedule and did a book review of “Fabricate“.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you do to fit your crafting into your schedule.

This is my Log Cabin Dreams quilt all laid out and ready to assemble – my Chihuahua, Nacho, refused to stay off of it and had fun mixing up the pieces every few minutes.

Key words to remember:

Fabricate by Susan Wasinger is an excellent book.  I reccommend everyone to get it.  It is not a quilting book, but she has some innovative ideas that could be used in quilts.

In the world we live in, everyone’s life is so busy.  For most women, they are “working moms” as it takes more than one income just to make ends meet.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that they get a break from the day to day “mom” duties.  Many of us have to live double lives; we are career minded one minute and the soccer mom the next; the secretary at work and the doctor/dentist scheduler at home; office administrator by day and home keeper by night.  With all these responsibilities, how is the creative woman to find time to indulge in the simple pleasure of their favorite craft?

It comes down to simple Time Management techniques.  These simple, effective practices are taught everyday to business professionals can easily be used to fit your favorite hobby into your daily schedule.

• Make your hobby a “Rock” on your calendar.  One major task taught by Stephen Covey in his book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is to mark off time for the events of the week that are most important to you or things that cannot be changed; such as doctor’s appointments, meetings, kids events, . . . . and time to sew.
• Your creativity is NOT a priority, it IS a Core Value.  Priorities change depending upon the circumstances of the times.  Core Values are what make you who you are, so they never change.  Creative people are always creative; it shows in everything they do.  By blocking off time to focus on your creativity, even if it is just 15 minutes a day, it will grow into a bigger part of yourself.
• Break your larger goals down into smaller ones.  If your goal is to finish a quilt by a specific day, break it down into steps and set goal dates for each step.  Next break each step down further to what needs to be completed each week, couple of days, or day.  You will get more satisfaction when you are meeting your goals every day or week instead of every few months.  Plus you will feel more motivated working each day.
• Get satisfaction from doing a small amount.  Sometimes, all that can be fit into one day is only 10 minutes.  This is alright; a little of something is better than nothing at all.
• Organize your projects for easy use.  If you can only spare 30 minutes a day to work on your hobby, you don’t want to spend 20 minutes getting it out and ready to work on.  Keep it close with your next step ready to go, this way your full 30 minutes is productive.