So last Saturday I woke up and as I laid there in bed I thought about (as I often do) crafting. Usually I think about my current project but not this time. This time I was thinking about a certain kit that had in my closet. A quilt kit that had been sitting in there for almost year and a half. My vintage cowgirls were calling to me.

Then I thought about my sewing machine and how it has been sitting, collecting dust, for 3 months. It made me feel bad. It was high time I started on that quilt.

I think the thing that was keeping me from working on it was just sheer intimidation at the process. I have looked at the pattern book over and over again, yet I just felt totally overwhelmed by the whole thing. On Saturday I just decided to “just do it” as the cliche goes.

As I read through the directions and started working on it I decided to break the process down into do-able chunks. And the pattern kind of works out that way so it was very easy to do. The first step was to cut a each fat quarter into 5 two-inch strips. And it was really as easy as that. Cut a whole bunch of 2-inch strips and then sew them together. Then cut them again into 5 inch squares, which you then put back together into a pattern.

As I was doing this I thought about how awesome this is as a metaphor for accomplishing goals. The ones that seem big and overwhelming, like changing careers, or planning a wedding, or moving to another state, etc. Things are much less overwhelming when you break them down into smaller parts. Figure out what little things you need to do to get to that big thing and then just do them.

Live life in 2-inch strips.

I’ll be starting my new career as a motivational speaker in the near future (kidding!).

This past weekend (well, the one day of it) I was obsessed with sewing projects of a different kind. This has a bit of a back story.

For our Summer Reading Program each year I buy the t-shirt that goes with the theme of each year’s program. Our theme this year was “Catch the Reading Bug” and this is the shirt that was offered this year. I ended up with a large which looked ridiculously big on me and I hated wearing it all summer. I felt like a complete dork in it. So a couple of weeks ago I decided that I would cut it shorter so that I wouldn’t have to, at the very least, tuck it in (which I HATE doing with t-shirts). oops. I ended up cutting it too short, making it look even dorkier.

I had seen the book Generation T so I thought I would check it out and try some hacks on my “Reading Bug” shirt. Here is my creation, before and after:

This turned out way too tight and not suitable for work. But it was actually kind of cute! So I went to work on some other t-shirts. I made a hoodie and a really cute sleeveless t with ruched sides. I don’t have pictures of those but I will get some taken and show you. It was lots of fun. And now I’m kind of obsessed. I’m actually thinking that this would make a great teen program at the library…