Sewing by the Timer

I really hate how injuries, and maybe just growing old, make you change how you do things. I miss the days I could sew for hours on end, making the time DH is working fly by. I miss that, BUT I am thankful I can still sew! I have to work smarter, not harder. 

Now that I've got a nice pile of basted quilts, I'm well into my new habit of FMQ an hour a day. I literally set a timer, and quilt for one hour, then it's time for a break. 

After that break, I can either work on cutting a project, but I limit cutting sessions to 30 minutes, because they are harder on my arm. I have several must do projects that need to be cut out, but even 30 minutes a day will get them cut out eventually. If I have a lot of pressing to do before cutting, I give myself an hour of pressing/cutting combination. Then it's break time again, usually lunch.

After lunch, depending on how my arm is doing, I can piece blocks or assemble a quilt. Anytime I'm working with large amounts of fabric to move around, it harder on my arm, so I'll only sew an hour on assembly, but I will do up to two hours a day piecing blocks as long as my arm is feeling OK. 

It feels weird setting a timer to sew, but I lose track of time if I don't. If I do too much in a day, I really aggravate that repetitive stress injury, and I may not be able to sew for several days. I'm only sewing/quilting/cutting 2-4 hours a day now, when I used to do 8 hours easily. I'm kind of glad I've been concentrating on UFO's, because some of the work is already done, and I can see progress faster. 

Here is a quilt center I finished assembling this week. It's just draped over my cutting table. I need to press it then trim it up so I can add  borders.

Can you see the odd bits that need to be trimmed off? On point settings with pieced setting triangles can be pretty tricky. It shouldn't take long to trim it up, then I can cut the border, which will just be a dark blue. This quilt needs to be done by October, so it will be basted next basting spree. I just need to finish the top first!

I have all the fabric now to make the latest wedding quilt. This is a new engagement, and I could possibly get it done before the wedding. I ordered more fabric than I needed, because I want to make a quilt for my bed in one of the colors they chose for the new wedding quilt. Cutting both of those quilts will go into my daily cutting time, along with finishing cutting the big boy bed quilt for Mr. LJ I already started. 

There are some advantages to sewing by timer. I find I stay much more focused on what I am doing because I only have a limited time to do it. I probably get more done in my new timed hours, than I did when I wasn't timing myself. 

Another advantage is actually knowing how long it takes to do something. I am currently quilting a quilt that is 108" square, not a small quilt by any means. After quilting for an hour, I figured out how much I got finished, and realized I'd have the quilting finished after 10 one hour sessions. I know FMQ times vary drastically on what pattern you are quilting. I am doing a freehand allover pattern with leaves. I am so far behind on quilts, I definitely feel finished is better than perfect, I can meander faster than the leaf pattern, but I get sick of meandering. This was a good compromise, more interesting to quilt, but still easy and quick. 

Since I am quilting by timer, I find myself quilting on days I normally wouldn't have. Usually if DH is off work, I wouldn't go in the sewing room at all. Now, if he gets busy doing something, I go sew for an hour, then check in with him. I've been quilting on the current quilt every day, I haven't had a day I couldn't sneak in an hour so far. At that rate, I could finish quilting three queen/king sized quilts in a month, all while working on other projects too! Since I have five overdue wedding quilts, and now a sixth one to make, it is actually encouraging that I could get caught up in just a couple months. I know there will be days I won't be able to sew at all due to other obligations, but still, sneaking an hour is doable on a lot of days, and if I'm interrupted, my timer has a pause button!