Feeling More Motivated

This Saturday, I woke up feeling a lot more motivated. I read a chapter of my current read in bed, which served to motivate me further. (It was a chapter about the fashion designer Stella McCartney's work and the work of others in the fashion industry to create and manufacture more sustainable alternatives to animal products for use in fashion. Incredibly interesting and inspiring.)

I then decided that I wanted to do some more hand quilting, but not on the heavy quilt I was currently trying to finish, no, I decided to start a new project, one that was small and could be done whilst watching TV. I decided to make another sewing machine cover of all things. I made my current one probably 7 or 8 years ago, and whilst there's nothing wrong with it, I just fancied making a new one in different fabrics in anticipation of getting my new machine as soon as it is back in stock in the shops (My Xmas present from OH).

As I couldn't use my current sewing machine, due to it not working properly and the sewing room being too full of stuff to get easy access to try to mend it, I decided that this one would have to be a paper pieced quilted one. Once I'd got up and dressed I hunted around for some fabrics with which to make it. This was made difficult by the fact that there is extra furniture in the sewing room at the moment, blocking access to a lot of my fabrics, so I had to instead focus on my scrap basket and what I could find in there. Luckily, there were plenty of pieces that were large enough for this small project.

Whilst I was waiting for OH to finish ripping up the hall carpet, I decided to cut out the cardboard templates and then the paper pieces I'd need for the project. It took me only about half an hour to do this so I would be able to start sewing it that same evening whilst watching TV. It felt really satisfying to be using up some of the many scraps of fabric I've accumulated and to have a project to look forward to doing in the evenings. I have just enough of a vintage wool blanket left to use as the wadding and other fabric to hand for the backing and binding.

For the remainder of the day, I decided it was time to get down to painting the woodwork upstairs in the hall. With the carpet taken up, it made it much easier and I didn't have to worry too much about drips of paint as they'd be covered when we eventually get a new carpet. I spent a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon doing just this, buoyed on by looking forward to starting my new quilt project in the evening.

To accompany the sewing, we've just started watching The Night Manager, which we missed first time around, and we've also recorded a couple of new to us Scandi crime dramas which we are trying out to see if we like them. We love to spend Saturday evenings watching these.

On Sunday, OH was going out for a bike ride, so I needed to walk the dog. When I got back, I had an appointment at the Waste depot to take the bits of hall carpet and a few other bits of rubbish kicking around the house and garden that just needed to be gone. It felt very satisfying to get rid of some clutter and rubbish and make a bit more space.

As the Waste depot was very close to ASDA, and as we had run out of some fresh essentials, I ended up dropping in once again to do a top up shop to keep us going next week. I do find it disconcerting how quickly food gets used up when we are all at home eating three meals everyday. I seem to spend my life going to the supermarket. The visit wasn't helped by the fact that I picked a wonky trolley and it was exhausting and complete torture trying to manoeuvre it around the supermarket. By the time I got home, my good intentions of doing more painting fell by the wayside and I had a super chilled afternoon sewing instead, whilst catching up on a few YouTube videos. A simple supper of egg and chips followed, which is a rare occurrence, a nice  frugal meal to end the weekend. A bit more sewing got done later whilst watching TV. Once I start a new project, I find it hard to put down until it's finished. I'm almost half way through this one now. I'll post a picture when it's finished.

Despite not getting done what I had intended this afternoon, this weekend still felt like it had been much more productive, which in my view made up for the lack of action during the previous week. I now feel much more motivated going into week 3 of Lockdown and hope that I can manage to be a little more productive whilst still enjoying the time that I do have.

How was your weekend?