The Party Basket

Today's free quilt pattern is the Party Basket. It is an original block that I designed. I love basket patterns, but most of the traditional baskets look best on point and I wanted to make a basket for a 12" block. I also wanted to have the basket full without using applique. That's how I came up with this pattern.

Today's topic, Time To Quilt.
I work Tuesdays-Fridays. Everyday, while at work I think of all the quilting I can do when I get home. The day ends, I ride my bike 4 miles home, cook dinner, wash dishes and watch TV. No quilting. On Fridays I think of three days off and all the quilting I'll get done. Saturday mornings Tom (my husband) asks what do you want to do today. My answer is always the same, "Whatever you want, but if you don't have any ideas I'll sew all day." Last Saturday we walked Boomer, got groceries, then went to Big Rapids and rode bikes on the Rails to Trails path. We rode 26 miles! My longest ride so far. I got home about 6:30, scrounged leftovers for dinner, did dishes and watched TV. On Sunday, I spent about three hours re-illustrating the Party Basket pattern. The original illustrations were done by hand, but now that they're being published on the web, the illustrations had to be drawn on the computer. I did a little sewing. My current project is a Center Diamond quilt with Flying Geese borders. The Center Diamond is done, and I pieced about 50 of the 120 Flying Geese units. This morning I helped my daughter get ready for class. She's taking classes at the local community college and has a cold, so was a little slow to start. Then I washed dishes (my dishwasher has been broke for about 5 weeks and the new one is coming today!). I vacuumed the kitchen floor, so the dishwasher installers don't have to sit in dirt and while the vacuum was out, did the living room, dining room and other miscellaneous places Boomer has been. It was fairly cool so I weeded half of a garden bed with the help of Boomer. I pull two weeds and he drops his ball in my weed bucket. I throw the ball and it goes on this way until one of us is tired. I usually poop out first, as I did this morning. Now it's 9:45 and I'm ready to sew, but I want to get my Blog done.

Now the story of my days is not very exciting, but I was thinking of all the little things (housework, errands) and big things (husbands, kids, pets) that distract me from what I really want to do QUILT!

How do you find time to quilt? Do you squeeze it in anywhere you can? Sew a little everyday? Is it a priority that comes before more mundane chores? Do you take handwork with you? My fantasy is to have a fabulous sewing room (mine's not bad), a brand new Bernina (mine's 12 years old), a great fabric stash (done) and unlimited time to work (not anytime soon). I don't know if this will ever come true, but I feel lucky to have found a hobby that has captured my interest for 34 years.

Time to go, I get to quilt until the dishwasher is delivered!