Rotation System

 

If you have a lot of craft projects going at once you know how some fall down to the bottom of the sewing basket and never see the light again. While I try to finish one project up at a time before I start another it's hard to do when I like doing a variety of crafts.

 

 

Some time ago when I was cross stitching I read in a magazine how to use your project time wisely. When I find some projects getting out of hand and probably not going to get finished before I flit off to the next project I follow the instructions in the magazine to start up a rotation system. Over time I created my own way of doing this and it works for me. You can use this as a starting point to see what works for you.

 

 

 

Rotation System:

 

Step 1: Gather all your craft projects you are currently working on. Find yourself large snap lock bags.

 

Step 2: Sort all the projects out so you have the instructions/charts/patterns/threads/materials all together for that one project and pop it into a snap lock bag and label that project 1.

 

Step 3: Do this for every craft project you have out. Labelling each one as Project 1, Project 2, and so on.

 

Step 4: Look at each project and see how much is done on them. One might be nearly completed label this project as 90%. Another might only have a small amount done say 10 %. Another might be 50%. Label all the projects and the amount you think is left on them.

 

Step 5: On all the projects work out how much time you can allot during the week, every day, or night, or morning. Say 1hr or 2hrs. Write on all the bags how much time you are willing to work on each project during the week.  By now every bag should have all of it's instructions and materials to finish the project. It should be labeled Project 1, or 2, or so on. It should have the amount of time you can devote to it. The pile of baggies should be in a basket or box you can have easy access to.

 

Step 6: When your week/weekend starts begin work on the project you are likely to finished first or want as a focus piece to finish. All the projects have a 2 hr time limit to work on. You work on one for 2hrs and move on to the next. If you finish a project the 2hr time is alloted to the next project in the rotation.

And that's my way of doing a simple rotation system. Clear as mud, eh? Of course you can throw everything out the window and just work on what appeals to you whenever the mood strikes. Which is called: The screaming rotation.

I hope every one is having a good day or evening wherever they are.

Gray day

 

It's a gray sort of day today with what looks like the promise of rain on the way. Our glorious spring days seem to be gone but they will likely be back again. It's a good day for puttering around. I made oat scone, with a crunchy sugar cinnamon topping which goes just nice with a good slather of butter and jam on a fresh out the oven slice.

 

I noticed the other day on one of my previous posts how I spelt a word wrong on this junk journal page, today I added a little white out and fixed up the mistake.

 

I'm also finding some old clothes I no longer like to wear and cutting them up for the material to use in future sewing projects. The floral material was a old padded coat hanger. The material needs to be washed and is only narrow and small but I can be use for small things like sachets.

 

Speaking of mistakes this set of seven dishcloths tea towels just doesn't want to be done. I sorched one. Moved the transfer on another while ironing and this one I ironed back to front, don't ask me how, so the letter for the days of the week is back to front. I think I'll stitch it up and cover the lettering up with a pretty piece of floral at the bottom. Shh. No one needs to know. I read on the web I might be able to rescue the scorched tea towel by rubbing it with hydrogen peroxide. I'll let everyone know how that will go. Some help in the comments on how I can remove iron scorch marks from a 100% cotton tea towel would be useful too. 

 

I'm also working on some sketchy still life paintings. Roses and teacups.

 

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening whereever they are.

 

Star gazers

 

 

 

With spring about the Jasmine is out in full bloom. The little white scented flowers remind me of stars.

 

I'm pressing some for later and I might try and make a perfume from the scent of them.

 

 

Fallen stars.

 

 

On the art desk I have a junk journal going where I am writing out quotes on the pages. I'm only using black pens and markers, no colour.

 

 

In my sketch books there's small ideas happening. We'll see where they take me.

 

 

 

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening wherever they are.

Cent sale

 

Over the weekend I popped into a local church 'garage' cent sale. They held it inside a hall which was good because the weather didn't look very nice. Inside the hall there were tables of items all up for sale. I could of brought mostly everything home, instead, I came home with a handful of books and a really pretty lemon coloured vase. I brought it because I liked the flower design and the colour. Yellow isn't a colour you see much of these days on any household items. It's a real vintage colour I think. All up I only spent five dollars.

 

(You can see the vase I brought here). I also crochet up a new dishcloth using up odds and ends from other projects and finally managed to finish a crayon tinted embroidery I've been working on. I love this type of embroidery as the stitches aren't taxing on a tired mind. The crayon tint embroidery is done on an old cotton bed sheet I found at the thrift store for about $1. There's still miles of fabric left that I hope to use for other projects. The sheet is stained a little but that doesn't matter to me as I intend to use the material for pillowcases and the like. This finished embroidery will probably be turned into a cushion for the couch.

 

This year's spring I was hoping to get into and start up a decent size garden that is based on a 1940 victory garden but I'll have to make do with what I have until next year I suppose. It's mostly herbs as that is what we use a lot of in cooking so we can have some fresh herbs.

 

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening whereever they are.

Spring Love

 

Right now the spring air is really about even though we've had some grey, drizzly days of weather.  A neighbouring fence on one side of the house is a mass of starry white flowers of Jasmine and it's climbing up a tree that is ready to bloom, the scent of Jasmine is all about in the air when the day is warm. You can hear the bee's, bush ones I think, in the tree humming about have a good time by the sound of it.

 

 Home, there is some puttering about spring cleaning, decluttering, baking things, and I'm just resting listening to the goings on and some times up for when there's offer of freshly baked cake. Just a little piece, my appetite is small these days.

 

 

I've also been spring cleaning my paper stash, making up little home made books. I use printer paper for the pages folded and a pamhlet stitch to bind it all together. They make nice little note books for scribbling in and use up bits of scrapbooking paper at the same time. I like the idea I can bind all these books together once I'm done to make a 'volume' book.

 

 

A page from the second 'issue' zine: At Home. This is the 'Master Copy' so you can see where I cut and paste ready for scanning and printing. There's a hand drawn gal with a recipe for making home made Geranium perfume.

 

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening whereever they are.

At Home

 

It's been two weeks since I had my operation. I was well looked after at the Toowoomba base and the staff were lovely. The doctor (Dr.Shariff) over seeing my hysterectomy did a good job of making sure things went smoothly.

 

I did have some drama's on the operating table, my blood pressure shot through the roof, I had erratic heart and lost about 600mls of blood (apparently usual for this sort of operation, google is interesting sometimes). With the high blood pressure and heart rate the doctor thought I might have a stroke on the table so rather than removing everything she only took the ovaries and the cyst ( thankfully benign).

 

 

I can tell you now this has been the best thing for my weight loss. I'm getting back to my usual weight! I always felt hungry (not to mention tired and sick) and now I'm back to eating normally.

 

Before I went into hospital I brought the book Down to Earth by Rhonda Hetzel. I've been reading it ever since and hope sometime to try that Whole orange cake recipe among other things. It's a good read.

 

Crafting wise I have been taking things slowly. I started up a little Zine which I call 'At home' and it's hand drawn and hand written with some computer printing to fill out the pages. I draw and cut and paste up a master copy then print it out  in black in white. I'm not sure what I'll do with these but they keep me occupied while recovering.

 

Meanwhile I'll be blogging again and catching up on comments.

 

 

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening whereever they are.

And happy Father's Day to all the dad caregivers out there.