The Hexagon Project: Block 14

It was bound to happen. This past month, I didn’t maintain my pace of four English paper piecing blocks in four weeks. In fact, I only managed to sew one hexagon flower block. It’s my fourteenth so far.

What happened?

My work hours have increased, which means I spend a lot more time in front of a computer. By the time I get home, I want to rest my eyes; hand sewing ends up toward the bottom of my project priority list.

Halloween is right around the corner. My 14-year-old planned an overall look based on a pattern and asked me to work on a costume with her. When we went to the fabric store, however, we struggled to find materials that would accomplish what she envisioned. Rather than trying to force something that really wasn’t coming together, we decided to go home and regroup.

Over the following days, she came up with some possible new directions for her costume and we narrowed them down together. We wanted to be armed with a few solid plans for our next trip to the store. The second trip was a successful; a partial muslin has been fitted, and final pattern pieces are cut and ready to be sewn. The timing is going to be tight, but we should be able to finish the costume in time for Halloween.

The costume will take up a lot of my free time this week, but then I’ll be able to settle back into a normal routine. As part of my new normal, I’ve started bringing my supplies with me to the office and sewing during my lunch hour. In addition to getting something accomplished in good light while my eyes are still fresh, it relaxes me to do that little bit of sewing in the middle of my work day.

I don’t know if I’ll get back to a pace of one EPP hexie flower per week, but I expect to have more than one block completed by my next update in four weeks — and a happy costume update even sooner!

What sort of adjustments do you have to make to fit your projects into your schedule?