Stashing & Quilt-Life Balance

I have some recently stashed fabrics that I haven't shared with you yet! All from FabricBubb.com. And some thoughts to go with them. I'm struggling with finding balance. It seems like this is a never-ending battle. On the one hand, I'd love to throw myself into the industry and start a full-blown career in quilting. On the other hand...I'm a full time stay at home mom.

There are so many things I would love to do - teach more classes, make more patterns, work on getting them printed & to a distributor, write another book, turn my sketches into real quilts...the works. But reality sets in, and when the end of the day comes, sometimes I just sit at my desk, too tired to sew, work, or design. It's this season of life, with three little kids, none of whom are yet school-aged, and no babysitter in sight. Fitting everything in after their bedtime is hard.

I had really hoped I could have had an online class up and going by now, but unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to create them. I was hoping my mother or mother-in-law might have some free time to watch the kids, but they've been busy. Which is totally ok. Some days - well, a lot of days, really - I wish we lived closer to family so that I could get a little help with the children and the house.

I easily fall into the trap of comparison, looking around at everything amazing that (seemingly) everyone else is getting done. And then I think, I should be doing that. I should promote my book more, and travel more, and have more patterns, and start a fabric line, and...and, and, and.

A few months ago, I read the book Essentialism (amazon affiliate link, fyi), and it had a huge impact on me. I periodically go back and scroll through the sections I highlighted. This book is a great reminder to focus on what's important for me, in my life, rather than wasting my time wishing I had someone else's life. Right now, the season of my life is being a mother to littles all day, not working 50 hours a week on quilting stuff, as much as I might like it to be.

"Nonessentialists get excited by virtually everything and thus react to everything. But because they are so busy pursuing every opportunity and idea they actually explore less. The way of the Essentialist, on the other hand, is to explore and evaluate a broad set of options before committing to any. Because Essentialists will commit and 'go big' on only the vital few ideas or activities, they explore more options at first to ensure they pick the right one later."

I tend to be a nonessentialist. I want to make all the quilts! and do all the things! right now! sleep is for when I'm dead! But I need to push back against that.

I'm hoping to work on finding the best balance at this point in my life. I'd love to work on something great - something successful, something that can help pay the bills, but something that I'm also passionate about. I want to go all the way, and I would love to dive into the quilting industry - but with my limited hours, it can't be all the way with everything.

So I'm trying to take a look around to see what the best route for me is right now. What is sustainable time-wise, with my full-time "job" taking care of three children who still very much need their mamma? And in that time, what do I most want to be working on? What revitalizes me the most?

Those questions are ones I'll have to work on answering. But I have one big question for you that is another part of this equation - what would you most want me to create (for your benefit)? Or, if you can't answer that one, what is the biggest quilting obstacle you face that I can help you with?

I only talk about stuff like this occasionally on my blog, but I know a lot of you can relate to the struggle of finding the balance! If you're interested, here's another post I wrote on my "quilt-life balance".