I work full-time plus have an Avon Business and a Bookkeeping/Income Tax Business. I try to do some quilting on weekends and a little bit in the evenings. It really does help that I have the whole basement as my sewing room and can just leave everything out. It also helps that even though I'm not retired, my husband is, so that relieves me of some of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry. Also, I like to do hand stitching while watching TV, but can't see what I'm working on with my glasses on, and can't see the TV with my glasses off!. But I figure I'm stocking up fabrics, patterns, and notions for when I retire in a few years - hope my eyesight and arthritis don't get worse!

oops

I really struggle with that, too. I have found crockpot meals really helpful, and leftovers that I "create" by cooking extra (when I do :-)). And then it is just sorting out what is most important and letting the rest go until "next time" whenever that is.

I have not been working, by choice, since August. I thought for sure I'd have more time to quilt - NOT!! My routine of work was so ingrained after 10 years of work that it was hard to get a new routine. Now I've found it and all is working for me now. I am up, lately, around 5:00 and do most of my computer work then. DH and DS's up by 7:00 and time with them... DH goes off to work aroun 8:30 and boys are into their school work (we homeschool). I do my chores and by 11:00 or so I can quilt. If the boys have questions or I need to help them with a particular project we do that as we go. They know they can always come to me with questions. I handquilt and make quilts for pay for others and that has to be a big part of my day when I have a project going - it's just like a job - I AM getting paid for it so...I sew!!:) Otherwise I always have hand work downstairs to just pick up at odd moments (like waiting for all the men in the house to get ready for church on Sunday mornings!! :) ) and during TV time at night. DH does not mind if I'm in my sewing room or with him - he's good about it!

Craftybear---I do not know how to make time to quilt. I don't work, have no kids at home anymore and still seem to have NO TIME!! Maybe I need to put myself on a schedule, a certain time for this, a certain time for that?

I used to tell myself that I had to get my chores done first. But now I do my chores in between quilting. By that I mean that when I sit down to sew, I give myself a goal to reach before I quit and do something else. "When I finish four more blocks, I'll go vacuum the living room." Then I go back to sewing after I finish that and set myself another goal. It makes for a good day. If I don't get to sew a little bit each day, I feel as if it hasn't been a good day.

I have been unemployed since January of 09. All the time I was working I couldn't wait until I had time to quilt. Between looking for a job and taking care of my family who now thinks I have all of the time in the world to do everything, I have to schedule my time to quilt. My budget is tight so I have to be very creative about getting fabric etc. but so far I have been lucky. I quilt for two hours at a time four days a week and shop for deals about two hours a week. It seemed as though I had more time when I was working --- ugh.

I remembered Nancy Ziemann and her "10-20-30 minutes to Sew" book. Only in my head it is "10-20-30 minutes to Quilt."

I find if I keep my sewing machine accessible and my cutting area uncluttered I can do a whole lot just using those minutes when they occur. Usually I do the cutting and laying out in the shorter sessions and then when I am ready to sew it doesn't take so long. I also love to chain piece because it keeps the pieces together til I am ready for the next step.

One hint from a very dear friend: if you really like the quilt pattern ... make 2 quilts with different color waves/fabric choices at the same time as it goes much quicker than doing 2 quilts separately.

I do take my sewing to a quilting group I belong to. We meet once a week for about 3 hours at a local church. We each do our own projects and enjoy the comraderie and lack of interruptions. We are charged $1 per session. Perhaps you might want to have your own quilting accountability group ... or at least an accountability partner.

Time to get back to quilting. I have a few minutes now.

I always thought I'd suffer from the empty nest syndrome when my sons moved out. Well, guess what? I made one of their bedrooms my sewing studio and I am in there as much as possible! I sew all day Sunday after church and into the evening. After work on weekdays I usually get 2 or 3 nights with my fabric.

I work a lot of hours and also have a husband and 2 kids (or is that really 3 kids? :-) so what I do is get up at 4:45, make coffee, feed dogs, change and feed bunny, drink coffee and then make my way down to my sewing room for about a half hour of quilting. I do the big stuff on weekends and the small stuff (like sewing long strips to cut into blocks, cutting and ironing binding, maybe even some applique) in the mornings. Once the quilt is together, I also reserve mornings for hand binding, hand quilting (I do the big stuff on the machine and embellish the blocks by hand). I find that I can keep up with my housework and the half hours of work really add up! I just finished a Greek Cross quilt for my mother in law and it only took me a week of mornings to do the hand quilting. Not bad.....