How often do you sew?
 

This question may be geared more to those who work full time, but how often a week do you get to sit down and sew or work on a quilt? I love quilting and would love to do so much more, but it just seems everyday when I get home I am too tired to sew. I just can't seem to focus on sewing later in the day. Maybe I am a morning sewer, I don't know. I had hopes of getting a lot more quilts done this year and so far I am still working on the one I started in January.

If you too tired, I would NOT worry. You need your rest first of all and then there are always the weekends. This is a hobby so it should be enjoyable. When I worked, I had a 4 day shift so that meant a 3 day weekend. I could NOT quilt as much as now that I am retired.

I sew when I want, some days after work I'm beat some weekends I just tell DH I will be sewing and can go solid for 2 days! It depends on everything else. Be kind to yourself and don't make deadlines for quilts, it takes all the joy out of it.

We have a business and i do the accounting,I work from home, I try to sew an hour or two in the morning, a hour in the afternoon and a few more in the evening. If hubby is away then I spend more time in my sewing room.

Not as often as I would like. I sew maybe a couple of hours a month.

When I was working sewing was my sanity -- I sewed as often as I could, many times to the detriment of the house and meals. I still don't get to sew as much as I would like -- it's funny how the time fills up with other things now that I'm retired!

i sew almost every day... And i STILL have a doz or more UFO's.. One would think i should be caught up by now..

Hope to quilt most days since i retired last week but need to get my sewing room orgainzed. When I worked, I was too tired when I came home. My sewing time was sunday afternoon after church and a nap. I would go down at 4 to listen to music programs for 3 1/2 hours while I sewed

Karlin, I totally understand your problem. I'm retired now but when I was working I hardly ever had the time to sew. I was a school teacher and even after I got home, cooked dinner, cleaned up, etc., I still had papers to grade and lessons to work on. There's never a minute during the week for a teacher. I did do some sewing on weekends but even then it wasn't much. Teachers do have the summer if they aren't taking some classes or teaching summer school.

So, now that I'm retired I can sew whenever I want..... love it.

I am disabled, so I am at home. My quilting runs in cycles...some days I find I sew for hours. Other times, I will not touch my quilting for weeks or months at a time. I do find that I am most accurate late morning to late afternoon. Early mornings and evenings are not good times for my quilting. Husband is home on weekends and we like to spend the time together, so unless I have hand projects I can take in the car, I don't quilt on weekends.

I work full time, and try to get a bit of sewing in every day even if its just a 1/2 hour. When I tell my self its just a half hour or the length of a 1/2 show on TV... I find I go at least an hour , because now I got "involved". But there are some days I just know that I need to get to bed and don't start sewing, because the time just goes and it will be late before I get to sleep.

I do most of my sewing while I am on vacation. :)

me too usually once to twice a month for a few hours unless I am making a gift

I work full time. Some days I sew after working all day and some days I just don't feel like it. If I sew at night I don't force myself to finish something or to hurry because I make a lot of mistakes when I'm tired and I hurry. Recently I moved my sewing room into the living room so I can watch TV while I sew and I seem to get more done now. I love to sew on Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes I sew all weekend long just taking breaks to eat and take the dog out.

I work full time and it is usually a 9 and a half hour day. Most evenings I am too tired to sew. I sew weekends if nothing else conflicts. I hope to do more after I retire.

On weekends I am most productive mid mornings. I need an hour to really wake up then I can get going.

I work three twelve hour shift per week. That leaves four days a week I have free except for the usual chores, housework and laundry. I am not a speedy quilter. I am new to quilting and so I find that I have plenty of time during the week to sew. Also, my husband is a workaholic and is on call twentyfour hours per day seven days per week as a fire chief so that also frees up some time for me.

I get to sew a lot now that I am retired. When I was teaching, not so much. Lesson plans and grading papers seem to swallow up all your time. My favorite time to sew is mid morning to late afternoon. Mornings I like to sit on the porch with my husband and read the iPad. I don't sew as much as I thought I would now that I am I retired. Life seems to take over.

I'm retired too and don't sew as much as I thought I would. Sometimes I'll go in there for days at a time trying to finish up something. But sometimes it will be weeks without sewing. I'd like to be more disciplined about it.

This is so true. For thirty three years I "planned" all I was going to do with my free time. HaHa. The only thing different with working and being retired is, at least when I worked, I had a set routine. As far as sewing goes. I sew every chance I get. For the last eight months I've been working on a chevron quilt and I can finally see the end of the tunnel. But I've done things in between. I do try to work at the machine every week -- sometimes a little bit daily. I do better when I'm cutting and piecing. Basting the sandwich is a real chore for me and lingers.

It really depends, I kind of go in fits and spurts. It partially depends on if I am working on something that really excites me (or has a deadline) or if I'm just kind of puttering around. I work full time so I don't always sew on work days, but I do sew pretty much every weekend. We don't have kids and my DH is a TV-aholic so when he's glued to the 'boob tube' I usually end up wandering into the sewing room (which is adjacent to his TV room, so it's sort of social, LOL).

I also have sleeping issues and I work very early so some days I'm just too tired after work and nap instead...other times I'll wake up at 2AM on a weekend and sew for around 20 hours straight (minus meal and bathroom breaks) before I feel tired again. So I'm all over the place with my sewing "schedule".

Well, I tried Nancy Ziemans 10-20 min. a day route to getting the project done. Not disciplined enough, I guess. I understand the work interference, but found myself sewing more when I was working because I knew I needed the fun break and only had so much time. Retired now, sometimes I sew a lot for days on end, other times I find excuses to do anything but sew, organize the fabric, the thread spools, the bobbins, the sewing drawer etc. Finally figured out sewing was becoming work and I needed a break from that. Now I sew when I'm "in the mood."

I need to get out of this mood I'm in. I have things to do! I head to the sewing room with intentions of sewing then do a u turn and leave. I went in the other day and cleaned the machines and that was about it. I..have..things..to..finish! Ugh! Hate these moods!

Thank you! You all are making me feel better about not putting deadlines on myself!!

Working full time does cramp ones sewing time. When I'm working on a project, I try to spend about half an hour cutting out, sewing, arranging on the design wall, FMQ or whatever needs to be done on a project. Some days I'm in the mood to sew and it ends up being way more than half an hour, other days I can't quite get my head into it and just quit after 5 or 10 minutes.

I will often use the sewing to relieve stress, so even the days that I think that I won't be able to concentrate I end up being very productive.

There are NEVER deadlines with my quilts. I want to enjoy the process. It's a hobby and if I put deadlines on my projects, it would be a job. My only rule is that I must finish a UFO before I am "allowed" to purchase more fabric.

amh

I also work full-time and with a husband and grandchildrens' sports and school events, I find that quilting takes a backseat. What I found helpful was actually setting up my quilt studio in one of the bedrooms in my house. The 2 machines are set up and waiting for projects. The pieces are set next to the machines ready to sew. If I hit a slump where I'm just not making any time to quilt I go back to making sure I sew for 15 minutes a day. I find that if I commit to that, I get some relaxation and sometimes I extend the time by a lot, but often 15 minutes is all I get....and I don't mandate when the 15 minutes is....sometimes before work, sometimes as dinner is cooking....sometimes in the evening. Just sit down and do it. I also like to keep a yearly list of what I accomplished during the span of one year. It's amazing what you can get done....I check off as the UFO is complete and at the end of the year, what isn't finished gets transferred to next year's list. Not to stress me out, but to remind me of all the great stuff that I did finish.

I try to sew a little every day even if it is thirty minutes. If you are organized you can just sit down and sew for a full thirty minutes. When I get home after work I de- stress for short while and after doing a few chores I will get to my machine. Most of my sewing is on weekends.

Don't be to upset that you can't find the energy to sew all the time. It makes it even more rewarding when you do get to visit the machine.
peace

I work full time, at least a 10 hour day five days a week.
Every day I tell myself when I go home I am going to sew, and I never seem to get there.
I beat myself up because I do seem to be able to continue to add to my stash.

I mostly sew on the weekends now and say for now this is good because I enjoy it.

I also do go away to a get away weekend twice a year, where you bring your own projects and don't take on another project with the weekend. I am always pleased with what I get done there, and it is fantastic to be together with like minded people.

I work full-time and have the same issue. My children are grown and my husband is retired so he does 'light' housework and cooking. I do find that at the end of the day sometimes I just don't have the energy and I don't beat myself up about it any more. I have created deadlines (got to finish for the baby shower or wedding present) but I use that to force myself to start....once I get going I find I don't want to stop to go to bed! Also, quilting is relaxing for me in the late evening and just the pre-bedtime thing. Almost like a good book before bed!

Amen, amen from another retired teacher. I taught language arts and always had something to grade, lessons to plan, parents to call, etc. etc.

When I first started working, I did a lot of quilting. Then "things" got in the way, and I gave it up. I retired 5 years ago, and started up again. But...."things" get in the way, and I don't sew nearly as much as I'd like. We seem to always be on the go! I only set a deadline if I have to meet a specific time line. I'm also a night owl, so I can sew till 2 or 3 in the morning if I feel like it. Luckily I only need 4-5 hours sleep!!

I have not been sewing as much as I should lately. Life keeps happening. My hubby deployed in December and the kids keep me busy doing other things. So to keep myself in the quilting loop I've been buying fabric, I figure when I do get back in my sewing room I'll have plenty to keep busy! I plan on getting in there this weekend I have a couple quilts that need to get done! I did make a table runner for my son a couple weeks ago for his school project.... Strangely his teacher kept it! Still unraveling that one in my head. Been too busy with the other 3 kids to deal with that! One just had his appendix out on Thursday morning. We got home yesterday afternoon, caught up on sleep so I'm hoping to spend some time in my sewing room!

I do work full time, in fact this past week put in 65 hours at work... I do sew just about every day. I am an early riser & don't have to leave for work until 7:45 most mornings so I generally spend an hour or more in the sewing room before work. (I get up between 4:30 & 5) so usually, cup of coffee, shower, breakfast, into sewing room by 6...I seem to be able to get a lot done in that time. I also always have hand projects to work on during breaks at work. I don't always sew in the evening-sometimes after dinner I go in for an hour... Usually when I am at the point of nearing the end of my project, and I spend as much time as possible on the weekend.

Quality rather than quantity is my thought. If you have quality time and product it is a win,win.

I love to sew whenever I get a few minutes or a few hours. My sewing room is away from household traffic and a project always at the ready because I leave it out when I stop-so it is ready to pick up and go with it. I have my "office" in the same area so I easily slip from one to the other activity. I think I accomplish a lot more because I don't need to pick up, put away and then get it out again. I never get tired of sewing. I do work at budgeting my time because I would let other things slip by such as ironing and mending which I really do not mind doing. I'd just rather sew and quilt if I have my 'druthers'.

My time will vary from week to week, but most weeks I get some serious time on Saturday or Sunday and a little on one or two evenings. Some time I will quilt like crazy on the week-end and then have bindings to do hand work on during the week. Often my week-night quilting is cutting or doing a long string of chain piecing and ironing, squaring up as prep a Sat or Sun afternoon of time at the machine. Bottom line..... I never have enough time for my sewing/quilting but this makes it so much more special when I do get a couple of hours to just play with my work at hand. (I am still working 40 - 50 hours a week.)

Hi Karlin, I feel for you. I used to work long hours 6 days a week, some times I would feel like sewing at night and other times I didn't. I quit reading the paper at home (I could read it at work, because of down time with the job and breaks), I would give my self that time to sew. I made sure to try to have things set up the night before, so all I had to do was a little sewing. I found that I was jumping out of bed a little earlier and getting into the shower first thing, then I would be awake and able to sew. Some days it was only about 15 mins other days I could get 30 mins in. This is what helped me get more sewing in. Good luck

When I was working, I had a 2-11 pm shift so I quilted every day and sometimes I would take handwork to do on my breaks. After I retired I have less time so I try to whenever I can work it in which is at least an hour a day. We adopted our then 3 year old granddaughter (who just turned 5) and I have to work around her pre-school schedule. She starts kindergarten in the fall and will be gone all day so then I should have more time. But if my husband wants to go to lunch or wants me to go with him to run errands - I go. I just started to do English Paper Piecing so that I can do that in the evening while watching TV with my husband. I also do Redwork for the same reason ( I love Crabtree Hill patterns)

I have found that when I worked nights I felt more incline to sew when I got home in the morning but now that I'm retired I can't seem to get as much sewing done as before. I have more time but no ambition, what gives with that? I also used to sew in the middle of the night on my days off too and I've done that a couple times lately and find it more relaxing than trying to do it in the day time. May have to go back to my old ways.

In all honesty, I do not work outside the home. But I am now caregiver to my 87 year old Mother who moved in with us two months ago and she has beginnings of Dementia. Starting this Thursday I will also be watching my new 1 month old Granddaughter. Ever since my mother moved in with us I have not been in the mood to quilt or sew. But I am currently happily busy working on a big counted cross stitch for the baby. No matter how busy I am with one thing or the other I still HAVE to have something to keep my hands busy be it cross stitch or knitting etc.

I am too am too tired when I get home to sew because I have to take the machine out, set everything up then take it all down because I sew on the kitchen table. I find weekend afternoons, usually Sunday, my quiet time to sew. And I have hand sewing projects to work on during the week. I have given some thought to waking up earlier and sewing which does appeal to me as a morning person. However, my brain has not convinced my body to get up earlier yet! LOL!