Relaxing with A Quilt in Progress

Yesterday was a cold and rainy day here. Blake and I got pretty soaked on our afternoon walk. I had plans to do various things in the studio or work on my computer. But it was the kind of day that was made for getting cosy on the sofa with a quilt and Friends or a film. So that's exactly what I did.

The quilt is still in progress, as you can tell from the safety pins! It has been a work in progress for two years, but now the end is almost in sight and I'm hopeful confident that I'll be using it this Christmas.

The quilt is part quilted but I decided that I'd finish the quilting by tying it because that way I could work on it in front of the telly yesterday. A nice mindless task to relax with.

As I was tying the quilt, I got to thinking about why exactly I so rarely have a day of basically doing nothing. I seem to always be doing something when we're watching TV. Whether it's doodling in my sketchbook or embroidering something, or, yes, scrolling through my Instagram feed or looking for source images for whatever project.

I just can't not make/do something. Pretty much the only time I'm not working on something, even if it's just pondering it in my head, is when I am ill and forced to do nothing.

It's not that I'm go-go-go all the time, but there's always something my brain wants me to be thinking about. "I need to make this or that" or "remember to email that person" etc.

It was quite nice yesterday, to just watch TV all afternoon while the rain poured outside and Blake was snoring under the quilt as I was tying it.

I think I need to make this a thing, atleast one Saturday or Sunday every month I need to just switch off completely. Tony is very good at this. He sometimes asks me "why can't you just sit and watch telly without feeling you have to do something?"

As much as it's doing something physically, the mental 'exertion' of keeping track of everything is harder to rid myself of. I need to be better at making a 'brain dump' where I just write all the to-dos on a random list so they are out of my head and then I can deal with them later.

Wow. I didn't expect this post to take this direction... ;-)

I hope you've had a nice relaxing weekend. xo

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