Paperwork and Patchwork on Thursday

Last night/this morning, I couldn't fall asleep until after 5:30 a.m.!  I was thinking that if I was still up at 6:00 a.m., I will just get up and do something!  That apparently did the trick, because I fell asleep shortly after that!  LOL!  I woke up just before 11:00 a.m. 

I texted with daughter for a bit, watched some news, replied to blog comments, etc., and had a cup of coffee.  Then, I put away the load of laundry from yesterday and did another load - the kitchen rug and the towels I use as bathmats, etc.  The reason why I use old towels for bathmats is because they are easier to launder than the regular bathmats.   Also, when I put one down in the family room or living room, Dancer uses it nap on!

I also did more patchwork piecing, in the afternoon.  This is a picture from the initial step, when I sewed several pieces of scrap fabric to a longer strip (the green gingham) and cut them apart:

Blocks after the 1st step

This is a picture of the block shown on the top left, in the above picture (green gingham and solid grey strip) after several other strips of fabric had been sewn on (the gingham and grey piece is in the center of the block):

Building up the block

 
The finished block, trimmed to size (and turned around in the picture):

Finished block

Many quilters buy their quilting fabric for the purpose.  The upside to that is one gets to choose some beautiful new fabric, some of which is color coordinated, or belonging to a collection, etc.  One of the down sides is such fabric can be expensive.  I use scraps leftover from various other sewing projects for the most part, buying fabric only as needed for sashings, backings, and borders.  As a result, almost all my quilts are scrap quilts, quite frugal, and many of my quilts are unintentional memory quilts, as well.  For example, the strip of blue floral fabric on right hand of the block, above, is leftover from a dress my mother sewed for herself.  The rectangle of fabric with the white background and tiny pink and yellow flowers to the left of the blue floral fabric is leftover from a dress my mother made for me.  The bit of lilac fabric is leftover from a nightdress I made for myself.  The triangle of green sprigged fabric is leftover from a nightdress my mother sewed for herself.  The strip of yellow is leftover from the baby quilt I made for my cousin's grandson.  And so on and so forth!  This is what one doesn't get when the fabric is bought newly, for the purpose of making a quilt! 

Another finished block

More leftovers and memories: the pink gingham was from a dress my mother made for me; the light green with the white and lilac design, next to the pink gingham, was from a dress she made for herself.  The brown/green/white patterned fabric above the pink gingham was from another dress Mother made for me, as are the two strips of blue and white fabric on either side of the block.  All the dresses were sewn back in the 1980s!  That's how old some of my scraps are! 

I have now made 20 of these blocks.  I will need at least 35 blocks, if I set them in rows of 7 by 5 across, and use my old blanket (twin/full size) as the batting.  Or, I could set them on point and that would require 32  full blocks and some triangular half-blocks to fill in the edges.  I haven't decided on anything, yet.  For now, I am just piecing along, just enjoying the process and the memories so many of these pieces of old fabric bring me! 

Finally, in the evening, after I had procrastinated as long as I dared to, I sat down to finish up my paperwork to file for retirement!  I need to file them 30-60 days prior to the retirement effective date!  I have now changed that effective date twice!  First, it was going to be 7/20; then, I changed it to 9/30 and, today, I changed it again to 10/15!  That will be the final date!  My plan is to go in to the office tomorrow, fill out my time sheets for this pay period, make photocopies of the retirement papers, and go into the retirement office to hand them in!  I will ask if it would be possible for a retirement counselor to look over the papers while I am there, to make sure everything is complete or I can fill out new or additional forms while I am there.  If not, I will simply hand them in and ask if I can get an appointment to meet with a counselor, next week, to go over the papers or ask that someone contacts me by phone, if necessary.  I just want to give them the papers in good time (they'll have 45 days to process them, when I hand them in, tomorrow). 

In the evening, friend R called me and, later, I exchanged emails with a friend and video chatted with daughter.

Today, I am grateful for:
- The memories associated with the scraps of fabric
- Sewing machines
- An afternoon spent sewing and relaxing (sounds better than procrastinating, doesn't it?)
- Chatting with my daughter
- Phone calls and emails from friends


Thursday's To Do List:
- Call and make the doctor's appointment (still procrastinating on that!)
- Paperwork - DONE
- Vacuum
- Put away laundry - DONE
- Do another load! - DONE

Friday's To Do List:
- Go to the office
- Fill out time sheets
- Make photocopies
- Hand in retirement papers
- Make the doctor's appointment!
- Vacuum
- Attend meditation session in the evening
- Do dishes
- Clean the litter box

How was your Thursday?  Do you find yourself procrastinating when you know you have to do something like paperwork?  What are some of the ways you procrastinate?