Anyone want to join me in beating craft procrastination?

[Familydilemma]

I keep meaning to start (and more importantly complete!) a knitting project but am findi g it hard to get started. I do have a young baby but I have got slots in the day I could craft, but I keep putting it off. Would anyone join me in a thread where we say what we've got done and encourage each other? Bit like I did over on a fly lady thread when I was getting my house in order. Any craft you like, big or small projects at any stage.

I have finished 1 Xmas sack totally and the other 2 are appliqued and will be finished tomorrow. The stool cover is done but Mum has added making a bedspread to my list!

I finished one Cheistmas present yesterday :)

As op I'm a bit embarrassed at my progress! But I've weighed out and put to soak the fruit for christmas cake. Can that count today?! Well done for Christmas gift finished

And sacks

Does deciding not to do the top-stitching on bag for a friend mean I can count that as progress? Thought about it and I'm just not convinced my current machine will cope - I used heavyweight interface on the outer, so round most of it I'll have 2 layers of outer plus 2 layers of lining, and in places there will be substantially more than that (over the seams I'm making it 4 layers of each). Figuring discretion is the better part of valour and I should stop now rather than make a pigs ear out of something I'm currently quite pleased with .

So I started making the soft toy (duck billed platypus) instead. I was making quite good progress until I had to stop and get some AIDA marked out for DD. On the plus side that means she might now do her own sewing so I can work in daylight :).

Progress tonight got waylaid by drafting a birth plan... Decided that was probably quite important, given I was 36 weeks yesterday

FD - I think starting the christmas cake counts. That way I can count starting the Christmas Puds when/if I get round to it :o.

Evening Ladies,

Tidy up complete, I've started designing and making Sophie's Baby Naming Save the Date cards and am about half way through

Okay-I've completed a project-the cake is in the oven. Tonight I will knit!

Cool, well done FD!

Yay! Finally did half an hour's knitting! And it's plain stocking stitch for another twenty cm so should be able to do that bit quickly even with cotton wool between the ears!

Haven't been able to do anything today , Sophie was really sick after both feeds this morning which upset her for the rest of the day and she just wouldn't be put down.
Hoping for a better day tomorrow

I have a pair of socks, an aran sweater, a chunky lace cardie, a scrap blanket (but that shouldn't count as reliant on other finished projects to get the scraps) and a fine lace shawl in terms of knitting. No crochet at the moment

I did finish the kits from the Cath Kidston sewing and patchwork books eventually, and now one of the bags is full to burtsing with fat quarters ready to make up a "stack-and-whack" quilt I found in the new Kirstie craft book.

I'm really going for the long haul with my cross stitch though - now about half way through a huge picture of a cricket match set in the 1920s and begun in...2004 I think that's my most elderly work in progress.

Its all gone quiet here - how's everyone getting on?

I've not done so well this week, although there have been moments where progress has been made. Platypus needs about 3" of machine stitching, 2 french knots for eyes and then is ready to stuff and close. The cushion cover is progressing (felt like I got masses done, but actually I've done all the running stitch and now have to go further with blanket stitch which I suspect will take me a bit longer...)

My problem is I keep getting distracted and waylaid. On other fronts, the fruit for the Christmas puds is weighed and has spent 3 days soaking in brandy (quite when they're going to make it into puddings and get cooked I haven't got a clue - mate tomorrow...). And I've got most of a hospital bag packed. Which might come in handy as this baby doesn't seem too inclined to turn around so may be having an ECV this week - which has a 1/200 chance of needing a CS and a 1/50 chance of being admitted for extra monitoring. Do you reckon I'd get much stitching done in hospital?

Hope everyone else is managing to make some progress :)

DONE

• 3 personalised Santa sacks
• Cover for a stool

TO DO

• Make a couple of Xmas tree ornaments
• Quilt & bind DS's quilt
• Patchwork cushion cover
• 3 x stings of bunting

Good Luck Tangle with trying to get anything done in hospital - I tool loads of bits in to do/read/listen to and didn't touch any of it!

Not going so well here either. Sophies colic has been sooo bad I've only been getting about 3 hrs sleep a night, so am totally zombified in the day. Feeling better today though as for some reason she slept a lot last night so I got 6 1/2 hours sleep! So am up finishing Christmas cards which she sleeps on hopefully for quite a while yet

Hi all, you've all been busier than me! Well done! Have bought material for dd2s stocking (an obvious deadline there!) and done four inches of knitting!

I'd say crafting in hospital is possible-I was in for very similar issues-dd2 kept turning and I did bits of knitting. Thing is-chance to rest combined with necessity after shocking nights meant that I did more magazine reading and chocolate eating than crafting . Hope your baby turns-mine did after a five day stay and was normal delivery.

Madkatz-sympathise with bad nights. Hope better soon. Sleep dep makes me want to stare at a blank wall not craft!

Dizzyday - very impressive done list

Good news was that DC turned really easily (although predicted weight from scan was 9lb 12 at 37+3 !). On the down side I got didly squat done during all the waiting around, mainly because it was so broken up. C'est la vie - think on balance I'm not complaining (although now DC is bum up its kicking like the proverbial mule and keeps squashing nerves ).

Otherwise I have managed to do the machining on the platypus and work out how to make french knots behave, and I think its stuffed to my satisfaction. Just need to sew up the hole and he's finished :)

The cushion cover is coming along, and I'm finding the blanket stitch strangely therapeutic. (Plus it means I don't have to try and work out how to put the zip in just yet - only ever done one before and that was by hand so I'm feeling a bit daunted ).

Sorry to hear about Sophie's colic, Madkatz :(. DD1 never had anything obvious, but the only way I could get her to sleep for 18 months was by feeding her, and the only place she'd nap in the day was on me. Lovely to have lots of cuddles, but was a bit restrictive in terms of trying to do anything! Hope things calm down for you soon :)

Sounds like you're making good progress Dizzyday. How on earth are you managing to get so much done?

FD - I'm trying to look at it as the important thing is to keep doing little bits. Even if I only manage to do a couple of inches of the blanket stitch one day (or two or three), that's a couple of inches more than I had done before. And as long as I keep doing a couple of inches when I get a chance then it will get finished. At least now I am actually doing, even if its only little bits and not every day - whereas before I joined in this thread I had a pile of things I wanted to do and never managed to start any of them, so thank you for giving me a reason to get going :)

Tangle - Platypus sounds lovely. And with your cushion maybe you could just do an envelope opening on the back (unless you have the back already attached to the front already!)

I really haven't done much but as my DD is at school all day I can just ignore the housework and sew - if and when I get the urge!

DONE

• Make a couple of Xmas tree ornaments - Gingerbread Man and Gingerbread House

TO DO

• Quilt & bind DS's quilt
• Patchwork cushion cover
• 3 x stings of bunting