Wow, can you believe it s already July? There’s not much I can say about the year. I am doing things I could never have predicted I’d be doing. I never thought I would be working from home while helping a middle school remote learner, and maintaining a household. I never thought I would be leaving the house no more than once a week. And when I do leave the house wearing a mask.

I feel that this is the time to listen and educate myself. I am a foreigner in the US and I had a lot to learn about the importance of Black Lives Matter and the history / events that has lead to this point. What I learn will help me be a better manager in my day job, a better mother to my child as I pass on and help him understand, and a better person.

Anxiety has gotten the better of me, some weeks. As I mentioned before, anxiety has only been an issue for me the last 3 years. There are days where I think I am dying from some pain or symptom that I feel, and I have to keep telling myself that if I wake up in the morning it is just a panic attack. It’s ok.

I am finding balance though, even though it is something I have to work on. I have started to exercise (walking to start), focused on eating better, enjoyed cooking and baking for us, and using quilting as my stress reliever. For quilting not to be a stressor, I did have to change my self imposed expectations. I had timelines, a book and projects that must be done. I decided none of these mattered. I would just work on whatever I felt like. Surprisingly, I am feeling more creative at the moment, I procrastinate less and I am enjoying being behind my machine.  I feel I accomplished a lot so far this year.

1. Completed quilts for Baby Gifts for my employees (Squircle, Lines Drawn)
   

   
2. Finished 3 Charity Quilts which I plan to Auction off on Instagram.
   

   

   
3. Finished up these WiPs ranging all the way back to 2016 – Q3 2019 (Study no. 3, Home, Map of Mannheim, Isolation)
   

   

   

   
4. Finished a couple of new quilt tops (Covid Mash-up, Ford & Son)
   

   
5. Worked on progressing other WiPs (Tree-Lined Streets (hand appliqué), Snow (redoing quilting with hand quilting), Art Deco Medallion (piecing the top))
   

   

   
6. Then other smaller sewing projects which include my second ever piece of clothing I made and a bjillon masks for family and friends.
   
   

   

   

I am really pleased I finished 12 projects so far and made progress on the others. Many still need to be blogged about (I am always behind). I have no thoughts yet on the rest of the year so let’s see what happens the second half of this year.

I hope you all have found a way to survive 2020 and are doing well. Thank you for letting me share. I’d love to see your projects, especially your favorite one, so feel free to include a link below.