Too many choices!

Can you hear my lament? "Oh, what not to take, what not to take!"

Notice the operative word - NOT.

I know I can't take everything. Common sense tells me that . After all, I have only 3.5 days of sewing at this retreat. Of course that's sewing morning, afternoon and night, with only small breaks for sleeping and eating - but I know I just can't do it all. So I pulled things out of the sewing room and stacked them on the dining room table. Of course I took my strings - that's my current project. And the box is now full again since I dumped a fresh supply of strips into it. And the crumbs of course - I've been so eager to try some "Crumb Chaos" blocks. That means I need strips for those, so I added the two totes of 1 3/4" strips. (Two totes? How did I manage to have two totes of strips this size?" Then my hourglass blocks as there are great design walls all over the classroom where we will be retreating. But what if I get tired of sewing scraps? No problem - I pulled my Jan Patek 2006 mystery quilt. All I have left is the two pieced blocks from December plus the remaining applique from November. And the applique will provide something in case I get tired of sitting at the machine. If I do all of those I can start sewing all the blocks together. I might even be able to finish the top! Then there is that drawer of orphan blocks that I added lots and lots of oddball things to when I cut up all my scraps. Since I'm taking strips I might as well take those along too - I can sew them into regular size blocks for another charity quilt. And I can't forget my hand quilting project - that's one of my oldest UFO's and some concentrated quilting time could get it much closer to being done. Of course I need to take along the top I was working on last Saturday so I can either add borders or make more blocks. And then . . . .

Whoa there Patti! You are staying only until late Sunday morning - not until summer. Where is your reason and common sense? This is ridiculous!

So I put back the mystery quilt - I can do that later. I put back the hour glass blocks. While I'm doing that I decide I might run out of 1 3/4" strips so I add the tote of 1 1/4" strips - after all, wouldn't it be nice to use up all those oddball sizes? I add back the November mystery blocks - a bit of applique to take along is a good idea. I put away the hand quilting - I've taken it the last three years and never touched it. But since I've put back that much I take the hour glass blocks back out and add them to the stack.

Oh yes - can't forget notebook, camera, show and tell quilts, stuff for the mid-century album class since I need to come back Thursday night long enough to attend class, rolling tote of sewing supplies, ironing pad, travel iron, rulers, cutting board, and featherweight. I'm sure I've forgotten something.

Well, my lunch time is over and I need to get back to work. I'm due to give my assistant a coaching review and I've not yet written up the paper work. I have a bunch of other stuff to take care of so I can leave by 1:00 tomorrow afternoon. Who knows what will be added and subtracted to the pile tonight and tomorrow while I'm packing the car.

Clothes, you ask? Oh yeah - I'd better pack a suitcase too. Not a problem - I can do that tomorrow before I leave. That's the easy part - 10 minutes tops is all it will take to do that.