Consolidating Bread Dough.

I am not a one project at a time person. Usually I like at least eight.

There is the small portable hand work for sitting in Accident and Emergency with the kid who poked the Camellia bud up their nose.

There is the big bulky hand quilting for winter evenings in front of a D.V.D. and small cotton stitcheries for hot summer afternoons.

 I machine piece when estrogen is high, and viciously ram stuffing into dolls legs on P.M.S days.

I paint dolls faces when I’m feeling meticulous and rip fabric strips when I’m slap-dash.

I make patterns when I’m in the drawing mood, and write instructions in the writing mood.

Whatever the season, whatever the mood, however small the fragment of time, I have the perfect project for it, and all goes merrily along until like bread dough silently rising in the crock pot, I have SIXTY FOUR  unfinished  projects not including the ongoing project of the four children. (True story.)

My father used to say that for success in war or life,

“You must advance and then consolidate.”

Advance- the start of sixty four projects is fun.

Consolidation- the finish of sixty four projects is not so fun. In fact it is downright boring and a grind. You have to restrain yourself from any new fun stuff until you punch through to the euphoria of completion.

The glow I got out of finishing sixty four projects could have flood lit the World Cup Rugby games and generated heap of energy to start a whole new set of projects.

Unfortunately I noticed recently that the bread dough has been rapidly rising again………..sigh.

Time to clean out the back of the wardrobe and under the bed…………tomorrow,

 I’ve just got time to start one more doll.