Christa’s Soapbox – The Tale of Two Hobbies

For about the last year and a half I’ve been hustling – working like crazy to get my first book published (with more in the works), expanding my teaching schedule, getting my patterns into print and growing our precut store into a long-term sustainable income source. It’s been good, productive work that feels immensely satisfying. However, a couple of things have fallen by the wayside which I am to ready to remedy now that I can catch my breath again. They are (1) the state of my house and (2) my overall health and fitness.

Here’s the “before” picture of my sewing studio about 2 years ago just after I had cleaned and organized it, knowing I would be working in this space full-time each day. Ironically, the quilt on the design wall and those hanging over the rails haven’t even been basted yet, while the one the table has been finished and made it into my book. Deadlines are everything around here, LOL!!

The Before Picture

Here is the state of my studio today. I do have to say I just finished up a couple of big deadlines, and will get this cleaned up before moving onto the next project! I like to be a clean person and don’t thrive in creative chaos like some do, but sometimes it just can’t be avoided!!

The after picture – but not for long!!

The biggest thing that has suffered during all this creative chaos has been my fitness. In addition to my obsession with quilting, I love to run! I have logged two marathons and several half-marathons  over the last 6 years simply because I love the feeling of being outside running for long stretches of time. I really do get that runner’s high that people talk about. However during the high-point of my busy-ness it was so, so easy to get up each day and NOT run, heading into the studio instead. I’m not one of those girly-girls who’s into looks and fashion and all that.

However, I do love the feeling of being healthy and having enough energy for everything I like to accomplish in a day. Right now I can barely run a mile, but I decided it was as good a time as any to hop back on the treadmill and start over. I’ll mostly be sharing my running journey over on instagram (@christaquilts) if you want to check that out. There’s even a hashtag #sweatnsew for other sewing/fitness enthusiasts!!

The goal is to work my way back up to longer distances, one step at a time!

I plan to attack these two areas of improvement –  cleaning up and improving my fitness – with as much zeal and vigor as I’ve done with quilting. When I originally got into running, it was because I wasn’t quilting regularly and I needed a stress outlet. Once I got my sewing mojo back,  running began to take a back seat.  My hope is to now balance out both on a regular basis! Wish me luck. :-)