NaCoFiMo (hah!)

I'm theoretically participating in the activities on the nacofimo community. I say "theoretically" because the challenge (finishing unfinished costumes) is from December 15th through January 15th. I can kind of see the sense of it (this is when a good many people have breaks from school, etcetera), but me? I live under the rules of my good friend, Mister Reality. And Mister Reality likes to (ow!) whap me upside the head whenever I'm being particularly stupid. Thus the challenge goes something like "Day 1: take finished christmas quilt #2 out of dryer, fold; get all presents in one place. Day 2: wrap presents, have Huntsman/Kristiansen family Christmas, exult in receiving two rolls of hoopskirt boning among other gifts. Day 3: attempt to clean workroom, decide to deep-clean workroom, which means hauling everything out of the closet and actually cleaning it." Please note the lack of actual sewing going on thus far.

But the current status is something like: sewing machine brought back upstairs and plugged in where it belongs. Wig heads neatly aligned on shelf, with wigs and hats on them. Cheap Halloween wigs that I'll never wear again neatly ziplocked and tossed into Goodwill bucket. Unfinished projects pulled out of closet because in there = out of sight = out of mind = not likely to get finished. Bin of quilts in various stages of finishment labelled and sat underneath bin of muslin scraps. Box of yarn labelled and sat underneath overflowing bin #1 of non-muslin fabric scraps, and Wonderful Husband picking up a second bin for the rest of the non-muslin scraps while he is out and about. Projects-to-be-finished identified and sat over to one side. Stacking drawers of lace and ribbon and trim retrieved from beneath Wonderful Husband's desk and restacked in the closet along with the bead holders. So progress is being made, it's just going slow.

Out, damned fabric!

In certain communities the exercise of communication with admittedly non-sentient yardage is, to a certain extent, accepted. Gentle encouragement such as "nice fabric, you want to go through the sewing machine smoothly, right?" is understood, as are the occasional outbursts of "ARGH stupid fabric I hate you I hate this entire project!" Generally, up to the point where the fabric starts talking back to the speaker, such flights of imagination are smiled at and responded to with a polite nod. (At the point where the fabric starts talking back, the person is generally gently recommended to get some sleep.) However, this does lead to occasional one-sided conversations along the lines of "Hey! You're calico! What are you doing in here? And, hey, so are you! There's a whole community, a whole nest of you living in here? Out, out vile calico! Go to the quilting scraps pile where you belong! Oh, trying to hide from me, are you? Oh no you didn't...."