I worked late tonight. That's been happening a lot in the last month. Since I work in publishing, deadlines are commonplace. But it's gotten worse lately. One of my projects got behind because another project with more immediate deadlines kept getting in its way. So now I'm making up for it with long days, working at home for some time each weekend, etc. But I know it will end once the magazine I'm working on is gone to the printer, and it should get better when I just get everything turned over to the artists in the next few weeks.

But back to the headline of this post. As I left the office at 8-something p.m. (a 12-hour day, though I did go out for lunch), I noticed one of those promotional signs on the corner. My guess is that it was a sign for some type of questionable work-from-home program. But the line that caught my eye was "Looking for work/life balance?" I was torn between cursing loudly at the sign (which I did, creatively, thanks to my friend Leslie who has always been able to make up great curse words), laughing (which I also did with my dear friend Lisa who always understands), and crying (which I didn't do).

So in respect for the sign, I'm here to admit that my answer is yes, I am looking for better work/life balance. Work has gotten out of hand lately and it's starting to show here on my blog as well as in my house and my life. I haven't created anything for a while just for me, which disappoints me both personally and as far as my blog goes.

So I pulled out some quilts from my past, some quilts I published previously when I was a freelance designer almost a decade ago, to reinspire and remind me that soon I'll return to a normal work/life balance and create some new projects. And I'll get to share them here on my blog.

I've been pondering whether I want to start designing and publishing quilt designs again. Back when I was designing, the money wasn't great for the work and time involved in creating a quilt, honestly, but I miss it. I miss playing with patterns and fabrics, sharing my projects, finding ways to make project that look complicated but aren't difficult to construct. I want to play with that quilting machine, as that was something that was a challenge in my previous designs and that I think could make a big difference in my finished projects and their saleability. I'm even toying with the idea of gathering designs to pitch a book proposal.

As inspiration for myself, and something to share with all of you, I'll be posting some of my past published and unpublished projects over the next few weeks. Let me know what you think. And if you happen to be a book or magazine publisher looking for some designs, I have publication rights to all of the quilts shown, but the fabrics are a bit out of date! Guess I'd have to remake them--now THERE'S some inspiration!