Let me tell you about procrastination.

When Mr. Rogers’ mom was alive, she knitted. What did she knit? Sweaters, of course. She made one a month and at Christmas, she gave away 12 sweaters as gifts. The sweaters on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood were the sweaters his mom made for him.

Ever since I read that, I’ve wanted to borrow that idea. Mind you, I don’t know how to knit. I do know how to crochet but in this age, I just don’t see my teenage daughter jumping for joy on Christmas because she got a crocheted cardigan. Still, I like the idea. Make one gift a month and give them to loved ones. I don’t even have to come up with gifts for 12 people so I could spread it out over more than a month or fill in the gap with other things like birthday gifts or things for myself. Mother’s Day and my mom’s birthday are good examples. She loves homemade stuff. (Although she kind of turned her nose up at the last afghan I made her. I thought it was bright, cheerful, and pretty. I don’t think she agreed. I haven’t seen it since.)

I first heard the story about the Christmas sweaters in 2009. When I heard it, I had something like 7 months to work on things for my family. At that time, we didn’t know there was a little Perrin in there so there were four kids, my mom, and Louie. Easy.

Except I never did it.

So I made a list after Christmas, and I planned little crafts for each kid. There would be a blanket for Perrin, crocheted of course. There would be Barbie clothes for Kimberley. I think there was going to be a stuffed animal for Olivia, made of yarn.

Never happened.

Christmas 2010 came along and everything was purchased. The kids were happy with what they got. I got the best present of all because Ronald decided he’d had enough of living with his dad after 4 months and he wanted to come home. Still, no crafts.

So I made my list again.

This time, I was going to make a Bears afghan for my sister-in-law and her fiance. I was going to spread that out over the months, and work on it as I finished up everyone else’s gifts. Wow, that seemed brilliant at the time. The orange yarn is still sitting there, untouched, and I never even bought the blue yarn. It’s just as well since I don’t speak to my sister-in-law and therefore not her fiance either. Too bad. He’s a nice guy. He reminds me of Kevin James. He even kind of looks like him.

Anyway…

April came along and I had this great idea that I’d do quilts for all five kids. I thought maybe I’d make one for my mom if I had time, and I’d make one extra square from each kid’s blanket and put them all together for a blanket for myself. I have a photo on Facebook from when I finished the first square. It was April 23rd. After that, I sewed two more squares. I did this by hand. Then I cut the fabric for a fourth square, tossed it all in the Joanns bag it came in, and there it sat because I couldn’t bring myself to cut those tiny pieces of fabric.

It is 3 minutes til midnight on July 31st and I just got the top of the first quilt assembled. I’m going to need at least two weeks, maybe a month to quilt the thing. Somehow I don’t think everyone’s getting a quilt this year.