Days measured in stitches

My time is currently being marked in stitches and involuntary participation in a strange kind of lottery.

How many pieces can I cut in a day? How many rows can I piece in a day? How many rows can I join in a day? How many passes can I quilt in a day?

It doesn't matter if I'm working on an exhibition quilt, show quilt or gift – it's always the same.

But there's an added novelty this time... Back in lockdown, I'm relying on thread, backing, etc arriving by post to complete quilts, and as any Australian (or maybe even American) will tell you, our postal system isn't coping very well with so many of us at home. In fact, it's coping so poorly USPS has stopped shipping to Australia.

I have two quilts close to finish. One is a finished top, and it has been finished for a good while – backing is its problem. 

My new approach to backing the Positively Squared quilt

I want to back it with a vintage blanket, but couldn't find just the right thing online, so a combination of things needed to be ordered – and this is where the postal lottery began. One element was ordered from Perth (the other side of the country – think LA to NYC) and it arrived in three days, the other I'm still waiting for, three weeks later, from another suburb of Melbourne... So, I've changed approach again and I think I like it better – necessity surely is the mother of invention.

The next quilt is close to being a finished top, but for this one, I really stupidly tweaked the design part way through making and was quite literally one hexagon (albeit a rather large one) short in yellow. Can you believe it? This one has been some kind of minor miracle, in that the yellow has arrived a week after ordering (again from Melbourne) along with the most perfectly matched wideback you ever did see!

Could not get a better fabric for the back of the Sugarbag quilt.

So now peeps, you really have to keep your fingers crossed for me that the thread for quilting this one arrives in time. Thankfully the thread for the first was ordered well before the postal system fell apart.

How do you work towards quilt deadlines? Do you plan your time out like me?