Crafting to Stay Sane?

In general, I do not consider myself a "stressed" individual. Every once in a while I'll get one too many balls in the air and start to feel the pressure, but in general, I'm a pretty even-keeled person. I am a type A personality, so perhaps by nature I tend towards stress, but over the course of my life I've developed numerous, shall we say, coping techniques.

Staying organized is one. If my house is a mess or if I have a bunch of outstanding "to-do's" on my checklist, my whole life is a mess. By keeping a tidy world, I'm a much calmer person. Exercise is another. Jogging is super meditative for me, especially on a beautiful day running the local trails with upbeat tunes on my ipod. Journaling is also hugely therapeutic to me. I have been keeping a journal (some times more diligently than others) since 1988. It was a purple unicorn journal and my first entry was what I got for Christmas. I was 8. The process of journalling has figuratively talked me down from many-a-ledges. Lastly, crafting. I swear crafting keeps me sane! Especially quilting; there is something about watching mindless TV, or listening to a good book (I praise the existence of audible.com) while sitting on the couch and finishing a quilt by hand that manages to slow the world back down to a manageable pace.

This morning, I grabbed a baby quilt that I have been piecing together for a while now. When I woke up (way before any human being should on a Saturday) I started thinking about all the things on my to-do list for this week and all the chores around the house, and then the blog, and I felt myself starting to stress out a little. Instead of running in circles trying to accomplish whatever seemed to be the most important at that time, I unpacked the quilt from the box that I was storing it in and started working on the part that's my favorite, the binding. Many people probably machine sew the binding, but I prefer to hand sew it. It's how my mom always did it too.

I was trying to decide which color to go with, the yellow or the pink. I went with the pink.

Here's a picture of today's stress relief project:

What do you guys do to curb stress??