Tag Archives: goals

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I've read a lot of goal posts from friends' blogs and others I've found through Yvonne's 2016 Planning Linky Party as I've chipped away at writing this post this week. I really admire those of you with nice concise lists or just one big goal. I think part of the trouble with writing it all down for me is that I want to do all the things!

One realization for me this week is that just because it's a 2016 goal, it doesn't need to be implemented starting in January. I'll obviously have to pick and choose my priorities out of my endless list of ideas as I move into 2016, just as I always have to decide what my priorities are on my seemingly endless WIP list. ;-) Last year I wanted balance. (I still do.) A stressful personal year made that hard, but throughout I kept sewing. It's something I do to help achieve balance in my life. I'm sorely behind on (many things in life, including) blog reading and it's been great to catch up this month with some bloggers that I follow. In recent months I feel like I've made some quilty acquaintances into quilty friends. That feels great. I'm really thankful for all the different ways I'm connecting with people in the quilting world.

My Swoon quilt is one project that I'm super excited to continue working on in 2016:

Looking back at my 2015 goals helps me realize how far I've come in a year as a quilter and a blogger. Despite the "I didn'ts" in my review of those goals, I feel really great about everything that I did do.

I wanted to cut my WIP list in half. I didn't. But... of the 24 items on the list in January 2015, I've finished ten of them. Woo hoo! That included a king-sized quilt for our bed that wasn't even cut out yet, and at least a couple projects that had been in the works for years. I also made significant progress on three of the others, including my oldest WIP (started in 2004). Unfortunately (not really), I started a bunch of other projects I was excited about, so my list is still long. It's just more full of stuff I'm fired up to work on. I count that as a win, though I think I'd still like to have fewer items on the WIP list in general. In 2016, I want to finish one WIP per month (from the current list).

I finished 24 quilts this year, including a bunch for swaps. To compare, I finished nine in 2014. Speaking of swaps. I love them. They are great fun. I participated in fourteen(!) in 2015, including hosting the Halloween Mini Swap. They really pushed me to create things that were new and challenging to me. I strongly encourage you to try one out. But I'll be dialing back the swapping for myself in 2016. (I'm only signed up for one at the moment.)

Quilting Bees were great fun this year (and added one, and soon a second, WIP to the list). I'll be continuing in 2016 with The Bee Hive as well as do. Good Stitches, a charity bee.

As for Block of the Months... I never even started Leah Day's Dancing Butterflies (oops!) and I'm way behind on Intrepid Thread's Patchwork City Metro Area BOM. However, I'm super excited about getting back to the Metro City project and it will be an epicly awesome finish when I get it done. In 2016. Or, let's be real, maybe 2017.

I never got around to sewing with knits, but I did do a number of zipper pouches and even buttons and buttonholes for my latest shirt for my son. I'm pleased to have developed some of my non-quilting sewing skills this year.

I designed mini quilts for a few of my swaps and put out two blog tutorials: the Watermelon Plate block and the mini charm Zig Zag Placemats. These were both for blog hops and I participated in a few others, including Charm Dash and the 2015 New Quilt Bloggers hop.

I taught my five year old son to quilt. He finished three quilts this year: Jungle of Animals, Rainbow Swift and House on the Hill.

 

2016. Connect. Inspire. Create.

Here's some of what I'm thinking of moving forward.

Sew daily. 'Nuf said.

Blog daily. No, not a blog post a day, but progress for the blog daily. There are a lot of ways to achieve that: planning, photography, draft writing, design work, etc.

Read blogs more regularly. In my very stressful year, this was one of the things that went. Lately I've gotten to do a bit more blog reading and realized how much I've missed it. Question: How do you keep up with reading your favorite blogs?

Tutorials and patterns. I'm super excited about Cheryl's Pattern Writing Blog Series starting in January. I find this very timely as it's one of the things that didn't happen for me this year. I did do some design work, but it didn't translate into any finished patterns.

Pattern Writing Blog Series

 

Brush up my technical design skills. In an effort to support my pattern writing goals, I think I'll be dusting off a copy of InDesign and relearning what I once knew (from teaching yearbook in 2002-2006). Thanks to Daisy of Ants to Sugar I recently fired up Illustrator for the first time. I should also spend some real time learning EQ7 since so many quilters love it, but it just hasn't clicked for me yet.

Linky parties. Get back in the routine of linking up as well as host my own linky parties. Now to settle on which of my three ideas to go with first.

Use what I've got. I've grown my stash in the last year. I'll be making a concerted effort to design and create from my stash. No grand declarations about not buying fabric, but you may be seeing lots of pieced backings and scrappy bindings this year. ;-)

Schedule. I always think, "next month doesn't look so busy" when looking ahead on the calendar, but darn if it isn't just all filled up nearly as soon as I turn the page for the new month. I think one of the ways I'll be working to achieve my goals in the coming year will be to schedule time for them. Like actually carve out and protect that space on my calendar. This whole "trying to fit it in" thing isn't working as well as I'd like it to. :-)

Tweak my blog design. Through the help of some peer critiques from the New Bloggers group, I improved the look of the blog this year, but there are more things I'd like to achieve. A logo and new blog header, for one (er, two). I've started a style sheet that I plan to develop and in general I'd like to work on branding my blog.

Thank you for visiting and Happy New Year!

I'm linking up with Yvonne's 2016 Planning Linky Party.

 

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This quarter's motto is: Don't start any new projects.

The WIP list just keeps growing. With the kids home for summer and a variety of other "life" getting in the way of sewing time as well as sewing mojo I finished a mere 4 projects from the list last quarter. Such as life. As I like to say: I can only do one human's amount of work.

So... most of this will look very familiar to you (updated with some new pics!). Now I'm really on a break signing up for swaps (though if the IG Mini Swap round 2 comes up, I don't think I'll be able to resist... AND I've got an idea for one that I want to host -- that one will just have to wait for now).

My year end goal from the beginning of the year is to have no more than 12 WIPs on the list. (Are you laughing yet?) I sure have my work cut out for me this quarter, don't I? A number of these are clothing items for the kids. Perhaps I can whip out some of these for Hanukkah gifts.

The WIPs: In no particular order...

  1. Schnitzel and Boo Mini Swap (round 4). This one is due in early November. It's the last swap I'm signed up for. Here's my initial fabric pull. I have a great idea... that has Y-seams. ;-) We'll see how that goes.
  2. Sew My Stash Mini Quilt Swap. Most urgent based on the deadline. I've decided to go with HSTs and I'm using the trimmings from another project... if that isn't using my stash, I don't know what is! Here's a peak of my palette.
  3. EZ Quilting QuiltCon 2016 Triangle Quilt Challenge. Due November 30.
  4. The Purple Ninja Quilt. I'm getting this one done for real this quarter. It's been quilted by Patti Joki, a local long-arm quilter (my first time sending a quilt out for quilting). The binding fabric is prewashed. Now to make and attach over 400 inches of binding!
  5. Help my son finish his third quilt.
  6. 2004 (ugh) Baseball Quilt... This one continues to be my oldest WIP. I've finished constructing all the blocks and I've even pieced a couple of them together.
  7. Little Letters in Blues/Greens Quilt.
  8. Text Me Mini for myself. I made two for this swap, one for my partner and one for me. Somehow, mine didn't get done by the deadline. ;-)
  9. Another Retro Camper Mini. I made one for my Home Sweet Home partner and one for myself that's currently unfinished.
  10. My other Zig Zap Placemat. Ya know, so I have a pair! Just needs to be quilted and bound. Check out my tutorial.
  11. Very Hungry Caterpillar twin quilt. Fabric all cut for Fat Quarter Fizz quilt and piecing has begun.
  12. Very Hungry Caterpillar baby quilt. I cut all the fabric I had and had way too many sets for the twin quilt for my son's bed, so I should be able to get 1 or 2 baby quilts out of the remaining pieces. See above.
  13. Hawaiian lap quilt. Again, I'm using the Fat Quarter Fizz pattern. Fabric is all cut. :-)
  14. My safari animal baby quilt. Ready to baste and quilt. I'm considering going with graffiti quilting on this one.
  15. Ocean quilt for my daughter (top pieced, but needs applique done)
  16. Little Letters in Brights Quilt.
  17. Cotton & Steel (and low volume) Quilt (I have a HST plan... with these 5" squares)
  18. * Batik SCVQA philanthropy quilt. Basted and ready to quilt.
  19. * Roman Stripez with butterfly backing. Some blocks done. (see #18)
  20. * Roman Stripez with turtle backing.
  21. * Memory House Vol. 1 Quilt (2 houses complete)
  22. * Leah Day's Building Blocks Quilt Along (first 3 sets of blocks done)
  23. Envelope quilt. A couple blocks pieced. I'll probably make a mini for myself.
  24. * Monster Quilt (first applique block in progress)
  25. Christmas Mini Quilt (using 4 orphan blocks I somehow acquired)
  26. * Swoon Quilt (finished my first block, next two are in progress)
  27. Primary mini quilt. Same pattern as my Cotton & Steel mini swap. Hoping to get better at adding those bias edge triangles to finish it.
  28. Frog dress for my daughter. She picked out this fabric while on the Shop Hop with me. I intend to make my first Nelle Dress (by Brownie Goose).
  29. Frog shirt for my son. His pick on the shop hop. Not sure what was with the frogs. He'd like a new Bowling Shirt (pattern by Scientific Seamstress).
  30. Baseball dress for my daughter. Ever since my son started playing t-ball, she's had a thing for baseball. She picked out these two fabrics. I'm planning to make the Jewel's Stripwork Peasant Dress (by Create Kids Couture) without using strips for the skirt. She's been wearing the last one I made her for a year.
  31. Baseball print Bowling Shirt for my son. Same fabrics as above.
  32. Winnie the Pooh Skirt/Shorts for my daughter. Fabric currently MIA. Hm. Found it!
  33. * Rainbow Simply Woven lap quilt with bee blocks from Stash Bee. I need to decide how big I want this to be and how many additional blocks I'll be making for myself. I didn't have a good place to lay out my whole set of blocks for a photo, so here are the first few blocks I received.
  34. 4th of July shop hop table runner.
  35. * Patchwork City Metro Area Quilt. It's becoming a bit of a fabric collection... I do love the blocks I've finished.
  36. * Midnight Mystery Quilt. In progress, expected finish early 2016. 

* Indicates that these projects will almost certainly roll over to Q1 2016.

Stats: Since I like data, here's some further info comparing project status of my Q3 list to this one. While I only had four Q4 finishes, I made progress on many of the projects, particularly in moving them from Fabric Pulled to Fabric Cut and from Fabric Cut to Piecing in Progress.

  • Planning Stages (pre-fabric pull): 2 (Q3), 1 (Q4)
  • Fabric Pulled: 10 (Q3), 7 (Q4)
  • Fabric Cut: 6 (Q3), 3 (Q4)
  • Piecing in Progress: 14 (Q3), 19 (Q4)
  • Quilt Top Completed: 3 (Q3), 5 (Q4)
  • Quilted: 0 (Q3), 1 (Q4)

Bucket List: I haven't pulled fabric for these (except #9), but I can't stop thinking about them. Remember the motto: Don't start any new projects.

  1. Wizard of Oz baby quilt, gift for a baby due in March.
  2. Triangle Squared quilt.
  3. Equilateral triangle quilt, perhaps Chopsticks pattern.
  4. Raspberry Kiss lap quilt.
  5. Floating Squares improv score from The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Lynn Wood.
  6. Technicolor Galaxy. I didn't have the bandwidth to do it real time, but every time I see everyone else's I kick myself just a little bit for not diving in.
  7. Polaroid quilt.
  8. Chopsticks quilt.
  9. Pirate Quilt. (I have fabric, but no firm plan on design yet.)
  10. Leah Day's Dancing Butterflies to develop my free motion quilting. (I joined at the start of the year, but never... um... started.)
  11. Mini Mini Quilt Swap on IG.

I'm linking up to the Q4 Finish Along Goal Party.

2015 FAL at On the Windy Side

Things I Make

 

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I just can't resist a great swap theme. The early mosaics for the Home Sweet Home Mini Quilt Swap convinced me to dive it. This swap was a little different in that we were paired with partners to make for each other. That makes this the first time I've not shown my finished mini online in advance of mailing it. Since Brittany knew it was for her. My September goal post showed my first seam, the curved curtain in the window.

Brittany told me "I like retro houses and campers, but anything bright is good with me!" I couldn't decide on an existing camper pattern, so I created my own. It's made by piecing the camper (except for the hitch and wheel), then cutting out the outline of the camper to applique to the background. I used turned-edge machine applique for the wheel and the camper. The hitch is simply fused and stitched in place. I had a great time designing it and making it... and actually made two so I could have one for myself. My camper is done, but the quilt isn't quite finished yet. Here's the one I sent to Brittany. It measures 20" x 16".

I also made her this tiny little quilt. I took inspiration from Completely Cauchy's itty bitty piecing and whipped this up. It finished at 5" x 5". I think it has 83 pieces.

I'm linked up to ALYoF September Finishes, TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday.

I'm linked up to the Finish Along Q3 Finishes Party. See my whole Q3 goal list here.