Quilting Goals and Resolutions for 2017/January

Sandy, from

 

has chosen the word Balance for us to work our resolutions around this year. She has suggested 2 ways of looking at it...

• How can your quilty life bring more balance to your life?
• Do you need to address some imbalance in your quilty life?

To be honest I feel I have it pretty well sorted. I get to sew as much as I like really. My children have all left home, my husband is retired and also very accommodating. He is happy for me to spend as much time as I want in my sewing room stitching away. (at least he doesn't complain) He is very competent in the house and as well as participating in our weekly house cleaning morning he makes lunch most days, tea quite often, does the washing regularly and the shopping. What a man. (No you can't have him.) My biggest imbalance might be that I neglect him and the family when they are home to sew.

I sew for my own pleasure mostly. I donate many of the items that I sew to a group I support "Handmade With Love" whose profits go to Our Rainbow House, a school for disadvantaged children in Zambia. Our group sponsors 2 children as well as supporting the school in other ways. I also sew quilts for special people in my life. All my great nieces and nephews get a quilt when they are born, as well as babies of close friends. I make a quilt for my siblings and their partners when they turn 70 (4 down, 9 to go ) And then there are quilts for random other reasons. (like I wanted to try the pattern).

My biggest lack of balance I suppose is my desire/willingness to try new things. Despite being a quilter of 15 plus years I am still pretty hit and miss with accuracy. Done is better than perfect is a motto I have probably taken too far at times. I have mastered a few new skills over the last couple of years... inserting zips is one and paper piecing another. Perhaps this year I will add button holes... and greater accuracy. I would also like to master the Longarm at our club and use the laser guide on it to do some pantographs. That might have to do me...

Balance out my skill base with 

1. learning to do button holes
2. increasing my accuracy
3. increasing skills on Longarm.

Arghh - what have I done. I hope I can live up to these. I shall not say I will try to do them. I need to remember my word from the last year "DO" From Yoda... Do or Do not, there is no try.

Wish me luck.

Oops posted this without doing the January goals so editing it now

1. Work on En Provence clues as they come out

2. Set up Excel spreadsheet for fabric tracking 2017

3. Complete clue for Charlotte Hawks Mystery quilt "Surrounded By Scraps"


4. Complete 8 blocks for my A to Z challenge this year. (I plan to make a block starting with each letter of the alphabet. Since April is going to be busy and full of travel I need to start NOW) This is going to be my OMG goal


5 Quilt one quilt on the long arm

6. Tidy the craft cupboard

7 Work on one project on my UFO list

Review time... time to review my monthly and yearly goals

The last day of the month and the year. Tomorrow is a sparkly fresh new month and new year. A chance to set some new goals and to start with a fresh sheet of paper.

I started doing monthly goals a few years ago and it came from joining in Sandy from Quilting for the Rest of Us challenge to set some goals for the year. I joined in with very concrete goals and reported in on them regularly and after just a few months I had accomplished all of them so I started setting myself monthly goals and I was away. I have found it a wonderful way of keeping track of what I want to accomplish - by blogging about it I kept myself accountable.

Looking back at my annual goals set back last January I am somewhat ashamed to admit I lost track of these goals somewhat although by default I have accomplished them to a large degree. My goals were

1.Keep my scrap bin emptied/under control - work on doing that monthly Well that didn't happen - not on a monthly basis anyway. For a few months at least I did work on it but then it got away from me and for probably the last half of the year I didn't do it at all and as a result it grew to be a mammoth task. However I determined before Christmas that I would work on it and get it emptied by today and I accomplished that 2 days ago. The basket is empty and all the scraps cut into useful units and put away in the drawers I sort them into

2.Ensure my WIPs/UFOs list on my blog page is up to date. Release any that I am just not going to work on Hmmm well I have tried to do this ie keep them up to date but haven't always succeeded and I just couldn't let any go. I didn't really examine them properly and try. This is the list as of today

3. Continue monitoring my stash - purchasing fabric thoughtfully with purpose.... using an Excell Spreadsheet. I have monitored my purchases and usage all year on the spreadsheet and have regularly reported in on the Sunday Stash Report Linky at Patchwork Times  I mostly purchased "Thoughtfully with a purpose" but have to admit to having a massive blowout when my friend Jodie took me shopping on the Gold Coast in August and took me to 4 patchwork fabric shops several of which were having massive sales. I bought 23m I think it was BUT I have made great inroads into them with my sewing projects since. A lot were used in projects I made for Handmade With Love and the purples I couldn't resist came in so handy with my En Provence quilt.

So really I haven't done too badly.

My word for the year was Do, (From Yoda in Star Wars "Do or Do not, there is no try) It was a repeat from the year before. I have done pretty well this year, completing lots of projects.

As to my December goals

1. Work on En Provence Mystery quilt. I have kept up to date with each clue as it was released. New clue came out yesterday and so far I haven't started but the plan is to work on it this afternoon. I have blogged about each clue here here here and here 

 

2. Put Stringin 'Em Along together The quilt top is together including the borders. Next step is to make the backing and get it quilted.

3. Complete Potholder Commissions I made my friend Alison 2 more sets of Darlek potholders to give as gifts to friends. I haven't heard how they went down. She was expecting the recipients to be thrilled.

4. Complete secret commission for a friend. This secret commission was to make a bag to carry an ipad in, one that had a strap. I used a kids messenger bag pattern and TARDIS fabric (not all my friends are addicted to Doctor Who, a few of them are boring types. LOL) Her step daughter paid me to make it (well paid Handmade With Love) and gave it to her for Christmas. She was suitably delighted.

5. Make backing for Alison Gibson BOM quilt - quilt DONE. This project was a long time in the making. It was a couple of years from when I watched the Craftsy video till I started making the blocks and then the blocks themselves have sat completed for another year before I got them put together. However this month I pieced the backing and got it quilted and bound. Still have the thread tidying up and the label to go. I haven't come up with a name for it so no label quite yet.

6 Quilt Hexagon quilt. Great intentions came to nothing when the longarm at the club rooms played up. Its going again now so perhaps this next month I will get it done. Unfortunately in the course of dealing with this quilt this month I have come to realise that I don't like it. Its been a lot of work but... its too gaudy for me. Not sure what I am going to do with it now. Blogged about my feelings towards it here

7 Work on Handwork Heritage quilt. I got the borders pieced. Now to get them attached and work on the backing.

How have you gone with your challenges and goals this year? Did you make good progress? Did you abandon them completely? Whatever you achieved I hope it satisfied you and that you are inspired by the new year to go out and accomplish great things... or at least something?

Wishing all my readers all the best for the New Year. May it be a time of progress and satisfaction.

Goals Both Yearly and for this Month

I was busting to get back to my sewing machine whilst I was away. It seems that it is the first time in ages that I have gone away - in the car - for more than a few days that I haven't taken my sewing machine with me. I missed it. I probably wouldn't have had time to sew if I had taken it with me but the not being able to was what grated. So.. I was happy to be heading home to it. Have been home since Saturday night and here it is Thursday afternoon and I still haven't touched it.. have barely been in the sewing room at all since I got home. Not sure what is wrong with me LOL.

Yesterday it was my patchwork group meeting and I was planning on going until I remembered that my husband was out in his car and our son has my car whilst he works out of town. An hour or so later I remembered that I had my daughter's car here for just such occasions. Doh. I am semi pleased to report that when my husband tried to start her car for some reason later that day it wouldn't start because the battery (which had been playing up) was flat (American's say dead, Australians say Flat*) So if I had got myself really psyched up ready to go I would have been very disappointed.

I also really really missed my computer. I had broken the screen days before we went away and so had to leave it in the repair shop whilst we were away. I picked it up Monday morning... and took till yesterday morning to turn it on. Weird.

Anyway. I fired it up yesterday and wrote a couple of blogs and am on it again this morning. Hopefully I will sew a bit tonight.

MEANTIME - time to set some goals (if you can't get around to quilting you can at least write about quilting)


I have once again entered Sandy from Quilting for the rest of us Quilty Resolutions Challenge and give away.

 The challenge this year was to select three things which we were going to do to clean house mentally or physically in our quilting life. 

These were my three.

1.Keep my scrap bin emptied/under control - work on doing that monthly

2.Ensure my WIPs/UFOs list on my blog page is up to date. Release any that I am just not going to work on

3. Continue monitoring my stash - purchasing fabric thoughtfully with purpose. I will do this once again using an Excell Spreadsheet. The initial formula I use on mine was worked out by Pam from
 and now also 

My wonderful Fixit Guy has tweaked it to suit my purposes - one that allows me to calculate fabric used in non quilting projects as well)

Sandy also challenged up to come up with a word to be our guide in our quilty/fibre related endeavours this year.

My word for 2015 was DO and I chose it again this year. I love the saying "If it ain't broke why fix it". My reason was the same and it comes from Yoda. There is no TRY only DO or DO NOT.

January Goals: Time to get real. Its all very well having lofty year long goals so what do I wish to get accomplished this month

1. Set up my fabric tracker for 2016
2. empty my scrap basket
3 Review my WIPs and UFOs list.

That means I will have at least started my yearly goals. That is a good thing. Other things I would like to at least nudge along

4. Work on backing for my POD quilt
5 Complete the last of the hexies for the Hexagon quilt
6 Make the label for the quilt I have made for my new great niece Chanel Grace born on New Year's Day. She is my 11th great niece. I also have 10 great nephews and a baby on the way. I left the quilt with my sister when we visited at Christmas but we were on our way home when we heard that the baby had been born. I am to make the label and send it down to her and she will stitch it on and deliver it (and hopefully get a photo of baby and quilt together)

*Funny story about Flat/Dead battery. In 2006 Fixit Guy and I were in the USA on holiday with our 2 youngest boys. One morning our rented RV wouldn't start due to battery issues. We had coverage for roadside assistance with AAA via a reciprocal arrangement with our organisation here in Queensland (RACQ ) It took ages to get through to the assistance people as they had to check our details with Australia and ... I don't know but for some reason I was waiting on the phone for over an hour. Eventually I got through to the despatcher who was to send the service truck. What was our actual problem.  I said we had a flat battery. Total confusion. I was getting so fed up with it all having been waiting and waiting and waiting at a callbox - we didn't have working coverage with our mobile(cell) phones so I was out there on the street. I was just about in tears anyway and then to have this lack of help and understanding. Finally we worked it out. The RV wouldn't go. There was no charge in the battery... "Oh.. you have DEAD battery." Then we were both laughing as we worked it out

Wrapping Up December and yearly Goals

My December goals were

• Work on Amy Gibson Quilt - nope didn't do a thing on it.
• Work on Hashtag Quilt - nope didn't touch it
• Put Elephant Quilt Together - yes! I completed this quilt and gave it to the baby I chose to gift it to.
• Work on Diamond and Dashes quilt - I have cut some of the shapes for this quilt and have purchased extra fabric to make it big enough as well as the fabrc for the diamonds and dashes.
• Make 175 hexagons, 41 half hexagons - I think that this is how many I needed to do to have enough to complete the quilt. I didn't make them all but I did make some
• Work out design for Hexie quilt - I printed out graph paper to do this on but didn't actually do any of it!!
• Make Marauders map and rolled parchment for POD quilt. I did make the map but decided against the rolled parchment. I put the rest of the POD quilt together. The top is now complete.
• Make 2 casserole covers - I actually made 3. I still don't have one for myself though
• Prepare for Bonnie Hunter Mystery - that was a bust. I have decided not to do it
• Start Droid Quilt - another bust. I might make it later on but its off the board for now.

So - not a great completion rate this month but given that I was sick for a week at the start of the month and away for 4 days mid month and 8 days at the end of the month I actually did pretty well. I also completed 7 zipper pouches that I hadn't intended to work on and finished off 4 small ornaments - so pretty good going really.

.

My Goals for 2015, based on Sandy, from Quilting for the Rest of us challenge to learn a technique that we had meant to learn or master and have a go at it. The technique that I chose was paper piecing and ... I have to say I have done that. I joined the 30 week POD challenge issued by Fandom in Stitches. This meant that there was a new pattern every week for 30 weeks. As well as completing all of those I did extra ones to go around the 30 blocks that made up the Harry Potter bookshelf. I also watched Carol Doakes' craftsy class on paper piecing. I didn't do any of the projects from the classes but I did implement many of the techniques she suggested. By the time I completed the quilt top I was able to adapt several of the designs to suit fabric that I had, eg make a bottle to put the butter beer label on, use the  labels that I bought from Spoonflower on potion bottles and adapt the photo frame to fit the photos I printed out.

My own personal goals for the year were
1) continue to track my fabric purchases and usage. I did this all year till the computer issues I had in December meant that I wasn't able to do this. My intake was less than my output which was my aim - even with the unrecorded intake of Dec (which was a good bit higher than my output... oops)

2) Purchase fabric with specific purposes in mind mind, not just to built the stash. Kept to this pretty well all year - occassional purchases made without specific projects were on the whole tone on tones which are always handy. I was given fabric by others clearing out their stash, and as Christmas presents. Can't help that now can I :)

3) Make mini quilts, I got ones made for for Australia Day,  and Birthday. I made a larger one for Anzac Day which I might declare suffice but may make a smaller one. I still have to make ones for Easter and Mothers Day.

4) Complete Donation quilts as required. I put together 3 quilts for my patchwork group as well as one for an online group I belong to. These were ones with blocks that others contributed (as well as some of my own). I made 3 quilts for members of an online group I am on who were going through difficult times. I gave these on behalf of the group. I also made a lot of smaller items for Handmade Love, a craft group that sells things to support a school in Zambia. I made hanging towels, zipper pouches, baby bibs, casserole carriers, and bandana bibs.

5) List Craftsy classes and work on watching them. Complete 2012 BOM one. I never did write the list but I did watch some of them and I did complete the blocks from the BOM (well all but the curved piecing one) The blocks are ready to assemble.

6) Continue to blog regularly. I have done this all year up till when my computer was out of action mid December

I had intended to add my goals for this month, both monthly and yearly but its now midnight and my husband is asleep in bed beside me. The insects are attracted to the computer screen since the bedroom lights are all off and they are driving me nuts so I had better call it quits. If I feel so inclined I might pop back and add some pictures to go with the goals... but then again... maybe I won't. I will be back very soon with my goals for this month and this year.

March Goals

Its the first day of autumn here in Australia but no one has told the weather that. Today is hot and steamy.

Time to set some new goals for this month. What do I wish to accomplish

1. complete blocks for Elephant Parade (weekly)             
2. complete all blocks for the POD challenge - 4 weeks, 4 blocks    
3. complete March step in Scrapitude 2015 - Scrap in a Box
4. make birthday miniature quilt
5. make another Lenten banner
6. start work on Joy's Bluebird quilt
7. complete Teashop Quilt in time to hang at the afternoon tea for Our Rainbow House (28th March)
8. do one block from 2012 BOM on Craftsy
9. complete the blue quilt top for Patchwork
10. continue to work on yearly goals
11. make more bags for Hand Made

If I can get all that done I will be very pleased

Goals Review

   January is almost over so about time I had a look at my January goals and see how I have gone with them. My goals for this month were

January Goals

1) tidy sewing cupboards and room.

2) locate and list all UFOs order them and make plans for finishing them 

3) complete Vanishing Hours

4) complete Tardis Christmas Tree

I did tidy one of the cupboards (the one with the fabric in it) and also sorted out the sewing desk drawers but not sure you would know it now!

I didn't locate and list all my UFOs but I still want to do that. Might have to bump that goal to next month (or get really busy in the next 2 days!!)

I have completed the top and back of Vanishing Hours and have sent it off to the longarmer. I think that is really what I meant when I made this goal but perhaps I did have hopes of having it completed. That isn't going to happen.

Tardis tree is pinned ready to quilt. It is possible that I might get it done by Saturday night. I still have 3 days.

So haven't really completed any of the goals properly.

Yearly Goals.

Sandy from Quilting for the Rest of Us challenged us to choose a technique for 2015 - something we had wanted to learn or master for a while but had yet to conquer. I chose Paper piecing and have to say that I am going really well with this.

I have joined the POD challenge from Fandom in Stitches (a 30 week challenge of paper pieced blocks based on a book shelf from Harry Potter) I have completed the 3 weekly blocks released so far. I have also completed 3 other paper pieced blocks as well

I also devised some goals of my own.

1) continue to track my fabric use and purchases with an aim to having a bigger net usage this year than last. 

With the help of my husband (Fixit Guy) I have a revised Excel Spreadsheet to track my purchases and usage. Its designed to measure in metres (or part there of) so if anyone would like a copy let me know. He's got it set up so that there is a constant running total both for purchases, usage as well as net position.

2) purchase fabric for usage not for stashing ie having a purpose for fabric bought 

I have stuck to this (yay me... but its only been a month) The only fabric I have bought has been for the POD. I bought the background fabric and the shelf fabric. I did get given some fabric from friends who travelled to Fiji. Can't help gifts. Oops just remembered that I bought some fabric on Massdrop... it wasn't for a specific project. Eek. So that would be a fail then wouldn't it. I haven't got it yet though so maybe I don't have to count it yet.....

3) make mini quilts for Anzac Day, Australia Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Birthday

I have started!! I made a mini quilt for Australia Day! Yay me

4) complete quilts for donation as required - aim for 25%

Well so far this year I haven't donated any quilts. I have started one for Angel Baby Quilts

5)list Craftsy classes and work on watching them. Do BOM one from 2012 was it?

I have watched a couple of episodes of the paper piecing class by Carol Doaks

) continue to blog regularly WIP Wednesday, Fitness Friday, Sunday Stash Report on weekly basis and then others as I see fit.

I have 13 blog posts for the month. I haven't always been on time but I have been regular. Fitness Friday has been the least regular but I am up there so that is a start.

How about you? Did you set yourself some goals for the year? How are they going?

Setting some yearly goals

At the beginning of 2014 I set some goals and I got the all done fairly quickly so I started setting monthly goals. I found this to be really helpful as they were more achievable and measurable. I have just realised that I didn't review my November goals nor set any for December. So before I start to look at what I would like to achieve in 2015 I had been review November.

\November goals

1)      Finish Jean’s Jean quilt

Done. Jean's Jeans quilt was finished early on in the month and put to use whilst we were travelling. We had some cold weather whilst we were travelling and we were glad of the extra bedding.

2)      Continue working on the teashop applique. If I get the blocks all done start to put it together if circumstances allow.

I got all the blocks that I had prepped completed but I didn't work on putting them together.

3)      Make piano keys border for Vanishing hours quilt

I completed strips of piano key borders. I haven't put them on the quilt, and not 100% sure I have made enough but I used up all the fabric I had with me and think that there is enough.

4)      Make October and November BOMs from local quilt group

I made these blocks. Found out after I had made them both blue that only the first one was supposed to be blue. The other was supposed to be pink. I didn't have any pink with me anyway so that was a mute point. 

   2015 goals

I am still working on this... .this is the list of what I am thinking of working on

1) continue to track my fabric use and purchases with an aim to having a bigger net usage this year than last 

2) purchase fabric for usage not for stashing ie having a purpose for fabric bought 

3) make mini quilts for Anzac Day, Australia Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Birthday

4) complete quilts for donation as required - aim for 25%

5)list Craftsy classes and work on watching them. Do BOM one from 2012 was it?

) continue to blog regularly WIP Wednesday, Fitness Friday, Sunday Stash Report on weekly basis and then others as I see fit

January Goals

1) tidy sewing cupboards and room.

2) locate and list all UFOs order them and make plans for finishing them 

3) complete Vanishing Hours

4) complete Tardis Christmas Tree