Quilting is my hobby, together with embroidery and lace making; teaching Business English is my profession. The latter is full of lists: the student's starting level, envisaged final level, topics for the course, skills for each session, and on and on! These are lists I have to make, and am accountable for.
My hobby, however, can be characterised as CHAOS! I'm a list-maker, but more importantly a list-loser!
My ongoing projects from 2015.
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| projects listed on the left; pencil ticks to indicate worked-on status |
Here is what I hope to achieve/improve in 2016:
1. Organise my sewing space, although organising my quilting habit into less than 2 square metres of guest bedroom is tricky. More storage boxes would help, but finding somewhere to store them is the next issue. As it is the beds function as a dumping ground; expected guests causing a speedy and makeshift tidy up, followed by a week of searching for
2. Finish the UFO'S, or throw/give them away. They are taking up both space and storage boxes that I need for current projects.
3. Regularly practise FMQ.
4. Improvise in patchwork. I have enough skills to go out on a limb, on my own, without a workshop, a course or a book. The thought scares the heck out of me, but the other side of me knows that without trying, without the possibility of failure, nothing would ever be achieved, ever.
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| RSC QAL (top now finished): definitely not improvised, but a skill builder nonetheless: all those flying geese. |
5. Fewer QAL's. I decided this year that participating in a QAL, or club is mostly a form of procrastination: although in itself productive, it's always avoiding the main issue (being creative) and yet I can't resist. I like sewing with other people, either face to face or on-line. The idea of doing the same thing as 40 or so others world-wide is both appealing and comforting. The two pictured here are exceptions: I learnt from these projects. Some of the others on my list were over before I got started, then the incentive was gone, others turned out to be "not really my thing".
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| Drunkard's Path QAL: Definitely a skill builder: no fear of DP blocks now! |
6. Blog regularly and reply pronto to blog comments. The last couple of months I've been very slow. I need to consider how to organise my time better in general, and in this respect especially. I owe it to my readers to not just let conversations peter out.
and finally:
7. DO all of the above!
I'm linking up with:
and 
so go and check on other quilters' goals for 2016.
Happy sewing
Marly
12 comments:
Way to set your goals!
I am always impressed by people who list their goals in quilting. I don't. To me quilting/patchwork needs to be a spontaneous expression of my creativity, so I work at what I want to do now, not what I must do to put a tick on a list. That's why I have so many WIPs and UFOs LOL. I get stressed if I feel pressured by a deadline, and then the creativity dries up. Good luck with your goals.
I understand what you mean Marly about working on other peoples projects rather than taking the risk to figure out our own.
I'm way more organized at work than at home as well but I'm sure you can put the organizational skills you have at work into your quilting life as well. I wish you a great 2016 where you achieve your goals.
Love #7! You have a great list of goals...good luck accomplishing everything in 2016!
Good luck with all of that, particularly number 7!
Marly, this could have been one of my post. I have little bit of space to sew, little space to store things, so I am always looking for everything and I do not make lists anymore, because I only write lists and never look at them again. I did not know how I did it in my working life?! I hope you have a Happy New Year and you will make a lot of beautiful things in 2016!
As teachers, quilting really is our reprieve, rejuvination from our "scheduled" world. Thanks for sharing at Tuesday Archives this week...Happy New Year friend.
What wonderful goals for the new year. As you discover what works for organizing your sewing space - please share. My quilting space is in a corner of the living room. There is some incentive to keeping it clean and organized as it is the first thing you see when you walk in the front door.
Good luck with all your quilty adventures in 2016. I enjoy the sew alongs, they are a lot of fun and give you the opportunity to sew with a group (since on-line is my only quilting community, I'd really miss those opportunities). If you want to jump start your creativity, but still participate in say the RSC, pick your own block to make. Figuring out how to set together a bunch of blocks made from different scrap sets can be challenging (which is why I still have 3 unfinished RSC projects). But it's a great jumping off point for your own creativity, plus gives you the incentive to keep up with the project so you have something to blog about for the next week.
Thank you so much for linking up! I hope that you have a wonderful 2016 and are able to meet and exceed your goals and expectations for the year. I know what you mean about participating in QALs; they are very tempting and exciting, but tend to keep me from doing other more creative work, too.
Great list! It embodies many of my own goals, we quilters are so alike despite our differences in style!
Great set of goals. Good luck with your quilting in 2016 and a very happy New Year to you.
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