I don’t know about you, but I feel a fresh start coming in 2014. I’ve put together 13 “intentions” for 2014 which include a lot of different things that I want to do for myself. But, I’ve also put together a list of quilting goals. I took Angela Walter’s advice and looked at what I wanted to do with my life in the next decade, the next year, and the next month. You will be amazed at how “level headed” you will feel after doing this. Well… I have to admit that organizing things helps clear my head, too, and I’ll get to that in a minute… I did the organizing before I wrote down my list of goals.
You have to understand (before reading this list) that I have so many ideas jumping around in my head that I cannot keep up with them. I have a drawing notebook for my quilting ideas – it’s a great idea for any kind of artistic career. I take it with me to doctor’s appointments and other places where I know I will be sitting for awhile, bored. When I get discouraged in life, it’s a great thing to come back to for a creative reprieve. I also think I have ADD, because I will start one thing and quickly find myself headed in a gazillion different directions. It makes me crazy, but I can’t seem to keep focused long enough to get my “goal” of whatever I was doing completed. So, I hope having this list written out and in front of me, where I can cross the accomplishments off as I reach that particular goal, will be helpful. It is typical for me to get started on a project and get side-tracked because I forgot to check on something else, which then leads to something else, which leads to another idea totally unrelated to the former idea and what started it all. Are all artists like this? Or, is it just the minds of women??? I also do that when I’m having a conversation with others. I’m a great listener, but it will make me think of something totally unrelated that I must share.
The thing about me and lists, though, is that I am a finisher and if I have something on a list, I will finish it sooner or later. It can be a great thing, but it can also be bad, because that list is like a nagging spouse with a “to do” list. I don’t like starting a project unless I plan on and know I can finish it within a time frame. Given that, here are my quilting goals, both the far-fetched and the realistic ones.
Quilting Goals
In the next decade…
- · Create quilting designs and patterns for pantographs and digital format
- · Start making and publishing quilt patterns?
- · Teach at quilting venues (includes guild meetings)
In the next year or more…
- Start drawing and doodling every day.
- Finish the New Orleans quilt (this is a quilt that I started almost 3 years ago, with every intention of finishing it within a year – FEAR has held me back; fear of my abilities or lack thereof and fear of it not turning out as wonderful as I envision in my head).
- Finish the Migraine quilt (it’s a joint quilt with my daughter).
- Draw out the cartoon that is in my head from IQF Houston of Carol and her cousin and create a pattern and quilt from it.
- Make a quilt for the BVQG Challenge due in April, 2014.
- Make up some embroidery samples for use in quilts (will be teaching this at April mtg.)
- Enter Hoffman Fabric Challenge, 2014 (must be received by July 18, 2014).
- Finish the Jennifer Jangles appliqué quilt that I have been working on.
- Make a white, queen-sized whole cloth quilt.
- Make a king-sized whole cloth quilt from the light blue fabric.
- Make a 9-patch red and white quilt.
- Make a 4-patch blue and white quilt.
- Make a scrappy Pineapple block quilt.
- Make memory quilts out of Bob’s T-shirts.
- Get the Buffalo quilt pattern done.
In the next month…
- · Draw and doodle every day.
- · Draw out cartoon of the Houston quilt.
- · Start on New Orleans Quilt.
- · Quilt customer, raffle, and charity quilts.
Do you think I’ve set myself up? Or, do you think I can accomplish at least some of them?
Okay, back to the organization part of this story… My life story seems to be either “feast or famine” in all areas. I’m either really busy or not busy at all and my ADD will kick in overdrive then, sending me back into the “busy” part of my life. Anyhow, by nature, I am an organizer. You’d never know it, though, if you had looked into my closet a week ago. I have a lot of shoes. The way I “organized” my shoes was to just toss them into the closet. They were all over the floor in there – I would trip on them every time I’d go into the closet.
I’d been meaning to take that shelving unit in my closet and transform it into a shoe rack of sorts. I’ve been avoiding it, though, because I thought it was going to be too much work to add shelves to it. I even broke down and bought myself one of those plastic organizers with pockets for shoes that hang from a door but never got around to putting shoes in it Well, after building a computer armoire, my confidence level shot up and I figured out a way to (in my mind) easily add shelves. I have a Kreg shelf pin jig that I used to drill holes into the sides of the existing shelves. I added shelf pins after that along with MDF boards the width of the shelves. Voila!
I feel like one of those rich movie stars who has a shoe closet – LOL! Creating this “shoe space” has been a goal of mine since we moved into this house in 2009. I can’t tell you how good it feels to finally have this done – the clutter in my closet was “cluttering” my mind – literally!
My point is that you, too, can accomplish a lot IF you know what you want. Start by organizing your ideas and/or your space and then writing down what you want to accomplish. If you don’t know, start with just a few items. They might be goals that you know you can accomplish. Or, they might be far-fetched goals. But, if you take that first step, you at least know where you are headed and are farther on your life’s journey than you were yesterday. Here’s to new beginnings and fresh starts!
Cowtown Quilts 