2017 - The Year in Review

It's New Years Eve. Last year on New Years day I wrote about what I had gotten done and what I wanted to change. I set eight goals for the year. I have never been really good at keeping resolutions or even sticking to long term goals. So this is a bit of reckoning for me. 

The goals were:

1. Complete at least 3 quilts for family - can be ones already started.
2. Buy a long arm machine before the end of June.
3. Organize my studio before the end of February
4. Sew/quilt at least 20 minutes a night
5. Work fewer unpaid hours at work so I feel up to quilting
6. Write in my blog weekly
7. Document my quilts and who they were given to.
8. Start signing my quilts using labels.

Let's take them one at a time.

Killian's (Son)

Arianna & Victor's (daughter)

Just for practice

Goal 1 - Complete at least 3 quilts for family.  Accomplished!!!!!! I finished 5 quilts this year. Three were given to my children and one to my brother. One is just for practice.  Of the 5 quilts, two were started and completed this year (both of the around the rail fence quilts). Two were UFOs and I finally finished them after 3-4 years (Arianna & Victor's jelly roll race and Killian's scrappy braid). One was someone else's UFO that I am really glad I bought and finished off (the just for practice). I plan on keeping that one for myself since I didn't piece it but I may donate it to charity. I don't know yet.

Josh & Kara's  (son)

Steven's (Brother)

Millie

Goal 2 - Buy a long arm Machine before the end of June. Accomplished!!!! I purchased Millie at the end of February and had her set up and running by the beginning of April. Millie is an APQS Milineum. I went to on of their road shows in February and the deal they made was the deciding factor. I am really happy I bought her. Otherwise I would not have completed 5 quilts. I still much to learn about using her though.

Killian's shelf

Goal 3 - Organize my studio before the end of February.  Partially Accomplished!! This has been an ongoing nightmare. While I do have the studio organized, it is needing constant tweaking. Adding the built in shelf was a big help. Thanks to my son, Killian for taking that on. I have also purchased some storage items and made use of some things I had around the house such as baskets and an old gun rack. I expect that I will be tweaking the studio until I get to build one separate from the house.

baskets and tins

re-purposed gun rack

Goal 4 - Sew/Quilt for twenty minutes each night. Not even close. This is one area where I still need to improve. I don't even have a good excuse other than I am so tired when I get home. I started out fairly good but fell off after the third month. Typical resolution failure. Basically after I had the flu. I was behind at work and then dealing with other things and then needing to clean up the studio. It was a never ending cycle. So that will remain a goal this year.

Goal 5 - Work fewer unpaid hours this year so I feel like quilting. Partially Accomplished!! I have cut back on how many hours I work where possible. We now have a full staff. So I am really trying to keep it to 8 hours a day. The biggest issue I have is when people call in sick on second shift.  I have to cover the first half of the shift then my counter part is supposed to relieve me. That doesn't always happen on time. Hopefully there won't be too many days I have to work more than 8 hours. 

Goal 6 - Write in my blog weekly. Partially Accomplished!! As followers of my blog know, I haven't been to good about this. I posted 34 out of 52 weeks. Better than half in fact almost 2/3 of the year. The thing is there were a couple of months that I only posted once and a couple more that I only posted twice. Those were months that I was either very busy or sick or both. As a result I didn't do much in the way of quilting so I didn't blog.

Goal 7 - Document my quilts and who I have given them too. Not even Started. I have actually taken pictures of the ones I've done recently. I even have a book to put them in. I just haven't decided how I want toformat the pages. I will put an effort into getting this started in the first few months of 2018.

Goal 8 - Start signing my quilts and use labels. Accomplished!!!! I have been doing really good on this one. All the quilts I completed this year were labeled even the one I just practiced on. I am still hoping that my son will design a quilt label just for me. One that is more personal and reflective of who I am. In the mean time I will make do with what I have.

So all in all a pretty good year. I haven't decided on the goals for this year yet. That will happen on the first. Which is now! but I need to sleep so I will make those plans tomorrow.

How did you do?

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!! 

Three Weeks Gone

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I last posted. Worst than that it's been 3 weeks since I quilted. Time has flown by and I have been terribly busy. I am currently trying to get my studio put back together. Too many non-quilting projects have been taking place in there.

One of which was a cookbook for church. I gathered recipes from members and former members of our little Cairo branch. The theme was suppose to be foods you use to celebrate. Any kind of celebration. The cook book turned out quite nice even if I say so myself. Plus one Sister gave me the recipes from an old candy cookbook the branch had done in the late 70's early 80's.She gave me a copy of the cover for it as well. I put those recipes in as their own section. I was very pleased with how it turned out. I was able to laminate the cover and bind the book thanks to an old friend who sent me an early Christmas present, a binding machine and a laminating machine, so I could "do it right". The cook book looked so nice that I kind of want to do another one for my family. But that is crazy talk right now.

Kim and a friend managed to get some deer. Killian and Perigrine managed to get it all cut up and in the freezer. We went heavy on stew meat. Tatianna finished up classes for the semester and is busy working. She has managed to get all the presents, we need to mail wrapped and boxed for mailing. But because of delays in things arriving, it looks like the presents will arrive the day after Christmas. Oh well, it just draws out the fun another day.

This past week, All of us in our house have been sick, despite getting flu shots. I am feeling a little better. Others are taking longer to recover. We did a lot of sleeping this week. But that is over now. We all need to be back at work in the morning.

Once I get the studio back in shape I need to get moving on a baby quilt. But that will have to wait for the week after Christmas. This week it's baking, candy making and decorating. Maybe I am over scheduled? Perigrine is going to have to pick up a lot of slack.

I hope my machines will forgive the neglect. Have you been able to keep your machines humming? Or did yours end up on sabbatical for the holidays like mine?