Crafty Goals for 2017

The last couple months of 2016 were full of fun projects. I took a class, went to Quilt Festival, tried a some new-to-me techniques and made a couple gifts. I ended the year on a high note, feeling very inspired and excited to once again MAKE ALL THE THINGS IN 2017!

This, of course, is not realistic.

And yet, as has happened many times before and will certainly happen again, I conveniently forget/overlook that fact when my brain is off and running with ideas.

And so it was with this in mind that I’ve set my crafty goals for 2017. I have a long list of ideas and plans to start the new year, and I intend to give that list my best shot. (I’ve even fooled myself into thinking it might actually be possible! It’s probably not, but hopefully people consider my enthusiasm endearing.) But before I get to the list, I decided to set 3 main goals:

That’s it. Three simple goals that I’ve typed up on a sheet of paper will tape to the wall of my sewing room. And with those three overarching things in mind, I’m going to set crafty goals on a quarterly basis instead of trying to plan the whole year at once, since a shorter time scale seems to work better for me in general.

Here’s what on my to-do list for January through March:

1. Interwined mini quilt. This one is already in work and I’ll have it finished by the end of this month.
2. Looptastic quilt for Charlotte. I mentioned this one yesterday and have started cutting fabric. This pattern is a bit time-consuming, so slow and steady progress is the name of the game.
3. Long Time Gone Sew-Along. Angie of Gnome Angel announced a sew-along for Jen Kingwell’s Long Time Gone pattern that will run from February to May. I’ve been wanting to try one of Kingwell’s patterns for a while — I love how intricate and scrappy they are! I’m a little intimidate but a lot excited about this one. By the end of March I should be about halfway done and I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts to share as we go.
4. Barn Quilt Block of the Month. I really want to keep improving my pattern-making skills this year and am creating my own “block of the month” challenge. I’ve mentioned a few times in recent months that I’ve developed a minor obsession with barn quilts (evidence here), so I plan to pick 12 of my favorites and turn them into actual quilt blocks. I’ll publish each one and at the end of the year I should have a nice sampler for myself — and anyone else who decides to follow along.
5. Tackle one UFO (unfinished object) per month. For January, I’ll be working to finish up Charlotte’s Christmas stocking. In February, I want to fix the USA pillow I made in 2015 — while technically finished, the floppy envelope closure is really annoying and I want to insert a zipper instead. In March, I want to make curtains for Charlotte’s room. I already have the fabric for them!
6. Secret Sewing project. For the first time ever, I have a secret sewing project in work. This is one part exciting — because it will be really cool when I’m able to say what it is (in the spring) — and one part frustrating — because keeping secrets is just annoying. I put this at the end of my list, but it’s actually the #1 priority since there is a real deadline involved.

Yep, that’s a LOT of stuff for three months and I may not finish it all, but as long as I stick to my big three goals I know good things will happen.