Quilty Goals for 2021

I am very goal-oriented in my quilting life — and life in general — so as I’ve done for several years now, I’m joining up with Quilting Jetgirl’s #2021planningparty and thinking about what I’d like to pursue in the coming year.

Last year I came up with 5 broad guiding principles for my sewing in 2020, focused on finding a good balance between quilting and the other things in my non-work life …

And then covid came along and blew everything out of the water for everyone everywhere. Whew! In an interesting twist, I found myself sewing more than ever thanks to spending so much time at home, but at times it also felt a bit manic. Sewing was one thing I could control, and so I poured a lot of energy into projects.

There are cons to that, of course — but overall, 2020 turned out to be a unexpectedly transformative year for me:

My postcard project was a huge, huge success that enabled connections with so many new people and changed the way I think about quilting. It also, quite simply, brought me great joy this year — and joy is something I desperately needed.

Virtual meet-ups brought me closer to old friends, and brought growing relationships with new friends. I mentioned this in my “Best of 2020” post but it really can’t be overstated — the virtual quilting connections I’ve made this year have been wonderful and so, so welcome.

I tried many new-to-me techniques, which is a direct result of both my postcard project — which allowed me to try things on a small scale — and additional available time — which helped me give myself permission to slow down and explore options to make things in new and different ways.

I spent time exploring color interactions and hand quilting in the latter part of the year, and have really enjoyed this process. I look forward to more explorations in both of these areas in 2021.

My goal-setting method is more of a quarterly process, and it has worked well for me for a good while now. But here are a few things I’m hoping to incorporate into those more specific quarterly chunks in 2021. The first three relate to for my “personal/hobby” quilting, and the last two are for my “business” quilting.

Build my longarm quilting experience. There are several things involved here. I want to get my machine serviced and possibly upgrade the carriage. I want to do some dedicated testing with different thread types and tension settings to get that dialed in as much as possible. And I’d like to practice free motion/custom quilting motifs.

Complete another 100 Day Project. I am honestly feeling nervous about this because it’s hard to imagine anything living up to the success of the postcards! But that’s not a realistic goal in the first place. I’ve done enough 100 day projects now to know what type of project motivates me and what doesn’t, so I simply need to give it some thought and pick something that piques my interest.

Find new ways to engage in my local quilting community. I have spent the past 2 years leading the Gulf Coast Modern Quilt Guild, and am currently transitioning out of my role as President. But I still have a strong desire to be involved in the local area, and hope to find different ways of doing that.

Publish 6 patterns. I have four pattern releases already penciled in between January and June, so adding two more to the second half of the year should be very doable!

Maintain the status quo with tech editing and design. I had a huge influx of requests in the last two months of this year, very nearly more than I could handle given my other obligations (day job and family). I continue to enjoy this work, but the past couple months have given me additional insight on how much I can take on at once that will be helpful in 2021. In the next year, I am likely not looking to build in this area, but rather maintain my current level of work and client list.

Onward to 2021!

p.s. I’m doing a 31 day blogging challenge. And yes, I missed yesterday — just forgot! Oops!