Quilty Goals for Winter 2026

First, a wrap-up of my goals for fall, which turned out to be a pretty good quarter for my quilt-related pursuits this year, thanks in part to 1) the motivation of the QuiltCon deadline, and 2) the beginning of my “temporary retirement” as I transition from NASA into a new job.

Fall 2025 Goals:

• Finish this year’s Quilts Unscripted Bee blocks. Done!
• Finish one good QuiltCon entry. Done — and it was juried into the show!
• Prep my QuiltCon workshops. I’m not completely prepped but I made good progress.
• Finish my 2 in-progress stitching projects. Finished one!
• Finish 2 UFOs. Finished one!
• Also done:
  • Played with the library’s laser cutter.
  • Made a postcard for a swap.
  • Attended the annual MQG Board retreat.
  • Lots of tech editing. (I never list this as a goal, but it feels important to put on my “done” list each quarter because it does take a good chunk of my creative time.)

But now I’m on to a new month and new year! As usual I have big ideas — but also as usual, I need to try to moderate my ambitions and hopefully keep them realistic. I start my new job later this month, and anticipate that I will need to devote quite a bit of time and energy to meeting new people, learning my new role, figuring out new systems and processes, and just generally adjusting to this big change!

Winter 2026 Goals:

• Prep and launch this year’s Pantone Quilt Challenge. The choice of “cloud dancer” as the color of the year threw a curveball, but there will still be a challenge!
• Finish my prep and teach at QuiltCon! I’ve got a heavy workshop load this year, but I’m excited to debut 2 new offerings.
• Make each month’s Quilts Unscripted Bee block. Also I’m the “queen” for February.
• Finish 1 UFO. I actually finished one last week so tecccccchnically I’ve already done this, haha.
• Release 1 new pattern. I have a couple options in mind — this will probably be late February or March.

Here’s to a good start to 2026!