Goal Planning for 2021

Yvonne, at Quilting Jetgirl, is hosting her annual Planning Party again, and that's just what I need to get me to finalize my goals for 2021.

Despite the weirdness that has been 2020, it has been a good quilting year for me. Before I dive into my goals for 2021, let's take a quick look back at my goals for this year and see how much of the list I accomplished.

1. Guitar quilts

Oh, boy, these still aren't finished. I realized a while back I had two hold ups. I felt like they should be custom quilted, but I really didn't want to invest that much time into them. I felt guilty every time I thought about just doing an all over design, though, so I kept waffling on what to do. The other hold up was that I didn't have batting big enough, and I kept telling myself I'd piece the battings rather than buying more. Of course, weeks and weeks and weeks went by and I didn't piece the battings. Finally, I got more batting and just went with my go-to double circles and one is now ready for binding. The second one is basted so hopefully I can officially cross these off the list before we ring in the new year.

2. Finish my Quilter's Planner bag

Yes! I finished this back in November and I love getting to use it. You can see the finished bag in this post.

3. More patterns, in more shops

Yes and yes! I don't actually have the number of new shops to share, but I know there have been more shops ordering directly from me, plus some of my patterns are now carried by Brewer Sewing, which expands my reach quite a bit 😊

And I reached my goal of releasing 10 new patterns during the year. They were Hollow Jewels, Formal Garden, New Life, Pinwheel Garden, Intersections, Burst, Level Up, Windows, Between the Stars and Flower Path. You can see all of them in my Etsy shop.

4. Teach a class

Yes...and sort of, lol. The sort of is for the in-person class I started back in February. It was going wonderfully until Covid shut us down. I'm going to see about resuming the class in January, since the room we were using has plenty of space for social distancing, there are only 9 of us and Covid cases in our province have remained very low. It would be great if the participants could actually finish and use their quilts!

The yes is for the totally unexpected online workshops I've been able to do. I've taught four workshops and I love being able to teach without needing to worry about traveling. I already have two more workshops booked for 2021!

5. Tame the UFO situation

Nope. This did not happen. I have been trying not to make it worse, though, so maybe that counts for something.

6. Make more little quilts

Yes! I have made a bunch of smaller projects this year, which has been a lot of fun. Not only did it allow me to use up some of the batting scraps I've been hoarding, but small projects are also faster to finish 😊 I'll just keep making small projects and see if I can shrink the batting scrap pile.

7. More garment sewing

So much yes! I've been having so much fun with this! I've made shirts and dresses and a skirt for me, shirts for Mom, plus baby and toddler shirts. I also tried making shorts for myself, but that wasn't quite as much a success. I did learn a lot from the attempt, though, so there's that. It's such a great feeling to wear something I've made and to gift clothes I've made for others. As a bonus, making a shirt is faster than making a quilt!

8. Make a sewing machine cover

Another nope. I still want one, though, so it's going back on the list for next year.

Okay, now on to the goals for 2021! In no particular order, here's what I plan/hope to do...

1. Finish my 2020 temperature quilt

Right now I'm way behind! I'm working on a set of blocks that will bring me up to about mid-October and if you follow me on IG and feel like you've heard that before...you have, lol. I cut those blocks out in mid-October and I've been slowly picking away at them since. Emphasis on the slowly part! I really want to finish it, though, so I'll just keep going and eventually I'll get there. These two blocks were the most recent bit of car stitching 😊

2. Make a sewing machine cover

Hopefully I'll actually get to this in 2021! If I get really ambitious, maybe I'll make a cover for my serger, too...A girl can dream, right???

3. Finish three UFOs

Last year I named one UFO and then just said I'd finish some others. Well, the named one got finished, but I didn't get far with the others. So, this year I'm going to name three and try to get them all moved over into the done pile.

• My dragon cross stitch. I can't even remember when I started this, but it was many, many, many years ago. I love dragons and would love to have this on my wall. It's not even all that far from finished!

• My Indecisive quilt. I made this as a free pattern back in 2018 to celebrate my 5th blogging anniversary. I started quilting it, but then set it aside for something else. It's way past time to get it finished! When I took it out to take this picture, I discovered I have 10 of the 30 blocks quilted.

• My Let it Snow wall hanging. I made two of these last year as part of an Island Batik ambassador challenge. One I finished and gave to Mom for Christmas. The other is still sitting, basted and waiting for quilting. Strangely, I couldn't find it to take a picture, but I know it's around here somewhere.

4. 8 more printed patterns

I still have so many patterns that either need to be updated so they can become printed patterns or that just need to be written at all. There are easily 8 that I could do, it's just taking the time to do the work to get them ready.

5. My Easter project

Oh, I am so excited about this one and I can't wait to share all about it next month!!! For now, I'll say this much - devotions + quilting together 😊 And I'll share the gorgeous fabrics I'll be using, that arrived last week from Northcott. I'm kind of swooning over here!

Okay, that's definitely more than enough to keep me busy. And that's not even considering the garment sewing I'm sure I'll be doing, or the little tangents that will pull me off into new projects I haven't considered yet. I've said it before, but it bears repeating - I'm never going to be bored!

 Do you have any sewing goals for the year? What is one project you really hope to finish in 2021?

I'll be linking up with Yvonne's Planning Party. Head over there to see what sewing goals others setting for the year!

Here's to a fun, productive and fabric filled 2021!