I am a bit behind in my goal setting for the year. Not in the goals themselves but in the planning for how I will achieve them. So I had a good sit down this weekend and worked through what I wanted to do and decided that the plan was more about making a decision to spend a certain amount of time each week on certain things in my life.

Interestingly, not a lot of my goals this year relate to quilting. That’s ok, I am still going to make quilts and some of my goals will support my quilting in other ways.

1. Prioritise my health. This means time spent on exercise, healthy eating, good sleep and a calm mind. So no skipping the gym to sew (that one hurts). Taking time to cook a proper dinner rather than having a microwave meal because its faster. When I have taken care of myself then I can spend time on other things.
2. Read 12 serious books. I have piles of non-fiction books on my to read pile, but like many people I have gotten out of the habit of reading long things. I skim headlines, skip long articles and scroll. Peri-menopause doesn’t help either and I want my brain back. So I picked 12 books from my pile and will spend time each week reading (and taking notes to help make the information stick in my brain).
3. Get my garden under control. Lets just say, it is a weed infested, hot mess. My plan is to weed and mulch (to stop the weeds growing back so fast) and then start to think about how to re-design it so its a place I wanted to spend time in rather than somewhere I am avoiding.
4. Explore other aspects of my creativity besides quilting – so spend time writing and drawing. I also plan to join a folk art society where they have regular painting classes. This isn’t as mad as it seems. I often have ideas for pictorial quilts but struggle to translate them into reality because I can’t draw the idea I have in my head. I was quite good at drawing back in high school but mostly stopped after school. Now is the time to make it a regular practice.
5. Get out of the house and meet more people. This one is going to be hard as I have become very anti-social over the years but can tie into the other goals i.e. go to a fitness class rather than just workout by myself at the gym, join a few clubs, go to classes, see if I can find time to volunteer for something.
6. Make 12 charity quilts – this one is maybe self-evident. I have enjoyed making quilts for charity this year and would like to make some more, just maybe not be as crazy about it as last year. I think one a month is a good pace, as they are usually small quilts and machine quilted.
7. Go slower and take time to enjoy the journey and the process of making things. I am hand quilting a quilt top I finished last year and really loving the slowness of it. I’d forgotten how peaceful and relaxing hand stitching can be. So I am going to go slow on the things I am making for me including hand quilting, making the Dresden plate quilt that takes time and patience and work on some embroidery.

I am already started on my first book and I have a charity quilt ready for pinning and quilting (in between pulling weeds of course).

How are your goals for the year shaping up?