February is almost half gone. I'm on track with things in the sewing room, so I'm OK that the month seems to be speeding by. Work has been mostly calm, so it's been a lot easier to find the time and energy to stitch each day.
- 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
- 15 minute days/February = 12/12 days
- 15 minute days/2022 = 41/43 days
- Success rate = 95.35%
Some days all I manage to fit in is 15 minutes. But all of my projects are progressing, some a lot slower than others, but none have completely stalled out. So I'm content on that front.
The last few weeks, I've been sharing my quilting metrics. I've heard from a few kindred spirits that are equally enthralled with Excel and use it as a second memory bank to keep up with their quilting accomplishments and goals. So I'm not the only metric nerd. The third tab on my spreadsheet is "Statistics". It's pretty much all graphs rather than lists, because who doesn't like a good graph?
This graph of quilts completed each year has made a couple of appearances on the blog over the years. You can clearly see I've never been able finish more than 7 quilts in one year. I've had a goal in the past to finish 8 quilts in a year. But it hasn't happened yet. So I finally decided that 7 is probably the best I can do while I'm still working full time. My average over the last 18 years is 4 finishes per year. I didn't manage that last year, but last year work was a nightmare, so I'm happy with the 3 finishes for 2021.
Next up is the UFO count. It's hard to believe that 10 years ago there were only 4 UFOs in the sewing room. This chart is the reason I've limited the number of new projects on my quilting plan. I refuse to go over 20 UFOs. It's time to stop the upward trend. The best I've been able to do is keep the total number steady for the last 3 years. Hopefully that number will be a bit lower by the end of 2022. What's a reasonable number of UFOs? I'm not sure, but I'm hoping to get it down to the single digits and keep it there.
The last graph is the number of active projects. This is the UFOs, plus all the projects that are less than a year old. So this is reflects all the new projects I start in a year. I made a conscious effort to limit new starts 3 years ago. To hold the number constant it means I've at least finished what I've started the last couple of years. It should be obvious that new starts also drives the UFO list, but I don't think I really connected them till I looked at it graphically.
This tab on my spreadsheet has probably been the biggest driver of my goals for the last couple of years and has had an impact on how I formulate my quilting plan for the year. I'd really like to get a handle on unfinished projects. My sewing room would be a lot neater if I did.
So how are you doing with your stitching metrics this week? Are you getting in your stitching time and making good progress on your metrics?
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9 comments:
I don't go with spreadsheets and keep such close track of things just make what you want when you want!
I am not the person who track those things. Maybe I have to try this.
Hi Kate, those are very interesting stats. A couple of years ago, I realised that a large number of my UFOs come from quilt-alongs, so I've stopped doing them. Of course since I don't really like piecing, that's made the stopping much easier since they are usually about piecing. One day I would like to do a round robin (the ones that you do alone that have started a few years ago). I promised my daughter a Paddington Bear quilt a few years ago...I haven't started (but this year is the one!!!!) and since I don't know how to piece it, I think that I will use previous round robins to inspire me. I'm really glad that you've been able to sew this week and that work is calm. That must help a lot with the stress level. Good luck with your UFOs.
I am glad you had a better work. Those are great charts too. I had been looking at the number of quilts I finished too, but I stopped doing that when I decided that it wasn't the quantity that was important. I wanted to focus on making quilts I loved, even if they were the time consuming ones. I also worried before about starting too many quilts, but I decided a couple of years ago that since I have the fabric, and I enjoy starting quilts I would start as many as I want. My attempts in the past to limit new quilts or finish more quilts leads me to rebel and do the opposite. I don't like having so many UFOs though so I am going to try to limit my new starts and finish more this year. Hopefully my easy goal of more finishes than starts will work.
Those graphs look great, fun way to visualize your progress ;)
I'm hoping classes start soon at Local Quilt Shop, they lost their big classroom and have move it to the 2nd storey but they need the landlord to install a lift. I think my quilting will progress once classes are underway I'm just a bit underwelmed by the thought of sitting behind the machine at the moment though I did have great plans to finish quilting some of my older BOM.
Fabulous use of Excel! I will consider adding graphs to my tracker. So far, I'm focusing on learning FMQ skills this year to complete my quilts the way I want. Thank you so much for sharing your thinking and tracking.
Kate I really enjoy seeing your spreadsheets, and now you add the graphs to our viewing pleasure. Thank you. 🤔
Nice stats - I am under a dozen UFOs after being up around 20 for a few years - I usually do a good job at the start of the year at finishing off UFOs and then move on to start new things. Most of my projects stall once the top is completed because I don’t know how I want to quilt them…still working through that plugging away one at a time!
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