End of the Year Review: 2020 Quilting Ambitions

Happy New Year!  When we went to bed early this morning, we could see the ice forming on the trees.  But when we woke up this morning, this is what we saw. 

It's still snowing, though it has slowed down some. I'll definitely take a snow storm over an ice storm any time.   

I stitched up to just a few minutes before midnight last night in hopes of hitting some key metrics for the year.  I didn't get any more finishes, but I'll start 2021 on a good foot. Before moving on with my 2021 ambitions, I should look at what did and didn't work with my 2020 ambitions.    

2020 Ambition #1: Finish 12 Quilts

I played along with Quilting Gail's PHD in 2020 to keep me focused on this goal.

 Here's my completed tracking sheet.  

There were 7 finishes in 2020, the most recent happened on 12/30/2020. Talk about cutting it close!  I didn't meet my goal of 12 quilts, but finishing 7 is a personal best I've only managed three other times (2010, 2011 and 2017).  

Finished quilts includes Twinkle Stars (started in 2015), Winter Quilt Along (2019), Mosaic Mystery (2019), Storm at Sea (2019), 2019 Christmas Mystery (2019), Frolic (2019) and Daisy Chain Mystery (2019).  

What did I learn from the PHD challenge last year?  That focusing on fewer projects, 2 or 3, rather than my normal 5 or 6 helps push more projects to the finished column. 2020's word was "Finish".  This year's word is going to be "Focus". 

The other "ah ha" moment from last year was realizing that there is something to momentum when completing a project.  If you look at the completed list, 6 of the quilts were started in 2019. Some of those were on my 2020 PHD list, but several weren't. It's just easier to keep working on a recent project. So my three 2020 starts are on my 2021 PHD list right at the top. 

The other part of the finishing quilts ambition was to limit new starts.  I allowed my self three new starts, two beloved mystery quilt alongs and one other project if something caught my eye.  I met that goal, with Unity, Morewood Mystery and Grassy Creek the only starts for 2020.  

2020 Ambition #2: Host 15 Minutes to Stitch, Work in 15 minutes of stitching time 85% of the days in 2020   

There were 51, 15 Minute to Stitch linky parties in 2020.  I missed posting one linky party the first week of work from home back in March. It was just such a stressful week and I hadn't wrapped my head around the implications and realities of the pandemic as yet. I couldn't even convince myself to start up my personal computer (A large part may have been just dealing with the stress of spending so much time on my work computer with all the virtual meetings that week).  Almost 10 months later we all have our fingers crossed that the vaccine will bring an end to all the pandemic restrictions and stress.

I managed to fit in at least 15 minutes of stitching time 324 days out of 366 (remember 2020 was a leap year), for a success rate of 88.5%.  My ambition for stitching time for many years was 90%, but that's really, really hard to meet if you have job that requires travel (I had two business trips early in the year) and a job where unexpected projects added to an already full plate requires long work days (which is what happened in December).  I still finished seven quilts last year.  So while it's important to get into the sewing room regularly, it's also important to focus on just a few things at at time.  

From a quilting perspective, 2020 was a really good year.  Maybe in part because other parts of 2020 weren't so great. Fingers crossed that 2021 is much kinder, gentler and much less anxiety filled than 2020.  

2019: The Year in Stitches

Just a few more hours left in 2019, in some parts of the world it's already 2020.  I've already posted about my stitchy goals for 2020 to go along with Quilting JetGirl's Planning Party post.  But I didn't include my 2019 accomplishments in that post.  So before the calendar turns over to 2020, here's a summary of this year's accomplishments. 

1.  Quilt Plan Progress.  The plan included 12 quilts to be finished and six new projects to be started.  

Four quilts from the plan were finished:  Inverted Star, 2018 Christmas Mystery, Christmas Angels and Vintage Dresses.  

Twinkle Stars went from a set of finished blocks to an almost finished flimsy.  

Eight new quilt projects were started:  Wild and Goosey (2019 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Quilt), Daisy Chain Mystery, Storm at Sea, Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt, Mosaic Mystery, 2019 Christmas Mystery Quilt, Winter Quilt Along, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Frolic.  There were six new quilts listed on the original quilt plan. Two from that list ended up not happening, so actually there's only two new projects that weren't planned for in 2019. 

2.  Stitch for 15 Minutes Every Day in 2019 and host a Sunday Linky Party.  

Ended the year with 332 days of stitching time out of 365 days, for a success rate of 90.96%.  My target for the year was >90%, so just met that goal.  

Posted 52 weekly 15 Minute to Stitch linky parties.  

3. Sew from the Stash.   

Wild and  Goosey used up a lot of triangle scraps, while the Sensational Summer Scrappy quilt used up a number of 2.5 strips.  Daisy Chain and the Winter Quilt Along projects used up left over fabrics from other quilting projects.  Storm at Sea, Mosaic Mystery, and Frolic used stash fabrics.  The only quilt that used new fabrics was the 2019 Christmas Mystery.  So not bad performance on this particular goal for 2019. 

The only major fail for 2019 was finishing off projects. I would have liked to had a few more finishes, but four finishes are better than none at all. So I'll be happy with that success.  Finding time to stitch went well most of the year and using stash fabrics went pretty well too.  So I'll call 2019 a success and work harder on getting more finishes in 2020.  

Sewing Room Successes for 2015

Hard to believe it's already the new year.  I spent the last hours of the old year playing in my sewing room before I was summoned downstairs to participate in the champagne toast and a good luck kiss at midnight.  It was a very good way to end the old year and start the new.  After that, I was ready for bed.

I spent a bit of time yesterday finishing off and archiving my 2015 quilting spreadsheet, then setting up the new one for 2016.  My spreadsheet is my quilting record for the year. I tried to use a journal last year so I would have a non-electronic record, but it only lasted about 4 months before I lost interest in keeping it up.  Paper just doesn't work for me, while I've been really successful in keeping a spreadsheet since 2010.  At any rate here's what my 2015 spreadsheet had recorded for 2015. 

Four finishes.

Flame Test (2014 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler)
Pattern by Angela Feldbush of Soscrappy
Started January 2014, Finished  May 2015

Grand Illusion
The 2014 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt
Started November 2014, Finished September 2015

  

Experiments in Paisley (Layer Cake Quilt Along)
Pattern by Konda Lukau of  Moose on the Porch Quilts
Started November 2010, Finished November 2015

Lily Pond (Back to Square One)
Pattern by Judy Laquidara of Patchwork Times
Started June 2013, Finished December 2015

Of the four quilts only Lily Pond is destined for a new home.  It's a gift for the family that hosted Drama Teen's writing workshop last summer.  I haven't had a chance to get photos of the finished quilt, so I had to make do with the photo of the finished flimsy for this post. Three of the four were on the UFO list by the time they were finished.  Grand Illusion was a WIP at the time it was finished.  I ended 2015 with 17 UFOs, up one from 2014. 

It was a good year on the stash management front. I managed to stay on my fabric diet for the year and only added about 30 yards to the stash in 2015, while using 45 yards.  So for the first time in the six years of stash tracking, I ended the year in the black.  I'm really happy with that accomplishment for 2015.  

It may seem silly, but I also track the number of days where at least 15 minutes gets spent in the sewing room.  As I said it seems a bit silly, but it reminds me to get off the computer and get up out of the recliner to go sew.  With a full time job, an active teenager, and a spouse that travels a lot it can be hard at the end of the day to convince myself I have enough energy to sew.  My worst year ever was 2014, where I only made it to the sewing room 191 days out of 365.  I managed 213 days this year.  So 2015 wasn't my best effort, but it was better than 2014.  

So 2015 was a pretty good year.  I'm going to have to do better on all fronts if I want to achieve my 2016 quilt plan.  Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!