de Jong Dream House: January 2021

Friday, January 1, 2021

2021 Goals

Happy new year! 2020 was certainly a year none of us will forget. I look forward to this new year filled with promise and potential.

I shared a little bit in my last post about the vision issues and brain fog that kept me from writing much last year. Hopefully now that I'm seeing better, I can shake the cobwebs in my head to be able to write a little more.

I'm going to start with my 2021 quilting goals. I'm not sure what happened with my 2020 goals. I guess the year started the way it ended. Time to get back to it. As I did in 2019, I'm inspired by Yvonne from Quilting Jet Girl's annual planning party.

Overall Goals ::

I have a few overall goals to guide my quilting this year.

Become a Confident Long Armer. This is just embarrassing. After saving for years, I bought a longarm when we sold the Dream House. It took a few months before I could move into my new craft room, and then longer while my attention was on moving, remodeling the kitchen, and settling in. By the time I could sew every day again, I had forgotten every thing I learned. I signed up for a weekend long arm training event last March, but COVID. So this year, I am going to pull up my big girl panties, load some panels and just get started.
Complete the 365 Block Challenge. In 2018, I started Kathryn Kerr's 365 Block Challenge. I stopped in April because I didn't like that I chose a busy print as my main fabric. I chose a new color scheme for 2021, and am planning to make a mini quilt with the blocks I made in 2018.
Organize Scraps. Last year I was gifted several bags of scraps. Mostly strips and scraps 3" or smaller. I have been slowly going through them and organizing them by size and color, trimming down as necessary.
Make One Scrappy Quilt for Each "New" Quilt. There are so many great organizations needing quilts. Between my scraps and my need to practice on my long arm, I want to make sure that I continue making scrappy quilts.
Finish UFOs. I realize it is rare for a quilter not to be up to her eyeballs in UFOs, but I am hoping to whittle down my unfinished projects. I keep my projects in Sterilite deep clip boxes in the Kallax portion of my craft table.
Write Up Blog Posts for Every Quilts. I've made 145 quilts. I have written posts about all but 16 of them. I would like to catch up on those this year.
Finish setting up Vesper View Studio. I am incredibly lucky to have such a large room with a view at the Lake House. When we moved in, I had dreams of hosting sewing dates with quilter friends. But COVID. My goal this year is to finish unpacking and organizing so I can write a tour post to invite you over virtually.
Write up one of my original patterns. This continues to be a goal of mine. It's on the list, but may remain on the back burner until my brain fog lifts a bit.

Projects in Bins:

I have many quilts in my to do queue. Some are still in the early brainstorming stage, some are simply fabric pulls, some are life events needing to be celebrated in fabric. And some I have even started!

As of January 1, 2021, this is my list of quilts and quilt ideas that have made it to the project bin stage.