I’ve been doing some planning for 2023. I've created an initial list of crafts I want to finish this year and I'm also trying to develop a process for tracking their progress.
My working list of projects for 2023 is:
-Predator Cross Stitch for the Husband
-Macrame Hat Rack
-Complete Spanish Ladies Quilt
-Tea Towel Placemats
-Complete Sashiko Quilt
-Leo Horoscope vintage pillow pattern (and complete making both the Leo and Taurus pillows)
-Stitch the Year Tea Towel
-Frank Lloyd Wright Saguaro Cactus Cross Stitch
-Start the Western/Cowgirl Quilt
-Sew a Mexican Tourist Jacket
-Participate in the 2023 Mystery Quilt a Long
-Create a New Textile Necklace
-Establish Mending Days (and work through mending 'to-do' pile)
A couple of highlights from the list:
I’m finishing this Predator cross-stitch project by Son of a Cross Stitch. It’s a gift for my husband and while I don’t totally understand the Predator love, it makes him happy so I'm happy to make it!
I’m also going to start a tea towel calendar for 2023. In the past I’ve loved September House’s tea towel calendar kits but as she didn’t have one this year, I thought I’d try this "Stitch Your Year" template from Stitch Doodles Design where you stitch some thing each month to reflect what happened or what the month meant to you. I’ve only just made it to transferring the template onto a tea towel so I’ve got to get moving so I can do a little stitching for January – I don’t want to be behind the whole year!
I managed to finish all the quilt blocks for the Spanish Ladies Quilt this month but I still have several “mosaic” tiles to finish embroidering on the quilt and I plan to add some fabric to frame the squares. There's a decent amount left to do, but I think I can get this done in the next month or two and check this long term “WIP” off my list.
The other big thing I’m working on is a plan to update my project documentation process.
Last year I worked out of a notebook: and I captured some information about my projects there, but I wasn’t great at updating the status of the project and once I'd completed something I would often just put all my thread and other supplies back in my “stash” before documenting what I'd used for the project in the notebook. This defeated a lot of the point for me as there are some projects I think I'd like to recreate and I want to have all the details of the thread colors, fabric, pattern I used etc.
My plan for this year is to create a “stitch palette” at the beginning of each project to document the threads and colors I’m using and then use a form or maybe a spreadsheet to try to track the time spent on a project and my current progress. I’d like to regularly be keeping track of how long it really take me to finish a project and how much time I’m usually spending on them.
My “test run” for a stitch palette is here:
This obviously isn't all of the colors used for this project, but this was good practice to set up a standard palette template.
I think these goals are pretty realistic. I know I will probably add to my “to do” list through the year. New inspirations inevitably come up and I sometimes just get excited and want to jump into something right that moment despite whatever I have scheduled to work on next. If my project priorities change over the year I think that's fine, I'm just looking for ways to stay motivated and organized.
I hope everyone is enjoying lots of inspiration and new projects in the new year!