The Stitch Up

Organizing and Planning for the New Year

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!

Keeping Time and Getting Organized

One of the things I like about the start of the New Year is seeing a fresh calendar with no entries.  Just blank pages with possibility.

The husband bought me the perfect date book to start 2013:

I can record my to-dos and appointments while getting important decorum advice from Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham.  Delightful!

I'm also working on a 2013 calendar tea towel.  

This is the second year I've started off my New Year crafting with one of the adorable tea towel kits from curious doodles.  She has great patterns and I like having a little stitched up calendar in the kitchen.

January is also the time I start thinking about getting organized.  Again!  

I've been using Evernote to try and keep my paper to a minimum and it's been working pretty well.  I'm starting now to organize my patterns and some of the online tutorials I love in Evernote so they're easier to find.

Evernot has also come up with a new app - Evernote Food - that organizes restaurants, meals and recipes.  I was able to take the messy binder of recipes I've torn out of magazines and organize it into a a nice electronic recipe book!

It also lets me make a little entry for my "meals" which means the pics I'm taking of the stuff I eat is now somewhat useful.

Which is a good thing since I am kind of addicted to photographing the stuff I eat.  But now I can put notes about the restaurant, the location, the type of food and anything else I can think of into the entry - which helps when the husband and I are going back and forth about "what do you want to eat?" "no, what do you want to eat?" I can pull up some pictures and go with what makes my mouth water most.

I'm still using the Weave app and still really liking it - I just think I need to get a little better at projecting my completion date on things and sticking to it.

My big push is going to be making all of my pictures and photo albums digital this year.  I've done pretty well but there are still tons of pictures in the attic that need to get scanned and organized.  I've really liked a few of the photo gifts I've made in the past like calendars or collages and I think it's one of those things people always love.  Especially if you've had a nice picture of them or their kids tucked away somewher and you can share it with them.  I'd like to try making a few photo books for friends and family this year of special photos and memories and getting everything in one place is the first step!

I know everything can't get done in January but hopefully that New Year urge to get on track will put a big dent in a few of these projects.  Happy Organizing All!

Project Organization

In my quest to make organization my middle name, I've found a few tools to keep me on track this year.  

The Project Girl, who is becoming my go-to for organization ideas has a host of print-ables that I've been using.  This one is a Project Master List, which I'm using to jot down project/craft ideas as soon as I come up with them.  I'm then trying to think rationally about how long I'll need to complete each project and giving myself a deadline goal.

For my next step I am using an AWESOME app called Weave.

It lets you break each project down into individual tasks, set a date to complete each task and it then gives you reminders of when your completion date is coming up.  It also keeps track of how much you've spent on a project, which I think makes this a great app for people who are selling things on Etsy or other sites as it keeps you within budget.  It would also probably be a good idea for me to keep track of my budget, but at this point I'm pretty much working out of my fabric and embroidery thread stash, so I think I can postpone concerns about budget for a bit.

My plan is to list the projects I plan to complete each month here on the blog as an added incentive to get those things done.  I'm trying to be realistic about the time it will take to finish everything as I've learned that the reminder every day from the Weave app that I'm up against my own deadline is really guilt-inducing!

So an update here soon on my projects for February and their progress.  Hope everyone is keeping warm and enjoying 2012.