So how did I do with regards to my quilting in 2023?

It feels like I didn’t do very well and I don’t really know why.

But here is my summary of what I did. I will review my goals and let you know how they compare to reality.

Each year I make a file folder and put the photos in it and make a list of the quilts I do in that year. Some years I keep it up better than others.

Yikes. I didn’t realize I had done such a bad job at keeping records a few years ago.

But here is what I did this year:

If you look carefully at these numbers, you can see that I only finished up 139 quilts this year and that INCLUDES the 120 charity quilts - for which I had a lot of tops. This means I finished almost a record FEW of my own quilts. I have no idea why I did so poorly. I really don’t know why. Maybe I’m just getting older. :) Slower moving.

Anyway, let me review my goals from my January 2, 2023 blog post.

1. Finish 120 charity quilts minimum (I would love to do twice that, but will officially only make the 120 my goal). 240 is what I would really like to do and 360 would make me over the top happy, but I’m not sure it is physically possible - so much depends on the how life goes this year with ‘other things’ (Ukraine, visitors, possible trip to the US, etc)

2. Finish 50 of my own quilts this year - any size—including quilting all the UP Greens, and my various unfinished tops sitting in my sewing room and fabric rooms. Most of these are queen size.

3. Write up 25 new patterns.

4. Get my long arm working with the robotics (early in the year).

5. Choose 60 of my quilts to give away (as I have too many!) I can pack them up and send them to Ukraine as long as there is a need.

   If I finish 50 this year, this would be a net loss of 10 - I need to make it a higher goal, however as I need to clear out a bedroom where all the quilts are being kept and I can’t get in and out well - I simply have too many.

Let me go through them one by one.

1. Finish 120 charity quilts minimum

Done!!! Yeah. I finished this in November.

2. Finish 50 of my own quilts this year - any size

NOT done. Head down. :( I only finished 19 of my own tops this year and probably not even all of those were finished by me as I counted them if they were FINISHED BY even the long-armers in Florida. Most of those 19, however, were finished by me.

3. Write up 25 new patterns.

I do not know how many I wrote up this year but I don’t think I did 25 which would be 2 + a month. I will keep better track in 2024. I may try to figure it out but in the future I will just keep a Word file or a Google doc and keep track in a regular way. I’m suspecting I actually did between 10 and 20. However, I could have seriously overestimated my work as it just seemed like I did that many! I did “feel like” I did almost no new free ones this year but several that were part of kits for Rachael and the store.

4. Get my long arm working with the robotics (early in the year).

Sadly I did not do this, but at least NOW I really do want to do it. I did, however, begin to feel much more comfortable by using the long-arm by hand all year. At first I was sweating every time I used it - afraid I was going to do something to it to break it or make it not work right. I’m much more at ease with it - and that is saying something. I am grateful for that.

5. Choose 60 of my quilts to give away (as I have too many!)

I did not give away 60 quilts this year. I MAY have given away 20 - but I don’t think I did that even that many. Sigh. Just recently I gave away about 10 - which is a far cry from 60.

I’m just a failure at this part. I really need to work on myself.

I do happen to have 3 packed up in nice containers ready to give away, however. I don’t really know whom to give them to locally. My family in the states have a lot already - Rachael and mom are both overloaded with quilts. I really do make a lot of quilts and subconsciously this might be my biggest problem as to why I didn’t finish more in 2023.

I am almost ready to give them away as charity quilts - but not really that ready. I have considered putting the ones I want to give away on my Facebook profile and if people “like them” or comment on them I may offer it to that person (if they live here in Europe). I have a space problem. I guess recognizing I have a problem is a start, though, right?

So I failed in 2023 on most of my goals. I did, however, attempt to do many of them. I am set up to maybe finish a lot more of my own quilts this year - 2024. I do have several already quilted but in the living room, waiting to be bound - and that will be just about half of what I did in all of 2023! I can’t believe I did so few this past year. That was kind of an eye opener.

I am trying to get my own quilted, however. I am trying to do a minimum of 2 a week of my own right now on the long arm. If I can get 3 done, that is a bonus. We’ll see. I’d love to try to do 4 or 5 until I am basically caught up on my own tops. That would feel great.

I did, however, keep up with cutting up scraps. That’s a positive. I also started making quilted hearts and have plenty to sow in 2024.

So here are my goals for 2024.

1. Finish 120 charity quilts.

2. Finish 50 quilts of my own OR simply get caught up so I have none waiting for me to finish up quilting.

   I am not sure how many tops I actually have of my own that are unfinished but I do not think I have 50 actually. I can send ones that are for the shop in Florida to my sis and she can get them quilted there and that way the finished quilt is in Florida.

3. Write up 2 patterns a month for a total of 24 patterns in 2024. (That just seemed appropriate.) :)

4. Piece 10 quilt tops from my 2.5” strips and squares.

5. Give away or sell (the idea is to reduce my numbers here in Poland) 10 more of my own quilts than I make in 2024. This does not include charity as they are already all given away or at least put in the church building waiting to be donated.

6. Get the long arm going with robotics. I need to call Grace Company and get the program registered - this has been my big holdup. I am so ignorant, that I really don’t even know what to do or where to go with this.

I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. I’m not really distraught that I didn’t reach my 2023 goals. I should have printed them out and put them somewhere for me to see. However, I did do something. God gave me strength to get 139 quilts done - and all 120 charity quilts distributed. That’s a blessing.

So, I will work harder at my goals for 2024. I will write them down and print them out this time so I can keep track of them and maybe actually “reach them” this year. It was a problem that I didn’t keep them out in front of me.

On the other hand - these are goals of my own doing.

No one is standing over me, saying, “Becky if you don’t do all this in 2024, you will get punished.” I know that. But if I aim at nothing, I am sure to hit it. So, I want to go for something!

There is a biblical principle of “The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul” - Proverbs 13:19. I usually do much better with written lists.

I know that my life is in the Lord’s hands. So, with all of these goals - let me preface them with “If this is what the Lord wants me to do, I will attempt these this year.”

I don’t want to presume on tomorrow - either our living situation in Poland - after all, Putin could decide he wants Warsaw as well as Ukraine - or health situations which get more precarious each year when one is older.

Obviously extenuating circumstances could intervene and I would put these on hold as needed. (I don’t know of anything, but I know that each day is a gift from our Lord.)

So there you are!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey.

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!

Feel free to browse the site.