Goal Setting

It's so easy to forget the importance of goal setting. For some reason, when we actually set a goal, our motivation to accomplish that goal is increased. Today Laura and I participated in a Walk/Run event. It was actually an event that had been planned and organized by my older son, Stephen. Stephen decided that instead of having participants compete against each other, they should set a goal and compete against themselves. He said it was very interesting to see how that seemed to challenge everyone.

Since Laura and I usually take about 45 minutes or more to complete our 2 mile walk through our neighborhood, I knew that I better set our goal to take the full 90-minute allotment for the 3 mile walk.

And it was a good thing I did, since this ended up being our walking group--I pushed the stroller with the two cousins in it, Rebecca (my daughter) carried 4 year old Gwenna on her back, Noah (age 6) walked his aunt's dog and we all worked together to keep Laura out of the path of bikers. Even with 3 water stops, 2 photographs and 1 skinned knee (Noah), we managed to get our walk done in less than 90 minutes!

Laura loves to give people "rabbit ears" in pictures and she had no idea I was doing it to her, so she's going to be tickled when she sees this photo!

Stephen's daughter, our oldest grandchild, Jennifer will be turning 12 in July. I told her I wanted to make her a quilt for her birthday. So I brought a bag of fabrics and a couple of pattern books to the event for Jennifer to look through and choose what she wants for her quilt. Jennifer has cerebral palsy, so she stayed in the shade at the registration table while the rest of us were out walking (or running). She's so excited for us to work together on this quilt!

Here's Jenn again, when we all went to Bloop for frozen yogurt after the event--it's one of her favorite places to go!

As for quilting goals in particular, I keep this white board in my quilt studio. It's a great visual reminder for me of what I need to be working on--it really helps me stay on track. And if I come up with an idea of something I'd like to make in the future, I can write it on there so I don't forget. Before I planned my goals for June, I reviewed what was already on the white board, then I looked through my WIPs and my UFOs so I could make sure nothing important slipped through the cracks. It really does help me to keep focused on what I SHOULD be doing.

So for goals for this month, my number one project is Jenn's quilt. These were the fabrics that she said she liked. This quilt book had MANY quilts that she liked--so many, in fact that my first plan is to make up sample blocks from 3 different quilts (especially since it's often challenging to visualize quilts in other color choices) in the fabrics that she chose and then let her pick her favorite. Then I'll start putting her quilt together, with the goal being to get the top finished this month.

This funny looking stack of fabrics is the beginning of my Tammy bag. I didn't sign up for Madame Samm's blog hop, but I bought her pattern because I loved the bag and wanted one of my own. I've been making so many projects for everyone else that I thought I would make this one for me--and that's another goal this month.

I have several other projects planned for the month of June: I want to finish the Bloom Bloom Pow top and I also have a couple of Swap projects in the works to do.

Even though I've already made a quilt for David and Sabina's baby, I want to make something else for him, for when he's born. This is some minky and fleece and I'm going to make a little elephant blankie toy for baby Linus.

And not to leave Laura out, she's got a couple of projects started that we'll be working on together this month. She bought this set of patriotic strips at our LQS and sewed them all together. In the shop, they had made them into a table runner (I have them folded up here, but they're full-length). Looking at this picture here just gave me some inspiration--I think I'll just make them into placemats! Great idea!

Laura has been working on these pieces and she's really done quite well. They're ready now to be sewn into blocks. I'm not sure what the finished project will be or how big it will be but we'll just work with it and find out!

I'm so much more motivated now that I've established these goals! And I'm ready to Get More Done...in the month of June!