GOAL SETTING

Ive always been a goal oriented person, even if I don't write them down. I keep a lot of things in my head. A friend once told me I had a calculator in my brain and I think she is right. After 33 years in business, I can add and subtract and multiply in my head with ease. I am an interior decorator and when you measure a window for blinds or draperies, you have to get the measurement down to 1/8 of an inch. Sometimes less. It is critical, especially for an inside mount treatment.
Back to Goal setting. About 30 years ago, I went to a conference where we had a speaker on goal setting. At the time, she had about 7 goal categories on the list but I can't remember them all. Right now, I have 3 major goals I'm working on and I am juggling to keep them all in play.


1. I am still in business after 33 years but slowing down some. Clients still call for appointments and I go. When they don't call I move onto my second goal, quilting. Keeping up with my business is very important to me because it enables my quilting habit and I want to take care of my clients and create beautiful rooms, one room at a time!


2. Quilting is my passion and second goal! My sewing room and hobby has taken over the house. Every room has bits of fabric, quilting books and notions in it. As a result, I lose things and then I have to go into all the places where I might have put them to find them. My Honda Odyssey is filled with fabric samples and books for my business but it also holds a sewing machine and fabrics for my quilting. Every once in a while, I go and clean it out and organize everything. I need to do that now, because I've lost something and need to look in the likely places. Quilting is a large part of my life as I am a member of an active quilting guild, and also a member of our Lutheran church guild where we meet twice a month to make charity quilts. I have dozens of active projects going on at one time and it would be nice to get a handle on them.


3. My third goal is my personal life. In January 2017, I embarked on a weight loss plan when I joined Bright Line Eating, an online program where you give up sugar, flour, eat 3 meals and weight and measure everything. It is the best program I have ever found and I've lost 34 lbs since January 2017. I still have about 10 to 15 to lose but now I am enjoying the process of buying clothes in a smaller size and going through my closet to find things I forgot I had and can wear again. Some of the clothes I have need alteration and I certainly know how to do this. But taking out a seam requires me to find the seam rippers that I have misplaced and the proper needle and thread to convert to sewing a knit stitch.


I belong to the Quilt and Lose team on Sparkpeople. I love this team as we help each other learn about quilting techniques, work on our UFO's and lose weight too!

I have always been a multi-tasker. I've got a lot of balls in the air right now and the older I get the harder it is to keep them in the air. Still working on it.

Thanks for reading! Carol

I NEED TO SEW SOMETHING!

I've had a pretty stressful week. I still own my interior design business and I have been busy with clients lately. Usually my clients are spaced out allowing me time to sew in between on rest days. But I haven't been able to get creative at the sewing machine for over a week. Feeling withdrawal pangs. Does anyone else feel the same way when you can't get to sewing? Pushing those bits of pieces of fabric through a machine is so therapeutic!. Sometimes I get a mind block but usually I find time to sew something nearly every day. I have quilt guild tonight and made up a block to take for our BOM. And got my things ready for show and tell. Maybe I'll be inspired tomorrow to press on with the creation! I've got lots to do. My efforts to organize myself with a planner haven't worked out yet. Still planning to plan. Have a great day! Carol

QUILTER'S ALMANAC/PLANNER

So I started out the year 2017 thinking that I ought to start writing blogs on a consistent basis. I also ought to have a Quilter's Planner and I looked at the various options out there on the market place. But knowing myself, I am not that good at keeping records or diaries after January and some of those looked way to detailed. While cleaning up some older magazines I found something that I thought I could use. It is a daily planner also known as QUILTER'S ALMANAC by Eleanor Burns dated 1991. Evidently, someone else who didn't use it gifted it to me and it has been in my magazine stash every since. Eleanor is a great teacher and in the almanac, she talks about gathering up a group of women, giving them each a piece of challenge fabric and then conducting a year long Block of the Month. I could do that. I can use the calendar to keep track of my progress on quilting through the year and also make a block of the month with stash fabric. Note, I said stash. Off I went to the stash to find what I needed for this years sampler quilt. Its somewhat embarrassing to have all of this in my stash but hey, we have to shop. Let me tell you how I buy fabric. I have a large section in my brain for fabric and I have the ability to remember nearly every piece that I have bought over the years. I don't seem to remember where I put it but I can remember that I have it. I bought this piece of butterfly fabric at Quilting by the Bay in Panama City, Fl. I knew that I had the green with dots in my stash because it goes with more butterfly fabrics that I purchased in Maine when my mother in law died. I bought it to go with along with the large polka dots with dots inside them. And I always have a variety of black and white prints as well as plain black and plain white. I thought these dots were so cute! And I like cute! All of this is on sale of course as I rarely pay full price for large pieces. The first block for this quilt was a star and here it is, already made. If you are a novice quilter, start out with Eleanor Burns. If you follow her directions, the blocks come out perfectly with only a bit of trimming. I now have a perfect 12.5" block! I am going to do this each month and use my planner. Not sewing ahead! Until next time, Happy Sewing! Carol