2016 in Review

One Thing I've Learned

I'm a terrible planner

Or overly optimistic.  Or just plain lazy.

This year, in a capsule, I had planned to:

1. Make only monthly goals, rather than sweeping year-long goals. While this approach did help me focus, I met my monthly goal only about half the time.

2.  Reduce stash.  I didn't keep track this year but I think I came close to maintaining a balance.  I had quite a few finishes, many out of my stash scraps.  My shopping sprees were fewer, but I made up for that in quantity when I did shop.

3.  Do something with UFOs.  This is one area where I succeeded.  About half my finished tops came from the UFO pile, thanks to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge which I used to pick a UFO each month.  And several other finished tops came out of  leftovers from other finishes.

4.  Update and improve my blog.  Never made it past first base on this one.

My specific UFO plan included 10 projects.  Of these, I only worked on two. 

The blocks for Jubilee were finished, then auctioned in the Orphan Adoption event in September.

The Color Project was split into two tops -- Tropical Trellis (finished top) and Tropical Stars (remaining star blocks have gone back in the box waiting for inspiration on how to finish).

Tropical Trellis

Apparently specificity in my list is not the answer as I was quite successful in other areas.

• Out of 22 quilts started in 2016 (WHAT was I thinking!), eight became finished tops and one mini made it to a quilted finish.   
• Nine UFOs became finished tops, two of which have been quilted with binding still to turn.
• A total of six quilts and four runners were quilted.
• And I started and finished three travel iron totes and one pillow cover.

Not a bad year, all-in-all, but my UFO stack continues to grow, not to mention my cache of finished tops. May be time to learn to quilt ... maybe ... we'll see.

Thanks to all my faithful readers.

Your friendship and support mean the world to me.

Happy New Year!