Wow what a year 2011 was!
To be honest I am pretty astonished by how far I’ve come in 12 short months!
There have been times of celebration and times of heartache, but overall 2011 was a good year.
I certainly cannot deny that I grew over the year
A lot!
In fact I think in many ways I have blossomed.
– I certainly feel like I know myself and am comfortable with the direction I’m heading, more than ever before.
And that in itself feels like the best achievement of the year!
On a personal level 2011 was one of my hardest years yet.
Living without Neil for so much of the year while parenting 2 really little ones so far from home was not for the faint hearted.
But I survived it. And I am stronger for this!
It gets easier every day as the girls grow from dependent babies into little independent people in their own right.
On a creative level 2011 was a-MAZ-ing!
I feel like I’ve surpassed any expectations I might have had in the beginning of what I could achieve this year, and I’m definitely happy with what I’ve achieved!
Quite astonished as a matter of fact.
So that can only be good right?
In the first week of January 2011 I set myself some extremely large goals on the creative front – 52 projects in 52 weeks. The main aim to really push myself to learn more and more. I had a list of things that I wanted to learn all floating around in my head, and this was supposed to be the motivator to aid me in achieving it. Or keep me accountable anyway.
But it didn’t take me long to work out that the weekly structure was more a stress than it was an encouragement. I was starting to feel a little bit deflated about it, which was pretty silly considering that I had actually achieved a lot I set out to – just not in the “format” I originally intended.
So by July it was time to reassess and I decided to set myself free from the weekly pressure that “show & tell Fridays” had become & just work off a list instead.
There is still a LOT on my list that I haven’t touched, but to be honest most of that has been by choice. They are kind of things that I’d like to do “one day” and it will take me a lot longer than a year to get through all of them. It needs updating as well, to check off what I’ve achieved since July, but to be quite honest that can wait for another day because I SOOOO can’t be bothered right now LOL…
Admin – ick.
But I can see my progress by putting it all in a mosaic, so that’s a pretty powerful visual illustrator that I’ve achieved a lot of what I set out to…
My 2011 Quilts:
Actually I realised that I missed at least one off this list, if not more. But oh well.
Quite a few less than 2010, but I think the reason for that becomes pretty apparent when I look at how much other sewing I’ve achieved this year… and that was my main priority for 2011 – to learn to sew other things…
That’s not even close to all of it either because I reached the maximum number of photos allowable of 32 and can’t be bothered making another one as well LOL…
That’s also not counting all my sewing for business… There was an awful lot of that too, most of which never even gets photographed.
So all I have to say to myself is sheesh! Not a bad effort!
All this leaves me wondering what to aim for in 2012.
I know a few things from my last July list that I want to focus on too. Particularly the hand paper piecing and hand stitching ones. Also to work more on my free motion quilting as well.
But on top of that there are so many goals I’d like to achieve with my blog & business in 2012.
To name a few:
** Look into some sponsorship on my blog, because lets face it – any extra income to help fund this addiction love of fabric is good by me 😉
** Continue doing tutorials regularly – because I love to learn & help others learn too.
** Release some patterns for sale in my shop
** Redesign & refocus my shop look & products to more suit where I’m wanting to aim with it
** Finally get all my products online to my shop
** Put more effort into growing my business now that Hannah will be in school part time.
** Grow Blankets of Love & have more ready to donate to the hospital by April.
I’ve also decided to reduce my commitment to swaps in the coming year. It is time to sew more for my family & myself. And plus I’ll need to if I want to achieve all these other things 😉
All I can say is that I can’t wait to get sewing with you all in 2012.
You all inspire me so much!
If only I could now reign in my brain a wee bit to focus more intently on what I want to start next 😉
I’m definitely having a dose of craft ADD now that I’ve finished all my large projects for now.
Bring on 2012 🙂
You did more in one year that many do in a lifetime. Celebrate! So pleased we met in blogland last winter. I’m looking forward to another year of you making me laugh my fool head off!
Your projects are all so lovely, and look great all together. I hope you will have plenty of time to enjoy your creativity in the coming year, all the best!
Kat, you had an amazing year. You accomplished soooo much, all your projects are beautiful. Happy New Year to you and yours.
A great collection of makes for the year. I learned a few years ago that those lists per week were stressful, so I don’t even go there now lol I do love my lists though, but I just make them less time-constrainy these days :oD And hey, lists are designed for evolution so if some drop off, so what ;o)
Have a fab new year, and hope you achieve all you set out to!
It’s been great getting to know you and be inspired by you this year (4 hrs to go here!), bring on 2012!! xxx
An amazing year Kat. Look at all those beautiful finishes. It’s been fun getting to know you, and helping me dip my toe in to the water with swaps, thank you.
Happy New Year, I hope you have an even better year this year.
Looks like you had a great year creatively. I agree with not putting too much pressure on ourselves to create. I love lists but my quilting goal is always to do it because I love it and not because it’s one more thing on my to do list. Here’s to 2012.
Happy New Year Kat . (Im playing catch up!)
Honestly I am amazed by what you manage to get done with two littlies in tow and Neil away at work. I thought about you a lot while I was babysitting this week and managed to get nothing done. How do you do it ? Are you Wonder Woman?
Your projects are inspiring.