2017 Wrap Up and 2018 Goals

2017 has flown by and once again it is time to look at the year to come.  I must admit that I was a little hesitant to look back on my goals for 2017, mostly because I hadn’t looked back on them since they were written this time last year.  I was stunned that I managed to come pretty close on most of my goals, which gives me some hope for the year to come!

Review of 2017 Goals

1.  Write and Publish Quilt Patterns:  I did a block of the month with a local quilt shop, and I also did their Row by Row this Summer, so that is 13 patterns right there!  I also have a couple more patterns that are really close to being ready!

2.  Submit to Magazines:  Infused Plaid was a project in Modern Patchwork magazine near the beginning of the year, and Taking Flight was in the same magazine this Fall.  I have another quilt that is currently at the magazine office, and will be published at the beginning of next year.  In addition, a few of my quilts appeared in articles and gallery sections of other magazines including American Quilter and Simply Moderne.

3.  Enter and Attend Quilt Shows:  I did pretty well on this front.  The Whole is Greater than the Sum of Its Parts finished its rounds of the AQS shows with a third place at Daytona Beach.  Infused Plaid has done exceptionally well this year.  It was in six shows this year and received three first places and a “Best Use of Thread” award.  Six of my other quilts were in national/international shows this year.  I attended more shows this year than ever before.  QuiltCon in Savannah was fabulous, and I attended both the Spring and Fall AQS shows in Paducah.  I went to the MQX show in Illinois for the first time, and had a great time at the AQS Des Moines show demonstrating the A-1 Longarm in their booth.

4.  Teach Quilting Classes and Do Trunk Shows:  Check and Check!  I taught at both Sew to Speak and Dabble and Stitch this year, and did a few trunk shows at nearby guilds as well

5.  Grow Longarm Business:  This picked up a great deal this year, and lately I have been consistently busy

6.  Blog Consistently:  Most of the year was a fail on this front, but I joined in on the 31 Day Blogging Challenge this month, and while I have missed several days, I have blogged more than the entire rest of the year.

7.  Work with my Guilds and Groups:  I was the Charity Chair for the Central Ohio MQG this year, and we did a lot of sewing for Days for Girls, which provides reusable feminine hygiene products to help keep girls in school every day of classes.

Goals for 2018

1.  Write and Publish Patterns:  I am doing another block of the month this year, and this year’s project will be blocks that look like specific buildings around town.  I’m starting with the Dabble and Stitch building and then we will move to landmarks around the city.

2.  Enter and Attend Quilt Shows:  Four quilts are going to QuiltCon 2018, two are headed to AQS Daytona, and several more are entered into other upcoming shows, so I am off to a good start.  I am definitely planning to attend the Spring AQS Paducah show.  I am hoping to make it to a couple more shows as well.  I loved demonstrating in the longarm booth at a show this year, so with any luck they may need an extra set of hands again!

3.  Increase submissions and embrace both acceptances and rejections:  I plan to apply for everything I want this year.  I’m sure there will be plenty of rejections in there, but I am okay with that, and there will probably be some acceptances that come from it too!

4.  Do more trunk shows and teaching:  I will continue teaching at my local shops in the coming year, and I love doing trunk shows and teaching for guilds.  If your group is looking to round out the programming for the year, I would love to visit!

4.  Start a Newsletter:  I love getting newsletters in my email, and I am eager to start my own!  It seems like an awesome extension of the blog.  I am currently figuring out MailChimp so details will be coming soon!

5.  Work with my Guild:  Next year I will be the president of the Central Ohio Modern Quilt Guild, and I am hoping that we can come up with some awesome programming for the upcoming year!  If you are in our area, I hope you will visit our group!  We meet the second Thursday of each month at 6:30pm at an area library (the specific location varies).

Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl is hosting a fantastic planning party link up that already has lots of posts to inspire everyone for the upcoming year!  I am linking up there, and I hope you will check out a bunch of other posts as well!

I hope everyone has a wonderful end to 2017 and a joyous and productive 2018!