Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Accountability and PhD

For those of you who have followed me for a while, you know how I love lists, and organization, and checkmarks. I have a rather amorphous list of my 2021 Goals that isn't published this year, but that doesn't make me any less accountable, and besides it's in my planner. However, this year instead of the FAL which seems to have fallen apart (correct me if I'm wrong) I've decided to join the PHD  (Projects Half Done)programme with Gail of Quilting Gail.

Basically you must finish 12 UFOs, and you must finish all the projects you start in 2021, so as not to add to the UFO or PHD pile. This is hard for a squirrel-chaser who has the entire canopy of trees this year to explore because of no Island Batik commitments and deadlines! In fact, as of the writing of this post I have completed all my deadlines, even the self-imposed one of updating my sadly neglected Gallery of 2020. The only on-the-horizon deadline is to make a lap-size quilt, (the baby one is done), for my Quilt Along, which begins April 3. It feels actually really good!

Without further ado, let's take a look at my lists. The first list is from last Tuesday, To Do Tuesday.
1. Finish my December challenge quilt for Island Batik.✅  On Point.
2. Write my Best of 2020 post✅
3. Write a planning for 2021 post, maybe. I already have a mental list started but I do believe in writing goals and directions down, though I don't always state them publicly, but doing that helps keep one accountable, doesn't it?✅
4. Write my gratitude post for Thursday.✅
5. Finish at least one more item on my Q4FAL List.✅ this is the black scraps sorting box, not yet blogged.
THIS feels good.

PHD

Here is my list of UFOs

I added in a column as to what state they were in. I could call some of these USOs: UnStarted Objects! I have all the fabric and the pattern for these.

Here is my list of Starts in 2021. These must be finished by year's end. The temperature quilt is an exception since I will sew the last block on December 31, and the leader/ender project of pinwheels is ongoing until I have enough parts.
One of my goals is to publish ten patterns this year. There are eleven on my patterns list. Nine are completed quilts, and of those eight are published in magazines, with the other one a completed quilt. Another one is a partially completed quilt, and one has the fabric pulled and the design done, but hasn't been sewn. I made a chart for them too. This isn't part of the PHD but I've always been a bit of  an overachiever. 
Here is the update on my temperature quilt. I'll probably do updates on Tuesdays; I like Joanne of Canuck Quilter Designs 'Temperature Tuesday' idea. We've stayed in the -4 to +4 Celsius range for the first 12 days, with one overnight low dipping to -5 and one day where we were -1 for the high and -2 for the low, and even today it was -1 low and 0 high. Not a lot of variation. Good thing I love the green and blue colour combination! It's been grey almost every day but two I believe, and that I do not like.

I've also finished the flimsy for the third Smooches quilt. My OMG is to finish it by month's end. It's also a 2021 Start, so it will be good to get the checkmark beside it!
My list for the coming week is pretty boring:
1. Keep up with the temperature quilt.
2. Start or dare I say finish quilting the Smooches quilt.
3. With nearly half the month gone, I want to at least pick a UFO from the list and get the backing assembled, ready to quilt.
By then the PQ 12.2 challenge will be out so I'll be busy with that!

Linking up

9 comments:

  1. Oh to be so organised and here I am floundering & must get my act together. May well take a leaf out of your book & set myself some goals. You have prompted me to find those two PHD's that were started years ago that you showed in your ON POINT post & make them a goal for the 1st half of the year & you can give me a push if I don't get to them. Looking for a pattern & a name for THAT quilt you've seen. Thanks for this inspiring post, take care, stay safe & warm and huggles.

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  2. I envy you with your lists, I am not a list person at allll! The 'Smooches quilt is looking good! I am looking forward to the quilting of this one.

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  3. Good luck with your lists. I have done it for a few years and feel like I have mostly slayed the beast. My 3 handpiecing projects are not happening right now, and I am keeping them for when the urge strikes me. Good luck with your list and your year...more patterns continues to be my goal...we shall see where it leads me.

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  4. USO! That's the term I've needed! I've told Gail that one of my goals is to work on projects I've planned but not actually started, so they are not technically UFOs.

    Is that your temperature quilt??? It's brilliant! I assume that's high and low temp? And the "wiggle" represents a week? Such a great idea! I've been wanting to do a temperature quilt but haven't actually done one yet--when I do, I might steal your format. Or it might forever be a USO-ha!

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  5. I admire all of you in this with Gail. Excel sheets kinda make me hyperventilate, so I'm happy just watching all of you organized peeps do your thing. I think this will be a great thing to take the place of the IB work that kept you working and finishing projects. Will be fun to follow your progress!

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  6. Husband quilt - not started has me laughing. Husband quilt has been on my list for years and still not started. Add to it son #1 quilt and son #2 quilt. My sons constantly remind me that they've outgrown their baby quilts :-) I have some quilty goals this year but mostly want to be a free bird :-)

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  7. Great goals. Good luck with the pattern writing. I like lists as well. ☺

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  8. Hi Sandra! I can HIGHLY recommend Gail's PHD. We were so close to earning ours - a new project ended up being a carryover. It did help to finish all of our UFOs. USO - now there's a new term that needs to be adopted throughout quiltland. I am thrilled and tickled pink to see pattern writing is on the list or a different list, actually. Yippee! Thanks for linking up this week. ~smile~ Roseanne

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  9. Wow! Sandra that’s some pretty inspiring list making. 😉

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