MY PLANS FOR 2024
Am I the only one who finds January a bit overwhelming?
We are urged to make resolutions, to make the month dry, to go on a diet, and go to the gym. As creatives, we are told we should be reviewing what we achieved in the past year, and to make plans and goals for the next. While all these things are very worthy, for myself, this is where the overwhelm creeps in.
Some recent images shared on instagram.
I have been looking around at all the stitch-a-longs and quilt-a-longs that are starting up this month.
I think they are a good way to keep those creative juices flowing, and I have a few ideas of for some that I would like to include as part of my membership. However, I have decided that they don’t need to start in January, especially as I would like anything that I encourage others to join in with, to be calm, relaxed, and an in your own time type of thing.
There a number of ideas floating around in my brain at the moment but I will let them percolate for a while before jumping in.
In the meantime, rather that make goals for myself, which invariably fall by the wayside, I am trying to change my mindset to simply do more in the following areas.
Make more pieces of work.
Finish my UFO’s.
Use what I have.
Build some online classes.
MAKE MORE PIECES.
This might seem a strange thing to say, but I do want to create more meaningful work in 2024, whether that be quilts, stitched books or vessels. These are the areas that are sparking my interest at the moment.
FINISH MY UFO’S.
This is a quilt begun in 2015. I have plans that will almost definitely include chopping it up.
This is a tricky one for me. The advice given is to abandon the work that is no longer speaking to you.
However I find it very difficult to throw anything away. It seems like such a waste, and I don’t want to add to landfill.
My plan is to re-invent some of these pieces by over painting, and chopping them up, and hopefully turn them into something more exciting, which leads me on to the next area.
USE WHAT I HAVE.
I have enough supplies and resources to keep me busy for a very long time. I have the paints and fabrics that I have purchased, and the paints and fabric given to me. Some have been sitting on my shelves for years and it’s time to use them up.
Having said all this, my one caveat is that I can still buy thread. There is always one or two essential colours missing from my stash. 😏
BUILD ONLINE CLASSES.
Let’s make it clear!
I am not going to be creating any classes about bread making.
I have been talking about doing this for a long time, but now that Squarespace has introduced the opportunity to create classes on my website, I know that now is the right time.
So, I am changing my mindset from goals, to taking actions. One step at a time. Just keep plugging away and not worry if things don’t get done within a set time frame.
I was reminded of this quote by Arthur Ashe recently, and I think it sums up my mindset for this year.
If you are finding difficult to get back into the flow of things creatively, I find that just starting something, anything gets those synapses sparking, a reminder of this blog post that I wrote in January 2023 might help.