{"id":30421,"date":"2016-01-02T05:42:21","date_gmt":"2016-01-02T12:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/?p=30421"},"modified":"2016-01-01T22:29:28","modified_gmt":"2016-01-02T05:29:28","slug":"what-about-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/what-about-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"What About 2016?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was sitting at the dentist the other day thinking about my quiltmaking. I was actually feeling quite depressed about it. For a couple of different reasons I feel like 2015 was filled with quiltmaking anxiety. I know I got a lot done. The 2015 Year in Review post<\/a> tells me that. None of it felt significant, though. None of it felt important. A lot of it felt like I was marking time in front of my machine.<\/p>\n

I had a lot of ‘must dos’ and that was part of it. Also, I felt like no project I did was exceptional* at all. I just felt dissatisfied and somewhat unhappy with my work. The good part is that I kept working and didn’t get discouraged. Any work is better than nothing.<\/p>\n

I don’t want 2016 to feel anxious and not worthwhile. Yes, I have projects to finish, but I don’t want 2016 to feel anxiety ridden. For example, I don’t want 2016 to be all about UFOs though I still want to finish some up some things on my list. Finishing things cannot be the whole idea, however. I have to enjoy the process as well. I want my quiltmaking to be joyful. I have to figure out how to do that.<\/p>\n

I already started this ‘project’ (or idea) after Christmas. I wanted to make another Sew Together Bag and I needed some downtime after a busy few days of holidays and the prep beforehand. I felt like it was the right time to make it (photos soon!). I put all other projects aside and worked on the second Sew Together Bag. It went a lot more quickly, I guess, since I knew what to expect. Also, I enjoyed the process more because I was doing just want I wanted not what I felt like I had to do.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, as a follow-up, I worked through some things on the list and did some cutting of fabric that had been ironed. A couple of the items on the list were the Thanksgiving table runners<\/a> (look for a post soon) I bought in Oregon. I put them together and prepared them to be quilted. I plan to quilt them myself at the CQFA Retreat in January. I also got back in the groove of working on donation blocks. That feels good and I now have 3 of the 8 (a la Mrs. K<\/a>) I want to make in order to make a quilt I can finish with the Cutting Corners Ruler<\/a>. They are nice looking as well. Mostly I am using blues and purples.<\/p>\n

I think I need to stay away from making things as gifts in 2016. Not completely, but I mean on the scale of the Christmas Pillowcase project. I think I also need to work on some projects that have been in my head and may take some time. I guess we’ll see how it goes, won’t we?<\/p>\n

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*I don’t think my projects are generally exceptional and feel that if I come up with an exceptional project it is a gift. I am happy with the work I do and the quality of that work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was sitting at the dentist the other day thinking about my quiltmaking. I was actually feeling quite depressed about it. For a couple of different reasons I feel like 2015 was filled with quiltmaking anxiety. I know I got a lot done. The 2015 Year in Review post tells me that. None of it … Continue reading “What About 2016?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[374],"tags":[357],"class_list":["post-30421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-374","tag-thinking"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}