Goals and such …

I can’t believe that January is almost over.  Where did the days go?  It seems that it was only yesterday that we all got together to celebrate Christmas!  You’ve all heard about the time flies when you are having fun.  I wonder if it works the same when you are not having that much fun?

With February almost here, one of the tasks we have at work is to write down our goals for 2012.  This is a major issue, as at the end of the year you get rated on how well you did and whether you accomplished them or not. Of course there are ways to do that so you can keep track of progress and such.  These goals go hand in hand with the 2012 company plan and objective.  All the talk and meetings about goal setting made me think about my goals for this 2012 year and what I want to accomplish on the artistic side of my life.  At work it is somewhat simpler, as my goals are tied up to my boss’, and my team’s and I have goals of things to accomplish daily.  When it comes to my life, then it’s not as simple.  I’ve learned that goals need to be “SMART”, which means:

• Specific
• Measurable (quantity, quality, time)
• Achievable
• Results Focused (aligned, relevant)
• Time Bound (have a completion date)

Once all that is said and done, I go back to what I want to accomplish, and more importantly, what I feel I NEED to accomplish (and it involves more than to say 1 new quilt, or clean my studio).  For quite a few years now, I’ve stopped writing New Year’s resolutions, because at the end of the year it was frustrating to realize that the weight had stayed on, the fabric kept piling up, and the books remained unread.  Instead, now, because I am a somewhat list kind of girl, I keep a mental list.  More forgiving?  I am not sure.  But, my list went from having resolutions to having goals.  Hopefully attainable and most certainly measurable.

One of my goals for the beginning of 2012 was to set up my studio to teach at home.  That is well on its way to be a completed goal and effort.  The tables and chairs are up, ironing boards with irons, the design walls is ready to be hung, the books are on shelves and the supplies put away.  Even the coffee pot is waiting patiently for its time to brew.  So I am quite pleased about that one.  Almost one done, a few more to go.

Goal number 2 is to put together a list of classes to tempt students to make the trip home.  One of the advantages of offering classes in my studio is that I have all the supplies handy and ready, so I can offer a course that includes everything the students are going to need to finish the project.  The other side of that is that although the classes are going to be more expensive in some respects, you won’t need to go out and spend a lot of money purchasing supplies that you are not sure you’d like to use again.  How many of us have gone out and spent hundreds of dollars purchasing supplies for a class, only to discover that the technique doesn’t really suit us, and that we don’t want to ever do it again?  And the supplies sit on shelves, and the paints dry up.  So, that’s goal number 2:  classes will be offered in fabric dyeing; screen printing; texturing fabric with paintstiks, foiling, how to use Inktense pencils, machine quilting, feather quilting, New York Beauties, etc.

That list is coming up, so keep an eye out.  My biggest issue right now is with figuring out a way to take payment.  My concern is that people may not show up if they have to pay the day of the class, and I’ll end up preparing 8-10 kits and 2 people will show up, which is a lot of time and expense spent.  So I’m troubleshooting that one right now.  Let me know if you have some experience with this or ideas to make it work simply.

In the meantime, I came across this today, which started me thinking about those goals of mine, and what they mean:

And if you ask me, I wholeheartedly agree with this.  It takes an awful amount of work to reach your goals.  But if they are your goals, all that work should be worthwhile.  And because my goals in this case are all about what I want and need to do, all the better.

I will leave you with this for now.  Almost time for me to go home.  I an going to finish a small silk sampler that I started last week, and then I’ll post some photos.  I did complete part 1 of the machine quilting challenge I signed up for, so I need to photograph and post the photo.  I’ll post one here too so you can see it.  I worked in on a piece of brown silk dupioni and quilted it with cherry red thread.  All I need is to bind the 12″ x 12″ sample.

That’s all for today.  I hope it doesn’t take me almost a month to blog again.  I’ll keep you posted on studio progress and class list.  In the meantime, do keep quilting and send me a comment or two if you have any classes you’d like to see included in the list.  I require 4 people to run a class, so get your friends together and you can have a private lesson.

Keep quilting!

Ana