Jaybird Quilts: plan

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

So much for a PLAN!

Less than three months ago I decided that my word of the year was plan. It worked well for a few weeks and then little by little I fell off the PLAN wagon. I have big goals and lack of a PLAN is making for one very stressed Julie over here.

In that post I detailed five areas. Here is an update on how I'm doing.

Plan my time better. I have some big time management issues. I'm sure some of it comes from the cross country move, but I have never really been good in this area. I'm good at getting things done at the last minute but that doesn't mean my body likes the stress of it.

I'm doing a little bit better, but honestly I haven't made as much progress in this area as I hoped. When I broke down my quilt market plan I had 3+ months to go & now I can't believe I fly to Kansas City in 5 weeks!

New Quilts I'll be showing very soon!

Plan my projects. Yes sometimes I want to sit & sew just to sew, but I'd be less stressed if I planned out my projects a bit more. I've got so many ideas for Jaybird Quilts that sometimes I end up not sewing for an hour because I can't decide what to work on first.

I am getting better here. I have been organizing my new projects in a new way that has made for more productive sewing time. I have two new patterns I'm about to announce to you! They are in the last stages of pattern testing before heading to the printer.

New Quilt #1 - Fabric is Modernology by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery

Plan my blog. I used to be a good blogger. {Good is relative here since none of you are beating me up... I'm just beating myself up.} I want to get back on a regular schedule of posts that are a bit more planned out vs. the "oh man I haven't blogged in a few days what am I going to write??" moments.

I got better for a few weeks. Then I started to get stressed with work & other things and finding time to plan my blog just never seemed to happen. I have a lot of half written posts and need to make a plan to get them done.

New Quilt #2 - Fabric is Palladium by Dear Stella

Plan to have free time. I can often become a workaholic and spend what should be my free time doing work. Life is short & I need to start spending more of it just living.

I can honestly say this is the one I have done much better at. Recently I took a few days away and spent time with my family. During the last few months I've set aside a lot of free time for my family, friends and just for me. I'm very excited that next week Rachael is coming to spend a few days with me in San Diego.

Plan by writing things down. I often get random bursts of big ideas & somehow don't write them down, or write them somewhere and forget where that is. I'm in the midst of planning a new system for myself to keep track of my ideas.

I started a new notebook and have been getting better at writing in it. I still have the occasional scribbled note or post it, but I haven't lost nearly as many as I used to!

New Quilt #3 - Fabric is Wedding by Michael Miller Fabrics
This one just came back from Angela and doesn't even have binding yet!

New Plans.

Plan my food better. I don't have the best diet. I have some allergies that limit me and I often end up eating the same thing a few times each week. It can be boring, but a lack of a plan makes it my reality. I might never make a monthly plan like Rachel, but I can start a weekly plan.

Plan my Quilt Market booth. Five weeks! Eek! I really need to finish planning my booth & start packing it up!

Plan my Book Trunk Shows. I'm working with Martingale to plan some Trunk Show for my new book! It'll be out in less than 4 months, where did the time go!?

Plan my Schoolhouse & Demo. I'll be doing a Schoolhouse at Market & I'll also be doing a demo from my book in Martingale's booth. Lots of planning to take care of!

Binding Samples from my new book, Skip the Borders

Ok, time to stop talking about planning... and get to planning. I'll be back soon with some new patterns to reveal! :-)