Welcome, 2010! I've set some goals.

I’ve spent most of my first day of this year planning and emailing and making lists and basically preparing to meet the New Year in some form of order.  It’s made me think of all the plans I’ve made in the past, and how my tendency is to dream up really great stuff to sew, amazing projects that “would be so cute,” and spend so much time on the dreaming that I find I have very little left for the doing.  Like when my husband and I have a movie “date” in our basement after the kids have gone to bed: we have two hours, and plan to watch something On Demand, so he goes through EVERY SCREEN to make sure there isn’t some really, really great movie we’re missing, and the result is that we spend all our time looking at what movies we COULD be watching and not actually watching any movies.  My sewing can sometimes be like that.

What have I learned in 2009?  Well, that Darn Flood sure did make an impact.  I lost a huuuuuge box of the most gorgeous wools–silk/wool blends, boucles, windowpane weaves, about a dozen different pieces ranging from 3 to 7 yards each.  I know.  Heartbreak.  I had such great plans for each of them, and to see them all soaking wet and covered in sad little bits of cardboard was really tough.  It made me wake up and realize I was busy hoarding all this fabric and not actually using it.  (Not that I’m the only one, right?)

Browsing my blog links this evening, I saw Amanda’s post over on Amanda’s Adventures in Sewing.  She set some sewing goals at the start of 2009, and has reviewed her success, and I’ll tell ya, I’m pretty impressed: 45 finished garments over the course of one year isn’t too shabby!  Which made me think of the goals lists I make for myself…

My husband and I always make a list of goals for ourselves and our family, in the following categories: relational, spiritual, marital, intellectual, physical, financial, and career.  We want to be sure we don’t inadvertently focus too much on one part of who we are and neglect the other parts of ourselves that ought to get attention, too.  And I saw that while sewing is a huuuuge part of who I am and what makes me feel passionate, I don’t necessarily have a set of goals specific to my sewing each year–I tend to lump those in with “career,” which is both confusing and ineffective.

This year, I’m challenging myself to set a list of Sewing Goals: things I’d like to accomplish this year that pertain strictly to how and what and why I sew.  Not just what to make and how many garments to complete, but participating in the greater sewing community, donating my skills and time to charities, and venturing far beyond my comfort zone to try new things and be inspired by new people and techniques.

Will you join me?

I’d love to hear comments from folks who want to do the same!  Not a gimmicky resolution, but really a way of being intentional with our sewing, and looking to see in what ways we can grow from it.  I can’t be the only one who feels that I’ve learned a lot about who I am and who I want to be while at the machine, am I?  (Oh, gracious, AM I??)

Leave me a note and let me know you’re IN!  The blog is currently under an intensive redesign, but part of that will be to create a page for our sewing goals and a regular series tracking our progress.  I can’t wait to see what all of us are able to do!