Here it is, the 1st of October…..less than 100 days left in 2024. I don’t know about you, but that is a little scary!!
Because of the complexity of life right now, including the “MasterClass for Virtual Teaching,” I have been heading to a coffee shop every Monday morning to do my coursework and some thinking and planning.
Last week, I was looking at the inspiration photo for my next quilt….
….and making some notes about how I might accomplish what I wanted.
Probably the most important note of the morning was this one…..
JUST MAKE A START
Isn’t that often the hardest thing to do!!
During our 12-hour power outage from Hurricane Helene, I did just that!!
Yesterday I posted my 2023 year in review and was encouraged to see what had been accomplished!! 
This past week has been a “deeper thinking” time for me….as it is most years. I have been trying to decide on my goals for 2024, both personally and for Frances Quilts.
There are a few projects that I am excited to try in the new year…..
First of all, I have long wanted to start writing a history of my life, and of mine and Michael’s life together, and this is the year to start!! As I have posted here before, I am a big fan of the “Happier” podcasts with Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Craft. Each year they present a challenge for the year and for 2024 it is to write more. You can either pick 2 to 4 minutes each day or 24 minutes each day. 
Now, I know that I would NOT do 24 minutes, but can I do 5 each of the weekdays??? I am going to give it a try and see.
I searched online and found lots of “questions” that can be used as writing prompts. The first is to describe the home that you were living in when you were born. SO….I am starting out with my parent’s first home…..
I am looking forward to peppering photos throughout the writing and using those photos to prompt me further. 
Depending on how it goes, I might share some of the writings along the way!!
Now…on to the Frances Quilts side of things.
This past year I finished both of my BIG, unfinished projects so I am floundering a bit as to what my next big things will be.
I have purchased the fabrics for the Cherrywood Challenge…..
…so that will definitely be on the “to-do” list for early in the year.
I also have started thinking about my Holiday Inn carpet fabrics and designs….
….so I am hoping to get some work done on that too.
Last year I enjoyed working thru lots of Grid FMQ designs and this year I am going to continue that, but instead of grids, I am going to work on mandalas…..Hopefully!!!
I have drawn a couple in procreate…..
….and downloaded TONS of free designs from the internet…..
Most of these designs are too complicated for quilting, but I will alter them so they will work.
I am planning to present a new part each Friday so be sure to stay tuned for that.
On the travel front, Michael and I are spending 5 days in Dallas in January and 7 days in England in March (yes….in the middle of tax season!!). 
I may make a quick trip to Raleigh for QuiltCon in February, but that will depend entirely on how tax season is going!! 
My guild retreat is the first week in May and I will definitely be there!! It is a welcome time of creativity after the rigors of tax season are behind me.
The rest of the year will be normal trips….. judging quilts at the Georgia National Fair in September and traveling to Houston for the International Quilt Festival in November.
I don’t know what else the year will bring but I do like this thought…..
In this blog, I post stories about creativity, techniques, tools of the trade, and lots more about the wonderful art of quilting. If you are enjoying these posts, please subscribe to be notified of each new blog as it becomes available.
If you are new to this blog here is some context before you read this……
I am a self-employed CPA and I work from home. This gives me a lot of flexibility with my time but I find it easy to procrastinate my time away…..
NOW TO THE STORY……
Over the last seven months, I have complained both online and in person about not having time to be creative. Most of this was my own fault by taking on too many tasks, and saying yes, when I should’ve said no
When we got back from our trip in late June, I had lots of accounting work that needed to be caught up on. Once again, I complained bitterly
Then, about the 10th of July, I made a deal with myself…….
I would work my butt off to get all of my accounting work done by the end of the month!!
Now that doesn’t mean that I won’t have more work as time goes along, but I wanted to be completely caught up with the urgent things, and with the things that were in my “too-hard” basket.
As I write this email, it is July 31st and I am finishing up the last of my accounting duties so I DID meet my side of the deal!!
So what’s gonna happen tomorrow… when August begins?
I decided to set myself a big goal.
I want to spend 125 hours being creative in the month of August… That’s four hours every…..single…day!!
Is this goal doable?
I don’t know, but I want to push myself and see what I can accomplish.
Now, how am I going to keep track of my goal to see if I get 125 hours?
I started to get onto my computer and build a spreadsheet to keep track of my time but finally decided to KISS…..
….and use the diary that I already have.
My plan is to highlight the hours that I spend each day so that I will have a visual representation of what I have accomplished…..something like this……
This creative work will not just be quilting. It may be planning, reading creative books, working on my Frances Quilts business plan, painting, learning Procreate and anything else that tests my brain in a creative manner.
I am going to boldly put this blog post out.
I honestly don’t know if I can attain it, but I’m sure going to try
I plan to give updates along the way.
IF you want to join me, set a goal for yourself, and let’s get started.
Wish me luck!
To keep up with my journey, be sure to subscribe…..
In this blog, I post stories about creativity, techniques, tools of the trade, and lots more about the wonderful art of quilting. If you are enjoying these posts, please subscribe to be notified of each new blog as it becomes available.
All of you readers who are older than 50 are saying “Oh man…..I am SO sorry”! You younger ones are shaking your head and wondering why I would even tell you that!!
Everything was good and the medical procedure is NOT the point of this post.
Since I was the first procedure of the day, I was back home by 8:15 which meant that I had the whole day ahead of me. Even better was the fact that I hadn’t planned ANYTHING for the day.
Following medical advice, I was told not to make decisions, operate equipment, or do anything really important for the rest of the day.
So, I chose to sit in my recliner, with my computer in my lap, and spend the morning surfing. In particular, I was surfing for project ideas….as if I didn’t already have plenty!!
I was rewarded when I ran into this block called “Dizzy Geese”…..
I searched further and found a great video tutorial for an easy way to make it…..
And……because I couldn’t do anything else, I watched the entire video and learned several new things!!
I then remember several videos that I had put aside to watch at some point so I pulled those out and started learning about making Instagram Reels & Stories. I even had time to play on my phone a bit to learn a bit more about Instagram.
Finally, I had signed up for the Modern Quilt Guild October conference and hadn’t finished watching the videos, so I sat in my comfy chair and watched several of them….again learning so much!!
In the afternoon I spent a bit of time in my studio, first learning how to make one of those fun slo-mo videos that everybody loves……
This is actually harder than you would think and I need to practice it a bit more!!!
Now, none of this is life-shattering, but it was sweet to have a day where I was Free…..COMPLETELY FREE!!
I don’t know about you, but I am really bad about filling in every minute of every day and this day reminded me that I need to also schedule in some days to do just what I did…..
