Forward Progress and Staying on Task

Last night was Saturday Night Stitch and I worked on my LHN Seasonal Saltbox project. I am happy to report that I made much more progress this Saturday than last Saturday! I got in about 2.5 hours while watching all kinds of winter games and cheering the US team on to victory. (DH doesn't like it when I cheer loudly, so I have to contain my excitement. LOL)

Here's where I started...


And here's where I stopped, after watching Lindsey Vonn and Apolo Anton Ohno win bronze medals in their respective sports, as well as watching the men's bobsledding heats on that very, very fast track!



This year with my stitching, I'm trying something new. Since I stitch on several projects each month, I like to record my time (just to see where it's going), and I have goals I'd like to meet I'm trying to do a better job on keeping organized. I have a terrible habit of setting goals, posting them, and then going off and doing something totally different! My stitching friend, Mary, does something similar, so I'm really borrowing her idea and then tweaking it to suit me and my personality.

First of all, I found some free calendars on the internet I could download. I found them at Graphic Garden and you can download the entire year at once or by the month. I know there are tons of other sites you can get calendars from, so do a search and find something that works for you. I like these because they have nice big blocks and room to write notes at the bottom or top of the calendar.

After printing off the calendar, I then pencil in what I'm going to work on for each week. Saturdays are SNS night and Sundays are usually my day for stitching on my incentive project. When I'm in between incentive projects, I stitch on one of my WIPs. For example, the last incentive round has finished and the next one starts the end of March, so on Sundays I'll be stitching on Quaker Friendship Sampler, which hasn't seen the light of day in who knows how long! One week is usually for an ornament, and if I'm involved in any exchanges, that goes on there as well. The rest of the weeks are either projects from the WIPs pile or something new. At the bottom of the calendar, I write my monthly goals. When I sit down stitch, I start my little hot pink stopwatch/timer. When I get up, I stop it, if I remember! At the end of the night, I record my day's time on the calendar, then I reset the timer for the next day. (Yeah, I always remember this part! NOT! LOL) Here's what my calendar for February looks like. You can click the pic to see it in all it's detail.



You will notice that it's not the neatest thing in the world, but it works!

This week in my little stitching world, I'll finish up my colours exchange piece and move onto my Jan. 1st piece, which I should be able to knock out before the end of the month!

:>)