PhD in 2021 and 2022

My friend Gail over at Quilting Gail has done a PhD (Projects Half Done) goal-setting program since 2018.  I've participated each year.  For 2021, I set my goals a tiny bit differently than Gail's program.  You see, since one of Gail's rules is that you can't carry new projects into the new year, my UFO list has dwindled.  But I only count projects once I've actually started them--just pulling fabric and/or planning doesn't count.  Here's how I laid out my PhD back in January:

• Complete at least 5 projects from my list of unfinished projects
• The remaining projects must be from stuff I already own--kits, scraps, planned projects, new projects that use fabric I already own, anything counts as long as I'm using fabric that is already in the house.

Here's the honest truth: I've had a hard year.  Nothing specific, just the wear of another pandemic year, I think.  I'm tired. I'm out of energy.  I haven't kept up with tracking projects (and lots of other things) the way I like to.  I've blogged a lot less. And because of this, I didn't think I'd finished my PhD. Fortunately, I haven't lost my energy or desire to actually sew, just the background things. So when I sat down to write this post (notice that I've procrastinated, writing in the last 30 hours of the year), I thought I was writing to admit that I didn't complete this year.

But I actually think that maybe I have?  I had 10 projects on my list.  I found another UFO that I didn't know I had, so that makes 11 to choose from.  I finished five of those.  Here's my chart:

Hearts On Fire	1	1-19-2021
Magical Forest	2	finished
Food themed picnic blanket	3
Lion Pillow	4
Patriotic Stars (2nd)	5
Smitten Kitten	6
Laura’s quilt	7
Dad’s place mats	8	finished
Round Robin	9	finished
Bookshelf quilt	10
Small Savanna	11	finished

Since Gail's program rests on finishing at least 12 projects, that leaves 7 to be completed with anything I already owned, as long as I didn't buy new fabric to finish it.   I went through all my blog posts (plus two finishes not blogged) and count 10 quilts plus other various smaller projects, including a car trash bag, 10 place mats for a local organization called Friendship Trays, and a multitude of By Annie bags. So I'm calling that successful.

The other part of Gail's challenge is to not carryover any new unfinished projects into the new year.  Here's where I'm on shakier ground.  I started Boho Heart back in February.  It's a Jen Kingwell pattern with 108 blocks, all different.  I'm not even close to done--my current count is 39 completed blocks.  But I have been working on it off and on all year and given the massive undertaking of this project, I'm ok with it carrying into the new year.  So that I can add some photos to this post, here are some of the blocks I've finished in the second half of the year.

 

 

I also have 3 quilts for Fire Monkey's teachers in various stages of completion (two just need binding hand-sewn down, which is not where I get stuck)  but I'm not worried about those becoming UFOs since they have a hard deadline of the end of the school year.  Boho Heart is really the only possibility of becoming a long-term UFO. In the end, it doesn't actually matter: I kept sewing and I finished a lot of projects and in a tough year, I'm calling that OK. 

Gail is hosting a PhD program again in 2022.  If you want to play along, you can find the details here.

I am going to try again, but I'll be gentle with myself if I don't finish.  Once again, my main goal is to use fabric that I already have, so the bulk of my 12 projects may not actually be started at this point, but they count as long as they are fabric I owned on December 31, 2021.  I've got 9 projects on my list (I did not add the teacher quilts, since I'm not really counting them as carry-over) and I'd like to finish at least 5 in 2022.

1	Food themed picnic blanket
2	Lion Pillow
3	Patriotic Stars (2nd)
4	Smitten Kitten
5	Laura’s quilt
6	Bookshelf
7	Boho Heart
8	Round Robin 2022
9	Tickled Pink