Planning My Stitching Year

This is the 'tame' picture of what the floor of my conservatory looked like this morning...

I spent a glorious morning paging through all my collection of Cross Stitch magazines choosing and planning projects for the year. I even found two UFOs in amongst the pages which have been popped onto the 'stitch me' list.

In the past I have had grand ideas of stitching birthday cards for all my friends and family. However, this just is not practical and I end up falling behind and not sending cards out at all but rather resorting to sending lovely Jacquie Lawson e-cards. 

Now e-cards are great, but there is something much nicer in receiving a pretty card or letter via old fashioned 'snail mail' don't you think? 

I'm getting off track here but I'll carry on for just a bit ... this year, I have decided to get back to basics and send snail mail post more. Sure it costs a bit extra but it really is lovely to have the postie drop something off just for you - that's NOT a bill! 

I've started a 'Pretty Post' Pinterest board {see board at the end of the post} and am filling it with pretty inspirational pretty post ideas to put into action this year.

Anyhoo, back to the topic at hand... in planning out which stitching projects I want to tackle this year, I have removed the 'stitch-everyone-a-card' pressure and have focused on a few special occasions that I really do want to make sure I stitch for, things like a valentines day, a card for DH for his birthday and for fathers day, birthday cards for both my girls, mothers day gifts for my mum and mum-in-law, pretty Easter and spring stitchery's. 

I marked each project that caught my eye. For the ones that have deadlines like valentines day, mothers day etc I put the month that I needed to stitch it at the top of the slip of paper marking the project, then added who it was for and other details.

As I paged through the magazines I also marked projects that I want to stitch and make for my home. I topped the label with the heading 'Home Blessings' and then the project details. I then separated the magazines that had no deadlines i.e. the 'home blessings' and those that do have deadlines.

The magazines containing projects that I want to have done by a certain date were then organised into month order.

Next I created a  project card which will live in my Filofax - I have changed around those sections in my Filofax since we last spoke about all things plannerish BTW :), one of them is now labelled 'Gift and Create', it holds lists of gift ideas that strike me - some for specific people some ideas for no-one in particular but worth noting down.

This project card lists {in order needed throughout the year] the name of the person that the stitched gift is for, the occasion and deadline, the specific project and which magazine and page it is on.

I have also added a 'Birthday Card' tracker page to this section. I have simply listed all the birthday's I have in the year and dates, then put a little check box next to each name. As I send off the card I tick the name off my list. Most of these cards will be bought or commissioned from my daughters.

By creating this plan or summary, I can see that the first part of the year is packed full of stitching projects that are for special occasions, it tapers off after May which means I can squeeze in some of those 'Home Blessings' projects.

Of course, my reality may struggle to keep up with my stitching dreams, but at least I feel organised and have a 'map' to follow which means I have more chance of achieving my stitching goals this year than if I had no plan at all.

I have no doubt that my list will grow and might even change as new magazines come out each month packed with delectable projects that tempt many a stitcher. Isn't that always the case? Too little time too many lovely projects to stitch.

Hope your week is off to a fantastic start, happy stitching, sewing, knitting or whatever your craft is :)

Follow Shirley Ann's board Pretty Post on Pinterest.