My idea for the 2018 version of the series of goal quilts I have been doing was slightly different than previous years. Instead of representing the completion of my goals for the year, I wanted to track it day by day.

At the start of the year, I had 5 habits I wanted to incorporate in my day (actually 3 things I wanted to start doing and 2 I wanted to sotp doing). I designed a block with 5 fields. Each field represented one habit. If I did the habit for the day, I woud put color in the field. If I didn’t do it, the field would remain white.

I also decided to re-evaluate my habits every quarter, in case the habits I was trying to adopt were too hard, too easy, not serving me, or whatever. And I did end up changing the habits I was working on each quarter. In fact, I tracked fewer habits progressively as the year went on. I’m not sure if this was a result of burnout or if it was an honest reflection of what was working for me. By the end of the year, I was tracking only one thing, writing in a gratitude journal. On this quilt I included a very detailed label of the habits I was pursuing, and my thinking behind changing throughout the year, because I knew I would forget if I didn’t write it down.

Part of the idea behind this design was to make plain the patchwork nature of life. I wanted to show that even “failure” to keep up with a habit (represented by white fields on the quilt) can add interest and movement and doesn’t take away from the overall design. Basically I want to say something cheesy like, life is a beautiful patchwork in spite of ups and downs, successes and failures. It is cheesy, but I believe it.

This quilt measures 53”x65”. Nikki Maroon quilted it for me, and Mitch Hopper took these photos.

2018 Habit Tracking Quilt, embroidered label