My Word of the Year for 2019, Podcast #89

It’s a new year which means it’s time to pick a new word to be my guide through the year ahead. In this podcast, I reflect on the past year and reflect on how the word Challenge has made a very big difference in my life. Then I share some exciting news and my new word for 2019!

Listen to the podcast or download it to your computer using this player

Kicking off the Friendship Quilt Along

I’m super excited about many things that are happening this year, but one of the biggest ones is knowing by this time next year I will have a beautiful king-size quilt to enjoy on my bed.

I designed the Friendship Sampler Quilt this summer and I love this collection of super scrappy quilt blocks. It’s been so nice to completely wipe out my stash of fabric scraps. I love the idea of being able to start over completely from scratch!

There is plenty of time to catch up and make two blocks with me this month! Click Here to find the patterns and all of the tutorials shared so far.

Reflecting on Challenge and 2018

My word for the year in 2018 was Challenge. I remember being a bit worried about taking that on. I was honestly scared I was inviting challenge into my life. But after a year of this word bouncing around in my heart, I don’t regret a single thing.

In fact, I know Challenge was absolutely the best choice and helped me to be my best self in 2018.

I had so many stories and lessons from the year that I’ve started writing them down in a book, tentatively titled Rise to the Challenge of Your Life. From Christmas eve to New Year’s Day I’ve been writing stories about challenge.

Many of the stories come from this past year, but many come from my past as well. Through writing this book, nearly 30,000 words at this point, I’ve gained a greater perspective and feel like I’ve really LEARNED these lessons this time.

This book is very personal and I’m just allowing those stories to flow. I admit, I’m rather shocked at what’s coming out, but I’m giving myself permission to continue and not worry about editing until I get to the end.

Accepting the Challenge of a New Passion

Writing is my new passion. This past year I wrote Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt, a fiction novel. I edited it myself, designed the cover art and illustrations, and published it in the fall. I’m so pleased and proud of this book and I can’t wait to continue the series!

But writing and publishing something total new that I’m not known for has been challenging. This book honestly didn’t sell as well as my nonfiction how to quilt book Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day that I released last year.

I’ve had to work on my tendency to compare and pit the things I make against one another this way. While Mally might not have been as monetarily successful, it absolutely fulfilled a need I had to write and a challenge I’d been seeking for years.

I’ve been wanting to write Mally the Maker since James was in kindergarten and I’m so happy that I took the time to make this a reality. I have been writing the second book in the series, but I’ve decided to set this aside for the next few months.

Writing the challenge book this past week has made it very clear to me that the next most important book I must create.

Committing to My Highest Priority

For years I have written basically the same journal entry over and over. It goes something like this:

I want to focus more on my goddesses. I want to share these stories and be more open to my creativity and help quilters learn how to make quilts like this. I want to help people change their lives. I want to change my life by sharing this.

I’ve written basically the same thing for the last five or six years! I keep living year after year in regret that I’m not getting this done. I’m not even taking steps to making it happen because there’s always an excuse: another important project, another quilt, another thing that might sell better.

I’ve finally seen that if I don’t take the time and start, this book in my heart will never exist. And I will continue to live in regret.

I don’t want to do that anymore. I’m rising to the challenge of writing a book that will be difficult. I don’t know how well it will sell. It will be another weird thing I make out of left field. People may look at this with one eyebrow raised, as many have with Mally the Maker.

I must rise to this challenge and cross my fingers and do the work anyway. I have to trust the universe will support me.

I’m going to Fail and I’m going to Die

LOL! That sounds a bit fatalistic, but it’s true. I realized two things this year: life is very short, and we don’t know how much time we have. Also, I got a front row seat to failure this year.

Several projects I shared didn’t do as well as I wanted them to. Getting comfortable with that and realizing I survived that failure means I can deal with just about anything. I think Challenge has been teaching me that most things I’m afraid of are not actually so scary.

Then there are the things that are real and terrifying.

Two very important people in my life got cancer this year. Seeing the fear and the total shift in life perspective for both women was radical.

I couldn’t help but see the cautionary tale in continuing to wait on something I’ve been wanting to create. I don’t know how much time going to have. I could live to be older than my grandma who died at 88. I could have two years. There are no guarantees.

I can spend the rest of my life wanting and wishing. Or I can pull on my big girl panties and get this work done.

How Many Priorities Do You Have?

Priority is singular. There should only ever be one!

This year I began saying no to things I enjoy and like to do. I had to look at projects differently. Will this bring me closer to the goals in my heart? No? Then I shouldn’t take that on.

This is why I stopped making free patterns for every Quilty Box. I love getting a box of fabric and gear and I loved the challenge of designing fast and forcing myself to not get hung up on the minutia of pattern writing.

But this was eating up nearly two weeks of time, every single month. This was an enormous amount of work to do and it was keeping me so busy, I didn’t have time for anything else.

The hardest part of deciding to stop making these tutorials is they were successful. They’re some of my best videos!

But this is not a reflection of my highest priority. This is making quilts that anyone can make with common shapes everyone use. How valuable is this work?

I have a choice: I can continue doing what everyone can do and be part of the crowd. Or I can step out and do my own thing.

Change is Scary

The Internet is changing and quite rapidly. I’ve seen a lot of things shifting with how we get traffic on our websites and how people are consuming content.

Many things are becoming Paid to Play, which means you’ll only find my tutorial if I pay for it to show up on top. Many topics are so saturated that you have not one, but dozens of choices from who to learn a super niche topic.

Also the perceived value of tutorials and information is changing. This year I noticed my behavior and how I go to a website and get the information I need and then leave. I’m not being critical of this behavior.

I’m seeking to understand it and understand what that means for me as a content creator and the value of what I’m doing. I’m being very still and spending a lot of time thinking and trying to decide on the right path forward.

Josh and I are researching a new platform. This will be a special quilting club for you to share pictures and make friends online. It will be completely off Facebook and it will be a paid subscription around $2-3 per month.

Yes, I know there are a lot of free groups online, but those come with spam and advertisements and a whole lot of stuff you might not want to see. In creating this group and charging for it, I’m hoping to create a way we can support ourselves and continue sharing new videos and quilting tutorials.

No, this will not mean I stop sharing free tutorials. Those will continue as I’ve shared for years. This membership club will simply be a way for you to help support us so those tutorials continue. It will also give you a place to share photos, interact, and make friends, which I know many quilters have missed since I shut down our Facebook Groups.

This is very early days on this idea, so I don’t have anything to show you right this second. Just know we’re thinking about this and considering it from all angles.

A Year on a Diet

I don’t think it’s a bad thing to say I lived 2018 on a diet!

I went on Whole 30 through February and lost around 12 pounds, then switched over to the ketogenic diet and maintain my weight all year easily. I still like sugary treats, but now I’m using Swerve instead of regular sugar.

But most importantly, I’m no longer looking for food to comfort me.

When I feel stressed and anxious, I take steps to deal with those emotions myself. I relax on the couch with a hot wet washcloth over my face, I do a seven minute exercise, or walk my treadmill, or go on a bike great. Being physical helps more than anything else.

Eating a cookie or muffin when I was stressed was a really bad habit. I had to learn how to comfort myself and just use food to feed my hunger.

But after a year on a diet, I’ve realized I will never have a washboard stomach and less I want to do some serious work. I’ll need to spend an hour at the gym or do a thousand crunches a day because if I have even two extra pounds on my body, it’s going to be on my belly.

This only bugged me because of comments on YouTube. No, it is not polite to congratulate a woman on her pregnancy if she is not pregnant! That’s like poking someone in the stomach and saying – Are you knocked up or just fat?

I’ve had to accept that this is my body type and I can lose weight off my wrists and my hips and my shoulders, but not my belly. Instead of obsessing about how I stand in videos or what people say in comments, I should instead just make a new batch of shirts that hide this area instead of accent it.

Opening a Massive Door in 2019

I’m also not worrying about having a perfectly flat belly because Josh and I are trying to have another baby.

Yep you read that right! After 12 years, we realized having a bigger family is something we both wanted. No, I’m not pregnant yet (don’t go looking at my belly!) LOL!

For years this was a firmly shut door. I loved having an only child and just focusing on James. I didn’t think I could afford more children or want hassles that come along with multiple kids.

But then my sister had a baby two years ago. My nephew is now a toddler and has brought so much sweet love and joy to the family. I can’t deny this is something I want very much.

Then the fears set in. I don’t know if we can afford this. I don’t know if I have time for this! Especially with the changing Internet and value of content online, this might be a really bonehead move to make.

But I found a lot of peace in my desire on that day I hand quilted at Hart Square. I sat in an 19th-century log cabin with no running water, electricity, central heat, or good lighting. It made me appreciate just how much we have.

If ten kids could be raised in a one room log cabin with none of the conveniences of modern life, I can do this! What do we really need in the end – more toys and stuff, or just each other?

Being Open to Inspiration

I know I was blocking something important because I haven’t been able to easily design a new goddess quilt in years. I didn’t want to commit to writing the goddess book because I feared this inspiration had left me.

No, it wasn’t gone. It was just being smothered out!

When I finally opened my heart to this possibility, I sketched a new pregnant goddess design in five minutes. I’ve tentatively named this Eye of Calm. This goddess quilt flowed onto the paper so naturally and easily. I haven’t had a design work that easily in years.

I’m really excited and hopeful. No, I’m not pregnant yet, but were trying. I am 35 years old, so I don’t know if this will happen or not. I’m happy with the life I have, but I’d love to have more children to share it with now too.

My Word of the Year for 2019

Knowing that we could have a new baby this year is giving me a lot to think about. It’s going to change so much about our lives, our house, how I work, and how much time I have to work.

I’m going to embrace all of it and I want to embrace it with an open heart.

So that’s my word of the year Embrace Change.

Taken separately – Embrace – I want more hugs! I want more embraces and more closeness and were snuggled on the couch. James has reached an age where he’s not into hugs anymore and it breaks my heart.

As for Change I’m looking at many ways of supporting my family this year including a possible membership site that will not be expensive. Just a little change that will help me continue to support my family and teach online.

Taken together – Embrace Change – this is exactly what I want to do. I want to crack my heart open wide and be ready for this change in my life.

Many times I have resisted change and it has ended up hurting more for my resistance. Embracing change means welcoming the discomfort. This could hurt, but it could also just get really interesting.

But What About Your Goals?

Coming full circle – how does my desire to have a new baby work with my equally passionate desire to finally write my goddess quilt book?

I want both. I don’t want to live another year writing the same journal entries.

So I have a deadline. I have a single focus priority. I just need to do the work. I’m going to make this happen because I refuse to live another year in regret. I don’t think having more kids means I have to give up all my other goals.

Will it be difficult? Yes! That’s why I’m not letting the word Challenge out of my heart. I’m going to keep that as my forever word.

I know this will be hard. I’m not asking for it to be easy anymore. I’ll take the good, the bad, the ugly, and the difficult because this is my life!

While writing the Challenge book this past week I stumbled across a goal that has been in my heart, pumping through my blood since I was twenty years old:

I want to wake up in the morning and work next to Josh and live life on my own terms.

I don’t know if I’m going to publish this challenge book I’ve been writing. I’m so thankful I did the work and learn the lessons and put those words on paper.

I hope that you have an amazing year. I hope you’ll also consider cracking your chest open wide and find the space to embrace change.

Because whether you want it or not change is coming. It’s always here. Things are always shifting. It is a powerful choice to accept it rather than fight it. Let’s welcome in the change with open arms.

So what is your word for the year in 2019 what do you hope to accomplish?

Have you been living your life in regret? Have you written the same journal entry over and over for years? Are you going to live another year writing the same thing or are you going to do something about it?

This year different because I’m embracing the change in my life. Things are about to get really interesting!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day