Despite the title of this piece sounding rather Tina Turnerish to me, I’ve been thinking a great deal lately about what I want in a variety of areas. In other words, I’ve been looking for clarity. It’s so easy to get bogged down with all the what ifs and fuzzy thinking. Ever been there?

What do you need clarity on? When I work with some clients, that’s our first step. Clarity is really the foundation of success both in your business and your personal life.

You need to be clear on the direction you are going. What is your end goal? If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there?

You need to be clear on who your client is. We can’t be everything to all people, though I do know people who try. In one class I taught, I had a student who wanted to turn every quilter into an appliqué artist. While that was an admirable goal, her time would have been exhausted trying to accomplish this. She would have been more effective targeting beginning quilters to get them started.

You need to be clear on the financial realities of your business. Where does your income come from? What are your expenses? How much do you need to earn to provide support for yourself?

Those are just a few of the many areas that require clarity. I’m sure you can find other areas where you are searching for clarity. It could be something big, like what my coaches call your “Big Why,” or it could be something smaller, like the name of your new pattern.

It’s easy to figure out what you need to be clear on – you hear the muddled voices. How do you find clarity? Here are a few approaches to tune into the right little voice inside so you can listen.

1. Create a vision board. The easy approach is to go through magazines and find things that resonate with you. It could be colors, words, pictures of places you want to visit, quilts you want to make or techniques you want to learn. Glue them onto a piece of poster board and leave it in a place where you’ll see it. I find that just searching for the items to put on my vision board helps me get clearer.

2. Keep a journal. Note your day’s activities, how you felt about what happened, any insights you might have. You might even ask a question and brainstorm on ideas or let the answer just come to you. Go back and read your earlier entries. The more you journal about something, the clearer it becomes.

3. Be grateful. If you are grateful every day, you can start to replace confusion with clarity. I keep a gratitude journal.

4. Spend time alone in nature. You may feel most at peace in a certain type of setting. For me it’s the water. So when I need to gain clarity, I will often sit by the water. Clarity often comes just “being,” and this environment lets me “be.”

5. Let go of the question. Sometimes by no longer putting your attention on something the answer will just come to you.

And, finally remember when I started looking at the letters in the word “success”? For me, the first C is for clarity.

Here’s a quote on clarity from Scottish writer Richard Holloway that I like:

Please share your thoughts on clarity below.

I survived Thanksgiving, put a good dent in all the wonderful foods 14 of us shared and helped to polish off our favorite homemade family apple pie. The first week in December kept me busy with my church’s 34th Annual Christmas Festival. I’ve been the co-chair five years now and, along with my co-chair, am giving up the seat, grateful to have been able to share my skills in this way and grateful to pass along the duties to someone else. I’ll still be involved as I’ve volunteered to make the raffle quilt top next year.

One of my annual traditions is gingerbread house decorating with two of my nieces each year. We completed this year’s house on Sunday, and here they are celebrating their artwork.

The younger one also took some time deciding on her next sewing project. She loves the ideas in The Best of Sewing Machine Fun for Kids from Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith from Possibilities and picked out six. First up are the placemats; she said that making them it would be like making a small quilt so then she could be prepared for her own real quilt.

If you been following my niece Hailey’s quilt, you know she was working on her first quilt. When I asked if she wanted to show her quilt in my guild show, she jumped at the chance. So we set a schedule to finish in time. Here she is with the quilt at the show.

I’m really proud of the work she did on the quilt. I helped her get started, but I had little input into the finished product. She chose the pattern and fabrics, learned to rotary cut and operate the sewing machine. I helped her tie the quilt, so we could talk. I sewed on the front of the binding by machine and then she sewed down the back by hand. She even made her own label for the quilt, which she named Jungle King. On our drive back from the show, she asked when the next show was. I’m hopeful she wants to start a new project after Christmas.

School started on Tuesday where I live, and on Monday my niece Hailey came over to work on her quilt. Next up was adding the borders, preparing the back, sandwiching the pieces and then tying the quilt. Here she is tying the quilt. She said she liked the tying part, as it’s easier than handling the whole top on the sewing machine. She has to finish tying and then bind the quilt before she can enjoy using it. I think she’s doing a fabulous job!

Tuesday evening my eight-year-old niece, Nicole, came to spend the night. After she helped cook dinner she wanted to sew, so we looked through The Best of Sewing Machine Fun for Kids by Nancy Smith and Linda Milligan with Possibilities. Nicole decided she would make scrunchies and a cloth lunch bag for school, which starts next week. She headed off to my fabric stash to select what I thought would be a couple of pieces for the scrunchies. Well, she came back with enough for ten. And that’s what she made. Here she is at the sewing machine.

Her skills have improved since she made her first skirt this spring. She’s more careful about the seam allowance and pays more attention to the project. And, while I cut the fabric, she followed the directions and worked without my guidance after the first few. She made two scrunchies that evening. The next morning shortly after breakfast she said, “I’m bored. Can we sew now?” Do you think she’s after my heart?! So she continued and made eight more. We took a break in the afternoon, went to the movies, out for ice cream and to visit the alpacas at the end of my street. After we got back, she wanted to make the lunch bag. She had picked out fabric for two bags, but we only had time for one. When her mom arrived about 6:15 to pick her up, she had just the top edge to turn and sew to finish the bag. She’s so excited that when people will ask about her bag or scrunchies, she can say, “I made it.” Here she is with the array of scrunchies.

Sewing has been a joyful experience my whole life. Family legend has me threading needles for my great-great-grandmothers at the age of three. I want to share that joy with my nieces and nephews. For the past year my niece Hailey has been working on a quilt. She still has to add the borders and tie the quilt, but I wanted to share her progress. Her skills have improved and while I was relegated to presser in the past, now I just work on my own project until she asks for help. Here she is with the top ready for the borders. And, we’re hopeful to fit in a day before school starts to finish.

Her sister Nicole also wanted to learn to sew. She decided to make a skirt. She selected all the fabrics. I cut the fabric, but she did all the sewing. I also made a bag to match, using Lazy Girl Design’s Runaround Bag.

My 10-year-old niece is at work on her own quilt. The one I made her years ago is just too short! She’s making a rail fence in yellows and browns. She gets better and better at cutting and sewing as we go along. I’m now the presser, so I actually have something to do while she sews.

Instead of cutting all the strips first and then sewing strips and blocks, she’s cutting eight strips at a time and then making enough blocks to make a row. That way, she can see her progress. She’s already planning overnights once school starts so she can work on her quilt. Stay tuned….