Yvonne
@Quilting Jet Girl is hosting a linky party to reflect on 2016 now that we've entered the second half of the year. Love this idea so here goes! (See more mid-year reflections
here.)
I choose the word
Discover as my word for the year and set myself three goals -
- Discover a balance for my day of friends, family, exercise and my writing
- Discover whether I have what it takes to become a published author
- Discover how to grow the community around my blog
Still working on overall balance to my day but I am managing to exercise almost every day - swimming is the exercise of choice right now. I also joined my local Modern Quilt Guild and enjoy the opportunity to make new quilty friends.
My writing goal has stalled in the second draft edit. I hope to get things moving again once summer ends and the kids are back at school. But this isn't a race so I'm ok with where I am.
I did publish four patterns on
Crafty - the one I'm most excited about is my paper pieced pattern
Chunky Alphabet! I've two additional quilts underway right now with this fun alphabet!
Although I've been blogging since 2010 at
A Stitch in Time, I started this
Elm Street Quilts blog two years ago to focus more on my original work as well as tutorials and quilt-a-longs. To support the QALs, I started a
Elm Street Quilts Facebook group - what fun we are having over there seeing works in progress! Come join!
My
bargello QAL was great fun with over twenty great finishes shared in the linky. I offered instructions for two sizes - the queen B and the baby B! Lots more downloaded the pattern and I keep getting pleasantly surprised when photos of new bargello quilts pop up!
Underway right now is my
repeat QAL - still time to join that one! This one has been fun - people have gotten creative with adding additional words.
And I announced
Bag It returning this fall. I've been busy creating new tutorials for bags that will publish this fall. There are great sponsors for this event. To participate, you can make any bag - not just my tutorials. Last year, there were more than 250 bags - I hope to grow that number considerably this year. Check it out and sign up for the
Bag It notifications or the newsletter (see side bar) to stay informed.
Finally, my needle has been busy participating in many QALs and also some finishes. The quilt for my daughter's freshman dorm room was the most labor and love intensive.
I also made a baby quilt, a bunch of minis and finished my Snapshots quilt. Here are some of my finishes.
I intend to stay focused on my three discover goals for the remainder of the year. It was fun to sit and reflect on the year so far.
|
Fortune cookie from January 2016 - perfect isn't it? |
Have a wonderful day!
Patty