Friday, July 6, 2018

Mid-Year Check-in


Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl invites us to review our 2018 goals as we cross into July and the second half of the year.    I'll be joining her link-up here.

My specific goals for 2018 (from this post) are:
  • Be bold in my choice of color and design.  Step outside my comfort zone (a bit!) in my color choices
  • Sew a quilt by hand
  • Improve my FMQ
  • Submit quilt designs to magazines for publication
  • Create a new quilt for submission to QuiltCon 2019 and other shows
  • Collaborate with other quilters / bloggers on a project (interested, drop me an email)
  • Grow participation in One Monthly Goal
  • Practice my photography
  • Finish the novel
So how am I doing?  For my first 3 goals (be bold in my choice of color and design, sew a quilt by hand, and improve my FMQ) have tangible proof of progress against my goals.


My quilt Encouragement gave me the opportunity to go bold with color with lots of bright saturated fabric plus practice my FMQ.  Hard to see in this photo, but there are 5 long rows of FMQing that go across the quilt mingled with those straight lines.


I'm using that same fabric to hand-piece my double wedding ring quilt and so happy I decided to try hand-piecing.


For the goals around quilt design and submitting to shows and publication  -submit quilt designs to magazines for publication, & create a new quilt for submission to QuiltCon 2019 and other shows - I've got some progress to report but work still to be done.  First, my quilt hung in a local quilt show.  This was the first time a quilt had been accepted into a show.  And I fully intend to work on a quilt specific for QuiltCon submission but so far, I've not started on it.  I've done nothing (yet?) on submitting quilt ideas to magazines. While I will have a design in the next issue of Make Modern magazine (so excited), the quilt was submitted last year so doesn't quite count against 2018 goals.

I've met so many people through my blog so my next two goals (collaborate with other quilters / bloggers on a project and grow participation in One Monthly Goal) are important ones.

New folks are finding One Monthly Goal each month(which makes me happy) and  I've got two things in the works around collaboration and feeling good about this goal.  (Not familiar with One Monthly Goal?  Check out the latest post and link up your goal for July.) 

Finally, when I retired 3 years ago, two of my key goals were to write a novel and improve my photography.  Let's just say I'm happy there are 6 more months left in this year for that novel.  Plenty of time to focus on this!

Bottom line, these goals are serving me well. I'm going to leave them just as they are and try to get myself a bit more focused on some of them!

Did you set goals for 2018?  How are you doing?


11 comments:

  1. I certainly appreciate your goal setting talents in my own personal quilting life - thank you

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  2. I'm so glad that the goals are serving you well for the year and it has definitely been fun to see you stretch a bit and all the lovely things you have been creating this year. :)

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  3. Hi Patty, I just found your blog via Susan from QuiltFabrication. I just started following you on Bloglovin'. I've wanted to make a double wedding ring quilt for ages and I love what you are doing. Thanks for providing the information that accompanies your project. Good luck on your novel. One of the pastors at my church is encouraging me to write the story of my life and how I've overcome my obstacles to the point that I have - I still have a long way to go. It's difficult to dredge up the past even more. I'm just hopeful it might help one person. It's even difficult to decide if I want to make it totally non-fiction or fictionalize it. I need to check with my attorney to see if I have to change names to protect myself against lawsuits from my perpetrators. Geez, what messes! I know that there is a purpose for it though. I think getting back to quilting will help to not only ease the stress but also help with the creative process. Thanks for some beautiful posts. Susan Shaw susan.dietrich@cox.net

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  4. May I recommend Craftsy for their digital photography course. So worth it. Then it also introduces you to LightRoom and Photoshop, two programs that are a must for photographers... I teach photography to students in high school... Just a thought.

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  5. You have done really well on your goals with the year just half over. I've been working on my photography too, I still forget to take those process shots. Hope you have better luck than I do on that front.

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  6. I love your monthly link-ups. I think I've only missed one (just barely didn't finish my May goal). I'm also in awe of your hand-pieced double wedding ring project - I don't have the patience!

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  7. Just found your blog via Meadow Mist, where you left a comment after mine & I've popped over, something I don't normally do, but lo & behold, we've had similar goals for this year. Mine being better photography, pushing my comfort zones & being published before I hit 70. Not sure about the photos at times and I can push to try new techniques/colour etc, in a wacky way and.......... I've been published too!!! In Make Modern issue 23. I must go back and have a look at yours. Thanks for commenting on MM and take care.

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  8. I too want to sew a quilt by hand and improve my FMQing. I just pinned a hand sewing project where she used different color thread throughout the piece.

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  9. You are making excellent progress on your goals! I have always wanted to attempt to hand sew a quilt, it would be great to have a sewing project away from the sewing machine.

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  10. I love the goal setting, and as you know, have enjoyed participating in OMG. You are doing great, and, as you say, there is much more of the year to go!

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  11. Great progress. I especially love the Encouragement quilt.

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