Hello, August. How did you get here so quickly!?
There are pros and cons of it being August 1st. One con is that I didn't even touch my Very Hungry Caterpillar project that was my July One Monthly Goal. The related pro, however, is that it's really easy to set my new goal for August. Total repeat of July. My goal again this month is to add 20 spirals of quilting.
Wish me luck!
I'm linking up to August OMG on Elm Street Quilts.
I really appreciate Yvonne's nudge to revisit my 2018 goals for her 2018 Mid Year Review Linkup. A quick peek at my 2018 Goals post reminded me of what I had in mind for 2018. My goals break down into these categories: Teaching, Patterns, Design, Challenges, and Garment Sewing.
I started teaching quilt workshops in late 2017 and wanted to continue into 2018 and beyond. I attended two Meet the Teachers events (in Northern and Southern California) in April, featuring my two Planned Improv workshops. From these events, I am booked to teach and lecture at six California quilt guilds from November 2018 to May 2019.
I'm still intrigued by the possibility of developing online quilt courses, but that piece continues to be on the back burner for now.
There are three patterns in development (Scattered Squares, Floating Hexagons, and Ziggity Zag) which were slated for Q1 launch. They have been fully tested and are awaiting final edits and finished cover quilts. Other aspects of life took priority in Q1 and Q2 and Summer vacation does not provide a lot of time for the work that remains. They will be published as PDF patterns this year and I intend to have print patterns available by January 1, 2019.
I think these two actually go together, focusing on producing my own designs and participating in quilt challenges. I also wanted to use more solids. I've been using more solids in my designs, including submissions for Curated Quilts: i Mini and Connections. I participated in the six weekly Project QUILTING challenges at the start of the year. Mellow Yellow was one of those projects that featured solids. My involvement as an Island Batik Ambassador has provided monthly challenges in which to stretch my design muscles. And I've been working in a series with variations of my Scrappy Squares and All About Angles Planned Improv techniques. These projects will appear in my trunk shows when I lecture.
No progress here. I am allowing myself only two projects in the queue, with no further stashing of garment fabrics for future projects. (I already have a quilting stash and don't want to build a stash of garment fabrics.) Currently, I have the Butterick pattern, B6024, blouse in dark cerise chambray and a Blackwood Cardigan in black and white stripe bamboo jersey. Once one of those is made, I can queue up another. I've gotten so far as pre-washing my fabric for each.
I'm loving listening to the Love to Sew Podcast, which is a major inspiration to sew garments and I've love to make progress and add to #quiltersmakinggarments on Instagram. This may be a category for "once the kids are back in school."
Thank you to Yvonne for hosting the 2018 Mid Year Review Linkup.
Oh my gosh! I have 11 finished quilt tops waiting to be quilted. *gasp* This is clear evidence that I enjoy the piecing more than the quilting. And maybe that I have too many projects going at once.
In Q2 I completed seven projects from my list:
I also finished two mini quilts that I made with the Kindergarteners. Since a few of mine were lap quilts I didn't finish as many this quarter as last. Still, I'm very happy with nine projects in the finished column! That brings me to 25 for the first half of the year.
There are three new projects that I'm starting this month, but this clearly needs to be a "finish it up" kind of quarter. ;-) Many of these projects are workshop samples or will go into my trunk show when I lecture in the Fall and beyond. Here's the rundown. It's a long list (only 40!), but I really like to have them listed all in one place. ;-)
I'm linking up to Finish Along Q3 goals link up.
