OMG (One Monthly Goal)

After participating in several goal setting linky parties last year, I’ve been hesitant to set too many quilting goals this year for fear of failure.

I realise that this sounds quite ridiculous but I can be a little obsessive about achieving my personal goals. My sewing time is much more limited than it was last year and I really don’t want to put any unnecessary pressure on myself.

I did sign up for Quarter 2 of the 2016 Finish Along but only because I thought three months was plenty of time to work towards achieving my goals. But here it is, May already, and I haven’t made any real progress on these projects.

So, with a little trepidation, I will set myself One Monthly Goal with Heidi at Red Letter Quilts. I’m hoping that concentrating on one project this month will motivate me to get moving.

My OMG for May is to finish my Colour Happy Quilt.

This quilt top was finished back in February and I basted it ready for quilting not long after.

Then I ran into a few problems…

The batting I originally chose to use for this project is a polyester wool blend. The size of this quilt – 65″ x 73″- and the thicker batting was a struggle for my little Janome, which has a very small throat space. I was not happy with my first attempt at quilting it. The fabric seemed to stretch and pucker and I ended up unpicking it. I’m not sure whether my choice of backing fabric – a shot cotton – also contributed to this result.

So my new plan is to unbaste the quilt and try a thinner cotton batting instead.

Wish me better luck this time!

On another note, some of you may be aware of the current May is for Makers campaign.

This campaign is all about supporting indie designers and purchasing their patterns. It was started by Lindsey at LR Stitched and you can read more about it here.

I feel rather guilty as a lot of the sewing I’ve done in my first few years has been made using free tutorials and patterns available on the internet. While I’ve always appreciated the generosity of bloggers/designers who offer these freebies, I have given little thought to the fact that some of them are also trying to make a living out of their craft.

After making my first quilt block tutorial and resulting quilt, I have much more appreciation for how much time and effort goes into producing original patterns.

So, this month, as a supporter of the campaign, I will endeavour to purchase a pattern from an indie designer each week and write about it on my blog.

This week was an easy choice for me. I have just purchased the new pattern “Spinning” from a blogger I really admire – Beth from Cooking Up Quilts.

Beth has consistently encouraged me by leaving kind comments on my blog from the start of my quilting journey a little over a year ago. My purchase of her wonderful pattern is a small way of saying thanks and that I support and appreciate her as a “Maker”.

Deb 🙂

 

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