2016 Mid Year Review

I didn’t create a list at the beginning of the year but setting a few goals mid-way through seems like a good idea, plus it’s a bandwagon so I might as well jump on. In case you haven’t seen it, Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl  is holding a link up that’s open until July 31^st.

·         BLOGGING

At the beginning of the year, I had some airy fairy ideas about doing more blogging. Having done only one post for the whole of 2015 this was never going to be difficult. If you’d told me I’d be writing a post like this at the start of the year I would have scoffed, thinking not even my Mum would be interested in that, but, on the other side of the 2016 New Quilters Blog Hop, I now have friends in the on-line community who might actually be interested and share similar goals.

My goal for the rest of the year is to keep up a routine of regular posting.

·         WRITE A PATTERN

I had this down for 2017 so it wouldn’t have appeared on my list at the beginning of the year but I’ll be revealing my first ever self-designed mini quilt soon. Yes, I am going to make an attempt at pattern writing.

·         LEARN TO SEW CURVES

I love quilt designs made with curves and I always feel hamstrung by my lack of experience in sewing any curves other than appliqued ones. I did a few practice drunkards path blocks at the beginning of the year, which I was relatively impressed with, and since then nothing. I have an upcoming project that I would like to make using the 6 minute circle technique and so I need to practice that technique as well. Links to an HGTV tutorial seem to go nowhere these days but there is a tutorial for a project on the Modern Quilt Guild website here. Maybe I could make that… Plus Abigail at Cut and Alter posted a Brave Quilter Challenge for herself way back in May to use her Quick Curve Ruler, which reminded me – I have that ruler too, and a pattern… I think to get back on track with this I need to add a few quilt projects using curves to my to-do list *looks at long list of projects and mumbles something about shuffling things around*.

·         THE FABRIC STASH

Have I told you I have a stash that you and I could both share and not get through in the next 5 years? It is my goal (as it has been for the past few years) to only use fabric from my stash. Last year I bought a mountain of fabric that filled any blank hole in my colour and pattern world, this year I’ve (so far) been very restrained.

I’ve bought some solids (this is where my current gap is) –

Ø  Kona Highlight (unfortunately this didn’t make an appearance in my LQS till well after the challenges had finished, never mind I will be using it soonish),

Ø  Kona Pomegranate because raspberry pink is my favourite colour and I wanted it,

Ø  and two shades of solid, a yellow orange and peach that were sitting next to each other on the shelf when I went to my LQS to pick up my sewing machine after I dropped a screw inside it when I was cleaning it. They looked so nice. This year I’ve had a thing about coral pinks and peach… and teal, but I haven’t bought any of that… yet.

·         DE-FLAB

I lost a fair bit of weight in the second half of last year and I was able to zip my pants up again, then Christmas came and I decided to let loose a bit. I was still letting loose when Australia Day rolled around at the end of January. Then they announced there would be job losses at work and I turned to my old friend chocolate for comfort. All that has passed now and it is time to take back control. I spent a day and a half in the garden last week, tackling the pruning and reduced the chocolate intake at the same time and the scales now say things are slowly moving in the right direction.

·         YARN DE-STASH

I’ve started a project this year to make a blanket for charity that will use a significant amount of my scrap yarn stash. I’m somewhere between a third and half-way through this at the moment.

·         FIND MORE TIME FOR SEWING

This has been a constant goal for the last few years and so seems unlikely to be achieved. At the moment I need to find more time for gardening. What I really need to do is change this goal around to be satisfied with the level of productivity I can achieve with the amount of time I have.

·         CHILL

It’s been a stressful time of late and I get a bit anxious about taking on new things and the future in general. Future problems that I foresee can only be solved in the future, not now.  I need to achieve a Zen like state of focusing on the moment and remember to breathe.