2024 Q1 Goal Check-In

The first quarter of 2024 flew by in a flash.  You might remember that I ended 2023 in a bit of a funk, so I decided to jumpstart 2024 with a challenge I've always admired but never partaken in: Project Quilting!  Project Quilting is a series of six different prompts to make an entire quilted project in just one week and I'm happy to report that I successfully finished all six challenges.

Challenge	My Project	Challenge Prompt	My Personal Challenge
1		Birdhouses	I went into Week 1 with no expectations. I ended up making a FPP project based on three renderings of birdhouses created by my children.
2		Sky Color	My goal was "fast and pixelated". I achieved one of these!
3		Inside Out	I thought attempting a whole cloth design would be fun - I love playing with thread and I've never done it before. But the prompt didn't really lend itself to that, and made me think of this pattern instead. So I jumped into a very ambitious full-size quilt!
4		Hourglass	I wanted to use the brand-new tiny TV pattern in this challenge and the fact that I had to wait for the Wednesday release matched the theme perfectly.  I built on the theme further by making the TV test pattern, the most painful form of waiting when I was a kid.
5		Wearables	This challenge threw me for a loop and my plan for doing something with curves was set aside. Instead I made a project from the "I'm definitely going to do this someday" list.
6		Irish Chain	This one had to be fast due to our planned spring break vacation. I love the look of an Irish Chain quilt, but I also wanted to indulge my whimsical side.

In the off-weeks between Project Quilting challenges, I finished an old WIP and some smaller projects both new and old.  I also started a full-size solids scrap project (one block is behind the teddy bear) that is very close to being done - I just have to piece the last side's HST border.

Mother	Game Tracker Challenge
Quilt Orphan Block Mini	Easter Cross-Stitch Mini
Drawstring Bag and Potholder

All-in-all, my finished project output is high, even if most of the projects are small ones.  Finishing 15 projects in three months is impressive.

But what about my actual goals?

I'll start with Goal 2, which was to work on my Under the Sea blocks.  I have finished 1.75 of the five remaining main blocks for the quilt top.  There are also filler blocks that need to be made, but I won't start those until after the main blocks are done.  I'm a little behind on my plan of finishing one block a month, but I also wasn't planning on finishing the Mother quilt in Q1 so I'll take that as a trade-off and continue plugging away at this.

Goal 1 was to work on the professional side of BluePip Designs.  When I first made the goal, I wasn't completely sure what that would look like.  However, in January I was invited to speak on a pattern writers panel for my local guild.  As a result of that, I was invited to repeat the same panel as a lecture at the Minnesota Quilt Show in June.  I've also been invited to give a trunk show at a local quilt shop.  Neither of these opportunities was even on my radar when I made my list of goals back in December and I'm excited to see what comes of them.  This led to a new subgoal list:

1. Create a non-Etsy website to sell my patterns, BluePipDesigns.com.  The site is live!

2. Both speaking opportunities allow me to sell my patterns at the venue, so I am working on reformatting my existing patterns so I can offer them as print patterns.  This is currently happening behind the scenes.  These will be added to the website at some point in time, but maybe not until after June.

As for the original subgoals, I have wrote two full quilt patterns and made three quilt samples to go with those patterns.  Pebbled Prairie is completely ready to go and Windsuit is currently being tech edited.  I've decided to release Windsuit first so look for that pattern soon!  I'm also working on writing single-block patterns for a row-by-row challenge that my guild is doing.  I like these sneak peek photos because it shows how different the quilts can look based solely on fabric choices.

Pebbled Prairie Sneak Peek

Windsuit

Guild Block - Row 1

Because I have been spending so much time on the computer working on my own admin, I haven't officially launched my tech editing business yet.  This is something I still want to do, but I need to finish creating the print patterns first.  My last subgoal for the year was to set dedicated work hours for myself.  I have someone succeeded in this: each week I look at my schedule and choose what and when I want to accomplish.  My availability changes each week and I choose my tasks to fit the time I have.  Right now this is working wonderfully for me.  I'm getting a lot done, but I'm not stressed out.

I'll wrap up this post with my goals for Q2 of 2024.  I've talked about most of them above, so I'll try to keep it short here:

Goal 1: Fun sewing every month.  My business side is growing, but I still want to enjoy myself with new projects.  I plan on keeping the magic of Project Quilting alive by doing at least one quick and easy project each month.

Goal 2: Finish creating paper patterns.

Goal 3: Offer technical editing services.

Goal 4: Release Flyover, my next pattern.

And that's it!  Thanks for reading my post!  I'm linking up my goal check-in with Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl.