2018 Planning Party

2018 Planning Party

Here’s hoping this blog is working well enough for a new post, because I’m joining Quilting JetGirl’s 2018 Planning Party.

Looking Back at 2017

The big one: installed my Innova longarm in January.

Completed quilts:
– (You Can’t) See Buddhas of Bamiyan
– Jewels of the Ocean
– Portrait of Josianne mini
– Women’s Rights are Human Rights
– Orange Blossom Honey
– Out the Window mini
– Godzilla mini (first paper piecing design)
– Integration
– No Religious Test Shall Ever Be Required

Other Projects:
– successfully completed GnomeAngel’s #100days100blocks2017 challenge
– 6 regular meetings as Circle Leader for the Houston SAQA group, and a social museum visit
– like, thirty bookmarks
– 3 little flat zipper bags
– 1 medium flat-bottom zipper bag
– 1 Travel Duffle Bag 2.0 from ByAnnie.com
– 4 Guild charity quilts quilted on the longarm

My mom, my sister-in-law, and her mom used my longarm at some point to quilt their own projects. Yay!
I worked for Quilts, Inc leading up to the International Quilt Market & Festival, during the shows, and after.

Submitted to 7 juried shows and 3 registration-based shows. I won my first quilt show ribbon (3rd Place, for View from the Other Side in the 3-Dimensional Category) at the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston’s Joy of Quilts show.
Three of my quilts were accepted in 1 juried show, a fine art gallery show in Houston. I won my first prize at an art exhibition (3rd Place, for Women’s Rights are Human Rights) in that show.

In other news, our beagle, Gabi, died in February. We miss her all the time.

Looking Ahead to 2018

I want to start keeping better track of submissions, both those with entry fees and those without. I had a system with my writing, I should have one for art.
I want to continue working on my novels.
I want to populate my SAQA group and my Houston SFF Writers Group with some excellent peer education and discussion.

Projects List:
Grandmothers Project: I have been researching genealogy and my grandmothers back three and four generations. They’ll be the subjects of my next series of art quilts.
Mark-making / fabric design: I have foam and linoleum, cutting tools, fabric ink and paint, and a lot of plain fabric.
Paper piecing: explore more pattern-making for foundation paper piecing.
Ruler Quilting: I’ve got a ruler foot and a ruler now, so my Innova will expand its functions

On a personal note:
Focus on health: regular exercise, better diet. I’m tracking my food now with some success in my bullet journal, and what exercise I do. I need to step it up, for my own health. In a similar vein, regular stretch breaks from any tasks, whether computer or sewing related.

On Finances:
Engage a bookkeeper for training on how to use Quickbooks effectively and correctly for my business.

And I need to dig my website out of the rut that the WordPress Crash of 2017 left, get my new images and portfolio content up, and get back to blogging.

There’s more, but that covers quite a lot of the quilting stuff. I’m going to have to wrangle a bit with paper and pen to get a handle on the larger year-in-review and year-in-planning. 

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