Make those Goals and Go for It!!!

When I first started quilting on my long arm, I took some classes from some more well known longarmers……..Jamie Wallen, Lisa Calle and Angela Walters.  They are all amazing teachers and people!!

Angela Walters said some things in one of my classes with her that has stuck with me and it was to start making goals for yourself…..whether professionally or personally.  Her idea was to have three different kinds of goals:   immediate goals (this month), short term goals (this year) and long term goals (this decade).  While I haven’t always written my goals down, I do know what I am hoping to accomplish short term and long term, and it is such a great feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction when you can check them off that list…..even if it didn’t work out the way you had planned or even at all.  The main objective is…..TO TRY!!!!!!!

On a side note….this blog was a goal of mine, and I don’t find that writing posts comes very easily to me, but I continue to plug along and see where it goes!!  So thanks for bearing with me on this!!

I spend much of my time quilting for others, and really enjoy it.  I am so grateful for all of my customers!!  I am always thrilled when one of them wins a ribbon……whether it be at a local level at a community fair, or state fair or even on a national level.  But more importantly than winning a ribbon or prize….I am just happy to see their quilts hang in shows so that others can enjoy their beauty!!

This quilt was recently accepted to hang and be judged at the Lancaster AQS Show.  It was pieced by Ellen and quilted by myself.  If you are in Lancaster, make sure you stop to see it!!  It is just a huge honor to be chosen to hang at these shows!!

It is hard for me to find the time to piece together any larger quilts that are show quality, so I decided to try making a couple of minis.  I had always wanted to try designing my own wholecloth quilt, so figured this would be easier on a miniature level.

Once I had the mini wholecloth done, I found that the only show that would accept minis of that size was the Paducah AQS Show, so I decided to fill out the form and see what happened….although I expected that I would get a rejection letter.  So this past week, no one was more surprised than me, when I received an email saying that my mini quilt “Shimmer” had been accepted into the Paducah Show.  This quilt was done on Robert Kaufman Radiance fabric, which is a silk/cotton blend and started out by being a challenge project with a long arm group I am part of on Facebook.  Hmmmmm…..now to get to Paducah to see it hang there!!!

As I have talked about in previous posts, I am a big fan of Instagram and have been participating in some mini quilt swaps.  The last one I participated in was a Rainbow Mini Quilt Swap.  I ended up making two miniature quilts….one to keep and one to send away….and this is the one that I kept and I took a chance at entering this one into the MQX Quilt Festival.  Again, I did it on a whim as part of my “goals” that I had set for myself, fully expecting to get the dreaded rejection letter.  Instead, I received an acceptance letter!!  Woohoo!!!

This pattern is from Thimble Blossoms and is called Round & Round.  As you can see, I used some of my precious Kaffe Fassett fabric on this one. And my next decision will be if I can fit a quick road trip in to New Hampshire??!!!!!  It’s hard to imagine my quilt hanging somewhere in a show and not being able to get there to at least see it in person 🙂

What my point is in this post is that it is a good thing to make goals for yourself and to try to reach for those goals, because without trying, we never know what will happen or what we are capable of.

I hope that each of you will take the time to enter your quilts in any kind of show, whether it be an exhibition, your local county fair, state fair or national shows.  Your quilts are your works of art and they should be admired by others!!  Who knows who you may inspire by allowing your quilt to hang publicly where others can see them!!

Happy Quilting!!