However, this year is a little different. On January 1st, I didn't just celebrate (and I use that word in the loosest sense possible because I don't think watching Netflix in my PJs counts as celebrating) 2015, I celebrated my 1st Quilt-a-versary!
I made my very first quilt in two furious days: January 1st and 2nd. That convenient start date has made it easy for me to track my growth and progress in my love of quilting. One year later, I couldn't be prouder about how much I've accomplished. It's strange...you'd think four years of college would have given me that feeling but nope, quilting did. Sorry, parents. Your tuition payments were appreciated though.
So does that mean I'm making resolutions? Not quite. I have some goals with intentionally ambiguous parameters. That way it will be harder to deem something a disappointment. (Set the bar low, people. You'll never be disappointed. Or if you are, you'll at least have some conviction when you call yourself a piece of shit failure.)
In no particular order, here they are:
1. Be less shitty at foundation paper piecing. This is my shame. I suck at. It's doubly insulting because I'm a self-admitted Hermione Granger wannabe prodigy and FPP is meant to be like a tricycle: idiot proof. Just follow the printed lines and durrr your derpy self will have a pretty quilt block with no head-thinkin' required. Well...stupid is as stupid does and I are FPP stupid.
Pretty much every FPP project I've done requires equal parts sewing and seam ripping. Seeing how I'm working on designing some FPP patterns, it would be nice if I could, you know, follow them. So yeah, be less shitty.
2. Develop some better quilting judgement. When I work on projects, I turn into a cyclone of progress. As my project develops, I get increasingly excited and start working more aggressively. I live for the high of a finished project! That means I also start to make bad decisions like a back-alley junkie trying to trade her baby for crystal meth.
Okay, maybe that's a bit hyperbolic. But there have been too many instances where I eagerly jump into the next stage of a project without stopping to think about the implications. There was the time I quilted about a square foot of pebbles only to realize that a spiral would look better. I spent like 15 minutes quilting followed by 5 hours of ripping out stitches. Most recently, I've taken my Passacaglia quilt in a direction that makes me burn in shame because I just wanted to start quilting NOW.
I just need a good stash of chill pills.
3. Take more social and professional plunges. One of the reasons I joined the Modern Quilt Guild was to force myself to leave the house and go somewhere besides the grocery store. I'm an introverted homebody. Thankfully, I seem to magically transform into a social butterfly like Sailor Moon when surrounded by other quilters. Once I'm there, I'm good, but I need to psych myself up to participate in more things.
Along the same lines, I want to try and throw more crap at the wall in a professional setting and see what sticks. And by crap, I mean submitting patterns to magazines, more aggressively pursuing the whole licensed designer thing, and being less afraid to put myself out there. Now that I feel like less of a newbie, I'm hoping it will come more naturally.
2. Develop some better quilting judgement. When I work on projects, I turn into a cyclone of progress. As my project develops, I get increasingly excited and start working more aggressively. I live for the high of a finished project! That means I also start to make bad decisions like a back-alley junkie trying to trade her baby for crystal meth.
Okay, maybe that's a bit hyperbolic. But there have been too many instances where I eagerly jump into the next stage of a project without stopping to think about the implications. There was the time I quilted about a square foot of pebbles only to realize that a spiral would look better. I spent like 15 minutes quilting followed by 5 hours of ripping out stitches. Most recently, I've taken my Passacaglia quilt in a direction that makes me burn in shame because I just wanted to start quilting NOW.
I just need a good stash of chill pills.
3. Take more social and professional plunges. One of the reasons I joined the Modern Quilt Guild was to force myself to leave the house and go somewhere besides the grocery store. I'm an introverted homebody. Thankfully, I seem to magically transform into a social butterfly like Sailor Moon when surrounded by other quilters. Once I'm there, I'm good, but I need to psych myself up to participate in more things.
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