2020 Quilting Goals

It’s been a busy year of quilting and here we are, back at January 1^st.  I hope you had a fantastic trip around the sun!

I am so happy for all of you that are new here, that hadn’t yet found Darcy Quilts last January 1^st, who get to start the year with me! Welcome!

January 1^st is Darcy Quilts’ birthday, and as such, I always start the new year with a post of my goals for the year.  You can read up on my 2019 goal-accomplishing successes and failures in my previous post.

Some goals will be small and easily attainable, some I already have planned out, and others are a steep learning curve.

THIS is what I am to do in 2020:

Take a sewing class.

I might as well start my 2020 to-do list with the things I didn’t finish in 2019.  I want to take a sewing or quilting class of some sort from one of my local quilt shops.  As more and more shops shut, this gets harder and harder to do, so not only is this a goal for this year, I intend to sign up for the class before January is over and take the class before the end of February.

Specifically, I want to take a free motion quilting class.  Any local quilters want to join me?

Make something that isn’t a quilt.

This is another goal that is straight up a repeat from last year.  I am going to make something that I can wear.  I have no idea yet what it will be, but if you are a sewer who has experience making garments, I would love your feedback on a good pattern to start with, and a good type of fabric to start with.

Learn how to make Half Rectangle Triangles

Similar to a Half Square Triangle, a HRT is a rectangle divided from corner to corner.  I suspect it’s not that hard, and that there are lots of tutorials out there, and I’m fascinated by them, so I am going to learn how to make them.  And then, of course, I’ll teach you how to make them!

Take a photography class with the intention of improving my quilting photography. 

I follow a lot of quilters on Instagram.  There are some a-may-zing quilt photos out there!  Part of a good photo is the quilt itself, and mine are stunning, if I do say so myself, but there is room for improvement in my photography skills.

Write patterns. 

Last year I had a goal of writing two, and ended up publishing four.  This year I am setting a goal of four, and we’ll see if the pattern is that I have 6 or have 8 published by the end of the year.

Here are some photos (with links) to the patterns I released last year.

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Clean out the scrap bin. 

This is NOT a failure of a goal from last year.   I worked hard to empty that sucker.  I wrote tutorial after tutorial so you could also empty your scrap bin.  But still, there are scraps.  I think they’re mating in there and creating baby scraps.  There is just no other explanation for it!  But, working with scraps is fun, and satisfying, and #scrapquilt tends to be my most popular Instagram hashtag, so I think I should keep up the good work!

These photos (with links) are just a few of the scrappy quilts I made last year.

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Have fun! 

While sewing is a form of stress relief for me, it can also become work, something that has to be done in order to post a photo or a blog post or a newsletter. I learned last year that I have to quilt for fun, with no intention of tutorial or pattern writing, and really just enjoy the process.  Note, the first time I did this last year I ended up with a tutorial AND a pattern, and the second time I ended up with two tutorials.  The intention to quilt for fun is what seems to make the difference.

In the spirit of intentionality with regards to that last goal, I am going to stop at seven goals for this year.  And, because these are goals that haven’t happened yet, I have no goal-specific photos for you.  But, a blog post needs photos!  Scattered throughout this post are photos of some of my favorite projects from last year, and each photo will link you right to the connecting tutorial or pattern.

What is one thing you are going to accomplish in 2020?

As always, you can find me in all of these locations:

www.etsy.com/shop/darcyquilts

www.instagram.com/darcyquilts

www.facebook.com/darcyquilts

www.pinterest.com/darcyquilts