My quilting life started in 2020, then got packed away for Christmas and didn’t get restarted until after Easter. I decided that if I’m ever really going to get my quilting going, I needed to set one monthly goal (idea borrowed from one of the blogs that I follow).
My monthly goal for May 2021 has been to achieve a blog post. Here we are! It was a bit more complicated than it ought to have been, because I had to get over my reluctance to use my new laptop, find my travelling mouse and mouse-mat, and locate the appropriate passwords. Fears conquered, necessary stuff found, done.
Now I’m going to set my One Monthly Goal for June, which is:
Try some free motion quilting
It means conquering another fear: trying the free motion quilting (FMQ) foot on my Janome. And the fear of making a quilt sandwich, which only means cutting a bit of scrap wadding and using a little bit of basting spray. It even looks like the weather will be good enough to use the spray outdoors as I should, so I’ve chosen a good month.
And now, because every blog post deserves an image: my progress on Bonnie Hunter’s Grassy Creek mystery quilt, that started at the end of November 2020. I’m still on Clue 1, which was a bunch of grey and yellow half square triangles in sets of 8. For my half-sized quilt, I think I need 11 or 12 sets and I’ve got 8, pictured, with some short-changed sets where something went wrong. Typing this has helped me to realise that I’m going to have a go at each clue and making some complete blocks, and will then go back to fill in the blanks. I’m not sure I really love Bonnie’s finished quilt but I do think that learning from Bonnie is a good thing to do. The mystery isn’t available any more but you can get the pattern.
Getting to balance 