QuiltCon would not have been nearly as much fun without my friend and roommate Nikki, The Girl Who Quilts. Without her, I would have been a solitary soul, indeed, and wouldn’t have had nearly as many interesting conversations or good laughs. Her February Challenge also got me thinking about what goals I had for the whole event, and I feel like I managed to make some of them happen.
My first goal, primarily, was to learn as much as I could about techniques, the business side of things, and how to be a member of this quilty world. As a recovering academic, I sometimes feel like being a stay at home mom doesn’t fulfill all the intellectual needs, you know? Imagine that. It was cool to be able to submerge myself in everything quilting and sewing, and together with a coupe really excellent conversations hashing over Classical archaeology and history with an old friend who is a Classics professor at UT in Austin… well, it really felt like I was filing an emptiness in my brain. I loved it!
My second goal was to gather my courage and share my first pattern with people, which I did on the very last day. I gave out two, even! Now I have to gather up my courage again and contact them about what they think. This is the part that I am having the hardest time with, actually, since I don’t know where to start. But seriously, I need to remember my own manifesto, right? Otherwise, what’s the point?
Nikki’s got a March Challenge up, where we set up our goals for the coming month. My challenges for March will be to contact people about what they thought with regards to my pattern, and also to keep working on the book proposal I have decided to write. I received some very strong encouragement while at QuiltCon (Thanks, Angela!) and the panel of editors was very interesting and provided some information to chew on. I feel in my gut that I have a great hook and the samples to make my case. When I sat down after the panel to work things through in my head, I realized I already had a very cohesive idea, and a body of work from which to draw. Should be interesting!
Need some motivation for yourself? Go join the March Challenge!
Spark a conversation!