Seasonal Goal Update: Autumn 2023

Hello Friends and Welcome Back!

After a Summer of sporadic posting, I'm excited to usher in the Autumn season!

I'm optimistic that the colouring of the leaves, shortening of the days, and shifting of the breeze will be change enough to motivate a return to my usual posting schedule. I can't wait to be back on the blog every week!

And with this post marking not only the arrival of Autumn, but also a sort of revival of the blog, it seems doubly important to look back on last season's goals, review my successes and shortcomings, and set realistic, achievable goals for the next few months!

Summer Goals

Last Summer, I hoped to keep up with my various quilt alongs, assemble my Stars of the City sample, continue quilting some ongoing projects, and improve my ability to share my work with others! Generally, these are goals I was able to work on, but not all were goals I was able to complete. But still, I believe that I did my best while working on each of them and am excited to take a look!

The first quilt along goal was to keep up with Hexie Harvest, which I've been really successful in doing!

Throughout the Summer, I completed blocks as scheduled until August, when I decided to bump the Sandalwood blocks to September, which was scheduled as a catch up month. And those Sandalwood blocks are well underway, with six of the seven total blocks already pieced!

Once I've finished them, October will be final assembly for the Hexie Harvest quilt, I can't wait!

The other project I'd hoped to keep up with, though not exactly a quilt along, was the Generations Quilt. And while I did really well with Hexie Harvest, I didn't make any progress on Generations.

I think the reason for this was that I simply had too many projects on the go at once. And because I'm much further ahead of my Mom and Grandma in terms of completed block count, I wasn't prioritizing my Generations progress. On top of that, Grandma hurt her leg in the Spring, then spent the Summer recovering, so the three of us had much more important things to be discussing when we were together anyway.

Perhaps we will need to have another project meeting in the next few months now that Grandma is feeling better?

The final project I'd hoped to piece over the Summer was the sample quilt for my recently released Stars of the City BoM quilt along, however my goal went even a little further and I'd hoped to quilt and bind this quilt too!

This was a very ambitious goal for me, considering I've never completely quilted a quilt in less than a year before, so it's not surprising I wasn't able to complete it. But I did get the top pieced, the quilt based, and a good start on the quilting before the pattern was released, so I would consider this goal a success!

I'm looking forward to continuing to quilt Stars of the City over however many days, weeks, or months it may take to complete!

The final quilting project for the season was Meadow Mystery, my first quilt as you go project!

I believe I quilted and assembled one additional row of this quilt early in the Summer, bringing the current size up to 4x4 blocks, but then essentially dropped the project after starting Stars of the City. Since I didn't specify how much progress I wanted to make on Meadow Mystery in my Summer goals post, I suppose this one is a successfully completed goal on a technicality, but in spirit, it feels somewhat unfulfilled.

I would love to continue working on this and see how the quilt as you go technique turns out in a finished project, so perhaps Meadow Mystery will gain a few more stitches throughout the coming season!

The next of my Summer goals was very much an odd one out; to not make any more progress on Chilhowie.

I had a lot of projects in progress going into the Summer, so although I was enjoying quilting Chilhowie, it wasn't a priority at the time. And I was able to set it aside and work on other things last season, so this goal was successful, if a little unorthodox.

That covers all of my active projects for the Summer, but I did have two additional goals!

The first was to take more photos of my work so I could do a better job of sharing my progress, which I would say I was not very successful at as evidenced by my inconsistent and sporadic posting both on the blog and social media. The other goal was to acquire stencils for making quilt labels, which I also haven't done.

Both of these goals are related to tracking the creative process and claiming the finished pieces as my own work. They're really important to me as a creator, and I'm really sad I've been unsuccessful in carrying them through. But every new season brings new opportunities, so I'm hopeful that Autumn will get me another step closer!

Autumn Goals

Moving into this season, I'd like to be a little more considerate to myself.

In past seasons, I've had a lot of projects on the go, admittedly I like it this way, but overloading myself with expectations has very likely been the cause of the goals that went unmet. I've done my best to keep this in mind while setting new goals for Autumn and hope it will help to make my season more successful and productive!

To begin, I'd like to resume my weekly posting schedule. I'm hopping to get back to posting every week on Tuesday, and if for any reason I'm not able to, I'd like to be better about telling you all in advance rather than silently letting the days pass without acknowledgement.

All the skipped posts and social media silence over the Summer have left me with a lot of guilt, and though I know I don't owe anyone a post, picture, or update, being active on the blog has been an amazing way for me to organize my thoughts, keep my projects moving forward, and even to make friends. I feel more like myself when I'm able to share my work, so I'd really like to be able to continue doing so!

My next goal is one I've been working towards all year, to finally acquire stencils to allow me to print my own quilt labels.

Through the Spring, I planned the layout of my labels, during Summer I tested several stencil options and researched companies that cut custom stencils, so for Autumn, I'd like to make my custom text and reach out to a company to set up an order. I plan to order some stencils for common words and phrases, like my name or "pieced and quilted by", as well as a general alphabet page for the words that change from one label to another, like the name of the quilt.

Once I've received my stencils, I'll finally be able to put labels on my two completed quilts, and should be able to resolve the mixed feelings I've been having about completing more quilts without being able to give them proper labels!

As for the projects I'd like to work on this season, I've got several in mind;

For Hexie Harvest, I plan to keep up with the designer's schedule. I'll be finishing my blocks in September, then assembling the quilt top in October. Once I've reached that point, Hexie Harvest will join the que of tops waiting to be quilted.

For Stars of the City, I plan to continue working on the hand quilting, but don't expect myself to finish it by any particular date. I'll also be making a second version of the pattern, which will progress one month ahead of the posting schedule so I'll have a physical sample to show off as block instructions are shared!

The other quilt projects I'd like to work on are Meadow Mystery and Generations, neither of which have any particular deadline, so I'm happy to let them progress naturally.

Finally, I have a few garment projects I'd like to work on, including new pajamas for several family members and revisiting last Autumn's deep frost mage's robe. Each set of pajamas has a specific date they need to be gifted on, but all should be finished before the end of the season, while the robe is a personal costuming project that doesn't have a specific deadline, though I would like to have it finished before the season ends too.

With that, I think I've covered all my plans for Autumn 2023! I'll do my best to work on each of these projects, keep up with the schedule I've set, and share my work with all of you along the way!

Friends, if you have any special plans, goals, or projects prepared for this season, I would love to hear about them! Please share them in the comments below, by tagging me on Instagram, or reach out via email to chat with me privately! Hearing about your work is always so inspiring!

Thank you all for continuing to share your creative journey with me and for keeping me company along my own adventures!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

~VA