Welcome to the FINALE for the 100 Day Challenge! How did you do??
This challenge started as a way to jump start New Year goals by having a shorter time frame to finish them. I don't know about you, but I definitely felt the surge of motivation, more so than if I had a whole year to finish.
As a group, we had all kinds of goals in this challenge - from writing a quilt book to starting a blog, finishing a baby blanket to finishing up some hand work; we had quilting, knitting, crocheting and cross stitching! So many goals! But was it enough time?
Just over 3 months seems like a long time, but life has a tricky way of distracting us. For me, some distractions were fun - getting my vegetable garden up and running was hard work, but also therapeutic. And I hope I will get some veggies out of it this summer. Some distractions I could have lived without - several courses of the flu through the house, and a little one who broke her wrist. Those were NOT fun. I know life for you guys has been equally distracting. Some of you took trips, some of you had family members that got ill, and some of you were distracted by bright shiny new projects (and that's OK).
Life happens, but hopefully your life included a few quilty/stitchy things during the last 100 days too, and we want to hear about them!
So how did I do on my 3 goals?
1) Finish Lazy Bums blocks - there were a lot of these! The pic below is just one set for one bee mate, but I think I had about 17 blocks to make and ship off. I finished them all up in the first 30 days, and it felt fantastic to have one goal done! Equally good, to have the guilt of being so late in delivering them lifted.
2) Blog - get back to blogging twice a week - overall, I think I have done an OK job with this. Building Blocks Tuesday is a given, I also had some Inspirational Sunday's and a couple of Finish Friday's mixed in. Going forward, I want to start linking up to
Cath's "Design Board Monday" at Bits 'n Bobs more frequently.
3) Finish (including starting) Technicolor Galaxy - Well........I started it! The center block (Block one) is complete including quilting, and I've pieced and quilted all 12 of the Block Two's (the spikey ring). But, that is where I fizzled out. The next ring of blocks includes a bunch more paper piecing and some machine applique. I love paper piecing, but I can usually only do it in spurts. This past month I've spent my "spurt" preparing my samples for a paper piecing class I am teaching tomorrow. When the next spurt strikes, I will sneak in a few more blocks for this quilt. Mark my words, this quilt WILL be finished by the end of the year! Preferably, by September so I can enter it in our local quilt show.
That's it for my goals. Time to link up yours!
I know several of you have asked, "what's next?" and "will you do another 100 Day Challenge"? For me, what's next includes a tutorial for the
Ho, Ho, Ho and On We Sew series over at Celtic Thistle Stitches. I'm sharing a tutorial in June and I need to get going on my project so I know that it "works" before putting it out there for everyone else to try. I also have a couple of new projects that I want to get started.
As far as having a new 100 Day Challenge goes, I do want to have another one, but not right now. I love the 100 Day time frame, it is easier for me to focus on. However, here we are in April and starting in May we have a ridiculously busy family schedule which continues through the summer and goes pretty much until the kids go back to school in September. I even usually take the summer off from blogging because there is just no sewing or quilting going on around here. So personally, the next 100 days is a wash for me. I keep my expectations low so if I get anything done it is a great surprise. However, the last 100 Days of the year are important to me. Those 100 Days are leading up to the holidays, and I always have a dozen projects I am hoping to finish up. So, the next 100 Day Challenge will be at the end of the year. I hope you will join me again then.
"But Jen, I need motivation now! I need a challenge." I hear ya! I highly recommend joining
Heidi over at Red Letter Quilts for her OMG (One Monthly Goal) challenge. Just pick one goal a month and link up. She even has sponsors....just saying!
Now then, thanks for reading and please visit the links for the challenge participants above. Give them a virtual high five for challenging themselves and hopefully, accomplishing what they set out to do.
Jen
