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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

15 Minute Challenge - March Wrap Up

It's the last Tuesday in March, the end of the 1st quarter of 2013.  At work, the end of the quarter is time to reassess progress (or the lack of) on this year's goals.  I didn't have any specific goals for the 15 Minute Challenge this year, other than to just keep trying to work in 15 minutes of sewing each day.  Looking back at my weekly reports,   there have been 74 days out of the last 84 days that I've found some time to sew.  That's better than the 69 days I managed last year for the same time period. 

 Today also ends this month's Fostering Creativity theme of "Talk about your quilting".  Most quilting bloggers do this pretty routinely. We share our projects, our problems, look for advice on everything from sticky piecing problems to asking for naming ideas for our quilts.  Overall we are a pretty commutative group, there's even a scholarly article out there that suggests that the quilting blog community is a great model for building an learning on-line environment for other areas.  

 Most of this month's creativity discussion centered on how to ask for and how to give criticism.  The biggest take home messages for me for the month were:

  • Know what kind of input you want and ask for that specifically
  • It's OK to want your ego stroked. 
  • Remember that you are the most important critic
  • Feedback should only be given when asked for
  • Feedback should address something that can be changed
  • Feedback works best when it's specific and descriptive

The last seven days went pretty well as far as stitching goes. 

I did manage to get in 15 minutes of sewing/embroidery time each day out of the last seven days.  It was hard over the weekend to find some time to stitch since we were doing family stuff, but the embroidery was something I could pull out and work on for a few minutes while everyone was getting ready to go.  I didn't actually start the Butterfly quilt, but did finish the test block last night (sorry no photo, I forgot to take one).  I'm glad I did a test block, I had to make a few adjustments to the stitching order and I learned a lot about fabric placement.  I'm not sure I'll ever do a lot of foundation piecing, but it is nice to know how to do it should I feel the need again.  

 How did you do this week?  This month?  This quarter?  Are you finding time to stitch or are there other distractions keeping you from getting to the sewing room.  
1. Lesley A
2. Marti		3. Susanne
4. Amanda		5. Kate @katiemaequilts

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9 comments:

  1. lesleyworthMarch 26, 2013 at 6:49 AM

    Hey Kate! Hope all is well! Great job for the first quarter! I'm glad to report that I also went 7 for 7 this past week. Fantastic article that you linked up. I really enjoyed the discussion of how expressing our creativity has an impact on the rest of our day to day life. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. kwiltnkatsMarch 26, 2013 at 9:39 AM

    Very nice reading this morning. I zoomed in on the "naming of quilts". I get some wonderful suggestions. A few of my quilts are from my blog quilting sisters. So far I'm up-to-date on all I've set out to accomplish for 2013! By the way I walk into my sewing room every morning when I wake up...it brightens my day like nothing else does. Sandi

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  3. MartiMarch 26, 2013 at 10:30 AM

    You are doing great both this week and with an increase over last year even if you didn't have specific goals. I didn't set any specific goals either, since we have been involved in a house project so long.

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  4. ShayMarch 26, 2013 at 3:14 PM

    You did very well this week. When I think about my first quarter all I can focus on is that I didn't finish a single quilt! (I have a few days though so anything is possible )

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  5. LynneMarch 26, 2013 at 3:37 PM

    Congratulations on seven from seven. And 74 out of 84 is really, really good too!

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  6. seabreezequiltsMarch 26, 2013 at 4:56 PM

    Great week on the challenge front. I think I've had a great quarter apart from the last few weeks and its the body that has let me down not my enthusiasm for the challenge.

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  7. libbyquilterMarch 26, 2013 at 11:14 PM

    hi Kate~!
    you are doing well this year and your last week with a 100% success rate is wonderful~!
    i like popping in every once in a while to read your newsier tuesday posts.

    thanks to you i've done really well at keeping my (minimum) 15 daily minutes of sewing/creative time a regular part of my life.

    :-)
    libbyQ

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  8. theaMarch 27, 2013 at 1:03 AM

    Another great week! and 74 out of 84 days -- that's pretty amazing. My week was a complete bust so I won't be linking up this week.

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  9. Stella NemethMarch 28, 2013 at 10:39 AM

    I sat down, more than once this week, just to do 15 minutes. And yes, as you well know, it works.

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