Happy New Year – Goals and Plans for QuiltShopGal in 2016

 

There is something special about a New Year, as refreshing and fun as a clean chalkboard for you to sketch out your dreams.  You may have the same goal, the same dream, that you carry into the new year, or you may start with completely different goals.  My personal focus is to look forward, although I do spend time looking back at the year prior, as I establish my new goals.  

Today I want to share insights with you on my goals and plans for 2016.  Of course, I hope they will inspire you to follow QuiltShopGal, but I also reserve the right to change my plans throughout the year.  A little more or less of this and that, if you catch what I mean.

 

MY WORD for 2016 continues to be #CreativeGoodness.  While Quilting, Sewing and Embroidery are my favorite forms of creativity, I do want to continue to explore and encourage and admire many forms of creativity.

GOALS FOR 2016:

• Listen
• Encourage
• Speak Kind Words
• Be More Organized
• Spend More Time Being Creative
• UFO Finish & NO UFO Creation
• Skill building:  Electric Quilt, Machine Embroidery, Precision Piecing, Free-Motion Quilting

HIGHLIGHTS OF MY PLANS FOR 2016

Continue to manage three blogs:  QuiltShopGal, My Creative Blog List, and Fingertip Shopping.

Host Sponsored Giveaways  and Events throughout 2016.  While I’m currently accepting Sponsors, I want to recognize these 2016 Sponsors:

RESEARCH AND REPORTING is a core thread of QuiltShopGal and will continue to be so in 2016.  I am currently researching several topics, that have taken me months to thoroughly research, but I hope to be sharing these soon.  I also plan on getting back on track with my “Designer Showcase Series“.

CHARITY FUNDRAISERS AND PAY-IT-FORWARD KINDESS  – I plan to host a couple of charity fundraisers, as well as help with acts of Pay-It-Forward Kindness.  The first Charity Fundraiser will be hosted in March, to benefit Cystic Fibrosis programs around the world, with an emphasis on an excellent program in Australia.  Sneek Peaks on this fundraiser will be shared in January.

• Cystic Fibrosis

• Pets in Shelters/Homeless Animals – also need helping hands from quilting, sewing and embroidery enthusiasts WW.
• Heaven Sent a new non-profit focused on providing quiltlets to wrap babies that have passed away cover caskets for such babies.

 

FREE-MOTION QUILTING CHALLENGES AND STITCH-ALONGS 

• Ultimate Stencil Collection and/or Ultimate Background Stencil Collections, by Cindy Needham, will be showcased in a variety of events this year, as they are amazing tools for those interested in learning/improving their FMQ skills.
• Heart and Feather Wholecloth Workshop with Leah Day, is our first FMQ event in 2016.  It will kick off on Saturday, January 9th, but I’ll be sharing more insights early this week.   But as Leah currently has kits (optional for this event) on sale, as well as the workshop, I want to share the link to her site: http://leahday.com/collections/workshops/products/heart-wholecloth?variant=9209743749

ENGLISH PAPER PIECING STITCH A LONG – summer 2016 – While I have a couple of different EPP designs I’ll be showcasing, this event will be open for sharing any EPP project you are making, or have made, in 2016.  Simply needs to be an EPP project.

UFO / JUST FINISH IT CHALLENGES – I’m shooting to host 2-3 UFO Challenges in 2016.  Some will be focused on FMQ and some focused on any project you wish to share, they just need to be finished in 2016.

MACHINE EMBROIDERY STITCH A LONGS 

• Lunch Box Quilt Designs – Recipe Towel Collections
• Kaleidoscope Kreator – Feathers Embroidery Collection
• Sarah Vedeler – GO! BeDazzled or Stars Collections.  While I have a couple of projects I’ll be using these collections for, this #StitchAlong (like other Stitch A Longs) are open for any sharing that you create using these collections.   What do you think about these motifs for a table runner, pillow or quilt?

SKILL BUILDING CHALLENGES AND STITCH A LONGS – in addition to Free-Motion Quilting, I plan to host a few events that will help us build our skills for:

• Precision Piecing Stitch-A-Longs & Challenges
• Electric Quilt Skill Builders & Challenges – we’ll also be celebrating EQ’s 25th Anniversary this year, during these events.

AFFILIATE PROGRAMS AND POSTAGE ANGELS – To better manage my personal quilting budget, which historically has been negatively impacted by shipping prizes and giveaways, in 2016 I plan to:

• Continue utilizing Affiliate programs, for businesses and products that I can honestly recommend.  When you click thru any of my blogs to make a purchase, you pay the same as you would have if you went direct to that site, but I “may” receive a small fee back that I use to supplement postage costs.
• Those that opt to pay-it-forward, by reimbursing me for postage, as well as those that make postage donations, will be recognized in future giveaways and announcement of prizes, where their funds are used to help with postage expenses.
• As US postage cost has increased, International postage has skyrocketed.  The cost of shipping a book typically exceeds the price of the book, often 7-10 times the cost of what it would cost to shipping within the US.  While I could limit winners to be US only, this year I’m going to ask that International winners “donate” a flat rate of $20, as a Postage Angel, for any prize that they wish to claim.  To clarify, should postage of their prize exceed this rate, I will pay the difference and if the cost is less, the extra amount simply goes into the postage budget to pay-it-forward, with the winner being recognized as a Postage Angel.

Again, I wish you a very Happy and Healthy New Year. I also wish you time to enjoy and create.