It's never too late for some Pi (and my thoughts on Project Quilting)

Before presenting you the latest piece for the Project Quilting challenge, let me start by saying that I enjoyed these PQ challenges but I am also a little disappointed by the overall experience. If you want to know why you have to read below :)

So let's start with my entry for the last Challenge of Project Quilting

"Strings of Pi"

(inspired by the work of Martin Krzywinski)

size: 20'' x 20''

VOTE here: I am number 2 :)

(Project 6: 2016 Finish-Along, from the list in this post)

For this challenge we had to include one monkey wrench block and one flying geese block.
As usual I decided to make this challenge more personal and I decided to honor Pi as 3/14 was Pi day. I was planning to release it that day, but it took me longer than planned to make... oh well, it's never too late to celebrate Pi!! :)

So I built the entire piece as a monkey wrench in black with white accents, I wrote the first 220 digits of Pi on the white sections and I put a rainbow colored circle of geese in the center.
Inside of this circle is where the fun started!!! :)
I wrote the same 220 digits with thread lines connecting 10 sections (representing the digits from 0 to 9). So I started on the section for the 3 (underlined) and then I stitched an arch to go to the section of the 1, then a second arch to go to the section for the 4 and so on until I stitched all the written digits!
I used a fun Aurifil variegated 50 wt thread, and that creates a beautiful movement!
I will take better pictures of this piece when I have time, but for now this will have to do! :)

--

And now some reflections...
These are just my personal thoughts, and I am sharing them with the hope of finding what you, my dearest reader, think about it! Sharing is very important to me and I really like to hear what others think!

So Project Quilting is a series of challenges that are meant to be inspirational and fun!  After they release the theme of the challenge, we have just a week to make a finished project (from inception to finishing). Every week that we enter a piece for the challenge we are entered into a hat to win one of the amazing prizes from sponsors.

In addition to the theme chosen by them, I decided to add an extra "theme" for myself: the piece should be inspired by a "traditional" art piece (painting, drawing, etc) AND I cannot buy new fabric for these projects.

After 6 challenges this is my collection!

Quilted art pieces inspired by the work of 

Kandinsky, Matisse, Ancient Egypt, 

Walt Disney, Dali and Krzywinski

Now... let me split my thoughts in Good and Sad :)

The Good:

• Having one single week and one specific theme may seem intimidating and stressful, but it's actually very liberating because it made me much more focused and I completed several projects, which is always a great boost for my creativity
• Sponsors and prizes are great! I won more than one random prize! So goodies are always a good incentive
• Having small projects and no particular rules to make them allowed me to try things I never tried before! And I fell in love with several of them (if you want links for tutorials on these techniques, just comment below... I saved them somewhere and I can find them for you)!
• facing instead of binding (for art pieces): done in my Dali inspired piece (looooove this)
• binding with same color as last border: done in Matisse inspired piece (don't like this look)
• binding by folding under: done on my Kandinsky inspired piece (this is ok, but it's cumbersome and not too clean)
• envelope turn: done on my Egyptian inspired piece (this is ok, but not my favorite)
• elmer's glue as basting glue: done on my Pi piece, just on the back (loooove this)
• use facing as hanging sleeve: done on my Dali inspired piece (looove this)
• regular hanging sleeve: done on my Matisse inspired piece (it's ok, now I know how to do it)
• squares pointing down and not on the corners (loooove this, as it takes 2 hand stitches and it accommodates rods longer or shorter than the actual piece)
• raw edge applique: done on several pieces (really like, because I can use any shape)
• thread painting: done on my Disney inspired piece (challenging but fun for small pieces)

The Sad:

• my pieces received consistently very very few votes... several times way less than pieces done by the hostesses and marked as "DO NOT VOTE FOR THIS" :) It's not that I think my pieces are wonderful, but in early challenges we had the chance to vote for six or seven projects... and some of them looked good but way less elaborate than mine... however I felt that people didn't really got my piece nor they were interested in reading their story... which brings me to the next point
• even if I was not expecting  to win viewer’s choice, I was expecting to make new connections with people! I was expecting people to comment and interact with me, read the story of the piece, the inspiration, etc. Instead I very very rarely got any comment... not even by the people hosting the event. While I understand that life is busy for everyone, I posted both on my blog, on their FlickR group and in their FB group... these platforms allow for very quick comments, so not receiving those, and not getting click though their own linky made me very sad.

Reflecting on the sad and the good, I can conclude that probably the community around this event is just not "my tribe". I think it's very important to realize that everybody have their own aesthetic and no one can like everything or please everyone. So the disappointing may just be of me trying to fit in a collective where I am not meant to fit... nothing bad here, just life!

Do I regret to have participated this year? Absolutely NOT!
Did I learned a lot from the experience? YES!!
Will I participate next year? I don't know... I will evaluate this next year!

Two quotes that summarize this experience:

1. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take (Wayne Gretzky)
2. If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid (Albert Einstein)

Edited To Add: I received many comments on this post (THANKS) however many of them are from no-reply bloggers :( if I don't have a direct way to reply to your comment (your email) I will reply here on the blog, but you may not read it if you don't come back :( so if you want to make sure I interact with you, leave me a way to get in touch by writing your email address!! I appreciate everyone's comment! 

Reflections on learning (and a link party)

Not much sewing this week, but a lot going on behind the scenes and that got me thinking... :)

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Block Swap Adventure - just received Dec partner info, need to decide on what to make
2. Charity quilts - 3 quilts donated to Fran!
3. Americana QAL - no progress
4. 2016 QAL (secret) - a lot of progress behind the scenes!!
5. Allietare QAL - forth clue done (see below)
6. Jane T - no progress
7. Pantone Color of the Year 2016 - no progress

The EverythingElse List:

1. the SK project - no progress
2. the 31000 Xs project - no progress
3. Spirit cross stitch project - no progress
4. Mirror Mirror Afghan - no progress
5. the Ender project - no progress
6. Embroidery calendar - no progress
7. Project of Doom 2015 @ Fandom in Stitches - paused for a while
8. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
9. As You Wish -  no progress
10. Crazy optical illusion - no progress
11. Memory quilt 2 - no progress
12. B quilt - no progress

--

Inspired by the Fold'n Stitch Wreath (Poorhouse quilt designs)

I was in the mood of sewing something for me but I didn't know what.
Then I saw that nice pattern (which is not available for download yet) and after starring at it for a while I realized two things:
1. I could make it myself quite easily once I "saw" the basic shape :)
2. I didn't need such a big piece as I wanted to use it as a tree skirt and I have a pretty small tree!

So I started playing around with Inkscape to figure out the size, and then I started stitching!
Of course, the good thing about having a pattern is that the designer figured out the steps and the math for you... and I messed up the first square :) oh, well, it's a tree skirt, that piece is going on the back of the tree, so I didn't undo it!
I also decided to use 10 pieces instead of 12, because I wanted it to be open and easy to put on. Probably next time I would use 11 or 12 pieces (and not close the last one), but I am extra happy about how it turned out. It's pretty cute! And reversible too, so a win-win!

--
And now let's talk about my reflections on learning :)

The thing that got me thinking is that I spent 4 nights trying to figure out how to make something work on my patterns in Inkscape. After so many hours spent on it, I was starting bashing myself about "wasting a lot of time", "not having real progress", etc. Then I stopped and realized something that applies on all our crafty adventures.

~~Lesson 1~~
Give yourself permission to follow your instincts and to deviate from what experts do or say you should do. 

My case: I had a file with a lot of layers and I wanted to print them into separate pdf pages. I googled around and I found an extension of the software that does that.
People say to use that, so that's what I did.
The problem is that the extension was not working for me: it was slow, crashing a lot, and while it had the final result I wanted, I hated the process!
I kept using it just because people say I should do that.
I kept doing until I had enough and I thought: wait a second... I have a degree in computer science and a lot of programming experience... my skills are different from what people that use that software usually have, so maybe I can use my own skills to obtain what I want. A couple of hours later, I had an easy (for me) script that does exactly what I need, with one click, fast and no crashing! Now... is this good for everyone? no, if you don't know perl, svg, xml and other technical things, this method is not for you. But that's the point, it is for me!
So this is the lesson! If people tell you to make HST or flying geese in a certain way and you don't like the process, give yourself permission of disagreeing, no matter how you respect or admire the person that gives you the instructions. Everyone is different and that's a beautiful thing!
You should explore and take advantage of your own strengths!

~~Lesson 2~~
Nothing is wasted, neither time nor material, if you learned something. You cannot predict how much what you learned now (by "wasting" time/material) can improve your future activities.

My case: I spent hours (days) trying to figure out the script thing explained above.
Is this time wasted? Could I have use it to make more projects?
Well... we are good at seeing how we could have used the past time but we are not good at seeing how the things we are doing now affect the future.
So if I spent 3 days figuring out that I don't like one technique and another way saves me time and makes the process more enjoyable, in the grand scheme of things, that should count as hours gained as not wasted in the future!
The same reasoning applies for material/fabric: did you try making HST of flying geese that turned out terrible and you think you wasted that material? Can you estimate how much material are you instead saving because in the future you will use a different method that you instead enjoy?

So even if very sewing was done this week, I had pretty good revelations that will help me in my future projects :)

--
The third clue of Bonnie Hunter's Mystery QAL is out. I decided to follow along, but I will make 1/4 of the units because I don't need a big quilt and I am not sure if I will like the design :)

I decided to go with brighter colors: cyan/aqua/teal (instead of red) and bright yellow (instead of gold). I will probably donate this quilt to charity as a baby quilt, so I want it to be fun and colorful!

For this clue, I getting more and more nervous about my decision of not going with "sets" but going for complete scappiness. The reason I am more nervous is because Bonnie keep writing things like "IDENTICAL", "ALL THE SAME FABRIC", "PER SET" all upper case!!! O_O
Does this mean that it is super important, or is it just because usually she doesn't have sets so it's good to highlight these uncommon practice? Who knows! I guess I will find out soon. But in the meantime I will keep my full scrappiness approach!

Forth clue of Bonnie's mystery QAL... 

Linking up at the Monday Link-up party!

--
And last, but not least, I want to remind you that I am working on charity quilts,
and I would love your help!! 

Quilts are for a quilt drive to help the kids in the DC General Homeless Shelter. 

And you can help me by donating orphan blocks, partial blocks, or fabric (scraps, strips, leftover, uglies, whatever). 

If you are willing to mail them to me, I could use them to make more quilts for these kids!!! 

If you are up for a loving donation, please send me an email at tweloq[_at_]gmail[dot_com] or leave a comment here with your email address so I could give you my mailing address. I promise that your donation will be used to make some kids happy and feel more loved!! 

I finally met the wonderful Fran, the lady that is collecting the quilts and donating them to the shelter! It was so fun to meet her! And she was pleased with my donation so I will keep going!

I have 3 tops done, that are just waiting for some inspiration on quilting!

My 2016 resolution is to have 1 quilt done per month. Let's see if I can do that!

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How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

MOP Monday - Reflections

Today I will not share with you my weekly progress, but my recent troubles in understanding YOU people in the blogland :) I also have a winner for for my giveaway so read the entire post to learn who won!

I am a scientist... so I am trying to use a scientific approach to understand a very simple thing:
*why are my linky party always pretty much empty?*

Using the scientific method I collected some facts, some numbers, some statistics about others and some comments. And then I drove some conclusions and set a plan for the near future.
Can you review my argument and help me understand if I am wrong or if something can be done to reverse the trend??

-- Facts --

1. I started the linky party in Jan 2014, to share my weekly progress and open my blog for others to share theirs;
2. The link is open more than just a single 24 hours, so even if I call it "Monday", people can add their link from Sat/Sun to Tue, so I think I am pretty flexible in terms of time;
3. You can link anything you want: I don't require a finished project, nor a wip to be then linked as finished, nor a specific technique, nor a specific pattern/qal, and I don't even require that the blog post is recent. So I think I am pretty flexible in terms of content;
4. I don't require to add a link back to my blog in each post, nor that you follow my blog: so I think I am pretty flexible on other extra-steps that you should do;
5. I often offered giveaway for people that adds their link: I don't have sponsors and I have a full-time job so it takes an effort from my side to take the material out of my stash and to go to the post office and mail it to whoever wins (domestic or international, I never had any restrictions there either). 
6. So basically what I ask, is for people to add a link so that we can initiate some kind of relationship and we can get inspired by each other. Despite this very simple goal and my efforts to offer as much as I can from my side, it seems that the participation is close to zero (see the next section for the actual numbers).

-- Numbers --

1. I had linky parties for 28 weeks;
2. The parties (and my blog posts) have thousands of views (so it's not like none comes by... they come and leave without saying hi :( ). I could collect the exact numbers but it would take too much time;
3. I had a TOTAL of 45 links, which means an AVERAGE of 1.6 links per weeks, with a MAX of 6 links for 1 weeks, and a MIN of 0 links for 8 weeks

-- Others --

1. I myself join several linky parties... and link my own blog post (with my own linky party) in those other places;
2. I add my link in parties where there are few links and in places where there are hundreds of links (to get some visibility... and I get views, but I don't get links...);
3. Some of the hosts of these other parties do not comment on my entry (which is totally fine since they are so big that they probably don't have the time to do that) BUT some others comments on my entry, which means that they see the linky party and often it is still open... so why don't they link their own post in my blog?? I don't know... (**this is one of the points that surprise me the most... I really cannot understand this one**)
4. as I said before, I participate in small and big parties, so these are some numbers from last week (and they are pretty consistent over time).
   "Small" party: 10 entries (in ONE week)
   "Medium" party: 59 entries (in ONE week)
   "Big" party: 147 entries (in ONE week)
5. Most of the others have either a very short range of time in which they are open, or they are about a specific technique, or they have text link without picture, or they require you to add buttons/link back, or they ask you to link just finished work, etc... all restrictions that are perfectly fine by me but I thought that less restrictions may help my case... apparently not

-- Comments --

1. This is not a "new" issue, because I have seen these things discussed in several forums. And actually what they were discussing is from the other side: "is it worth it to add your link to a linky party?".  And the discussion that followed really surprised me because it seemed that the answer from many people is "No, if the blog is small because you don't get traffic back on your site" or "No, if the blog is too popular, because if there are too many links you don't get traffic back on your site". So the only thing that matter is "traffic, traffic, traffic" O_O.
2. While I understand that traffic may be important for people that have a business connected to their site, I have always seen link parties as opportunity to get inspiration and to create personal connections with people all over the world. So my approach is quite different: if my current blog post follows the rule of the linky party, I add my link, no matter if the blog is popular, if there are tons of other link or just few, if there are pictures or just text, ... If I come across a party, I add my entry, that's it. And I hoped that people would do the same on my blog... but apparently not...
3. I know that not everyone has a blog... however in these linky you can link a flickr picture or anything that has an url. So even if with an estimate of 10% of the viewing people to actually have a blog and a blog post to share, I would have hundreds of links every week! even 1% would add more links that what I have now!!

-- Conclusions --
Even if the statistics about viewers of my posts are pretty good and even if I receive encouraging comments from people on my patterns/projects, it looks like they don't want to party with me.
It makes me feel like I am in high school organizing a party and giving out all invitations and then nobody shows up at my house :) I get a lot of support when I distribute the invitations but then no people to play with because I am not "the popular girl" that give traffic to their blog :(
And it doesn't even matter if I don't have restrictions on what to link nor if I offer giveaway out my own pocket.
So this situation calls for a plan!

-- Plan for the near future --
I already decided to cut the giveaways (in general) because the response is not what I expected. I will probably participate in the annual big one on Sew Mama Sew even if I believe that big events like that are pretty useless in terms of making personal connections because everyone is just rushing through the post to enter as many giveaways as possible (a lot of traffic, but that doesn't really matter to me). This is not always the case, because I found great new blogs to follow myself because of that event... but it's not so common to make real connections in that situation I think.

So now I give myself an ultimatum: I will keep the linky party open for other 4 weeks, but each week I need at least 5 links (from different people). If I get to the end of this "trial time" with the desired minimum number of links, I will keep the linky open for another few months and keep monitoring the situation. If for one of these "trial weeks" I don't get to 5 links I will just close MOP Monday and I will just share my own projects without asking you to come on my blog to inspire me and others with your work!

So as a famous character said: Let the game begin.

An InLinkz Link-up

P.S. The winner of the giveaway is Gador Medea! I sent you an email and I will get your prize in the email as soon as possible!! :)