I'm not there yet...

Learning to bury my thread tails!

I'm doing a bit of quilting tonight.

Not a lot, nothing crazy, just a little doll quilt.

I'm adding the quilting to my Chicago Modern Quilt Guild Modern Art Challenge quilt, and I'm contemplating.

I'm contemplating whether I should finish the "sister quilt" that matches this one. If it's worth spending the time making another (everything past the first step) so that I can enter it into a show.

Getting a quilt into a show is one of my goals. I'd like to get some proper, serious exposure to the general quilt world because ultimately I'd love to teach at one of these shows. This is a pretty lofty goal, and it's still something that's only on the edge of my thoughts. I think that's where I want to go as an artist  (look at that, I dropped the "A" word). I don't know what I'd teach should I get to that point - that'll work itself out - but I'd like to teach something to people who know what they're doing (not beginners).

I'd love to teach solid intermediate - advanced piecing. I'm not sure if I've found my specialty yet - or if I'll ever stick to one thing. Maybe I'm bound to continue my work on teeny tiny piecing, or paper piecing. Perhaps it's free piecing / design as you go that I'm into. It doesn't really matter right now, I'm still perfecting my own work. I'm not there yet.

Back to my original train of thought. I'm not sure if I want to make another one of these quilts to enter into the show - I could - and the deadline is still a few weeks away... but I'm not sure if I should go for it now or just wait.

I am planning on entering a quilt or two into the show for QuiltCon - but that's different. I don't know how QuiltCon will grow and change. I don't know what to expect from it now or in the future. Maybe one day I'll want to teach there - but for now I feel too intimidated by the talent there. The people teaching at QuiltCon are people who I have been following and learning from since I started quilting.... I don't know that I would feel good enough about my style to stand among them. It may be because I'm not as not as knowledgeable about the teachers at the national shows that I am not worried about comparing myself to them.

So I guess I'm putting it out there in writing for the first time. I do want to teach. I want to share my love of sewing and quilting and playing with fabric with others. (I just don't want to have to teach them how to use a sewing machine first!).

PS - I'm learning to bury my thread tails as I'm quilting. Ugh it's annoying (but it's very pretty and tidy). Thanks to Ebony's video tutorial I know how.