Hello, machine quilting friends, and welcome to what I've decided will be the last Long Arm Learning linky party. I have so appreciated those of you who've been linking up with me here for the past 11 weeks, and I've learned a lot from all of your posts. However:
- I enjoy lots of other aspects of quilting besides the actual machine quilting part. Even though that's my strongest focus these days, I'm finding that I struggle to come up with a long arm quilting themed post every single week. Some weeks I've been exploring English paper piecing or quilt design or hand stitching and would rather write about that. So the linky party focus is feeling constraining to me as the host.
- I enjoy visiting and being inspired by a wide, varied range of quilters, whether they are hand quilters, machine quilters, or masterful appliqué artists who "quilt by check." If I'm going to host a linky party, I'd rather cast a wider net and include EVERYONE in the party rather than just those who've written about machine quilting in a particular week.
- Finally, I'm noticing that a lot of us -- myself included -- are linking up the same posts in several different linky parties that we all participate in. It's like we're all on the same linky party bus doing a bar crawl together! So I'm wondering whether there is actually a need for me to be hosting yet another linky party here on my blog at all?
Where Can We Link Up Together Going Forward?
SATURDAY
· UFO Busting at Tish in Wonderland
SUNDAY
· Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué
· Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework
· Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts
MONDAY
· Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
· Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
TUESDAY
· To-Do Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us
WEDNESDAY
· Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
· Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter
THURSDAY
· Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
· Free Motion Mavericks with Muv and Andree
· Sew and Tell Thursday (on
BerninaLand Groups.io)
FRIDAY
· Whoop Whoop Fridays at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
· Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More
· Finished Or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts
· Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre
· TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: http://tgiffriday.blogspot.ca/p/hosting-tgiff.html
MONTHLY:
· One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts. Link up your goal at the start of each month and link up your finish during the last 6 days of the month
· Tips and Tutorials on the 22nd, open
22nd through end of each month: Kathleen McMusing
The easiest linky parties for me to participate in are the ones that are pretty open-ended, where I can link up any kind of quilting project, in any stage of completion. The goal setting linkies are helpful as well (Roseanne's To-Do Tuesday and Elm Street Quilts' One Monthly Goal) although I don't always get my goal post written up in time and I'm not great about finishing the goals by the end of the week or month. The "finished" linky parties are ones I enjoy visiting to see what others have made, but I don't crank out finishes fast enough to have one to share at the end of every week.
I'm not opposed to continuing to host a linky party, now that I've set up the account with InLinkz and figured out how to do it. But if I start up a new party, it would need to be open to all stages and techniques of quilt making, all styles, so that I'm not stressing out about needing to come up with a post each week on a specific topic even if I'm in a different place creatively that week. And when I look at my roster of other bloggers' linky parties, I see that there are already so many great linky parties like that going strong. Go ahead and share your feedback and opinions in the comments, but right now my inclination is to call it a wrap and let other bloggers be the Hostesses With the Mostesses. If anyone is disappointed that my machine quilting themed linky party is ending, I want to encourage you to check out Free Motion Mavericks, cohosted by Muv and Andree on Thursdays. Whether you're on a domestic machine or a long arm, quilting with rulers or working on freehand designs, all of that is welcome at Free Motion Mavericks. I'll be linking up with them there when I do have machine quilting to share!
And now, without further ado, here's your LAST CHANCE to link up with Long Arm Learning! I can't wait to see what you've all been up to this week!
9 comments:
Hi again, Rebecca! Aww, I'm sorry you are ending this. While I haven't linked up anything I have visited your linkups and enjoyed meeting some new folks. I do understand the pressure of writing about a topic each week - sometimes my posts almost write themselves and other weeks, well, it's a struggle to have anything to share. {{Hugs}} I have to laugh at the linky party bus mental picture. It's good company that's for sure. ~smile~ Roseanne
I always felt so bad if I didn't have the proper content, but wanted to support you! And now I am getting a mid arm frame with a machine! Talk about bad timing on my part. LOL! I say do what works for you. I did enjoy reading the posts, but I understand on the constraint thing.
Well bummer about this being your hosted last Linky party. I enjoyed looking and I picked up some good ideas. Your reasons for discontinuing are sound. Thanks for giving it a go though! I don't have a post this week. . .unless something miraculous happens and I quilt one quarter of the border I'm plugging away quilting. . .
I am sorry you are closing your linky party. But I totally get it, I would feel pressured to come up with something every week to say that I felt would be helpful. I linked a couple times but never felt like I really had much to share that was helpful. There are tons of linky parties and yes we seem to run in a circle with them;)
I did read your posts and learned a bit more about quilters and machine quilting. Primarily being a garment sewist I have very little to contribute. Reading about you decision does help me to consider attempting a blog knowing that a seasoned blogger has moments of doubt to end things. Knowing one can legitimately end with a "final" post is reassuring. With your reasoning spelled out it is completely understandable and leaves your followers with positive thoughts overall.
Hi Rebecca, thanks so much for your kind words. I understand your reasons - it is harder to host a specialty linking party. It's not always easy coming up with content and I tend to spend a lot of time visiting other parties and reminding people to link up. I couldn't do it if I had to do it every week and if it's only once a month, then people would probably miss it, just like I do! It was great linking up with you and I hope we keep seeing you on Free Motion Mavericks. BTW I featured one of your old posts...you'll have to come by to see which one :-) Take care.
Coming up with regular blogging content for a weekly linky party is a lot of work. Have you considered a monthly linky rather than weekly? I will admit I have a harder time remembering to get a post written for the monthly ones, though the OMG post has become a habit at this point, so unless life is crazy, it's not hard to remember that one.
Yes, completely understand and obviously can relate having tried the Ruler Linky Party which is equally specific. Unfortunately I have also been missing for the last few weeks as I was in the process of switching over machines which was quite stressful. Thanks for the list of Linky Parties...I have completely lost the plot in terms of participation and need to get back to it and your list is helpful. Somebody suggested monthly...maybe that is the way to go, not sure. Another idea would be to share the Linky Party with a few people so that it can be shared around.
Oh, Sorry, I couldn't link before today, and it's too late... I understand your decision. Take care
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