What have you done to challenge yourself?
 

Lately it seems that all the things I've made have been things that I "had to" make and haven't been particularly challenging for my skill (that's not to say that they haven't been fun!). I want to plan a project that's going to push me a little more. What projects have you all done to learn or improve your skills? I want to hear your stories. I'm hoping that if I hear what others have done to challenge themselves it will inspire me. Actually, I'm sure it will!

Judy neiemyer paper piecing. It was very challenging. I finished it and my son and son in law have it hanging up. I feel quite accomplished. I started small.

I have a bird on a branch that I started in a weeklong David Taylor class. It is one of the million pieces applique. It got frustrating because I don't have the right colors/shades of fabric. But I should pull it out and try to finish it.

Fun Question!

I have decided to purchase the rulers for machine quilting and learn how to use them. It is only for small projects but they look like fun.

My current challenge is taking out all the quilting in a 50x50 quilt. Quilting was just wrong plus a fold in the backing. I can't "live with it". I know each stitch and my seam rippers intimately!

My current challenge is a paper pieced quilt. If you had asked me a year ago if I'd ever make one, I would have scoffed, but now I think I'm ready for the challenge. (I think.)

Watson

Getting involved in the National Quilt Museum BOM. The first block was EPP and the second fabric dyeing and improv piecing. I haven't done either of these.

I try to challenge myself on every quilt I make. I try a new pattern first off. I love logcabin patterns and there are a slew of them out there in various shapes. Set-in seams are one of the challenges I tried on a diamond logcabin and found once you figure them out, they're not as hard as you once thought.

I love paper piecing but it seems a long time between doing them so I have to re-learn how to do them each time.

Laura Aaron Hind quilt books have challenged me. I started with a wonderful group on QB with The farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt, followed by Pony Club, followed by Farmer's Wife 1930, and now I am doing her Bible Sampler six and one half blocks. I never knew how many ways a square could be divided into with 45-65 pieces or sewn so many Y seams. Accuracy is a must. Then I make it harder by telling a story with each block, relating back to its name or childhood stories, especially the Pony Club. I included our shetland ponies pictures, my riding mare with our two daughters on her, my brother's spotted horses and SIL's Irish Mare raced in England and sold by a Colorado owner to her. It is slow work, but worth the challenge to me. Some of it is paper piecing.

Curves, and different types of machine applique. I'm also doing more pattern customization, and trying to find ideas to use fabric I already have instead on hand.