Hello. My name is Hilary and I failed at running a successful quilt along. 🥴 Now I’ll be honest, it was not my intention to fail running a quilt/sew along, but I definitely did not set myself up for success. Today we’re going to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Blanco Quilt Sew Along. Plus I’ll share how you can set yourself up for success when it comes to planning your own quilt along.
The Good – What I liked about the Blanco Quilt Sew Along
It was also amazing to see the few people that did sew along with us and their absolutely beautiful versions of the Blanco Quilt. It is still so surreal to see people making my pattern and it brings me so much joy.
I loved all of the sponsors that agreed to offer prizes. Let’s be real, I’m a small fish in a very big pond, so having support from industry players made it feel like a legitimate Quilt/Sew Along.
The Bad – Quilt/Sew Along Mistakes I Made
I set myself up for failure by rushing into the sew along. The desire to try and keep up with the big players in the quilting world hugely influenced me to feel like I needed to do the sew/quilt along right away. In hindsight, not doing the quilt along until I was ready, or at all would have been the smarter choice. PLUS, I was traveling the entire month of June and not in my home sewing space. Let’s be real, sewing on vacation was not happening as planned.
The Ugly – My Unforgiveable Action
The worst thing that I could have possibly done during the Blanco Quilt Sew Along was to not communicate to participants about what was happening. I simply stopped updates other than a couple of Instagram posts. This is an unforgivable mistake because not everyone has Instagram, not everyone reads this blog, and not everyone is subscribed to my newsletter. When I completely stopped utilizing two communication avenues I stopped communicating with a large section of my audience, and for that I am sorry. 😢
So now the question becomes, what will I do differently next time?
How To Set Yourself Up for Quilt/Sew Along Success
In an attempt to learn from my mistakes, here are a few ways I would suggest to set yourself up for quilt along and sew along success.
- PLAN AHEAD
- Seriously… do as much as possible before you start anything. The next time I plan a quilt along, I’m going to do everything before I even announce it to the public.
- A huge part of content planning is doing it way in advance, and I need to get better at doing this.
- Have an open line of communication
- Be available for the people sewing along during the event.
- Whether it be answering your social media comments, replying to DM & emails, being available is a huge help for people sewing along with you.
- Plus communicate if there is going to be a change of plans!
- Choose one place to host the sew along and direct people there.
- Moving forward my plan is to host my sew along or quilt along here on my blog. The main reason being it’s the place I have full control over. Instagram and social media in general are amazing, but at any moment the app can do it’s own thing, delete my content, etc. So I like knowing my sew along will have a place to live that I have full control over.
