At the beginning of 2010, I sent out a quick survey to see what it is that most of us see as the reason we aren’t able to successfully get our sewing goals met each year.  Is it time?  Or how much space we have to work in?  Is it lack of accountability?  Or something else?  The answers were varied and came from all over the globe, and I was fascinated to see what everyone had to say–and even more fascinated to know how many of us are having the same experience, despite very different backgrounds!

The results of the survey said that all of us had some goals to meet–goals we’d been sadly ignoring in years past.  Some of them were expected, and others were a surprise–not all of us felt the same way about every aspect of our goals and obstacles, but there was a lot of overlap in the answers.  Want to see my super-scientific-I-have-a-social-sciences-degree analysis of the answers that were submitted?  Here ya go!

The categories YOU targeted as goals you’d like to tackle:

• Find (or make) enough time to sew
• Make more clothes for myself
• Stay motivated with a buddy, a reward, and inspiration from others
• Reduce and organize my stash of fabrics
• Tidy and beautify my sewing space
• Build skills and conquer new techniques so they never stand in the way of finishing a project
• Sew for others and give back with my needle

I developed the Whipstitch Community page as a way to work on many of these goals, and then had the brain storm of putting together sewing pen pals, people who would know each other through their relationship of sewing, who could interact one-on-one, and motivate another in ways that I could never dream of doing just through this blog.  I was really excited and more than a little nervous–for all I knew, the survey results were just talk, and no one would ever in a zillion years want to take part in something as epically nerdy as having a sewing pen pal.

I launched the idea in 2010 with modest expectations–and every year since it has gone far beyond what I could have imagined.  We’ve had more than 400 Sewing Buddies participate in the Sewing Buddy project, and many of them come back again and again each year to get a NEW Buddy to add to their list of friends.  I couldn’t be more thrilled to be part of this very cool interwebs community, and am so grateful to have had a small part in galvanizing ANYONE’s love of sewing!

To see this year’s sign ups for the Sewing Buddy project, visit the 2013 Sewing Buddy post and leave a comment.  Please note the close date–if you’ve missed it, feel free to come back in January of next year and join then!  We’d love to have you, and there’s more than enough sewing love to go around.  In the meantime, check out the Community link in the ribbon header for other ways to get involved in this online sewing world!  Welcome, Buddy!