I had two meeting nights and two doctor visits this week which kept me busy. I finished the next task in my Crazy Quilting class, a mock up of the class block, but nothing else.
Tomorrow I hope to sew it together, among other things.
Welcome to everyone that joined us last week. I love seeing your projects and watching you use that stash. The more, the merrier.
I’m way behind on comments, but I do read them and respond. That will be another goal over the next few days.
Every choice we make in life is an experiment. – Charles Duhigg
My word for 2021 is choose.
I find too often I am living life on autopilot. I want to make intentional decisions about what I do with my time, what I include in my life and how I take care of myself.
Routine has a place in life, but it shouldn’t be the default. I find great value in questioning everything. I started as a small child and never did stop. Along the way I made some unconventional choices, and I’ve never regretted them.
With this COVID culture of staying home more, the busyness has calmed and created time to consider our options. By making “choose” my word for this year, I hope to remind myself that there are new ways and new paths just waiting to be explored.
No fabric movement this week. My first finish this year will be a long time coming.
I pulled fabrics for my crazy quilt class.
This class runs differently than any other I have taken. Participants must post each assignment to the class blog. The teacher comments on your post and emails you the next assignment. If you don’t finish the assignment and post pictures, you don’t get the rest of the class. Talk about motivation to do the assignments!
The next assignment is a fabric mock up using the project template.
Just a quick post to share that registration is open for Kathy Shaw’s Basic Crazy Quilting Course. You complete the class at your own pace. Kathy teaches a lot of different crazy quilting and embroidery classes, but you have to take this course before you can enroll in any of the others. All her classes are free, and there is no requirement to buy books, templates or any other supplies.
Enrollment is open through January 7th. I don’t know when she will offer the class next. Last year she offered it at this time and again in late summer.
I enrolled yesterday. I’ve wanted to try crazy quilting for a while and couldn’t get the momentum up to teach myself from a book. I’m hoping I have everything I need to make the class project without a trip to the store. Making it from stash would be a bonus.
You can find more information and the registration page here.
It always feels good to start the year with a clean slate.
My stats from last week held and I finished the year down 5.625 yards. I’ll take any year when I use more than I buy.
I’m back to working on the Stars in the Night BOM having figured out where I left off. I have three blocks ready to sew together. Only eight more stars to go, and then I can move on to month five.
The original quilt had a dark teal background, thus the name.
Expect to see a lot of this quilt. Only 70 more blocks to go before it’s done. The quilt finishes queen size with no sashing between the blocks. Sashing is for sissies on this one.
I had a productive December with both a UFO and a garment finish. That means new additions to the list.
In 2021 I will keep the list shorter. In looking at finishes in comparison to 2020 goals, it was clear my goals were too ambitious. That pushed me to get a lot of projects done, but I don’t want to feel overwhelmed.
I also realized I need to limit the active sewing projects to two. I have a small cluttered sewing room, and if the projects exceed two I have to move everything around to work on anything. It’s not a situation that encourages creativity.
Lastly, my UFOs are down to twelve, six of which are bed quilts. Two are queen size. All are complicated. They will take longer to finish.
That said, I’m eliminating the charity category and revising framing to finishing, stitchery to hand work. Charity quilts can go in the “other” category.
The new Short List categories are UFO, garment, original design, hand work, finishing and other. I’ve used this system for 6+ years to keep me focused. The categories change as my goals and interests change. Categories with nothing in process will not be listed, only active categories.
UFO – I’m piecing blocks for Stars in the Night, the Quilt Addicts Anonymous 2016 block of the month. The number of blocks for each month varies. I’m working on month four, which is 14 six inch star blocks. I changed the fabrics to make this a scrappy low volume quilt. I need to come up with another name for it.
Original Design – I still need to figure out how I want to quilt Open Dialogue.
Hand Work – I’m making good progress on Christmas Eve.
Finishing – I can’t get excited about the old needlepoint project. I put it on the list because I have a frame for it. I may need to pick something else.
My OMG for December is to finish the 14 star blocks, linking to Elm Street Quilts.
Last weekend I made the Simple Summer Tank, a free pattern from Life Sew Savory.
It sews up quick. I had a few issues with the neck and arm bands being too long, and I cut them shorter. I probably should have shortened them more since I have some gaping at the neck. I used fabric that wasn’t the best quality, and it lacks the recovery of better fabric.
I made this to wear under sweaters this winter, and it will work fine for that. My office has a lot of north facing windows, which means good light but very cold.
When I haven’t been doing much piecing I have to sew a garment to get some machine time in. I will get back to piecing soon.
Happy New Year to all! 2020 wasn’t the year any of us planned. Wishing 2021 brings you health, joy and lots of creative opportunities.
The stash numbers saw some changes this week. I finished Tribes and a tank top made from fabric bought at Zinck’s in July. I also received a panel for Christmas, perfect for practicing free motion quilting.
We still have a few days to use more fabric, although I think those will be my last finishes this year.
This quilt was a round robin from 2007 that sat in the UFO bin way too long. Everyone made a strip, and I couldn’t figure out how to make them all work together. The design wall was the key to figuring it out. I ended up slightly trimming two strips and adding length to two others. The most I changed any of them was adding a couple inches to my own strip. I also added the lime green on the sides.
Thanks to Beth, Denise, Gail and Sharon for contributing to this quilt. I love how it turned out and it will always be special to me.
I named it Tribes because everyone used either images or techniques from different Native American tribes in their strip.
