2020 Quilty Goals

I find it helpful to set specific, measurable goals for my sewing accomplishments. This includes new skills I want to try, specific quilts or projects I want to make or finish, and quilts that have not yet been started for which I do not yet have fabric or patterns necessarily chosen.

I do NOT like having unfinished projects. I am a finisher! So I definitely want to get some things done.

Here is what I am aiming for in 2020:
1) Complete my Summer Sampler 2019 (that's the green and white and grey quilt) for my uncle.
2) Complete my Book Quilt for another uncle.
3) Participate in the Paper Chain BOM. I still don't even have fabric chosen for this one! I better get on it!

4) Finish up my Doctor Who BOM that I made all the blocks for in 2019. I need to throw on a border to make it bigger but that shouldn't be too complicated.
5) Finish my Atomic Starburst in Alison Glass Christmas fabric (Pattern by Violet Craft) Now that I have a wool pressing mat (my favourite Christmas gift this year) I think I can really knock this one out. 

6) I have a cushion to make for my mom. The measurements she initially gave me were wrong and I've never made a cushion with piping before so I've sort of avoided starting.
7) My mom also wants me to recover her dining room chairs. I will get to them. I think.
8) Sew together bags for my daughter's teachers. They both got quilts last year and she has the same teachers this year so I don't want to do another quilt.
9) A quilt for my older daughter's teacher. 
10) I want to finish the two baby quilts I put together using the blocks from the West End Modern Quilt Guild 2019 BOM.
11)A sew together bag for my sister-in-law for her 40th birthday.
12) I am participating in a QAL with some quilty friends. We have called it Quilting with My Gnomies and we are making Norm and Nanette by Elizabeth Hartman. I have the gnomes all prepped and need to make three gnomes a month (there are 18 gnomes total).

13) IF there is a Summer Sampler 2020 then I will participate. I love the skills I learn by signing up for them.

That is it for the "must" list and at the moment I am so in the weeds with work that I can't seem to dream about my next big project!

Here's to hoping in December 2020 I can reflect on a 13/13 completion!

2019 Year End Recap

I made 11 quilts (not counting mini ones). (UPDATE: Actually, 12, see #10 below).
I made at least four sew together bags.
I made bunny bags for all my nieces and nephews at Easter (well, the little ones at least).

Of the list I made for myself, my goals for 2019, I:
1) Finished my summer sampler, Neutral Summer.
2) Finished my Polaroid Quilt, Photo Finish.
3) Finished my strip quilt, Thank You Rose.
4) Finished the quilt my daughter made when she was 7 and donated it.
5) Made a Stack Quilt.
6) Made a Banner Year Quilt.
7) Made a Meadowland Quilt for my best friend for her wedding.
8) Made 65 fabric pots for that same friend for her wedding.
9) Made a basic Lizzy House patchwork quilt, Joy.
10) Used up the leftover red and white HSTs I had to make a quilt, which I donated. Which also means I made TWELVE quilts, not 11. 
11) Used up turquoise and grey HSTs to make a doll quilt for my daughter (as seen in the collage above).
12) Made every doctor for my Doctor Who quilt ON TIME.
13) I did NOT complete my book cover quilt because once I made a bunch more and laid it out I decided I needed way more blocks. This is a WIP.
14) I made all the blocks for the West End Modern Quilt Guild BOM then turned them into two quilts tops that need to be quilted. Still, I made all the blocks so I count this as a goal achieved.
15) Made a sew together bag for my mom.
16) Repaired all the quilts my dog chewed.

So out of 16 goals I managed to complete 15!!!! Pretty damn good, I think!

Here's to smashing 2020's goals too! (I will write a post for those sooner or later!)

Vintage Wedding: A Finished Quilt

My friend of more than twenty years got married early in September. I knew I was going to make her and her new husband a quilt and there were a few fat quarters I had set aside years earlier that just had my friend written all over them. I started this Meadowland quilt at the same time as the one I made my daughter but this is the HUGE size (80"x90").

The colours and patterns and slightly vintage feel are just right for her (and her husband). 

The backing is this flower fabric that is subtle and also gold so a slight shimmer. 

She LOVED it and it has resided on her bed since she got it so I think it was a win. Which is good because it was a BEAST to quilt!

Ocean Fantasy: A Finished Quilt

I loved this Meadowland pattern by Then Came June when it first went all over Instagram. I decided to join the #MeadowlandQAL and use a bundle I had sitting and waiting to be made into something for my older daughter. 

The quilt along was a ton of fun and the end result was cute. though I determined I really prefer Meadowlands with more limited palettes. The blocks I ended up liking the the most are the ones with only two colours, not three.

My daughter loves it and used it as soon as I told her it was done. It was in heavy rotation all summer until she finally switched over to her down duvet when the weather was more consistently cold at night this past week.

Joy: A Finished Quilt

I love Lizzy House. When I was cutting out the fabric for my Lizzy House Snail quilt I also cut a 5" square from almost every fabric I own of hers. Then this summer I finally put them all together into a simple patchwork in rainbow order.

There is no reason for the quilt other than it makes me ridiculously happy every time I see it. It is a small lap size and it is so delightful.

For the back I went back into my Lizzy Stash and cut some rectangles to do another stripe of colour. The main backing fabric is an orange stripe from her Castle Peeps line that is soooooooo old and OOP. It is so cheerful with the rainbow!

So nice to make a quilt just because it is a happy thing to make!

Elle's Unicorn: A Finished Quilt

A colleague whom I cherish recently gave birth to a precious baby girl. This Lisa the Unicorn quilt (an Elizabeth Hartman pattern) seemed the perfect choice. The background is Kona UltraMarine. 

For the unicorn's mane I used all Alison Glass Sunprints and I LOVE how it turned out. The unicorn's horn is Tula Pink.

The backing is an old OOP Aneela Hooey print that I find charming, in a light pink.

I did organic straight-ish line quilting.

The wee bub (and her mom) loved the quilt!

Edges: A Finished Quilt

Since I first began quilting, I collected the selvedges. I didn't know what I would do with them. I graduated to a giant glass jar to collect them in. The consensus amongst my quilty friends was that though they were pretty, the doubted anything would come of them. Hah!

Here is Edges, a quilt I finished in July. It is made entirely of selvedges, in colour order, using a muslin base to sew the selvedges on in strips. This quilt is HEAVY and no one but me will ever probably appreciate it. But isn't it cool?

I see so many designers and companies in each block and I find it so delightful.

The back is just some random stuff I had  in my stash.

I am still collecting selvedges so I will need a new plan once that jar gets full again!

Photo Finish: A Finished Quilt

Oh my gosh, so apparently I never blogged about my finished Polaroid quilt? Yikes! It has been done for a few months! And I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE it. Can't emphasize that enough.

This was a bucket list quilt for me and I made most of the blocks myself plus a few sewn in from some quilty peeps on the East Coast (Hi Jen!). I used Kona Navy as the sashing and am quite chuffed about that decision, let me tell you.

Each "photo" is different and my kids can't stop looking at it when it is out and about. I need to find a way to put it into more regular rotation while still staying FAR AWAY FROM MY DUMB DOG (who eats quilts, if you're new here).

Here is Photo Finish (and did I mention I love it?):

Spunky Stack: A Finished Quilt

My younger daughter was in Junior Kindergarten this year and had an ECE (Early Childhood Educator) in her classroom along with her classroom teacher. My daughter has no idea which teacher has which role just that she loves them both and they encourage her and love her. So OF COURSE I needed to make a quilt not only for her teacher but also for Ms. S, her ECE.

I really liked the Stack Quilt pattern by Modern Handcraft and thought this would be a great opportunity to try it out. Then once I did my fabric pull...oh man, I was jazzed (I even cut two because I think I want to make another one with the same fabrics!)

And thank goodness that Cyrus also did a fabric inspection. Look at that Alison Glass! And the Tula! And the Lizzy House! And the Sarah Watts! 

The pattern is really well written and comes together quite quickly. I then added lots of white space at the top and did some simple straight line quilting. Here is Spunky Stack:

The backing is Lizzy House mini Pearl Bracelets (can you tell that I both love Lizzy House AND that Sew Sisters had this fabric on for $10.99/m??). I think this is the Aqua colour.

Ms. S LOVED her quilt and I hope she gets lots of love out of it. My daughter wrote the label for this one, too. Giving quilts to teachers seems super satisfying!

Brilliant Banners: A Finished Quilt

I really wanted to make a Banner Year Quilt by Andrea Tsang-Jackson of 3rd Story Workshop since I saw her pictures of it on Instagram. I figured a year end teacher quilt was a perfect reason to put one together!

I also thought that this pattern screamed out to be made out of scraps and I always have an abundance of blues so I dumped out my bins and paired a whole bunch of solids with patterns so that each banner would have both. 

I did mess up the placement of one of the banners which caused another banner to be in the wrong place but I take this to be an artistic choice instead of a mistake. Are you with me?

Here is Brilliant Banners:

The lap size was slightly smaller than I expected but now I know for next time.

There ended up being a range of blues AND greens to create some interest (and use up more scraps).

The back is more trusty Lizzy House mini Pearl Bracelets in Dragonfly. There is a handwritten label (by my 5-year-old) in the corner which makes it even more special IMO.

This quilt went to my Junior Kindergarten's teacher, Ms. M. My JK LOVED school this year and absolutely thrived under Ms. M's care and so I was delighted to gift her this quilt and that she was totally surprised! (Honestly I thought that by now the teachers at that school would compare who had my kids since I always make a quilt! Ha!)

Jungle: A Finished Quilt

A lovely human being at work, whom I consider both a co-worker and a friend, was having a baby. And we all know what that means. Baby quilt!

She did not want to find out the sex of the baby and decorated the nursery using a jungle theme and I knew JUST the Rifle Paper Co. fabric to make her vision happen.

Here is Jungle:

 This pattern is called Zebra Crossing and you may recognize it because it is maybe my sixth time using it? It makes such a sweet, quick baby quilt that highlights the fabrics but doesn't take too much time.

 You can see the Rifle Paper Co. fabric I started with. And look at those Cotton + Steel tigers!! Aren't they precious? I am all heart-eyes over the fabrics in this quilt!

 Including some Lizzy House mini Pearl Bracelets on the back! (In Dragonfly). 

It was gifted June 26 and good thing because this sweet baby boy arrived two weeks early on July 1! His wonderful mama already sent me this picture of him snoozing on his new quilt. Couldn't you just eat him?

Meadowland QAL

I have wanted to make a Meadowland Quilt ever since Then Came June released her pattern. I bought the pattern but assumed it would sit, as many patterns have, waiting to be made. Then it was announced there would be a Quilt Along and I figured that was my push to actually get one done!

Not to be reasonable, I decided to try to make TWO Meadowland quilts at the same time. One for my daughter with a bundle I curated close to two years ago and one with a bundle to make a quilt as a gift that is for secret sewing.

These are the two bundles I curated. Secret sewing on the left, quilt for my daughter (who is 10) on the right.

A closer look at the bundle for my daughter's quilt.

The piles to make the blocks seemed huge.

Mixing and matching them was interesting having never done it before. I learned afterwards that I prefer more monochromatic blocks.

First five done.

Look how cute one block looks!

The finished quilt top didn't come out quite how I intended (I decided I like a bit more restraint in colour to make this pattern pop) but I will finish it this summer and move on to the next one (that I need to get done for a September gift!)