Goodbye 2021, Hello 2022

I like to end my year by looking at the goals I set for the previous year with Yvonne of Quilting Jet Girl, and setting goals for the year ahead.  As 2020 came to a close, we all hoped that 2021 would bring more light, more hope, less Covid.  That...didn't really happen.  I've had a hard time this year.  It's been hard to kind of stay afloat.  I have not blogged as much, I've been absolutely terrible about responding to comments (something I normally love and stay on top of) and I barely read any other blogs for the second half of the year.  I'm ok, I'm doing what I need to do to stay mentally healthy and I'm getting by, but I'm not thriving.  And truth be told, I don't know when that will change.  So while I still want to set goals, I'm choosing "be gentle" as my theme.

 

First, a review of my goals for 2021.  Coming off of 2020, I didn't have any big, grand plans.  Which, it turns out, was smart.

2021 Goals -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Goal: continue to make donation quilts.
I specifically didn't set a number for 2021.  I did make several quilts to donate to the local children's hospital, though I don't have a formal count of how many.  I also made 10 place mats for my guild's donation project; those went to Friendship Trays. 

Goal: Charlotte Modern Quilt Guild
I was vice-president of my guild this year, which meant I was in charge of programs.  Quite honestly, if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have agreed when I was asked.  In a year when I was overwhelmed, having something extra that I was responsible for didn't help.  But I made it through the year, I left the first half of the programs planned and organized for whoever comes after me, and I've gotten positive feedback from several members of the guild on the programs we held virtually. 

Goal: Online Quilting Community
I specifically set my goal as "I participating without stressing myself out."  I guess I did?  I kinda left the online community for much of the second half of the year, but I figure that could count toward not stressing myself out.  I did several blog hops and quilt alongs in the first half of the year. 

Goal: EQ8
I did use EQ for several quits I made and I am slowly (very slowly) getting more comfortable using the program and can somewhat fiddle around and do what I want to be able to do. 

Goal: Use what I have
I bought very little fabric, so I'm counting this as successful.

2022 Goals --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You know what, as I read through last year's goals and take stock, I'm going to just set the one goal of Be Gentle.  I'd like to be a little more involved in the online quilting community than I have been these past several months, but I know that if I need to continue to be spotty, I will be welcomed back by quilting friends as I am able.  I plan to continue with my local guild but I am not on the board for 2022.  I will continue to work in EQ and hope to stretch my skills a little.  And I strive to use fabric and supplies that I have. As goals, that will do.

Thank you for bearing with me.  May 2022 treat you well.

 

 

PhD in 2021 and 2022

My friend Gail over at Quilting Gail has done a PhD (Projects Half Done) goal-setting program since 2018.  I've participated each year.  For 2021, I set my goals a tiny bit differently than Gail's program.  You see, since one of Gail's rules is that you can't carry new projects into the new year, my UFO list has dwindled.  But I only count projects once I've actually started them--just pulling fabric and/or planning doesn't count.  Here's how I laid out my PhD back in January:

• Complete at least 5 projects from my list of unfinished projects
• The remaining projects must be from stuff I already own--kits, scraps, planned projects, new projects that use fabric I already own, anything counts as long as I'm using fabric that is already in the house.

Here's the honest truth: I've had a hard year.  Nothing specific, just the wear of another pandemic year, I think.  I'm tired. I'm out of energy.  I haven't kept up with tracking projects (and lots of other things) the way I like to.  I've blogged a lot less. And because of this, I didn't think I'd finished my PhD. Fortunately, I haven't lost my energy or desire to actually sew, just the background things. So when I sat down to write this post (notice that I've procrastinated, writing in the last 30 hours of the year), I thought I was writing to admit that I didn't complete this year.

But I actually think that maybe I have?  I had 10 projects on my list.  I found another UFO that I didn't know I had, so that makes 11 to choose from.  I finished five of those.  Here's my chart:

Hearts On Fire	1	1-19-2021
Magical Forest	2	finished
Food themed picnic blanket	3
Lion Pillow	4
Patriotic Stars (2nd)	5
Smitten Kitten	6
Laura’s quilt	7
Dad’s place mats	8	finished
Round Robin	9	finished
Bookshelf quilt	10
Small Savanna	11	finished

Since Gail's program rests on finishing at least 12 projects, that leaves 7 to be completed with anything I already owned, as long as I didn't buy new fabric to finish it.   I went through all my blog posts (plus two finishes not blogged) and count 10 quilts plus other various smaller projects, including a car trash bag, 10 place mats for a local organization called Friendship Trays, and a multitude of By Annie bags. So I'm calling that successful.

The other part of Gail's challenge is to not carryover any new unfinished projects into the new year.  Here's where I'm on shakier ground.  I started Boho Heart back in February.  It's a Jen Kingwell pattern with 108 blocks, all different.  I'm not even close to done--my current count is 39 completed blocks.  But I have been working on it off and on all year and given the massive undertaking of this project, I'm ok with it carrying into the new year.  So that I can add some photos to this post, here are some of the blocks I've finished in the second half of the year.

 

 

I also have 3 quilts for Fire Monkey's teachers in various stages of completion (two just need binding hand-sewn down, which is not where I get stuck)  but I'm not worried about those becoming UFOs since they have a hard deadline of the end of the school year.  Boho Heart is really the only possibility of becoming a long-term UFO. In the end, it doesn't actually matter: I kept sewing and I finished a lot of projects and in a tough year, I'm calling that OK. 

Gail is hosting a PhD program again in 2022.  If you want to play along, you can find the details here.

I am going to try again, but I'll be gentle with myself if I don't finish.  Once again, my main goal is to use fabric that I already have, so the bulk of my 12 projects may not actually be started at this point, but they count as long as they are fabric I owned on December 31, 2021.  I've got 9 projects on my list (I did not add the teacher quilts, since I'm not really counting them as carry-over) and I'd like to finish at least 5 in 2022.

1	Food themed picnic blanket
2	Lion Pillow
3	Patriotic Stars (2nd)
4	Smitten Kitten
5	Laura’s quilt
6	Bookshelf
7	Boho Heart
8	Round Robin 2022
9	Tickled Pink

Cookies for Santa

 At various times during the year, Fire Monkey and I have done sewing projects together.  At one point, I think in the spring when he was still doing school from home most of the time, I suggested we make a special place mat/cookie mat for Santa.  I had recently gotten both the gnome and gingerbread cookie dies for my Accuquilt cutter and he loves to crank the cutter.  We place Santa's cookies on the edge of the hearth of the fireplace, so a mat makes sense.

 

I let Fire Monkey loose with my Island Batik scraps and he chose fabrics for three gnomes and two gingerbread cookies.  We laid them out and fused them, then set it aside and didn't pick it back up again.  About a week and a half ago I realized we better get it finished!  I stitched around the fused-for-several-months applique shapes, then asked Fire Monkey if he wanted to "decorate" the cookies.  He did, so I gave him the fabric markers.  Notice the elaborate "necklace" on one of the cookies; he made the mouth way too low and fixed it with the necklace.  I quilted with straight lines and bound with a few days to spare.

We set out two gingerbread cookies for Santa (plus a bowl of carrots for the reindeer, not pictured) and the mat did its job and looks nicer and more welcoming if your cookies are going to be left out on the corner of the fireplace.  Other than the delay of over six months in between steps, this was a quick and fun project.  

Notice the daylight?  I forgot to take pictures of Santa's actual cookies, so this was staged Christmas morning.

I hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas, if you celebrate.  May your day be merry and bright!

Island Batik EPP Challenge

It's the last Island Batik challenge of the year!  It's hard to believe it's December and a new year is right around the corner.  December's challenge is EPP, or English Paper Piecing.  I enjoy English Paper piecing, though I limit it to small projects.  It's great for taking on trips!  I knew I didn't want to do standard hexi flowers/Grandmother's Flowers.  I poked around Pinterest and Etsy to see what I could find.  I stumbled upon EPP animal patterns by Laurel of Porcupine Sews and fell in love.  It took me a bit to decide between her patterns; I loved the bat and the raccoon and the Luna moth, but ultimately I picked the unicorn.

We get the list of challenges at the start of the year and the planner in me loves that!  I took a trip in July to visit my best friend who lives in Massachusetts and EPP is the prefect travel project, so I prepped my pieces in early July.  I used assorted purple scraps, plus Bluebird for the eye and Lemonade for the horn, both basics.  The purples were from multiple lines, Lavender Fields, Tickled Pink, and Black Pearl for sure, plus others I'm not sure about.  

 The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik, Schmetz, and Aurifil.

I sewed here and there on the trip and was making decent progress.  I knew I would finish at some point at home.  Then my flight home was delayed.  It ended up being an 8-hour delay, which left me with like 10 hours in the airport when combined with my original arrival time.  I finished the unicorn with hours to spare!  

I had the background fabric I intended to use with me, but of course I did not have an iron.  At this point I had unknown time ahead of me and literally nothing else to do, so I decided to start stitching to the background even though I couldn't iron the unicorn or the background fabric.  I got it about 80% stitched down before finally getting home.  These photos were taken at the airport!

 

My plan was always to use my EPP to decorate a ByAnnie bag that I had been wanting to make, an older pattern called Power Trip.  I work at a community college and while I'm in the library the majority of the time, I do have meetings and such in other buildings, especially pre-pandemic. I like to take basic supplies with me because I never know what will be there or what I'll need, so for the past few years I've carried a boring pencil pouch with supplies. The Power Trip struck me as the perfect way to transport supplies across campus in style.   

  

filled with everything I might need on campus

The unicorn fit on the front of the bag perfectly! The background for the unicorn is the basic Sky.  The binding fabric is from Napa Valley, and the fabric for the rest of the bag is from Butterfly Blooms, originally intended for my Ultimate Travel Bag interior pockets but I used mesh instead and earmarked the beautiful Mini Leaf in Moonstone fabric for this Power Trip.  I use Schmetz topstitch needles for all my ByAnnie projects. I used a variety of Aurifil threads for the EPP hand piecing and color 2520 Violet in 50 weight to construct the bag.  

I love my bag and the unicorn makes me smile.  The EPP pattern lists this as a patch and I'd love to make another and put it on the back of a jacket or a long-sleeve shirt.  This ends my third year as an Island Batik Ambassador.  I love working with Island Batik and their gorgeous fabrics and I thank them for the opportunity.

 

Flipping Out

This year, I have been particularly into making bags and other pouches from By Annie patterns. After years of thinking that I couldn't make bags it has been so liberating to know that I really can!  Annie has done weekly live videos this year, too, and while I can rarely watch them live, I've been watching them later on youtube most weeks.  For week 35 (September), I was the lucky giveaway winner!  I won the pattern for Flipping Out, plus Soft & Stable, zipper, mesh, and elastic --everything I need to make both sizes, minus fabric and thread!

It took me a bit to be able to make them, but I finally did and it's a fun pattern!  Easier than the larger bags I've been making.  I used leftovers of the Island Batik Petals Provence collection for a small and large that I plan to keep.  

 

You fold it down to get to your tools.  Love the yellow inside!

I'm thinking I will put some larger quilting tools in the big one and take it on a sewing vacation I'm taking with a friend in January.  I have some nice marker sets that might live in the small one.  I love that the top flips down so you can get to your tools and you can just set it on your work space, then zip it up when you are done!

 

I made a second small Flipping Out to function as a sewing kit for my niece for Christmas. I'm giving her a sewing machine this Christmas!  So this sewing kit will coordinate with the larger gift.  I used sewing-themed fabric that was in a grab bag of novelty fabrics a friend gave me last summer. I was impressed with what I could fit in there. 

sewing themed fabric for a sewing kit

filled with the basics

I loved making these and thank Annie for the great prize! 

Magical Forest

I have a finish that's almost 5 years in the making!  In January 2017, I was Queen bee in my Stash Bee hive and asked for trees to make a magical forest.  I got beautiful trees but they sat unfinished.  It's even been on my list toward my PhD (projects half done) with Quilting Gail every year. Fast forward to a few months ago, and my Bee Inspired group decided to do a casual sew along and picks a tree quilt!  This was my chance to finally put together my Magical Forest!

I really did enjoy Stash Bee for the 4 years I was involved.  These trees came from a total of 12 different makers (including me) from 6 US states and 3 Canadian provinces: British Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Manitoba, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Prince Edward Island, and Wisconsin.  

 

I had to make 3 more trees to get the right number for my forest.  I'm quite pleased with the finished quilt. I quilted with organic wavy lines and used a rainbow batik for the binding.  This will be donated, probably to the local children's hospital.  I sewed the binding on our trip to the mountains in October so was able to get some great "on location" shots.  Well, my husband took the photos, I held up the quilt.  So glad to finish this one!

 

Ocean Breeze, a Storm at Sea for Island Batik

Welcome to my day on Island Batik's Storm at Sea Blog Hop!  Each Island Batik Ambassador was given one of the newest Island Batik collections, due in stores this December, and instructed to make some form of Storm at Sea quilt.  I was sent the Petals Provence collection by Kathy Engle, a lovely mix of bright yellows and blues. 

I could not have done this challenge without EQ8.  Storm at Sea can look so different depending on color placement.  I used EQ to finalize design and fabric placement.  While a traditional Storm at Sea is made with square-in-a-square blocks, the Snail's Trail block is really similar, it just adds a 4-patch to the center-most square.  Since I have Accuquilt's Snail's Trail block and I like the look of Storm at Sea mixed with Snail's Trail, I started with that.  My original design had a lot of Snail's Trail's blocks, but I was worried it read too Snail's Trails and not enough Storm at Sea, so I settled for just four Snail's Trail blocks.

Center on my "design wall, " actually a sheet taped in the hallway

 
The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik, Studio 180 Design, Accuquilt, Schmetz, & Hobbs.

circle quilting

I really liked the sort of flower petal look I got with fabric placement, so I added the basic Opalescence for just a touch of color beyond blue & yellow. The outer border & binding are a blender called Blue Branch, the other 17 fabrics in the quilt are from Petals Provence.  I cut the Snail's Trail blocks and the square-in-a-square units with my Accuquilt Go and used the diamond rects tool from Studio 180 design for the diamond/rectangle units.  I used Hobbs 80/20 batting (my favorite) and quilted a large spiral with Aurifil 50 weight thread in color 2770, very light delft. I did all the piecing and quilting with Schmetz needles.  

perfect picnic spot

I think this looks like gentle ocean breezes and warm sunshine so I named it Ocean Breeze.  It measures about 56" square.  Many of the ambassadors took their Storm at Sea quilts to ocean or water for photographs.  I did take mine on vacation--to the mountains!  I like to sew binding on car trips and this went with me on my anniversary trip last month.  In fact, you can see the clips in some of these photos, indicating that I was in a good spot for pictures but hadn't quite finished the binding yet.  So no ocean pictures for me, but hopefully the fall foliage in the Blue Ridge will do instead.

Be sure to hop over and visit Maryellen at Mary Mack Made Mine and see what she made with the same Petals Provence collection.  I have really enjoyed seeing all the different Storm at Sea quilts, and there is still another week left in the hop!