I’ve been chugging along in the studio finishing up last year’s WIPs and creating new ones for 2021. So I’d like you to meet the Oasis Quilt.
Streamline Quilt
I’m so excited to share my first quilt from my Modern Makes subscription! This is the Streamline quilt.
2021 Aspirations
I fell into a bit of a trap when creating goals for last year, so 2021 is about aspirations. I don’t want to measure success against anything but my own happiness and progress, so aspirations just seemed a better way to frame it this year. Plus 2020 really did us dirty last year and messed up everyone’s plans. Aspirations will help me be more flexible and focused, I think.
Three words sum up these aspirations: color, modern, and quilting. So without further ado, here they are:
Color
The first area I want to work in is color. A couple years ago, I joined the Playful Color Quilt Guild from Rebecca Bryan. I literally did nothing with the group for a long time, but I started hopping into sessions back in October, and I’ve already learned a lot. I realized how predictable and juvenile my color choices were, so this year’s aspiration on color means I’m going to find my signature color palette.
Which means I had to clear out all the old to make room for new projects where I could play and learn. I’m slowly chugging through my pile of quilts to bind, and I’ve already finished three!
Quilt-Life Crisis Update
I came to this space a couple months ago having a quilt-life crisis. I guess staying at home all the time during a pandemic can really make you over think some things! But it’s all good. I’m still refocusing my quilting purpose, and I’m pretty excited about the goals I’m setting for 2021. I’ll share those next week.
But before I moved on, I knew I needed to get my WIP list under control. I had jumped on quilt along bandwagons for the past several years, and some of those were still hanging on… from 2018. I also had a few fabric piles that had been pulled for projects that I never started. There was no space left to create anything new and keep it all organized.
So I went on a tear to try to finish everything I could before the end of the year. That’s a lot of sewing, but I’m proud to say I made it happen! In just over two months, I finished 5 quilt tops, basted 9, and quilted 8. I now have a stack of 14 quilts that need the binding sewn down!
While I still have a lot of binding ahead of me (I love it!), there are only four projects left on my WIP list that I’m carrying over to 2021: two EPP projects and two hand appliqué projects. This really does feel like the fresh start I hoped it would. So I guess it didn’t end up being a quilt-life crisis after all!
See you back here next week to talk about my plans for 2021.
2020 Highlights
2020 was simultaneously the most boring and most hectic year of my life. I can’t leave the house! (Boring.) And my workload exploded! (Hectic.) But I couldn’t let that crazy minx get out of town without another look to see what my 2020 highlights were. I’ll start with the quilty goodness and share a couple cool things from my work and personal life too.
2020 Highlights: Quilting
I went into 2020 with six quilting goals. Looking back, that was way too many! I managed to meet most of them despite All This, I crashed and burned on one, and I completely never understood why I made another. So here’s how I did: Read More…
What am I Even Doing Here?!
I know this sounds like the tagline to 2020, but I’m talking specifically about here: this blog and my quilting life. 2020 has really had me thinking about a lot of things, but the thoughts about my quilting life have been really unexpected in some good and bad ways. Let’s dig into some sweet, sweet therapy on it all.
Miss Lizzy Quilt: Blocks 9-13
In between my 100 blocks project, I’ve been chugging along on my Miss Lizzy quilt blocks. Y’all! I’m just loving how these are turning out.Without further delay, take a look at the last of the blocks in this project.
Block 9: Morning Glory
Label Your Quilts! (And How I Label Mine)
I’m here to implore you to label your quilts! There are a lot of reasons we don’t label quilts, and they’re all crap. You don’t think it’s good enough. (It is.) You’ll remember all the details about it. (You won’t.) No one in the future will care where your quilt came from. (They will.)
Today I’m going to show you how I make my custom labels you see on all (most) of my quilts. Here we go.
Ellen the Unicorn Quilt
I’m super excited to share my Ellen the Unicorn quilt! A while ago, I had a graphic designer leave my team at work. I was really bummed to see Ellen leave. She was so creative and had such a great personality within our team. She really was a unicorn! So when I saw the unicorn pattern from Elizabeth Hartman, I knew I needed to make an Ellen the Unicorn quilt.
Navigation: My Perfect HST Quilt and Mini
I finally finished piecing, basting, quilting, binding, and photographing Navigation: my Perfect HST quilt and its mini! I started this at the beginning of last year when the amazing Lee Heinrich came out with the Perfect Half-Square Triangle templates and hosted a quilt along that used these amazing pieces of paper.
