And it's a Wrap!!

There it is, my fifth finish for the fourth quarter of the 2016 Finish Along!!

It's also my final finish for the year.

This evening it will be covering my lap when I settle in for an evening of murder mystery and knitting.

I pieced this quilt which I call Cardinals in the Snow during my annual piecing retreat in January 2015.  You can visit the original post HERE.  At the end of that post, I mentioned that I might unstitch the center seam and make two lap size quilts rather than one generous twin size. 

That's exactly what I did so I was able to share half with someone and keep half for myself.

Earlier this fall I spent an evening layering up both of them. 

Arrrggggh!?!

The first one was quilted quickly in November and two weeks ago, it went to a young person whose family is in transition with the help of Cleveland's City Mission.

I wanted to evoke the feeling of falling snow with the quilting, so rambled from top to bottom with vertical lines of stitching.  I alternated a straight(ish) line interrupted with "snowflakes" with three rambling lines.  The quilting went quickly which was good since our delivery deadline was impending, but I wasn't completely satisfied with the result.

Keeping such long lines straight is not easy for me.

 I decided to use all rambling lines on the second one.

Happily, I chanced onto one of Lori Kennedy of The Inbox Jaunt's tutorials on Pinterest! 

You can check it out HERE.  I incorporated her snowflake stitching process and the idea of staggering their placement into my rambling lines.  I started in the center strip of the quilt and set up the first snowflakes at approximately 12" intervals. 

The snowflakes in the next strip were centered approximately between the snowflakes in the first strip setting up a staggered placement pattern.

On my practice piece, I inserted two "plain" rambling rows of stitching but that didn't seem to work as well on the quilt.  In this picture I have just stitched the snowflake line down the center of a strip.

After a little trial and error, I realized it was easier to maintain some balance of the lines by stitching the snowflake line down the center of a strip first.  Then it was easier to insert a no-snowflake line between two lines of snowflakes lines.

I've been quilting at a steady pace each day and today it was ready to trim and bind.  This afternoon was dreary so I turned on all the lights in the studio, made a pot of tea, chopped up the last of the fruitcake and pushed through the binding process while listening to Levison Wood's book, Walking the Nile on Hoopla. 

I enjoy a good walking adventure, but Wood's is over the top -- and bonus, he's a good writer!

I backed the quilt with one of my favorite "I can't cut it up" fabrics!!

It's a great accomplishment to finish all five of the projects I put on my fourth quarter list!  HERE is the original list!  Now it's time to reflect on my finishes during 2016 and set my sights on more finishes in 2017.  As I do that I find I have a new sense of personal realism about the quilting part of making a quilt  as a result of all the machine quilting I've done this year. 

I'm ready to admit I'm primarily a utilitarian quilter who quilts my tops because they are more useful finished and I'm not fussy enough to do best of show work.  It's a very freeing acknowledgement and the energy it's bringing to my work is terrific.

So adieu to 2016 and on to 2017!!

Happy New Year!!

Mary

My Favorite 2016 Posts!

Today I'm linking up with Meadow Mist Designs BEST of 2016 Linky.

It was fun to go through all my 2016 posts and pick five for  GOLD STARS.

First, thank you for visiting if this is your first encounter with me and thank you for "following" my blog if you are a regular visitor.  I enjoy the preparation and writing of the blog but there would be no point to doing it without your interest!!  So I'm grateful for your interest!!

One of my work goals in 2016 was to finish a UFQ each month.  Since the majority of those are quilt tops, I've been doing lots of machine quilting and sharing my solutions for quilting my stack of tops.  The main reason I quilt my own work is because as a teacher I find it's hard to help students figure out how to quilt something unless I'm quilting some things as well. 

Experience seems important to me!

 My favorite post about one of those journeys is from August and shares some of the motifs I used to quilt my version of Lucy Carson Kingwell's Smitten.  You can explore my designs up close HERE.
(It will open in a new window, so you won't have any trouble finishing reading this post!)

I also enjoyed sharing some of the big stitch hand quilting HERE that I did on my round robin quilt, The Bug Hut.  I love the look and enjoy the process of big stitch hand quilting more with every quilt on which I use it!

Without a doubt, the most viewed and complimented post this year was when I shared how I set together a group of wonky pieced bird blocks HERE from the 2015 Stash Bee.  The quilt is now finished and everyone loves it -- you can also read about the quilting process HERE!!

A post I wrote in October about working through speed bumps and around road blocks came out of my lecture, UFQ Assault Tactics which was very popular with guilds this year.  My biggest roadblock for many years has been the quilting of a top and I hope sharing my strategies for overcoming that inspired some others to tackle their personal road blocks thoughtfully.  I was glad to reread it HERE last week as I did my preparation for this post and you might enjoy reading it, too.

Like many of you, I also garden and I think the post I wrote at the beginning of May about my spring flowers was the prettiest post I wrote this year -- especially since I'm looking out the office window at a brown garden (the lovely snow melted over the weekend)!  You can enjoy it HERE!

 Later this week, I'll be reflecting on the goal successes I've had in 2016 and thinking about the direction I'd like to take with my quilt making in 2017!  I hope you take time to reflect on your accomplishments and to set goals for your continuing enjoyment of quilting.  Since I've started to reflect and set goals, I've found a new stimulus for my work and greater enjoyment!!

Check out the rest of the linky party HERE.

Happy New Year!!

Mary

2016 Mid Year Goals Review

Back at the end of 2015, I looked at past goals and set some new ones for 2016. 

You can check out that post HERE.

Not surprisingly, I forgot about the specifics of them until Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl reminded me last week that I had linked up with her goal setting collection and invited me to participate in a MIDYEAR REVIEW HERE.

I guess that is a good thing -- not that I forgot, but that I was reminded -- and reviewing progress mid-year gives one an opportunity to evaluate and reassess. 

So . . . . . here goes.

So glad I keep a daily stitching journal!!

"First, I'll try to finish a UFQ each month!"

My thought was to use the APQ Resolution Challenge to stay on track with this goal.  If you study my list closely, the first thing you will notice is there are not 12 projects listed and the second thing you will notice is that two of them (so far) have been relisted because they didn't quite get finished during the first month they won the lottery. 

There are two DONE's -- but not six.

Some progress is better than none and both of the "DONE's" were over 12 years on the shelf!!

"Second, I'm going to try to generate four new twin size scrappy charity quilts."

I've finished two smaller ones.  One is in this box on it's way to the Orlando MQG for their #quiltsforpulse drive!  On track but perhaps I'll modify this goal to "large lap size" quilts.

"Third, I want to get the last half dozen sets of quilt blocks malingering in boxes and baskets pieced into quilt tops."
Hmm, I think I forgot about this one completely though I did take a set of blocks that I made for a workshop that never happened and finish them into a charity quilt.  I also found a couple more piles of blocks during the studio thinning out this spring so I think there are more than six?!? 
This is a good retreat project. 
I need to go on a retreat!! 
Anyone up for a retreat??
Wait, wait -- I did get that star tumbling block top set together in May (or was it June?)! 
And the birds -- I didn't just get them set together, I finished the quilt!!
Extra points!

"And finally, I want to continue to explore piecing designs and offer workshops where quilters can apply the Set-In Piecing Simplified technique featured in my DVD." 

As predicted in January, this has been the easiest goal for me on which to stay focused.
I introduced my pattern, Dresden Stars, in the spring along with a workshop.
I continue to help my students and blog followers learn to recognize when to apply the chain piecing y-seam technique while working with patterns such a Jen Kingwell's Glitter and currently Barbara Brackman's Morris Hexathon.
And I'm currently planning a new two-day workshop for making hexagonal block samplers.

One goal I didn't set but looking back I should have because I've been doing so well at achieving it!!

"To get distracted easily by all sorts of lovely ideas on Instagram."

Nine of my thirty finishes so far this year fall into this category -- and there are a couple more in progress!!  I think I've seen a few quilters refer to this behavior as "proquiltinating".

It's significant that I've finished all of them that I've started!!

Says something for tackling small projects with a high level of excitement!!

There is still 5 months of 2016 left -- but I'm going to put my "list" up on the wall in the studio as a friendly reminder that I do have goals.

In the meantime, we'll all just keep stitching!!

Mary Huey

2016 Quilting Goals

I've been writing out annual quilting goals since 2011 -- that first year, it was simple -- reduce my fabric stash by 100 yards.  I had tough rules -- any fabric purchased set me back a few yards.  By the end of the year, I had managed to pull it off right at the wire -- 163.5 yards used (but 63 yards purchased which left me with a net reduction of 100.5 yards.

In 2012, I used my  2011 success as a springboard and set the goal of using 212 yards of fabric in the course of the year.  I eased up on myself and ditched the "purchase-debit" rule.  Once again, I made it just under the wire with 212 5/8 yards used!!  It also resulted in one of my most popular guild lectures -- How to Use 212 Yards of Fabric in One Year.  My best strategy was making lots of quilt backings to go with my stacks of finished tops -- oops, there goes another 7 yards!!  Best part?  It led to a life-style change as the stacks of fabric continue to shrink -- shelves that vomit fabric are a thing of the past!! 

Those goals of using my stash first really taught me to enjoy "shopping" there -- it's a great challenge to use what I have and it has pushed me to a more confident creative point of view.  Now I actually am excited to run out of fabric because some of the quilts I finished were so much better than if I had gone out shopping for "more-of" . . . . . !!  This gem is one of my stash-only accomplishments and there is another one just as big!!  Exciting!!

In 2013, I was loosey-goosey and had no specific goals -- I lost my mother that winter and I think I was unable to think ahead.  I stitched relentlessly to carry me through those emotional days.  There are always plenty of UFQ's in my studio -- so when I felt restless or unable to settle on a project, I would just pull out another old one and focus on it.  My stitching journal records 26 quilt finishes!

2014 found me starting the year with a detailed survey of UFQ's -- there were 44 finished quilt tops (down from 72 in 2005) and 14 sets of quilt blocks.  I had two goals for the year -- to continue to whittle away at the UFQ's and to transform myself into a quilt maker who proceeds through a project from start to finish in one smooth process more often.  That was huge!!  I made good progress on both fronts though I realized I'll always have three or four projects going at the same time.  One being planned, one being pieced (or maybe two), one being machine quilted, and one being hand quilted.  By the end of the year, I'd finished 23 quilts and reduced the UFQ list of finished tops to 30!!  I can remember when these two shelves were packed to the top -- now they look a bit empty, don't they?

My favorite finishes for 2014 were the three string star quilts I made for my children -- the star blocks were from my husband's grandmother's estate though I think her mother-in-law pieced them in the early 1900's.  It took a century to put them into the hands of Huey's but Mary Emma is smiling now!!

 At the beginning of 2015, I found the APQ's UFO Challenge chart and filled it with some of my oldest UFQ's.  If you aren't familiar with the APQ Challenge, they draw a number each month and that's the project you tackle.  You can see my notations for what month each project drew.  There were just three complete finishes but up until the fall, I made significant progress on most of the projects and they've been added to my "ready-to-quilt" shelves!! 

In addition, I intended to make a scrappy twin size donation quilt every month as I worked through the color shelves in my studio to tidy them up.  I made it through 3 months -- pink, white and beige neutrals, and green (seen below).  There is a blue one underway as well, but I just ran out of steam -- probably because I realized what a challenge it was to piece and quilt a top with everything else I was doing -- or perhaps it was the challenge of finding a pattern to use with the orange and yellow shelf?

  There is just a few more hours of 2015 left and I've been spending quiet time in my studio -- tidying up and reviewing what I accomplished over the past year, so I feel ready to set some (realistic) goals for 2016.

 

First, I'll try to finish a UFQ each month!  I haven't decided if I'll carry over the balance from 2015 -- I learned just how important a purpose and a deadline are for me to get an old project finished so my plan is to chose 12 that have a destiny in 2016!!

Second, I'm going to try to generate four new twin size scrappy charity quilts -- one every three months -- I came so close to doing this in 2015 I feel certain that I can accomplish this one!!

 

Third, I want to get the last half dozen sets of quilt blocks malingering in boxes and baskets pieced into quilt tops so they don't go astray when they clear out my studio in the distant future!!

 

And finally, I want to continue to explore piecing designs and offer workshops where quilters can apply the Set-In Piecing Simplified technique featured in my DVD.  That will actually be the easiest goal to accomplish because I'm very easily distracted from everything by an interesting quilt block with y-seams!!

 

So how about you?  Are you setting stitching goals?  You should!!

The most exciting discoveries I've made as a quilt maker over the past few years are almost all the results of goals I've set -- achieved and unachieved.

 

If you want some more inspiration for goal setting -- head on over to the 2016 Planning Linky Party at Quilt Jetgirl by clicking HERE!!

 

 

Happy New Year!!

Mary Huey