In my style, I’ve well missed the 2017 Planning Party hosted by Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl, but I thought I would write a quick post with my 2017 Goals and word for the year, both to share my focus and to hold myself accountable!
I’ve been thinking long and hard about what I want to focus on this year, and I’ve decided that I really need to make my mantra: “Finish What You’ve Started”. I have ample projects that were begun with excitement and then quietly forgotten before reaching completion, and I also branched out into a few other big new endeavors in 2016, such as pursuing quilt photography work and designing for Quilt Theory. I’ve been helping Stephanie with the Quilter’s Planner Instagram account, and that has been extremely fun but also takes time. I also have a few potential teaching opportunities that I’m excited about in the coming year. Combined with being a full time mom of three little ones, keeping house, tending chickens, and in the proper season, gardening and adventuring along the coast, my plate is pretty full as it is. So it seems right to set my engine for steady on and just keep plugging away in the direction I’m going.
That said, I also recognize that there’s no way I could go a full year without trying anything new. For that reason, I also plan to participate in a few Sew Alongs and a Quilt Bee, as I outlined in my last blog post. The relaxed, no-stress mentality will let me fill those block making moments in between my “finishing” so that I can stay fresh and excited about making. I also plan to play along more regularly with the #beesocial prompts, since they stretch my creative spirit more than anything else I’ve encountered. I’m already beginning with Stephanie from Spontaneous Threads’ first prompt for January–Resolution. Watching the video she included as part of her design inspiration prompt reaffirmed the word I selected to guide my year (I definitely recommend clicking over to her post and watching the video. It’s well worth 5 minutes of your time.)
Which brings me to my “one little word”–the one word to guide my year. 2017 will be my “green” year. There are so many influences to my selection of this word, from my lifelong love of nature, my degree in environmental science, to all that’s been happening in the world around us. Sparked initially by Chawne Kimber’s quilt “The One for Eric G”, the first statement quilt I saw that made me hold my breath as my stomach took a nosedive, and made me realize that this amazing craft can be used to inspire positive change (more than just making the world a more beautiful place one stitch at a time), further melded and inspired by the Make Do Quilt challenge posed by Sherri Lynn Wood last year, and always continuously inspired by Hillary from Entropy Always Wins and her focus on using reclaimed textiles in her creations, I have decided on “green” as my word of the year and “finish what you’ve started” as my guiding mantra.
I love how Cheryl from Meadowmist Designs set measurable steps for herself in her goal setting post, so here is my attempt at the same. This year, I will try to:
- Focus on incorporating repurposed textiles into at least three (3) quilt projects;
- Minimize new fabric purchases; focus on using the fabrics that exist in my stash already (not very measurable, but important to state!);
- Experiment with at least six (6) of the #beesewcial prompts to help stretch my creativity and build improv skills;
- Use a purely green color palette (inspired by Patone’s color of the year, Greenery) on all bee and quilt along blocks to help create a visual statement on being “green” and to stretch my design skills by fitting them all together at the end;
- Create a more concrete plan for my social action quilt idea, including:
- a full sketch
- 2-3 sample blocks
- brief description
- Dive further into the “Slow Fashion” movement:
- Overcome my fear of garment sewing by making at least three (3) items of clothing
- {BONUS} hand stitch one garment;
- Complete two (2) quilt photography projects to deepen my repertoire and experience;
- Teach at least three (3) different quilting and quilt photography related classes–spread the love and inspiration for creating beautiful things!
- Use my Quilter’s Planner to set manageable goals and help myself feel successful and motivated–including building up to exercising 5 times per week!
- Stitch daily for 365 days as part of my participation in #1yearofstitches (more on this soon!)
- Finish eight to ten (8-10) works in progress from last year!!!
Phew, I’d better stop there. I think this is a great start to my goals for the year, and I’m curious to see how successful I am at meeting each of these goals. Note that I have not included pattern design in my specific goals this year. Aside from Quilt Theory patterns, two of which I plan to develop and release this year, I am letting pattern writing be more relaxed this year so that I may focus on my other goals. It doesn’t mean it won’t happen, though!
So far I’m off to a decent start and have made good progress on one WIP (Max’s Eye Spy Picnic Plaid), and have finished another, which I’ll share later this week. (Note that I’ve added quite a few old WIPs to this list since this photo was taken). I’ve begun to play with the #beesewcial prompt, and am incorporating repurposed textiles into it! Baby steps!
I hope your year is off to a great start!
I’ll be linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts’ Let’s Bee Social so that you can all hold me accountable this year!
I finished this quilt top two days before Finn’s 18 month milestone, which was the mental deadline I gave myself, so I guess that’s what I get for giving myself such a far-off deadline! But life with kids is busy, this summer was a whirlwind of 
So, Finn! He is as wonderful and cheerful as ever, growing into such a bright soul of a little boy. In these photos he’s wearing a shirt gifted to him at birth by Nancy, one of my quilty friends met through conversations over blog posts–thank you, Nancy!
I really wanted to get some photos of Finn wrapped up in his quilt, but he wouldn’t have it. When I tried, he enthusiastically shook his head no and ran off. When I flopped the quilt to the ground, he at first picked it up and looked at me as if to say, “What are you doing, Mama? This doesn’t belong in a pile on the ground!” Even still, this post is full of photos. I know you wouldn’t want it any other way!
When I asked Finn to put his quilt on his head, he ran off to jump on the trampoline instead, impishly grinning at me the whole way. He loves to jump, loves to run around with his older siblings, playing chase or attempting hide and seek. He loves “shooing” the chickens and exploring the natural world. Finn is so independent, and will often focus on a project (shaking a toy around in a bowl, or putting something in and out of an empty bottle, for example) for quite a while. If you will play with him, Finn would throw and catch a ball for hours.
He’s so much fun to watch, constantly learning and exploring the world. Finn is starting to talk a bit more, but still primarily communicates with “Daaa” and pointing. His signing is just now starting to take off, which is fantastic since we’ve recently discovered that he has hearing loss, same as his older siblings (and same as me, his mommy, although mine started much later in life).
I was finally able to lure him back to his quilt with a block tower. Finn loves to stack blocks and then knock them over! I love to play the game of seeing how tall I can make a tower before he decides it’s smash time. Unlike his big brother who excels in demo, Finn likes to help build just as much as break down the towers.
Once I spread the quilt out on the floor, Finn was all about it. I was able to get some fun photos of him playing with blocks on his quilt with fun little upward grins when he discovered that I was standing on a chair photographing from above.
Such a sweet boy!
Then of course, as soon as I was off the chair, he wanted to carry it around and climb up on it, too.
He loves flexing those muscles of his, and boy does he learn fast!
After I sewed all of the milestone quilt blocks together, I did a “victory lap” of stitches around the entire perimeter of the quilt, about 1/8″ from the edge. I saw 
Although Finn didn’t drag the quilt around as much as I thought he might, the victory lap was definitely worth the extra time it took to stitch!
Now all I need to do is get this layered, basted, quilted, and bound. No biggie, right? I think I’m going to use an all over boxy meander free motion quilting motif with my favorite neutral, Aurifil 2600-Dove in an attempt to keep it simple. I’m looking forward to getting this quilt into the circulation of family use, but am also savoring the journey.
I’ve given a lot of thought to this pattern, since there is criticism that the safety pin is just a way for us to feel better about ourselves, or even that being such a widely known symbol, it could be used in nefarious ways. After much reflection and discussion with my husband, I decided that despite these criticisms, I think the safety pin symbol is a good thing. My intention was purely to try to spread some hope and goodness with a further reach than my little rural Maine town. Even if the act of wearing or sewing a safety pin doesn’t make any difference in and of itself, it is a conversation starter, keeping the conversation about the need to stand up for human rights and fight bigotry going, and will hopefully act as a personal reminder for those of us who are not in the minority to step up and use our privileged voices for good. We have a lot of work to do.
The ever-talented Samarra (SammyK) is holding an amazing auction 
To kick off this new resolution of making time for my own sewing on top of my more business-directed projects, I made three more blocks as part of the 
Block 73: old wool trousers, thrifted cotton-poly men’s shirt
Block 72: thrifted black leather skirt, pink cotton women’s capris, my husband’s worn-through 100% cotton slacks.
Block 77: thrifted cotton-poly men’s shirt, old cotton slacks, worn men’s shirt, black leather skirt.
*Spoiler alert* My tip for her was to know your limits. When every project is a priority with a quickly approaching deadline, it’s difficult to make a prioritized list and keep yourself organized. On normal weeks, the prioritized list I make in my 
Corresponding solids from left to right:
Corresponding solids from left to right:
Corresponding solids from left to right:
So fun! Still, I resisted. Then I noticed that 
I pulled some old worn out clothes from our toss/donation piles (a workshirt of my husband’s with elbows worn nearly through, a pair of maternity corduroys that were a hand-me-down given to me by a friend who had received them as a hand-me-down from another friend and worn bare in too many spots to mend, and a thrifted leather skirt I had bought for a project that fizzled before it really began), and hit up a local thrift shop to fill in the gaps a bit. I decided to focus on a monochromatic grey color palette, but asked my kids to choose a pop of color from the sale racks. A large pair of coral women’s capri pants fit the bill, and I’m excited at the resulting palette.
Even if you don’t have Instagram, you can follow along with my posts and environmental tidbits by clicking 
While I had every intention of taking lots of photos, I also made a conscious effort to distance myself from social media and technology as much as I could, so that I could aim to slow down body, mind, and spirit. Lo, I took hardly any photos at all. But I can tell you this: the retreat was everything I imagined and more and I would jump back there in a heartbeat. I’ve already begun saving pennies for next year. There was a whole lot of relaxing, chatting, stitching, laughing, learning, making new friends, swimming, yoga, relaxing some more, stitching some more, eating, drinking, and so much more.
And of course color. Lots and lots of color. This is just a tiny peek at the 
I originally aimed to schedule some blog posts for while I was away, but life has been very full these days, so this week will be quiet. I will be stitching away in this big, beautiful building and its neighboring barn, and will join you upon my return. Keep your eye on 
To hold you over for the week, I do have a fun giveaway sponsored by the 
Night Quilter 