There are five drawers in my new WIP cabinet and I am trying to figure out what to put in them. In no particular order, but numbered for clarity, here is how they will be filled:
Drawer One will be for the current Work in Progress. Right now, it is the Postage Stamp quilt.
Drawer Two will be for the current Leader / Ender. Right now, it is the Dots and Dashes quilt. Even though this is the current Leader / Ender, I am using Postage Stamp quilt as a Leader / Ender while working on my mini quilt.
Drawer Three will be for the Current Mini of the Month. I rarely work on more than one of these at a time, and when I do, I think there is room in the drawer for more than one. This drawer will probably be empty most of the time, since the work will probably be on the table, but I have to leave it empty for when I have to clean up my space. The current Mini is Pink and Other Colors.
Drawer Four will be for the Beautiful World project. I haven't worked on it since March. Is this the UFO drawer or the handwork drawer, I'm not sure. It will identify itself in time.
While it is tempting to find another project for Drawer Five, I am opting to leave it empty. It will help make sure I can truly convert my sewing room back into a living room without having to put anything out of sight and out of mind.
On Sunday, I attended an introduction to Sherri Lynn Wood's Abstract Piecing Scrap Play workshop, The replay is available for free. There was an introduction of the series' speakers and some good conversation about abstract piecing, using value to your advantage, and creating order out of scraps.
I've worked with Sherri Lynn before, testing a pattern in her book, so I didn't learn anything new, but it was really helpful to have things explained in a different way, because sometimes I need to hear things more than once to really get it. My main takeaways were to sort your scraps into like items - mostly by color and value. So light blue and dark blue, light green and dark green. It really helps bring order to the chaos of a scrap box. Then you can choose which stacks to combine.
The change is that instead of calling it improv, she is calling it abstract piecing. I think this change of terminology will really help, because sometimes it feels like improv should be spontaneous. At the end of my last project, I was thinking I shouldn't plan too much, and wound up with a spot where there was too much dark. Calling it abstract helps to see that the piecing is very intentional. You keep making decisions as you add each piece.
The other thing she said was that when you are finished, you should take the time to think about the project. She asked us to share a surprise, discovery, satisfaction, or challenge in our work. This takes things deeper so that you can articulate what you discovered, and hopefully this can help you take something when you work on your next project.
I cheated and didn't sort all of my fabrics, but I did choose pink fabrics and low volumes to make my practice play project.
As I was writing my end of the year recap, I noticed how many of my projects were a part of the Project Quilting Challenge. The weekly deadline really helps push through any doubts and hesitations. Just get it done! So when I saw that the challenge has started again, I want to participate as much as I can.
I have a problem that I have complained about many times on my blog. I have decided it is time to fix it.
I sew in my living room, but when I have planned company over, I have to turn the sewing room back into a living room. I usually work on two or three quilts at a time, sometimes more. This means I have to put away all of the quilts I am working on. I usually put them in boxes, mostly shoebox sized boxes, and take them upstairs into a bedroom where I store my fabric and other craft supplies.
One problem is that it is a lot of work taking things upstairs and bringing them back down, but it was something I was able to manage.
Another problem I have is that I am running out of room to store these boxes.I have finished 80% of my quilts, but as the number of quilts I start go up, 80% becomes a bigger number. My usual solution to this problem was to decide that I needed to whittle down my UFO [unfinished object] projects so that there is room to put away current WIPs [works in progress]. This solution has not been working.
The other problem is that when I put a quilt in a box and take it upstairs, it becomes "out of sight, out of mind". I start a brand new quilt project instead of going back to the WIP. Most of my WIPs become UFOs only because they have been put away, and there are lots of ideas of new quilts that are available to start.
I have decided that I need a different plan. I looked for those plastic scrapbook boxes that are at least 12x12, especially those that are drawers stacked together as a unit. I could take the whole stack upstairs and downstairs so I can resume my quilting on the current WIPs. I have a couple of those, and have used them for other things. They work wonderfully for my spices and paints/markers.
Unfortunately, they have been out of stock for a while.
Then I found something that I think will work even better.
I bought a different storage solution for the WIPs. Instead of boxes, I bought a set of drawers. I thought about cubes which would keep things visual for me, but I think that will look messy and allow dust to get into them. I am hoping that if I put labels on the drawers, I will be able to keep them on my mind.
Once I got the chest of drawers, I realized that I could find a place to tuck this away in the living room, so that will eliminate my having to take everything upstairs too. With the wheels, I can find other places to put it out of the way on the first floor. This will also really help separate the WIPs from the UFOs. We will see if at the end of the year, I am able to finish more than 80% of my quilts.
Around the World in 80 Days is a new series on PBS. David Tennant stars in a new adaptation of Jules Verne's classic adventure novel. I highly recommend it. Also on PBS, Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. will have a new episode tonight.
There are two posts today. The previous post shows all of the quilts I finished in 2021.
This post shows charts and graphs. I keep a spreadsheet that lists the quilts I work on. I started showing the spreadsheet on my blog to document my year like an annual report.
Below is the list of 15 quilts that I started this year.
This report shows that I have started 160 quilts. I have created folders for each of these quilts so I can put all the WIP photos for the quilt to keep them more organized.
It also shows that I have given away 28.75% of my quilts and have finished 80% of the quilts I have started. My average time to finish a quilt is 327 days. A lot of the time is the time a quilt takes to marinate.
Besides the 11 that show as finished on this list, I also finished the Quote Quilt and the Blue Shirts quilt which were started before 2021.
This is where I record the totals for each year. You can see that in some years, like 1994, 2008, 2011 and 2020, I had more finishes than starts.
Other years, the starts and finishes are the same, and most of them, I have more starts than finishes. I allow myself to just enjoy and start (and finish) as many quilts as I want.
Then I turn the yearly list into a line graph to make it easier to see visually. This one shows that the gap between starts and finishes is slowly getting wider.
With the spreadsheet and annual reports, it feels like I should make goals and define how I should have better statistics. But this is for fun, not for work, and I will continue to have fun and just document what that looks like in charts and graphs.
This last graph shows that that my output has been increasing over the years. It also shows that 2021 was in the top 3 of both starts and finishes..
This is a reflection of a basketball net in a pool filled with leaves.
[I've been editing this post as the auditor finds changes that need to be made, so in the unlikely event you looked at this post more than once, the charts or stats may look slightly different.]
Hello and welcome to my annual End of the Year Recap. This year, I did not have any rules - I could start and finish as many quilts as I wanted without any guilt. The key was just to enjoy the journey. This lead to lots of fun finishes in 2021, so let's dive right in.
January
In January, I participated in some of the Project Quilting challenge, making a quilt in a week using the challenge guidelines. Lightbulb is one of them.
In February, I continued the Project Quilting challenges with Visit India.
March
In March, I showed the Oak Leaf and Reel quilt I made for the Dust Off An Old Quilt Book blog hop
I made this crazy quilt for a Project Quilting challenge.
Wild and Free, Just Like the Sea
Wild and Free is another Project Quilting Challenge.
April
In April, I put the last stitches on the shirts quilt. This is an 80" x 80" quilt. I started cutting the shirts in October of 2019, after they had lived their usefulness as wearable shirts. We plan to have an official photo shoot so you can see the entire quilt.
May
There were no quilt finishes in May. I spent time working on the Amalfi quilt. I made it into a top and have the borders ready to attach. I haven't taken a more recent photo of it.
June
There were no quilt finishes in May. I spent time working on the Inspirational Quote Crazy quilt. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I have posted many times about this quilt.
July
In July, I introduced the Pop-Art quilt. I spent most of my time working on the Quote quilt.
I also started the Alphabet quilt. This photo shows how far I have gotten on this quilt.
I officially finished the Blue Inspirational Quote Quilt on September 11, 2021. I realize I haven't blogged about this finish, because I am still waiting to take better photos and a video of this quilt.
October
In October, I made postage stamp blocks. I finished the Tuxedo Vest quilt top, but I might be making some changes to it.The photo has it on its side. I want to make it a little wider, and I have to decide whether I want to add a border or another column.
November
In November, I worked on the October Halloween house. I made more postage stamp blocks. I also started a mini quilt using reject postage stamp block.
December
I had two finishes in a row at the end of December. I finished the October Holiday House quilt.
This means I had twelve finishes this year. I am very pleased with that number.
On New Year's Eve, Mary Fons showed my Inspirational Quote Crazy Quilt in this video. She starts talking about my quilt at 2:15. The video will start at the end of the last quilt she talked about so you can see where she talks about my quilt from the beginning.
This quilt started as a block for the Postage Stamp quilt. I had cut some pink squares. I thought it would be interesting to make a rogue block for the Postage Stamp quilt - one that had patterned fabric instead of a solid as a constant. So I started making it, but soon realized that I hadn't counted how many squares I had cut and didn't have nearly enough. I knew I could find another pink and make it a rogue rogue block. One with two constants as well as a patterned fabric.
But I didn't like my choices of an additional pink. One of the things I really like about the Postage Stamp quilt is that I can work on it after work when I have decision fatigue. Easy chain piecing a constant to another fabric.
So instead of throwing this in the orphan block box, I thought I could make a mini quilt out of it. It is already started so I would have a good head start.
I found fabrics I liked with it for a mini quilt, but it really wasn't inspiring me. I thought about throwing it in the orphan block box. I had already added it to my spreadsheet and announced it on my blog, but I thought I could get a quiet annulment without anyone noticing.
Then I remembered that Cheri Payne had made a quilt with a block on one side and a vase on the other side. I liked that plan.
I cut out some shapes for the vase and the minute I set it down, it looked like a bed on the left, and some get well flowers you would send or take to someone who wasn't feeling well. The news was on and they were telling us how the whole country is red in terms of infections, and the COVID infections is higher now than it has ever been.
This quilt is dedicated to the whole world - all the people who have passed away, all the people who are mourning them, all the people who are sick, all the people who are doing their best to avoid getting sick, and all the people who are taking care of others.
The quilt is 11" x 8".
I want to thank Wendy at The Constant Quilter for all of her support and encouragement in making a small quilt each month.
I started making the kit at the end of October 2021. I have been trying to make one small quilt a month. Using the kit which has marinated long enough was a good option.
I put this quilt away to get ready for the October birthday gathering, and kept it away for the week we met with the customers.
I brought it out to work on, but it had to be set aside again for the Portrait Representation Quilt. I did work on it a little bit that week, but this week I was able to give it full time attention to finish it.
The kit included everything you needed to make the top and the binding. I had a couple of fat quarters that had accidentally been sent to me in the mail instead of what I had ordered. I was allowed to keep them and they both came in handy for this quilt.
I cut out the October from one of them and did not have to make individual letters. I also used that fabric for the label. I really liked using tulle as a design element.
The pumpkins and the spider came from the other fat quarter. The kit came with buttons, but they have shanks on the back and I didn't want to use them that way. That fabric is also used for the backing.
It was a fun mini to make and helped warm up my free motion confidence to work on the Representation Portrait Quilt.
