Happy New Year! First, a quick look back at my goals for 2024. Lots of teaching, check! This was a record year of teaching for me. And I developed 5 new classes that I taught as my Quilts from the Toolbox series. Thank you to everyone who joined me for a workshop or attended one of my lectures. New studio, new longarm, new classes, check check check. Sewing with community, check. But more time for creativity and finishing quilts, not so much.

Overall, I had a lovely year of teaching and connecting with the quilting community in a variety of ways.

I taught 17 workshops this year. This included guild workshops (both in-person and virtual) as well as open enrollment Zoom workshops that I hosted myself.

I also delivered 18 lectures, the most popular of which was Rules and Options of Planned Improv Piecing, where I talk about how I set parameters for myself while doing improv quilting. Most of these lectures were for guilds (both in-person and virtual) and two lectures were for QuiltCon in Raleigh, NC in February.

I created 15 bee blocks to send off to members of Quilts Unscripted Bee, many of which I still need to show off here on the blog. I love the creative exercise of what to create for each month's prompt as well as seeing what everyone else does with the same prompt, and eventually how it all goes together to become a finished quilt. But mostly, I cherish the relationships with those friends.

In January, I presented a live demo at Northern California Quilt Council's January Jumpstart... actually, I delivered the same demo, Cutting Fabric for Improv Piecing, eight or nine times (back to back, what a whirlwind!). It was so fun to start the year connecting with quilters in person. I chose improv house blocks for this demo and came home that day with a pile of pieces that were essentially block kits for me to sew together into some of the blocks you see here. And then I just kept going! There are so many ways to play with the geometry of a simple house block. This completed neighborhood of house blocks will be a finished quilt in 2025, and I've started another set in a different color way.

The main work on my studio was completed earlier this year and I promptly moved my essentials into the space and started working in here. In April, my longarm was delivered. While the space is lovely and totally usable, I'm still working through sorting everything coming from my old studio space and reorganizing fabric and supplies. I'm focusing on only keeping what I'll use. I have two more large cabinets to deconstruct so that I can move them into the new space and I'm figuring out what kind of shelving I want to put up. Lastly, I want to build rolling frames to put my 4-foot by 8-foot insulation board design walls on. All in good time, this will be a project that continues for a while, but I'm committed to continuing to chip away at it.

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Goals for 2025

My biggest overarching goals for the year are to teach a bunch, connect with the quilting community, and to spend more time doing creative work, finish more quilts, and use my longarm more regularly.

In the first quarter of the year, I will be focusing on completing my move into my new studio, getting back to regular (if not daily) creative work, and setting some intentions around my quilting time. I will be participating in the Project QUILTING one-week quilt challenges, the first of which kicks off on January 5, as well as the Frightful Fun Halloween Block of the Month, which begins January 3. I will be making my MQG mini swap quilt and attending QuiltCon in Phoenix, AZ in February. I'm traveling to Washington state in January to teach, and have 5 virtual events with guilds in Q1. (See my full schedule here.)

Not sure when we'll get started, but my daughter has expressed an interest in getting back to quilting. Maybe she will be inspired by a Project QUILTING challenge.

Wishing you a happy, healthy, and safe 2025 filled with community and creativity!

I'm linking up with Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl for her #2025QuiltingPlanningParty. I plan to linkup with her quarterly check ins to share more details my goals for each quarter.