Quilting

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Curated Quilts is a new quarterly quilt journal, created by Amy Ellis and Christine Ricks, which features beautiful images of modern quilts and articles about artists, their work, and the quilting community. Each issue has a call for mini quilt submissions with a theme and color palette. The theme for issue three is minimal and the palette appealed to me. We were asked to use only a subset of: light grey, leaf green, grey, orchid pink, blue grey, black.

I started by pulling all the solids from my stash that fit these requirements. I didn't have any blue grey and ended up editing out the greys. My mini has Kona Cerise, Peapod, and Black. I brought in the grey with my quilting (Aurifil #2605). I also pieced the entire quilt with black (Aurifil #2692) thread since every seam had black fabric. My mini finished at approximately 13.5" square.

One of my goals for the year is to design with letters of the alphabet. I thought this challenge was the perfect opportunity to choose a letter and use it in my minimal design. I quickly landed on the letter i. Often I piece a quilt top and then I consider quilting option. For this project I considered my plan for quilting from the beginning, choosing to quilt the entire black background with 1/8" matchstick quilting so the vibrant letter i's stand out. This might be the first time I've been set on the quilting motif before taking a single stitch.

I began my quilting by stitching in the ditch on my vertical seams, then used a guide to quilt vertical lines every one inch.

I continued stitching between each line of quilting. This photo shows how I eyeballed the center of each section... those are 1/2 inch sections on the right, 1/4 inch in the middle, and 1/8 inch on the left.

My goal was 1/8 inch spacing. Here's the super closeup. :-)

The tricky part was starting and stopping around the pink and green pieces. Tons of threads to bury! In the end, all that work was totally worth it!

I chose a faced binding so the quilting and the pink pieces would go right to the edge. I use this technique for my faced binding, though I press the folded edge before attaching it to the quilt. ;-)

Thanks for visiting! It's been so fun to see what other have created for this challenge. Check them all out on the CQ call for entries. I've also linked up to Needle and Thread Thursday.

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Five finished quilts in Q4 at my house. My kids and I each finished a quilt to submit to QuiltCon. Theirs will each hang in the show. Mine won't. ;-) I also finished my Halloween quilt, which I'm super excited to have done. The last one was some secret sewing that I'll be able to show off soon, but it wasn't on my Q4 list since it was a new project. Q4 also brought the beginning of many new projects.

Here's the exhaustive list of projects in my sewing room. I have a lot of finished quilt tops (14) and a lot of projects being in some state of being pieced (20). And 45 total WIPs. (Sorry if that makes you sweat a little.) This is a new high for me, though at least seven of them will be done this week.

They are arranged here by stage of the project. Let's not talk about how those that "just need binding" have been in that section for a while. I've marked with an asterisk (*) the highest priority items on the list. There are a few more coming up in the queue on the priority list, including five more Project Quilting challenges. (The first is listed at the very end. I have the theme and a design in mind... it's due on Sunday!) Happy sewing!

Just Need Binding

  1. Meadow Mystery, Lap Quilt.
  2. Midnight Mystery, Lap Quilt.
  3. Memory House, Mini Quilt.

Quilting In Progress

  1. *Curated Quilts Minimalism submission. i mini 
  2. *Very Hungry Caterpillar Twin Quilt

Basted

  1. *BAMQG NICU quilt (pieced by another guild member)

Finished Quilt Tops

  1. Planned Improv: Scrappy Squares, Greenery Lap Quilt.
  2. Planned Improv: Scrappy Squares, class sample Mini Quilt #2.
  3. Planned Improv: Scrappy Squares, class sample Mini Quilt #4.
  4. *Planned Improv: Playing with Angles, class sample Mini Quilt #1. 
  5. Charity baby quilt. 
  6. Feathered Star... pillow? 
  7. Variation of Planned Improv: Scrappy Squares, Wall Hanging. 
  8. *Mug rug. 
  9. *Mug rug. 
  10. *Mug rug. 
  11. *Mug rug. 
  12. *Mug rug. 
  13. *Mug rug. 
  14. *Mug rug. 

Piecing in Progress

  1. *Scattered Squares lap quilt (upcoming pattern).
  2. Planned Improv: Playing with Angles, class sample Mini Quilt #2.
  3. Tula Pink City Sampler. 
  4. Improv Abstraction, Small Quilt. 
  5. *Creative HST project, Lap Quilt.
  6. In the Middle quilt, Lap Quilt.
  7. Cotton & Steel (and low volume) HST Quilt, Lap Quilt.
  8. Ocean quilt for my daughter.
  9. Patchwork City Metro Area Quilt.
  10. Swoon Quilt. 
  11. *Rainbow Chain. The pattern is Autumn Chain from The Bee Hive quilts. 
  12. My Floating Squares improv project. (from The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Lynn Wood.)
  13. Rainbow Remix from Rebecca Bryan's class at Quiltcon. Blocks are all done. Next up, the big job of piecing together irregular blocks.
  14. Wonky Cross quilt from Rossie Hutchinson's class at QuiltCon. I'm up to 50 blocks and they are now all trimmed up.
  15. Quartered Log Cabin quilt from Rossie Hutchinson's class at QuiltCon. 
  16. Purple Royalty quilt. 
  17. La Passacaglia. No way I'm finishing this anytime soon, but including it so my list is complete. 
  18. *Wanderlust baby quilt. 
  19. *Blogger Bundle baby quilt.
  20. Playing with solids project from Tara Faughnan class. 

Planning Stage

  1. Planned Improv: Scrappy Squares, large scale.
  2. *Project Quilt 9.1. Hometown Proud. San Jose, CA. Design chosen, gathering fabrics.
  3. Floating Hexagons in Heliotrope and Breeze.
  4. Unnamed in Oasis and Pickle.
  5. Unnamed in grunge and linen neutrals.

 

I'm linking up to Finish Along Q1 goals link up.

Thank you for visiting!

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Time sure flies... I'm coming up on my 4th blogiversary. As I close the book on 2017, I've spent some time reflecting on the last year and looking forward to the coming year. In short, I'm excited!

2017 Goal Review

My goals for 2017 were Finishes, Patterns, and Tips & Tutorials.

Finishes

In 2017, a total of 25 quilts were finished by my household. I keep a list of my WIPs (latest is the start of Q4 2017). I like having the list, knowing all in one place what is in all my bins and drawers of my sewing room, but it's also easy to get hung up on the number of WIPs. I'm not even going to figure out what number of my finishes in 2017 were from the WIP list and which were new projects, because I just don't care. I worked on quilts which I enjoyed, and I finished a bunch. That's what matters. So, those 25 quilts that were finished last year...

  • 3 were made by my kids (with, let's be honest, a fair amount of help from me)
  • 22 were made by me, and of those there were:
    • 10 for quilt challenges (those deadlines sure help to get them done!)
    • 4 for Sarah Goer Quilts patterns
    • 15 mini quilts
    • 4 baby quilts
    • 3 lap/throw quilts

Here are nine of the challenge quilts:

And an assortment of the other quilts:

A few more are shown below, a few haven't made it onto the blog, and one is still a secret. :-)

 

Patterns

I wrote numerous patterns in 2017. My first pattern, Knock Knock, is an exclusive baby quilt pattern written for my newsletter subscribers and based on the Hummingbirds quilt. I wrote three patterns for Modern By The Yard. Summer Splash was in issue #5 and Fall Fleurish was in issue #6. The third quilt will be out in issue #7 of the e-zine. In October, I released my first pattern for sale on Craftsy, the Back and Forth baby quilt. Lastly, I wrote three patterns which I look forward to sharing with you in their release later this quarter. These three patterns are modern designs, created with solids in mind, but flexible enough to feature print fabrics. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter if you aren't already a subscriber so you don't miss the release (and sneak peeks) of the new patterns.

 

Tips & Tutorials

My most popular blog post of the year was my Ombre HST Quilt Pattern tutorial from February. I originally designed it for my friend Mary to use, but I've gotten a ton of lovely feedback from people. I also shared tips and tutorials for machine binding, accurate fabric cutting, triangular meander quilting, and the quilt block I used in my table runner. One tip or tutorial post every couple months is probably a good pace for me since these are the most time intensive types of blog posts.

 

2018 Goals

As I enter a new year, I'm thinking about what my goals are for this year. We're gearing up for a remodel at my house (I think that makes my word of the year chaos!), so I'm weary of making too many big goals. But I can't really help myself.

Teaching

I really loved teaching this year and want to do more of it. I plan to participate in two Meet the Teacher events in California this Spring. I'm currently available to speak and teach within 50 miles of San Jose, California, and regionally in the Western US starting mid-2018. See more on my teaching page. I'm also intrigued by the idea of doing online teaching. I may not have the bandwidth for that this year, but I'll be thinking about how to get that going.

 

Patterns

The three patterns I mentioned above are in various stages of testing. (Thank you to my testers!) I will release these patterns in Q1 of this year. I'd like to add a store page on Sarah Goer Quilts to coincide with that release.

 

Design

I have a few focuses for my design work this year. I want to use more solids. I intend to continue with my Planned Improv design theme. I also want to work with modern traditionalism design. And lastly, I want to use letters of the alphabet as inspiration for my quilt design. The first of these projects is already underway!

 

Challenges

I will continue to participate in quilt challenges (starting with Project Quilting on Sunday - join me!), but I'll be adding a layer onto these challenges by incorporating my own design goals from above.

 

Garment Sewing

I've sewn garments for the kids, but I haven't sewn anything for myself (as an adult). I missed participating in Bernie's Summer Sew Along due to technical difficulties (I ordered the wrong size pattern), but I'd still like to make the top. Living in California, I'm in short sleeves year round, so this may be some winter sewing. In general, I'd like to be thoughtful about what pieces I add to my wardrobe so they will be clothes that actually get worn. Right now I'm mostly taking some notes for potential makes. What are your favorite garment patterns?

 

So there it is. My biggest goal for the year will involve letting things go when life gets in the way of my quilting and business goals. Happy New Year!

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