It's so wonderful to have a hobby obsession for your loved ones to focus on at times when gifts are exchanged. This year my Christmas presents focused very heavily on quilting. It feels a bit like bragging, but one of the ways I use my blog is to remind myself of things. My loved ones know I don't have the greatest of memories and I want to be able to look back and see what I got for Christmas this year and who gave them to me. If you stick with me to the end of this post I plan to share one of my goals for 2014 and how this blog will change.
I got some curved safety pins, a tool for opening safety pins, needles, and storage drawers (not shown) from my parents. My sister got me a set of 50 colored pencils. This one may not immediately be obvious as a quilting notion, but I'm finding myself sketching quilt patterns by hand a lot. (For those interested in my design methods it depends on the pattern whether I start this way or in EQ7, but my final draft is always done on the computer.)
I got lots of books and magazines. The Quilter's Patchwork Album and Easy Quilting is from my in-laws. The free motion quilting books and a subscription to Love of Quilting is from my parents, and the McCalls Quilting magazine is what happens when your husband gives you permission to buy your own stocking stuffer.
If you remember my Penguins on Parade quilt you'll know that I have love penguins. My husband found this adorable penguin shaped martini shaker. I suspect this will come in very handy on days when I use the seam ripper more than the sewing machine.
And finally my husband got me The Farmer's Wife. This brings me to one of my goals for 2014. I want to improve my piecing skills. I've decided the way to do this is to make the Farmer's Wife quilt next year. There are 111 blocks in this quilt which works out to 2 blocks a week with 7 left over. Some of the blocks are rather simple so I figure those weeks I'll tackle 3 blocks.
I don't like sharing my goals for the new year. (Don't ask why I like the word goal better than resolution. I know they're the same thing, but goal seems much more attainable.) The reason I'm sharing my Farmer's Wife quilt goal is that I'm going to change my publication layout this year. Currently I publish Wednesdays on knitting and sometime in the weekend on quilting. I'm going to try moving to three posts a week. Miscellaneous Mondays will focus mostly on my other quilting projects, but they're miscellaneous so that I can share other things if I want to. Plus I love alliteration. Wednesdays will remain Work in Progress Wednesdays where I'll still share my current knitting projects. Fridays will now be Farmer's Wife Fridays and I'll show you the blocks I got done that week.
I know that setting lofty goals sometimes means failing, but I don't like everyone to know when I fail. This is probably why I don't share my new year's goals with anyone other than my husband. I will however share my goals for 2013. This year I wanted to get a quilt pattern on the moda bakeshop (Into the Woods and Prairie Stars Table Runner) and I wanted to be paid for one of my patterns. I have my first pattern up on craftsy and have even been favorited by someone. It's not a sale, but I'm sure it will come sooner or later.
I use my blog to job my memory, too. It's a great help. I wish you much success on your Farmers Wife project! Happy New Year!
ReplyDeletewhat a wonderfully quilty christmas and what a fun post to read... I love when you share behind the scenes stuff from a designing point of view... I look forward to seeing progress on the Farmer's Wife.. you should do that with us as we do our sew along! You might beat us too :) I sketch my patterns and have thought of colored pencils but didn't transfer them yet to my quilting supplies.. I don't have EQ7 yet.. will invest some time... but I also hope to get better at piecing in 2014. Here we go Kymberly! Let's do this :) Kathi
ReplyDeleteYou will enjoy making the Farmer's Wife quilt. It was the first quilt I made (I went to a class) and it was a little beyond the reach of a beginning quilter but it did amp up my piecing skills. Good luck to you in your journey. P.S. I ended up with the lap size with 50 blocks.
ReplyDeleteI've been quilting for about 3 years now and it still feels like a challenge. I can't imagine doing it as my first quilt.
DeleteThose are great goals to have! Happy new year, and good luck!
ReplyDeleteHurray for the Farmer's Wife Quilt! I made most of mine with a group with the QuiltingBoard.com a few years ago. They did 2 blocks a week. I couldn't manage that, but maybe you can--plenty did. I have little quilting time during the school year, so who knows? It's now almost near the top of my quilting priority list. I would suggest paper piecing. Cutting templates, which I tried at first, was difficult because of all the tiny pieces. They are 6" blocks and when making a bunch of HSTs for a basket it's daunting.
ReplyDeleteQuiltboard also has a list for all the paper piecing patterns (from a Yahoo group), plus rotary cutting. I have all the paper piecing templates which I would gladly share with you. And here is the first post for the start of the quilt group. http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-52690-1.htm I also have the links to all the posts. It's very helpful to see everyone's blocks and discussion about each one, tips, tricks, etc.
Thanks for these links. One of the things I'm working on with this project is figuring out the dimensions for a block from a picture of the block so on most blocks I'm going to work out the pieces for rotary cutting on my own. Looking ahead though I know there's going to be a couple of blocks I definitely want to paper piece.
DeleteHow exciting! I've always admired folks who make the Farmer's Wife quilt - it will be fun to see how yours comes along! It's a good goal for the year!!
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'm really excited to be working on this quilt.
DeleteThe Farmers Wife blocks will be a fun project. Just remember missing your target once or twice is not failure, you have to look at the whole year of effort. I have found that when a goal is published on my blog I am a lot more likely to keep up since it would be embarassing to fail. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteIt took me a while to remember this yesterday when I made my first two blocks. I wasn't happy because my points didn't match perfectly. Then I reminded myself that I'm doing this goal to improve my piecing skills and I can always redo the blocks at the end if they still bug me.
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