Project Update: A year in review and plans for the new

Hello Friends and Happy New Year!

I wish each of you the very best in 2022 and would like to encourage you to try new things, embrace opportunities, and follow wherever your heart should lead!

For myself, this means experimenting with new techniques and working on the projects I am most excited about, but also limiting the number of active projects for more finishes this year!

But before I share more about my plans for 2022, I'd like to look back on all the projects I started, completed, and continued in 2021.

2021 in Review

I'm sure everyone says this, but I can't believe the year is already over! There were so many projects that I wanted to finish that are still in progress, things I never had time to start, and others that I'm proud to have completed! On top of it all are the surprise projects that I picked up along the way without much planning at all!

Looking back, I've accomplished so much this year and I'm proud of each and every project that was a step along that path!

So let's take a look at what I've made!

Block of the Month

As I'm sure you're all aware by now, I love participating in block of the month challenges! It's so interesting to see how each individual's colour choice, block placement, and original ideas alter the finished design. It shows just how much possibility there is within a single quilt pattern!

In 2021, I participated in three different BoM challenges; two of those challenges have officially ended, but one will be continuing into the new year.

The first was the Wetlands quilt, a project run by my quilt guild from September 2020 to May 2021. This quilt was a lot of fun to make and introduced me to a new technique, fusible applique!

I also gave myself a few personal challenges to undertake while making the Wetlands quilt; to use only solid coloured fabrics and to incorporate curved piecing into the backgrounds of the applique blocks.

I finished assembling the Wetlands quilt top in the spring, sharing some thoughts about the project before adding it to my UFO bag. I'll bring it out again at a later time to quilt and bind it, but for now, I'm happy to have learned so much from this beautiful project!

Many thanks to the designers; Mary Dodd and Marian Baidacoff. Instructions have been shared by the MQG.

The next BoM I chose to start was the National Quilt Museum's 2021 Block of the Month Club project. This challenge ran from January to December 2021 and featured a sampler style mystery quilt with each block designed or inspired by a different artist from the Museum's collection.

I initially joined this program because it featured quilt as you go, a style of quilt making where blocks are pieced then quilted individually before being assembled into a finished quilt. Piecing has always been my favourite part of the quilt making process, so I wondered if quilting periodically throughout the piecing process would suit me better.

While I do think that is the case, I've really been enjoying the quilt as you go process, I wasn't able to keep up with the pace of the challenge and I ended up falling behind.

As of now, I have four blocks completely pieced and quilted, as well as an additional two that have only been pieced. I am planning to continue this project in the new year, piecing and quilting blocks throughout the winter, and I'm hoping for another finished quilt soon!

Thanks to all of the designers involved with this project; Cassandra Beaver, Becky Glasby, Christina Cameli, Audrey Esarey, Cathy Erickson, Ann Brauer, MJ Kinman, Maggie Weiss, Laura Wasilowski, and Laura Loewen. Thank you as well to the National Quilt Museum for hosting this program!

The final BoM project of 2021 was my guild's Mystery Quilt project, running from September 2021 and expected to end in May 2022.

Since this is a mystery quilt, I couldn't make any plans for customizing the quilt beyond my initial colour choice. I decided on a spruce tree theme, using Oakwood background fabric that I already had in my stash. I've never used a large print fabric as a background before, so I'm interested to see how it will turn out, especially since it was specifically not advised for this project!

I am still on track with this BoM, having already completed November's four blocks and the one from December, and I'm excitedly anticipating the release of a new block later this week!

I would love to be able to thank whoever designed this project, but unfortunately, the guild has not released that information yet. I'm expecting it to be available towards the end of the project when the full design of the quilt is revealed! Further instructions will continue to be shared by the MQG.

Other Quilting Challenges

Of course, block of the month was not the only quilting challenge I participated in last year, there are many other quilt making challenges to explore! Some may be done online with groups of friends, others are sponsored by companies or quilting organizations, and many encourage makers to explore new ideas and techniques!

I like quilting challenges since they often encourage me to look at quilt making from a different perspective. It's so interesting to see what you can make when given themes or restrictions to guide your creative process!

I chose to embrace two quilting challenges in 2021. One was an official, sponsored challenge with strict guidelines, the other was a self imposed challenge, intended to push myself to try new things. Ultimately, both resulted in the creation of beautiful and original mini quilts!

The official quilt making challenge was the TrendTex Challenge, sponsored by TrendTex and displayed at the 2021 virtual Quilt Canada show. This challenge provided five fat quarters and a theme to guide the making process, as well as limitations on the finished size of the project.

I responded to the prompt with an original design entitled Rainy Day Friends, which I ended up making two versions of.

The first was a mockup to test the pattern. I used fabric from my stash in similar colours and prints, cut at the same dimensions as the fabric provided for the challenge. This quilt was fully pieced, but has not yet been quilted.

The second used the actual challenge fabric and was submitted to the Quilt Canada show, and later sold at auction. I shared the whole process of designing and constructing this project back in June, right before the virtual Quilt Canada event premiered.

In hindsight, I'm really glad I made a mockup quilt. Not only did it give me the opportunity to test and refine the pattern, but I was also able to keep the mockup version for myself!

The other challenge from last year produced even more mini quilts! My self-imposed Summer Mini Quilt Challenge was a lot of fun and encouraged me to try all kinds of new techniques I'd never used before!

This challenge was much more casual in some ways; the guidelines were a lot less strict and there was no theme to follow, but much more intense in others; the schedule being very fast paced.

I began the summer by laying out the guidelines and prompts, then after 12 weeks, wrapped up the challenge with a summary post. In the weeks between, I designed and completed eleven original mini quilts!

The whole challenge was a lot of fun and I definitely learned a lot! However, committing to so many weeks took a lot of time away from some of my other, larger projects, and I genuinely missed working on them. If I was to take on another similar challenge, I think I would certainly need to make some changes to the schedule.

Both of these challenges taught me a lot, both about quilt making and about myself as a maker, so I'm excited to embrace more challenges in the future!

Original Quilt Designs

While challenges offer a great opportunity to stretch your creative potential, some original designs are developed for more personal reasons. It could be to add warmth to a bed, to share a joke, to use up some of the fabric you have in your stash, to speak up about social injustice, or simply to create something beautiful!

Any reason you create is a significant and important reason to create, and I create for many different reasons!

I began 2021 while stitching together a design I've been calling Changing Pace. The quilt was first designed in 2020 as a pattern that could turn a single package of charm squares into an adult sized quilt.

Throughout 2020 and 2021, I pieced the quilt by hand, completing the quilt top early last summer. I really appreciated the irony of a modern style quilt pieced entirely by hand, a change of pace that fits quite well with the name of the quilt.

I had planned to quilt Changing Pace by hand starting in the fall, but renovations and other projects put that plan on hold. I'm hoping that once I've completed some of my other ongoing quilting projects, as well as the ongoing home renovations, I'll have the time to come back to Changing Pace.

In addition to the original quilt I was testing, I also shared a few of my own original patterns early in 2021.

These were both designs based on the traditional rail fence block; a very beginner friendly block that uses rectangular strips to create an interesting zig zag design! It has become one of my favourite traditional blocks because of the time I spent with it working on my Rainbow Railfence quilt!

The quilt itself was designed and pieced in 2014, but wasn't finished until December 2020. Since the pattern is so simple, and I was so excited about the outcome of my first original quilt, I thought it would be a great opportunity to try pattern writing!

And as my very first attempt at pattern writing, I shared it as a free pattern here on the fibre arts blog! I would love to receive feedback on it if you'd like to give the pattern a try for yourself!

I quickly followed the release of that pattern with another rail fence inspired block, the Rail Fence Heart. This is another free pattern available on the blog, but is for a two in one style block rather than a completed quilt.

Between these two patterns I learned a lot about pattern drafting, what needs to be included, and designing pattern graphics. It left me excited for the possibility of writing more patterns in the future!

Other Projects

And of course, there are some other projects I've worked on throughout the year that aren't original designs and weren't made in response to a challenge. Some of the projects I work on are made entirely for fun from the designs of other creators!

I think these projects are especially important since they don't require a lot of focus or emotional energy on my part. I simply select my desired fabric, follow the instructions, and have fun!

The first of these is Simply Woven, which was pieced many years ago and I finally began quilting last spring.

The quilting is still in progress, in fact it's been going fairly slowly, but I'm optimistic that I'll continue working on it and making progress in the new year!

My thanks to the designer, Jess Kelly, and to Moda for distributing the pattern.

Another just for fun project was this fall's patchwork plague doctor mask.

I found that the pattern was really easy to follow and a lot of fun to make! And the mask itself was both whimsical and thematically appropriate to the ongoing global pandemic. Although I can't see it being particularly effective as a surgical garment, it does make an interesting costume piece!

Thank you to Sara, AKA mctreeleth, who designed and shared the pattern!

The final project has been the one occupying most of my time of late, the Generations Quilt.

This project was based on two sets of traditional quilt blocks, the Dresden Plate and the Six Pointed Star, both of which come in many variations. The particular blocks the project is based on were made by my Great Grandmother several decades ago. I am now working together with my Mother and Grandma to make more blocks to assemble into a series of quilts.

I shared more about the origins of this project in October if you'd like to check that out!

At this time, each of us has completed the piecing on a few blocks, and we will continue working on them into the new year. We will also continue to check in with each other periodically to ensure that this project continues in a direction that all of us are happy with!

In addition to all of my big and exciting projects, I also accomplished a lot of mending and mask making in 2021. Although mundane, I think these things should be acknowledged and appreciated since they are used every day of my life.

Looking back, I did a lot more mending this year than I ever have before, and for that, I'm very proud of myself!

Plans for the Future

After looking back at all the projects I worked on last year, I'm really excited for what the new year will bring! I have so many ideas for new projects, plans to finish ongoing ones, and goals I'd like to reach!

But I believe the annual resolutions some people make around this time of year a little too broad and far off for the way I like to plan. Instead, I'll be preparing myself to tackle the next few months with my goals for the winter of 2022!

The biggest goal is to complete at least one quilt. Specifically, I want to finish Simply Woven.

I don't know if this is a totally realistic goal, after all, I've been progressing on the quilting pretty slowly and sporadically, but I'm just about done with the bar quilting design and soon I'll be ready to start the more organic background quilting. Since I've never tried that style of quilting on a full sized quilt before, I don't know how quickly or slowly that will go, but I am planning to prioritize working on Simply Woven!

Another quilt I would like to get done is the NQM 2021 BoM project.

Since it hasn't been in progress nearly as long as Simply Woven, this project doesn't carry quite the same degree of urgency, but the quilt as you go technique is one that I'm excited to incorporate into other projects! However, I don't want to start using it on other projects until I've fully completed one quilt as you go quilt just to be sure I'm actually happy with the end result.

One particular project I'd like to use the quilt as you go technique for is the

Generations Quilt, which brings me to my next goal!

This goal is significantly less structured than the others since there isn't a set end in mind. Rather, my goal for the Generations Quilt is to simply make progress. As long as I work on this project at some point throughout the next few months, I will be happy. If this means I make 20 blocks, that's amazing, and if I make only one, I've still done what I hoped to do.

Moving away from quilt making, my next goal involves getting back into garment construction.

As I've mentioned many times in the past, I started out in garment sewing and came to quilting later on. Over the past few years, quilt making has kind of taken over my life and my garment sewing plans have remained in my project journal, unfulfilled. I've decided to get back into garments with a simple shirt project, for which I bought the burgundy linen in the photo above, which I'm really excited to work with!

Not sponsored, but I really want to shout out Pure Linen Envy, from whom I bought this beautiful fabric!

That leaves me with four projects for the winter, plus the ongoing Mystery BoM which my Mom will help me to complete in reasonable time, which I think will be quite manageable!

However, there is one final goal that I have for this winter; organize the sewing studio.

We are planning to renovate my sewing space in the spring, and once that's done, I'll have much more space for storing my supplies and organizing my projects. I'm also planning to custom build a sewing and cutting table that is actually the right height for me! But before any of that can happen, I need to organize what I have into storage containers so all of my supplies will be safe during the renovation.

With all those goals set out, I'm really excited for this winter to get started! Which I suppose it already has, whether I'd like it to or not.

Friends, I'd like to thank each one of you for coming along on this journey with me! We've made so many amazing projects together and I can't wait to see what unexpected adventures come our way in 2022!

If you've set any goals for yourself for the next few months, I would love to hear about them in the comments below!

To keep up with me between posts, you can visit me on Instagram @vafibrearts, and please feel free to tag me in your own project posts so I can see the amazing projects you've been working on! I'm always so inspired by the work of other creators!

Once again Friends, I hope you had a safe and satisfying end to 2021 and wish you all the best in the new year!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

VA