Seasonal Goal Update: Spring 2023

Hello Friends and Happy Spring!

Yesterday was the Equinox, which means Spring has finally sprung!

I've been noticing seasonal changes in the world around me more and more every day. The snow is melting, revealing grass along our walking route, the air is warmer and has lost its cold sting, and the birds are slowly returning from their Winter homes!

And with the start of the new season, I'm excited to look back at the goals I made for the last few months, assess my successes and failures, and to make new plans for the months to come!

Friends, let's start with a look at my Winter goals!

Winter Goal Progress

The first of my Winter goals wasn't a sewing project, it was an upgrade to my sewing space!

Back in the Autumn, we did the structural renovations—drywall, trim, flooring, etc.—leaving me with the Winter months to focus on furnishing and organizing the studio!

The biggest piece that was missing was my work table. Since I'm tall, I needed to custom build a table that would be the proper height for me to comfortably cut fabric. And in January, we finally finished building it!

I've also continued to fill my shelves and added a steamer trunk for some extra storage! The trunk belonged to one of my grandparents who passed away when I was a kid, so it has emotional value as well as the practical value of additional storage.

I haven't completely unpacked all of my sewing room boxes yet, so I'll probably rearrange the shelves a few more times before everything finds its permanent home, but for now, I'm happy with all my progress!

But now, back to sewing!

Winter 2023 saw a lot of exciting quilt along projects, including Summer Garden, Chilhowie, The $3.31 Quilt, and Hexie Harvest, and my goal was to keep up with all of them!

Summer Garden is going really well—I've completed all blocks through February and half of the blocks for March! With another week and a half until the end of March, I have lots of time to finish my outstanding blocks and to remain caught up with the quilt along!

Hexie Harvest is going just as well as Summer Garden with all February blocks and half the March blocks now complete! Again, I have some time before the month ends, so there's a good chance the blocks will be finished in time for me to keep on track with the quilt along!

While I'm keeping up with those two quilts, I've fallen a little behind on both of the others.

At the beginning of this year, I was sick for a few weeks and wasn't able to keep up with Chilhowie. This was a pretty fast paced quilt along, so I really wasn't disappointed to be able to slow down and work on it at my own pace.

The last of my quilt along projects is The $3.31 Quilt. I was doing pretty well at keeping up with this project until very recently. Last week, the finishing instructions were released but my February leaf blocks aren't entirely finished. And after seeing the finished quilt top, I have a few changes in mind that I'd like to make on my own version of the pattern!

So that leaves me about half caught up on my quilt along projects; I'm doing well with the two that are continuing but have fallen a little behind on those that have now ended.

And beyond quilt alongs, I have a few projects I'm working at on my own!

Perhaps not completely on my own, since the first of those projects is the Generations Quilt, which is a collaborative project between myself, my Mom, my Grandma, and my Great Grandmother!

My goal for the Winter was to complete a block every month, with an overall goal of making 30 blocks each of the two patterns. Over the Winter, I completed my six beige on beige Dresden plate blocks and have been working on four rainbow Dresdens. The rainbow ones aren't finished so my total number of completed blocks is now 23 Dresden Plates and 19 Six Pointed Stars!

The next of my goals was to work on Simply Woven a little at a time until it was finally complete.

And I was really successful in completing that goal as Simply Woven was finally finished at the end of January!

Following that success, the final Winter project was my Deep Frost Mage's Robe.

Unfortunately, I didn't make any progress on this at all throughout the Winter months. I had wanted to make any amount of progress on this robe, but all the additional quilt alongs I joined resulted in me not having enough time to work on it. I suspect I won't be able to focus on this until I've finished a few other projects.

New Goals for Spring

Looking ahead to the coming months, there are a few projects I'm especially excited to continue working on!

I have two quilt alongs that will continue into the Spring—Summer Garden and Hexie Harvest—both of which I would like to continue to keep up with. I've done a pretty good job of keeping up with both so far, so I think this is achievable!

The next goal is to continue working on my contribution to the Generations Quilt by completing a block every month. Once again, this is a goal I've kept up with for the past several seasons, so I shouldn't have any problem with it!

The last of my big goals is related to a project that hasn't been mentioned yet, Meadow Mystery. This quilt was last year's BoM project for my quilt guild, and over the Winter, I finished piecing the last few blocks and started quilting them using a method called quilt as you go!

My goal for this project is to continue quilting the blocks and to hopefully finish the quilt completely! I have no evidence to suggest that this is a reasonable goal, but I'm excited to see how I do!

In addition to working on these quilting projects, I have a few non-sewing goals for the Spring!

One is to take more progress photos while working on my projects. I love sharing my progress here on the blog, and since quilting is a visual art form, photos really enhance my ability to do that!

And since finishing Simply Woven in January, I've been thinking a lot about how I want to label my quilts. So another goal for Spring is to create custom stencils that I can use for quilt labels!

I have experience hand printing textiles using stencils, so this method is both familiar to me and offers a lot of customization. I'm looking forward to giving it a try!

So Friends, that's what I've been up to for the last few months and all of my goals moving forward!

The goals I've set for the Spring indicate the highest priority projects for the coming months, but that doesn't mean I won't occasionally dip into other projects. So if you're a particular fan of Chilhowie or The $3.31 Quilt, don't worry, you may see them again soon!

And with all of my goals shared, I would love to hear what you plan to work on throughout this Spring! Please share your goals, plans, and projects—sewing related or not—in the comments below or reach out on Instagram @v.a.fibre.arts!

I'm excited to see how well I'm able to achieve my goals in the coming months and to share my progress here with all of you!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

~VA