Seasonal Goal Update: Winter 2023

vafibrearts
Dec 20, 2022
7 min read

Hello Friends and Happy Winter!

Though the season doesn't officially start until tomorrow's solstice, the snow, ice, and frigid Winter breeze have already arrived! While I really don't enjoy the cold myself, the changing of the seasons always brings something new and beautiful, so I try my best to enjoy it despite the chill!

And along with the changing season, I like to reflect on my accomplishments over the past few months, look ahead at my plans for the months to come, and set goals to help guide my creative progress!

So Friends, without further ado, let's take a look at my past and future goals!

Autumn Goal Progress

Last season, I tried to take a slightly more relaxed approach to goal setting, focusing on making progress rather than on completing whole projects. Of course, this was not a universal rule for all the projects I worked on and there were a few I had hoped to complete!

The biggest project set for Autumn was the sewing studio renovation. I had hoped to complete the renovation and be moved back into the studio so that I could work more efficiently on my projects while also preventing my sewing work from taking over the whole house.

While the renovation itself is complete (read more about that here!), there are a few custom furniture pieces still in progress. The most important of these is my work table, which we are custom building to suit my height since I'm taller than most other sewists. So while the room itself is ready, the pieces are still not in place for me to use it, and I am continuing to work at the dining room table.

Moving along to actual sewing projects, I had six that I'd chosen to work on throughout Autumn.

The Summer Garden pattern is a quilt along project that I designed for my guild's annual BoM quilt, which I've also chosen to share here on my blog! It features seven unique blocks, all of which are beginner friendly and scrap compatible!

The first iteration of the Summer Garden quilt was made over the Summer to be used as a sample for the quilt along, but I also decided to participate along with everyone else and am currently working on a second version:

I've been calling this variation of the quilt Garden of Cards since the colours were inspired by the Queen of Heart's garden from Alice in Wonderland.

My goal for this project has been to keep up with the monthly schedule of pattern releases, and so far, I've had no problem doing so! Although, I haven't started piecing the December blocks just yet as Mom won't be available for a quilting weekend until later in the month.

Another quilt along project from my Autumn goals is the $3.31 Quilt. This project was designed by John McPhail of Art East Quilting Co. and is the current member's mystery project being hosted by CQA.

So far, the pattern has featured large-format pieced blocks inspired by the animals found on Canadian currency. The two that have been released to date are the beaver from the nickle and the polar bear from the toonie, with a new block expected to release tomorrow!

Like Summer Garden, my goal for the $3.31 Quilt was to keep up with the monthly release of each new pattern, which I have also been able to do!

The next project had the very general goal of completing any amount of progress throughout the season, and even with that simple goal, I didn't make any progress at all on quilting Simply Woven.

Perhaps I just needed a break from this project. Throughout the last year, I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself to get it finished, so slowing down and taking a break might help me to take on the quilting more seriously in the coming months!

Another project with a very broad goal was the Generations Quilt, but instead of any amount of progress, I was working towards completing at least one block every month!

This project uses two different block patterns; the Dresden Plate and the Six Pointed Star, and my goal gave me the freedom to choose whichever of these patterns I was interested to work with in a given month.

My progress on this quilt is actually the one I'm most proud of because I completely blew my goal away by consistently completing sets of about four blocks every month!

This next project moves out of the realm of quilt making and is actually a garment project! Throughout the past year, I've been working on a hand sewn linen shirt inspired by 18th century construction methods, and for the Autumn months, I aspired to continue my progress on this project!

With only buttons and buttonholes left to sew, that meant I was able to complete this project, and since doing so, I haven happily added the shirt to my wardrobe and have worn it many times!

The final project from my Autumn goal list is the Deep Frost Mage's Robe! This project is a quilted and appliqued garment that sits on the line between costume and clothing. The design was inspired by a player skin used by TangoTek in his recent Hermitcraft videos, with some of my own unique additions to really bring the piece to life!

Initially, I had hoped to complete this project before the end of October, giving me just one month to put it together. However, it turned out that I needed much more time than that and the robe is still in progress.

I'm in no way disappointed by this because I know that the time and effort I'm putting into the project will make sure it looks its best, and I have continued to work on it slowly despite missing my initial deadline!

To summarize; of my seven goals for Autumn 2022, I succeeded in achieving four, while three were not fulfilled. My linen shirt project was completed, but all others will continue into Winter 2023!

Setting Goals for Winter 2023

Moving into the Winter of 2023, I'll be taking a look at each of my goals and seeing what I can do to improve upon them in order to encourage further progress in the upcoming months!

The first goal will be to complete the setup of the sewing studio.

As mentioned, I'm still missing my work table and a few other pieces, however shelving has been installed, so I am able to start moving some of my supplies back into the space. I should work on filling the shelves during the week when my partner is at work, and focus on the table on weekends when we have time off at together and he can offer the experience and muscle that I lack.

My next few goals are all quilt along projects, and like last season, I hope to be able to keep up with each of their release schedules!

Continuing from Autumn are Summer Garden and the $3.31 Quilt, and I'll be adding two additional projects!

Earlier this month, I started Bonnie Hunter's Chilhowie mystery quilt! Unlike other quilt alongs I've made in the past, this project runs on a weekly schedule. I've been able to keep up with it so far and am excited to see what direction the quilt takes moving forward!

The other new quilt along will be the Hexie Harvest pattern! This quilt features a selection of English paper pieced hexagonal blocks designed by Jodi Godfrey of Tales of Cloth and follows a block of the month style release schedule.

Godfrey, Jodi. "Screenshot of Hexie Handbook." N.d.

The quilt along officially starts in February 2023, so I won't be sharing much more about the quilt until then, but I'm really excited for my first hand pieced quilt along!

Beyond quilt alongs, I do still have a few other projects I'd like to continue working on!

For the Generations Quilt, I'll be following the same goal of completing one or more blocks every month, but increasing my total block count to 30 of each pattern.

My original count was to be 20 of each block, matching what my Great Grandmother had made before she passed away. Currently, I think I have about 17 completed Dresden Plate blocks and 19 Six Pointed Stars, so I've basically met that original goal.

The reason I've chosen to increase my block contribution is that my blocks are of a dramatically different style than Mom, Grandma, and Great Grandmother's, so I want there to be plenty of options to choose from when the time comes to start making quilt tops. If any of my blocks contrast too strongly, they can be set aside for another project rather than being forced to be included. I really enjoy making these blocks, so putting together a few extras is no burden!

Along the same lines is my Deep Frost Mage's Robe, on which I would like to continue making progress!

Previously, I underestimated how long the applique would take, so at this point, I'm going to leave the amount of progress ambiguous to help me figure out how quickly I work. Besides, it's very easy to applique a few squares while in a virtual meeting or while watching movies with friends!

The final project for my Winter 2023 goals is, of course, Simply Woven.

Since last season's general goal of any amount of progress fell short, this Winter, I'm hoping to make some amount of progress every week. I may end up needing to designate a particular day to working on Simply Woven if it turns out I'm struggling to make progress, but I'll leave that to be figured out at a later time.

Ideally, I would love for this quilt to be completed before the Winter ends, but I'll just have to wait and see how that goes!

Friends, looking back through my Autumn goals has been really inspirational!

While I already knew I tend to prioritize piecing over quilting, I sometimes forget how severely I do so. This becomes a bit of a problem for me since I'm the type of creator who wants to do the whole process themselves and doesn't like the idea of letting someone else do the quilting for them.

I really think my solution will be the quilt as you go method, but I need to get Simply Woven done before I can test that theory. I'm worried that if I start quilting something else, Simply Woven will never get finished.

With that somewhat depressing thought in mind, I'm excited to move on! I have so many beautiful projects in store for this Winter and am optimistic that I'll be able to meet even more of my goals than I did last season!

And one last thing before I sign off; I'll be taking a break from the blog next week, but I plan to be back in January! In the meantime, you can keep up with me on Instagram @v.a.fibre.arts!