Not Reaching Your Goals is NOT a Failure

54 is decidedly not 44.

A year ago I set an intention to finish quilts. I had 54 projects on the Quilts Under Construction list. So, in the year I was 44 I thought it would be am good idea to get that list down to 44. It seemed reasonable. It is reasonable. And I did finish 6 projects. Some of those held long time spots on the list, or short spots. Some were started and finished in one go. I did, however, start a number of projects as well. They are taking up room on the list as blocks or completed quilt tops.

So be it.

In a few days I turn 45 and 45 is 54 backwards. That tiny fact appeals to me. Since I can’t be 44 forever, and I still don’t have 44 projects on the Quilts Under Construction list then I will hang on to this little tidbit of cheer.

And really, when it comes down to it, I don’t care about that number. I don’t care that I started more than I finished this year. Why? Because it all represents the joy of making. The process is so, so great. I don’t want to get hung up on the number of finished quilts. If that is all I wanted then I could just go buy a quilt at the mall. Okay, maybe not right now, but you get the point.

As I look through my master list I am reminded on projects started for specific reasons and that memory makes me smile. I see projects that started as a moment of play that grew and grew. I see old projects that I am, admittedly, a little sad, aren’t getting their time in the sun. I see quilt tops I am anxious to quilt (and the 4 big pieces of batting I bought recently calling their names).

Mostly, I see my time invested in myself. That’s right, not invested in the projects, in myself. That’s because this is 80% about my mental health and finding joy in the creative act and 20% about making a quilt. And this past year, especially these past few months, have been stressful and busy. Without a creative practice like quilt making I definitely would be full of anxiety and tears. Those things are there, but I can manage them because I make.

Long time readers will probably think I sound like a broken record. I can’t argue with that. Right now though, we need to see this more than ever. Make for the sake of making.

So on my distanced birthday this year I will likely get a few stitches in a few different projects and none will get finished. It will be glorious. One of these days I will get down to 44, or maybe even less? Or maybe I won’t.

Sawtooth Sampler from Walk, Jog, Run: A Free Motion Quilting Workout

A few years back I met the bundle of positive energy Dara Tomasson. I think it was at a trunk show I was doing but don’t quote me on that! As we got to know each other we discovered that she had family living only blocks away, her husband and I likely crossed paths as teens, and we had a mutual love of dogs and ice cream. Now she has her first book debuting in the world! When she asked if I could help her showcase it I did not hesitate.

Walk, Jog, Run is a free motion quilt (FMQ) book designed to help you build muscle memory, and thus, expertise. It isn’t just a book full of doodles for FMQ though. Dara walks us through set up, the right tools, and trouble shooting before she even gets to quilting patterns. As a former school teacher and current coach she is adept at breaking everything down to feel both manageable and informative. One of my favourite bits is the discussion on tension troublesheeting - something that I still have to look up after 21 years of quilting.

One of the other parts of the book that makes it unique is the drawing exercises and ‘training’ she suggests to build your skills. Like the title suggests, you can’t run a marathon until you know how to walk first. You can’t FMQ the king size beauty until you can draw the lines you want to make.

Now I am pretty comfortable with my FMQ skills. But I admit that I get lazy. I want to minimize stops and starts so I choose all over designs. Or I want to finish quickly so I choose something easy. But after reading the book and making this Sawtooth sampler I am motivated to try a few new to me things. That’s because they aren’t any more difficult, it was just my perception of the difficulty.

I’ve never done the ribbon candy before, but I love the look. It is definitely something that requires the muscle memory, so I did it all over the background on this piece. And one of my new favourites is the double meander on the top there. These are only 15” stars so quilting on a piece this size was a perfect way to practice. The sandwich was easy to manipulate yet I had ample space to experiment

To quilt I used two colours of Auriful 50W - a fuschia for all the stars and a pale yellow on the backgrounds. Of course, if you really want your stitching to pop then use a contrasting thread. You can see that in effect when I used the fuschia on the blue star.

Confession: I made a mistake when I was cutting the fabric for one of the stars, but I didn’t notice it until I was sewing. Of course, I didn’t have enough fabric left. So with a quick pivot I decided to turn this into a pillow cover. With pandemic shut down though I had to go with a size of pillow form already in the house. That just meant I could do a literal pivot too. I rotated things as I trimmed the quilted pillow top, cutting off points and the oddly shaped star mess. A fun solution! Since it had to be just a few inches bigger than my largest ruler I made the pillow back first and trimmed based off that. Nothing fancy there, just an unquilted envelope back of some fabric in the stash.

Congratulations Dara on your book! It’s a great one and I hope the rest of you will check it out. Especially if FMQ is new or intimidating to you. This book is a great trainer and Dara is a wonderful coach.

As you can see, about 20 minutes after I finished the pillow was put to good use as my littles listened to a teacher reading stories.

Ripples - A Water Inspired Quilt

Ripples

52” x 68”

Next in the landscape series of quilts. (First there was Mountain Meadow, then Names for Snow).

Completely inspired by the deep blue landscape of Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Whether it was the morning sun reflecting off the calm ocean, or the hidden blues of the spruce trees in the rain, or even the rolling fog covering the community like a quilt, they all found a home in this quilt.

Simple improv curves, the repetition of blocks and colour an homage to all that I saw that long weekend on the coast. A way to capture the energy of the community and the creativity of all the people I met. This is absolutely Improv With Intent.

Quilted with concentric circles to emphasize the Ripples. Kind of like the ripples on the surface when you toss a handful of rocks into the water. Or the ripples when the seals poke their heads up to see what you see. Or when the fish bubble up, trying to hide from the seals and the herons. Or, as I see more often than not in our life on the Prairies, kids jumping in a pool!

The quilting was done on my Bernina 820 with an Aurifil 50W in teal. It blended with the front and the fabric on the back.

Backed with a gorgeous loon print from Mark Anthony Jacobson, an Ojibwe artist. Bound in grey, one of my own prints, to remind me of the fog, the logs, and the weathered wood of the docks.

To see more of the inspiration, check out the original post.

Contentment versus Happiness in Life and Quiltmaking

Where do you find happiness in your quilting? Is it is the process or a specific part of the process? Or is it in the finished quilt?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the difference between contentment and happiness. Here is what I shared with my newsletter readers last week:

So many of us are always on the look out for happy. We think happiness is the ultimate goal. We are wrong, I see now. Contentment is what we should seek. 

Think of it this way. When you have a baby the exhaustion level, physically and mentally, is high. So is the amount of stuff and drudgery in your day. But then the day comes that they genuinely see you for the first time, the day they roll over, the first night they sleep for 6 hours straight, pulling themselves up at the coffee table, crawling, walking, the first word. These milestones are all the happy we desire. They are excitement and pure joy. But they aren't really enough to get us through the day to day, the repetitiveness, the mess of parenting a baby. Unless, of course, we can embrace the naps on our chest again, cleaning the favourite toy of spit up again, the screeching, and even the diapers. Contentment is when we can look at all of that and still smile.

Happy is an exclamation point. Contentment is a smile. 

If our lives are filled with nothing but exclamation points it will be fun, sure, but also exhausting. Here's another way to think of it. Imagine your last good vacation, if you can. Was it all adventures - zip lining, horseback riding, spicy cooking classes, the tallest building in the city, surfing lessons? Probably not. But maybe you did one or two really exciting things and then otherwise enjoyed strolling the beach or city streets, reading a book, a delicious bakery where you lingered. If it was all the adventures - the exclamation points - it would be a lot of fun, maybe a bit stressful, and very, very tiring at the end of the day. But those quieter moments, the ones that make you smile and sigh are delightful.

Regular life needs to be a combo of both. However, instead of seeking happiness, we should be looking for what makes us content. More importantly, we should be looking around us and realizing that what we have is good and brings us contentment. You might be surprised at what you see.

Then I was speaking with a lovely lady in my neighbourhood this week, also a quilter. She spoke about how she will look at a finished quilt and wonder just how she got there. Like suddenly it is finished and the making of it has slipped away. Yet the making of it is where her peace is.

Contentment = enjoying the quilt making process.

Happiness = the finished quilt.

So I suppose that now that I’ve thought of it this way, I see my love for the process in an even better light. And it explains my defence of unfinished quilts. I would much rather have contentment, a smile, in my life on a daily basis than the energy of an exclamation point. Don’t get me wrong, happiness is awesome, finished quilts are awesome, but finished quilts only come around a few times a year. Why hang all my joy on sometimes success when I can have peace everyday in the making?

To that end. I did finish a few quilts recently so I was happy to pull out an old, favourite project. I’m jazzed for it and sneak in to the sewing room in spare moments to put together just one more string of Itty Bitty curves. The piecing makes me feel joyful, the work growing gives me all the smiles, and the daily making is 100% about contentment.