New Year's List Writing / Beauties Pagent 242

I am a big believer in making lists. It doesn’t matter whether I write a list out by hand or type it into a digital document, the activity is worthwhile. It gives me the opportunity to process my short-term tasks and establish some long-term goals, but perhaps more important, it frees up space in my brain. Sometimes it seems as if just writing something down and committing to tackling it is half the battle.

My quilting-related lists usually focus on WIPs, but since the new year is upon us, I like the idea of writing out some general goals and making a few detailed lists to set the stage for my 2024 quilting journey.

Stashing Goals

I have a lot of fabric. I suspect you do, too. And if you’re like me, you start each January by resolving to buy less. Yup, that’s a goal for 2024: I don’t want to buy pretty fabric just to buy pretty fabric. (Have you seen the posts about recently restocked Starry from Ruby Star Society? I’ve resisted them all!)

In addition to using up a good portion of my stash this year, I also plan to destash fabric I don’t love anymore or don’t think I’ll use anytime soon. I posted a dozen lots of fabric on Instagram and FeelGood Fibers in December, selling several of them. I plan on posting more to FGF in January. It feels great to see space in my drawers of fabric!

Related links:

• How to Destash on Instagram
• Fastest Way to Finish a WIP: Sell the Fabric!
  
• Learning How to Destash
  
• 10 Ways to Quilt on a Budget
  

Pattern Design

I released just two patterns in 2023: Set to Spin, which is an intermediate paper-piecing pattern, and the Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt, which is one of my $3 Almost Free for Charity PDF patterns.

Most of my designing and quilting time for the next few months is already spoken for, so I don’t expect to release any new patterns until the second half of the year. Still, I am looking forward to adding to my collection of offerings. I’m hoping for two, perhaps three, new patterns. (Hold me accountable to that, friends!)

Related links:

• Set to Spin PDF pattern
• Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt PDF pattern
• From Bolt to Beauty on Etsy

From Bolt to Beauty Blog

I am committed to writing Friday posts here on the From Bolt to Beauty blog and hosting the Beauties Pageant linky. I know that in general blogging has taken a backseat to social media, but this platform continues to be my preferred place to document projects, celebrate triumphs, and discuss the speed bumps along the way. Thank you for being here, for participating in the linky, and for making blogging regularly a worthwhile goal for me!

Social Media

I’ve lost a lot of love for Instagram in the past nine months or so. Algorithm changes over the past year have caused even fewer people to see my static pictures and rendered my involvement on the platform halfhearted at best. Will I post in 2024? Sure, but I expect it to be sporadic. (Darn you, Instagram!)

I’m considering playing around with YouTube in both the long and short formats, but that’s another idea to pursue the second half of the year.

WIPs

I took stock of my works in process, and I have just five of them! Sure, there are a few others that have been cut out, but these are the ones I’ve actually started sewing. (The pictures in this post are testament to that.) One way or another, I can bang these out in the next 12 months. Here is the rather short list, with links to blog posts that discuss them:

• Sandhill Sling (Anna Graham)
  
• Patchwork Sky (Camille Roskelley)
  
• Leaded Glass (Tracey Jacobson)
  
• Random Hearts (Make Things. Grow)
  
• Pineberry (Pen + Paper Patterns)

What is on your list for 2024? Your list doesn’t have to be anything fancy, and I wouldn’t approach it as a legalistic I-have-to-accomplish-these-things-in-the-next-12-months activity, just an opportunity to have a think and give your year of quilting some direction.

Follow Me On ...

 

* * *

The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Ergonomics of Quilting / Beauties Pageant 223

If you had told me when I started quilting that it would be hard on my body, I don’t think I would have believed you. But repetitive stress on my wrists and shoulders? Ouch! The wear and tear (and subsequent discomfort) is real. 

My Advice

Most recently, a paper-piecing project that required a lot of trimming caused me problems. I was working on a deadline and trimming a lot day after day. By the end of it, my quilt was done, but so were left wrist and thumb from applying so much pressure to my ruler while cutting.

The experience caused me to get smarter about how I quilt. For me this means … 

• Being more mindful of my body’s positioning at my sewing machine, cutting board, and keyboard (as a pattern designer and blogger, I spend a bunch of time at my computer)

• Getting up from behind my machine to toggle between tasks more frequently

• Breaking large jobs (like cutting a new project) into smaller chunks and tackling them over a course of days or even weeks instead of all at once
  

• Icing my wrists or shoulders or elbows preemptively—just because I know I’ve used them that day, not because they hurt yet

• Stretching—I especially love stretching my wrists, and I can do that virtually anywhere
  

• Investing in more dies for my AccuQuilt Go! system (I recently purchased the die for 4-inch half-square triangles—sewing HSTs without trimming is a luxury I cannot recommend enough!)
  

• Using my Gypsy Gripper (it’s a handle that suction-cups to quilting rulers) when I use my rotary blade

Others Chime In

I also asked quilters on Instagram what advice they would add to the list, and I was reminded of some of my own strategies as well as introduced to new ones. These additions include:

• Standing on a gel mat while cutting or ironing

• Sewing while standing up

• Investing in an adjustable-height table

• Hand stitching in short sessions

• Using a Martelli Ergo Cutter

They’re all worthwhile suggestions, right?

The Bottom Line

It’s never too soon to start taking care of ourselves. I’ve had friends end up in therapy after messing up a shoulder using the rotary blade or injuring a wrist while English paper piecing. I am a big believer in physical and occupational therapy, but I would also like to avoid heading to a specialist if I can.

That being said, what would you add to the list? Please let us know in the comments below.

About the Pictures

I couldn’t bear to post this without some pretty pictures, so I dug into the From Bolt to Beauty archives for the ones included here. From top to bottom, you’ll see ...

• My 2021 Quilt Buzz Bingo project. You can read more about it here and here.

• Last night at a guild meeting, I identified these hearts as a WIP I want to finish this year. They’re not hard to sew, but getting the WIP to the top of my priority list is. You can read more about this quilt, and click through to the free pattern I’m sewing it from, in this blog post.
  

• My patriotic Love Boldly hasn’t made an appearance on the blog recently, and it’s one of my favorite finishes. Learn more about this project here, and check out the pattern in my Etsy shop (there’s also a cool video there about how I piece the Love Boldly block). 

I realize there are two heart projects in these pictures. Yes, I heart hearts. ; )

Follow Me On ...

 

* * *

The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Catching Up / Beauties Pageant 157

Acornwood by Wendy Kendall

Hello and happy new year! I hope you all enjoyed some time off for the holidays. Things were rather quiet here at From Bolt to Beauty world headquarters. Because of the pandemic, we didn’t get together with family, and I took almost two weeks off from my sewing machine. When your only expectations are to take care of your family, human and otherwise, and play a board game or two, the days are nice and easy.

My Gypsy Wife, in process (still!)

Re-entry into life as normal—well, as normal as it can get these days—is fully underway, though. I picked up my Gypsy Wife project, which I last blogged about in October, and have stormed away from my sewing space in frustration only once or twice as a result. Honestly, following the pattern is maddening—it requires more heavy lifting than other patterns and so many fabric decisions. I look forward to a nice and mindless project next. Perhaps my Random Hearts project in Denyse Schmidt fabrics? Yes, that would do nicely.

The growing collection of block for Random Hearts

Another project on the horizon is a baby-size version of my Pretty in Pluses pattern. I found the sweetest collection of fabric, called Acornwood by Wendy Kendall for Dashwood Studio. The recipient was born last month, but Pretty in Pluses is a fast sew—I’m sure I can squeeze it in before Valentine’s Day.

I hope you’re doing well—I can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to! Fill us in on all the details by adding your recent finishes to the linky below ...

Follow Me On ...

 

* * *

The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Packages Tied Up with Strings / Beauties Pageant 155

Did you see my Monday post? I’m giving away my stash of Denyse Schmidt fabrics, and I couldn’t be more excited about it! I’ve had a long run with some of these fabrics—and certain designs I’ve bought again and again—but it’s time for some turnover with my stash (and, let’s be honest, an excuse to buy Denyse’s more recent collections!).

I knew that chipping away at my stash and cleaning up my sewing space would be a delight. What I wasn’t expecting was how fun it would be to cut up yardage and scraps, assemble them into sweet little piles, and tie them up with string. But it was, and now these cuties are ready to be listed in my Etsy shop between 7 and 9 p.m. tonight for $7 apiece, including shipping.

If you’re interested in a bundle for yourself, I want to temper your expectations. These bundles are small, just 4.5 to 5 ounces each, and there are only a handful of them. I hope to list a few more in the new year, after I finish my Random Hearts quilt.

I’ve had a lot of success with selling yardage and scraps. (I recommend using FeelGood Fibers for destashing like that. Read about my experience with FGF here.) If this idea of giving away fabric and asking people to pay just shipping inspires you, go for it! The next-best thing to buying fabric yourself is giving it to someone who you know will appreciate and use it!

Follow Me On ...

 

* * *

The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

A Last Hurrah with My DS Stash / Beauties Pageant 153

I’ve come to realize that there are two ways to clean up my sewing space: the fast way and the slow way. The fast way is tossing fabric bits that are too small to use, selling no-longer-loved bundles, and passing orphan blocks to friends who will do something with them. The slow way is by finishing projects—ha! I go through spurts when I sort and organize to determine what stays and what goes, but always in the background are the slow projects, chugging along and waiting to be pushed to the head of the queue.

The hearts made with Denyse Schmidt fabric that you see at the top of the post are one of those slow projects. I’ve always loved Denyse’s designs. In fact, I’d say that I came to modern quilting through the DS door, and for the first few years, it was rare that I’d finish a project without at least one of her fabrics in it. And then two years ago, I decided to use up my DS stash once and for all. I was going to make several quilts and then sell off whatever scraps and yardage I had left over. It was time for some turnover in my stash!

That decision resulted in Farmhouse Chic, a quilt of concentric squares that uses fabrics from Denyse’s Eastham and New Bedford lines, along with scraps from other designers ...

To read more about Farmhouse Chic, click here.

It also led to two Ship’s Ladder quilts, as well as a version of Stepping Stones ...

This is the throw-size Ship’s Ladder. Read about it here.

Read more about Stepping Stones in this post.

Now I’m happy to say that I’m on my last quilt with my current DS stash. It’s a catch-all project and comprises many DS lines, for both independent quilt shops and big-box stores. I’m using this tutorial, called Random Hearts. Of course, I finished 15 blocks and then had to set them aside to take care of higher-priority projects, but the project has already proved to be a fun, fast sew.

Are you a fellow fan of Denyse Schmidt? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments—or better yet, post a project using her fabric or one of her patterns in the linky. DS finishes old and new are welcome!

 

Follow Me On ...

 

* * *

The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Silver Lining to 2020 / Beauties Pageant 101

 

Hello and happy Friday! I’m continuing the theme for 2020 today with yet another finish because there’s not much to do when I’m hunkered down at home but sew and sew and sew. This year’s 12 finishes for me were all completed during fairly decent weather, and it makes me wonder how many quilts I’ll successfully tackle once the weather takes a turn for the worse. At some point, I’ve got to get bored of quilting, right?

In any event, I introduced this project a few weeks ago. It’s Stepping Stones, by Blair Stocker of Wise Craft Handmade, rendered in purples, oranges, grays, and blacks from Denyse Schmidt. This pattern was a simple sew and proved to be an effective use of scraps and stash. It was also a fun way to play with value. The transparency effect of the black overlapping corners is especially satisfying, I think. My only word of caution is that the Stepping Stones blocks have bias edges. That’s not a dealer breaker for me, but it’s something to keep in mind if you decide to make the pattern yourself.

 

 

Now that my take on Stepping Stones is quilted and bound, it looks less Halloween-y than I originally feared. It’s still not quite Michelle enough to hold on to it, which is fine. I’ve been accumulating a stockpile of finished lap-size quilts. My younger son wraps up his elementary-school experience next spring, and I thought I’d give the many educational professionals we’ll say good-bye to their choice of quilts. So I’ll add this lovely to the pile.

 

Sometimes I make quilts with a specific recipient in mind, but more often, I sew what I will enjoy creating and then figure out who will receive it. This is my first time asking people to pick what they’d like. I’m excited to see how it goes! : ) 

What do you do with your quilt finishes? Do you sell them, gift them, or stash them away?

Follow Me On ...

 

* * *

The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Stepping Stones Flimsy / Beauties Pageant 98

I mentioned a few months ago that I had started busting through my Denyse Schmidt stash. Making throw- and baby-size Ship’s Ladder quilts (which you can see here and here) was a great first step. Today I am unveiling my third DS project, in flimsy form, for the year ...

This is Stepping Stones, a pattern by Blair Stocker of Wise Craft Handmade. It uses fabrics from Denyse Schmidt’s chain-store collections as well as those she designed for independent quilt shops. If you’re a DS nerd as I am (respect!), you’ll recognize prints from Shelburne Falls, Chicopee, Ansonia, New Bedford, and Eastham.

I am piecing the backing for this beauty now and look forward to straight-line quilting it. I think I can get away without marking any quilting lines. This thought makes me ridiculously happy.

Mixing high-quality fabric with lesser-quality fabric makes me nervous. The colors in the quilt top are beautiful right now. I wonder whether that will be the case after several washings. 

The floral in the picture below is from Joann, and it’s one of my all-time favorite DS prints. Up until now, I’ve used it only in projects that won’t be laundered, like this Cargo Duffle Bag.

My hesitation in using fabrics from the big craft stores originates with my first-ever quilt. I gifted it to a friend who put it to use as a picnic blanket for her young family. It was used hard and washed often, and when I saw the quilt almost four years after making it, the fabrics were a shadow of what they once were. I wrote about the experience back in 2017. Now the care instructions I include with gifted quilts urge owners to wash only when necessary.

What are your thoughts on using fabric from big craft stores in your quilts?

Follow Me On ...

 

* * *

The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Stealing from Peter to Sew for Paul / Beauties Pageant 90

One of my sewing goals this year is to decimate my stash of Denyse Schmidt fabrics. I love Denyse’s vintage-modern take on design—in fact, she’s the reason I got into quilting—but I need some turnover in my stash. So I picked out a few patterns I wanted to make, reasoning that I would be using up some of my favorite prints in a quilt or two that I’d keep for myself.

I introduced you to my first finish dedicated to realizing this goal—a baby-size Ship’s Ladder—a few weeks ago (see it here). Today I’m unveiling Ship’s Ladder quilt in the lap size ...

This pattern is also from Denyse, and I sewed it exclusively in her New Bedford collection, a line I bought back in 2015. I don’t think I’ve ever followed a quilt pattern to a tee as I did here—I even swiped the quilting plan from the pattern. But, hey, why mess with perfection? Denyse knows what she’s doing.

The problem with sewing with these DS fabrics in multiple projects simultaneously is that I find myself stealing from Peter to sew for Paul. For example, I wanted to use more of the black solid in this quilt but had already chopped it up for a version of Stepping Stones, by Blair Stocker of Wise Craft Quilts, that’s in process. Then, of course, I wished I had more of the New Bedford oranges to use in Stepping Stone. Alas, they were pieced into my two versions Ship’s Ladder.

Admittedly, I did scour the web to make some special DS purchases for these projects. These beauties—from Washington Depot, Eastham, and more—will flesh out the various color palettes I’m working with and provide yardage to make coordinating backings.

Are you a collector of DS fabrics? If so, what is your favorite line? I am inclined to say Hope Valley—the first line of fabric I ever bought in fat quarters—but a more accurate answer is whatever DS line I am sewing with at the moment. : )

To my fellow DS fans, here are some spots on Instagram and online to find her past collections:

• New Bedford fat quarters on Instagram for a great price SOLD
  
• New Bedford yardage at QuiltHome
• Ludlow and Washington Depot yardage at Olive Juice Quilts
• Fat quarters from many DS collections at Lark Cottons
• Franklin and Eastham yardage ($6.50/yard!) at City Quilter

Follow Me On ...

 

* * *

The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter