A look back and a peek ahead.
Time just flies by, doesn’t it? Here are a few 2021 highlights.
I designed Father & Farmer with my dad in mind. He wore bib overalls and a blue chambray shirt and carried a red or navy bandana handkerchief nearly every day of his life. This quilt appeared in Fons & Porter’s Quick + Easy Quilts Feb/March 2021.
You can still order the issue and it’s even on sale! There are several other patterns inside that I’d love to make. A magazine continues to give you the most bang for your buck: anywhere from eight to 12 patterns for less than five dollars, in this case. What’s not to love?!
One of my favorites this year was a quilt that began with reject or leftover blocks from my friend Carol Baker. I loved the fabrics! I took a handful of blocks apart, reused some of the patches and added some stash fabrics of my own.
I gave it the name “scrappy with orange garnish” as strictly a working title when I submitted the quilt idea. Maybe nobody had a better idea because that one seemed to stick—something I learned as I opened the magazine. You can still get the pattern if you have scraps you’d like to use up. It would look great in just about any colors!
Scrappy with Orange Garnish Pattern from Quilting Daily (also on sale!)
In early spring I ran a series of Sunday afternoon sessions on a complimentary basis. I called the series Scrap Quilt Secrets. It was fun and interesting for me but I learned some lessons that were tough to swallow. I spent the rest of the year attempting to apply what I’d learned.
The StarQuar unit grew out of Scrap Quilt Secrets. I continue to play and I’m excited about this idea and its endless potential. One magazine quilt is already on tap for 2022—I’m working on it now.
The thrill of 2021 was my Big Cheese quilt on the cover of Quiltmania. I was just happy to have a design picked up, and it was such a lovely surprise to see it on the front. I picked up my phone one morning, opened Instagram and there it was.
This quilt came about because another idea had flopped. I was just playing around and it kind of happened by accident. And then I guess I didn’t realize it would appeal to anyone else because it sat around my studio for many months before I sent it to Quiltmania in a sort of “hail Mary” way.
Like many others, the pandemic has kept me from seeing the people I love most including my grandchildren, who live in Hong Kong. I made doll quilts for my twin granddaughters Lucy and Emma.
The two quilts are the same but have slightly different colors, and the fabrics all came from my stash.
When the magazine was finished shooting the quilts, I shipped them off to the girls. Funny thing, they liked the quilts but were especially enamored with the little pillows and pillowcases!
I’m running out of time and laptop battery but I also did monthly Facebook Lives for Annie’s/Quilter’s World, traveled to a handful of guilds, presented on Zoom nearly every week, launched open enrollment classes, tried to send Scrappy Tips by email regularly, worked to blog more often (still working!), grew my Insta a whole bunch and met a lot of wonderful people in virtual classes.
Still need to do lots more planning for 2022 but I will sign off for now with this:
Happy New Year! Quilt on!
