things 2020 taught me

 oh boy, where do we begin with this year end round up?

it truly is a weird year to be saying farewell too...
and who would have thought that this photo that was from exactly a year ago today would have truly set the tone for the year's emotions.

and now here we are, bidding farewell to the year that was terrible for many, confusing for most and just straight up different for all.

what did 2020 teach me?

travel when you can.  and often.
i was able to go to quiltcon right before everything shut down, which also meant spending time in texas with my best friend.  i was supposed to go back over the summer, but hopefully next year...
hopefully.
i was also able (by way of work) to take a quick trip to SLC in september, which was nice to get some cousin time and shop hop a little bit.

curves aren't scary
i sewed TWO quilts with curves this year
parallel path and take heart were totally not scary at all, and have opened my eyes to new possibilities for quilting.
it was great to be able to challenge myself in a new way, in the midst of all the chaos.
plus, doing them as baby quilts really helped the new challenge seem a whole lot less daunting

take the plunge

with the shut down, playing the waiting game to go back to preschool was HARD.

happening in to the position at cali quilt co, which has clearly spiraled in to so much more than i could have imagined.  it was easily one of the HARDEST decisions i've ever had to make, and so many options were vented and tears were shed...but i don't regret it one bit.  preschool, from what i've heard from coworkers, is still in limbo anyways, so i would still be playing the waiting game.

taking the plunge in to something new and scary has pushed me in to wanting to come up with other new and challenging experiences, both in real life and virtual life.  block party has been it's own adventure with the shop, but i'm also looking to push and challenge myself in my own way via youtube.
nothing is "official" on that front yet... but given that i wanted to kick things off TOMORROW... i will probably be up late getting situated and what not.

as far as real life plunges... you'll have to wait on that until something official happens :)

breathe
one particular line from "everybody's free (to wear sunscreen)" by baz luhrmann always sticks out to me.  

"don't worry about the future. 

 or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum"

boy did 2020 bring some worries to a whole lot of people, and rightfully so.  but sometimes, you just gotta step away, take a breath and let things settle before jumping back in to it all.

sometimes it helped.  sometimes it needed an even longer breath.

and a whole lot of dr pepper.

other things from 2020
i binged a whole lot of tv...
schitt's creek
emily in paris

community

dash and lily

unorthodox

love on the spectrum

new girl

i stayed in touch with all my friends, both near and far.
i became proficient in wal mart grocery ordering. at least so i think...

i do miss sitting inside restaurants and eating... and hanging out with my friends.  and movie theaters. OH how i miss movie theaters...

but most of all

i made a lot of quilts, many of them for very important people.

can you tell it was hard for me to pick just a few favorites?
this is nearly all of them that i made from start to finish throughout the year!

but my FINAL quilt of 2020 will be revealed tomorrow!

goodbye 2020.
you were really something.  

but now i'm off to an adventurous 2021!

bright and merry juniper berry quilt

 this quilt has been a few years in the making, and now i'm super excited to say it is finally done!
and in true fashion, despite being the first christmas quilt started this year, it is the fourth and final one completed.  whoops!  but i have to say that even after all this time, it was well worth the wait.

i first saw the pattern in probably 2017 as part of a kit at fabric garden, a local quilt shop in the area.  they didn't have any patterns available solo, but they were able to eventually special order it for me.  after getting a pattern in my hands, it sat for awhile since i knew i wanted it, but didn't know what it would look like.  then, i found the backing fabric in 2018, which then set the tone for the whole quilt.

the bright colors reminded me so much of the tree lot scene in a charlie brown christmas.  i was happy to have an idea for a christmas quilt that had a traditional idea to it, but wasn't completely traditional in christmas colors.  i shop hopped around town to find a variety of colors and prints to make the trees unique, and then this project clearly sat for awhile since 2019 came and went, but still no christmas quilt.  i think this became one of my first projects for the 2020 UFO challenge, which was quite motivating early on in the year.  as you can probably guess, i fell off that wagon at some point.  i picked up the background fabric from thistle dew in january, which was after a great debate of what color to do.  i'm super glad i went with this icy blue that really helps the trees pop out.

when it came to selecting the borders, i knew i wanted them to be grunge, but also different than what was already in the trees.  i paid a visit to swifty stitches, since i knew susan had the stars which ended up being the perfect outer border.  the great debate for the inner border began, because i had just heard that glitter grunge was being released.  the green was the one color she didn't have on hand, and neither did any of the other local shops.  silver is more my vibe, but since she did have the metallic, i picked up the amount i needed just incase.  worst case scenario, i have more grunge in my stash.

while at quiltcon, i found and purchased some of the glitter grunge to audition for the inner border.
whelp.  i think you can tell the gold metallic won that battle, and now i have some glitter grunge in my stash!

i finally stayed with my plan, and quilted a wood grain free motion pattern on this quilt.

though, i couldn't bring myself to use red thread on the middle portion, or light blue thread on the borders, so i had to deal with a lot of color changes.  but it was so worth it.  

i just love the texture it brings to the quilt, and allows it to be a little more free and not exact.

okay, so FINALLY here's a look at the backing that started it all.
can you blame me??

i can't even remember how i came across it, but this alexander henry print was PERFECT in every way.

i did my usual way of breaking up a backing by including a stripe of the blue i had from the background on the front, which with that red bobbin thread really pops out that quilting. 

i also debated going for a bold binding, but with the amount of color going on in the trees, went ahead and got more of the grunge seeing stars in red to frame it up.  worked perfectly for the front of the quilt and the back!

this quilt took a lot of organization and planning when it came to the layout, but many MANY episodes of encore! on disney+ got me through it.  even though i had the top done in early spring, my procrastination (and other quilt distractions) got the best of me, making my own projects be the last ones done.  i'm SO glad that i was able to get it done before christmas and get use of it this year before putting it off for yet another year.

well, even though we're post christmas...it is still on my bed.

and while we may be rolling in to 2021 this week, i have no shame in my procrastination game right now.

honestly, i'm surprised my halloween pillowcases aren't out still...

pattern: juniper berry by antler creek design

quilt count: 146

merry 2020

here we are at another traditional sibling line up.
we wish you a merry christmas...
and an impending new year that was better than this one.

nerdy math themed festive fir quilt

 here we are, the week of christmas, can you believe it?
a whole lot has been going on around here, but this quilt has already been in it's home and used (i hope) all month long.  i won this pattern on an instagram giveaway by the designer, sewbrainy, along with my guild president kathy and waited for awhile to see what fabric i might use for it.  once i found this math print in blue for ben's star wars gradu-mas quilt last year, i knew it would be perfect for my sister (and ben) as a holiday quilt.

this quilt sat in limbo for awhile, because i was waiting for the perfect background fabric to go with it.
while home on unemployment in march (the perfect time to buy fabric, right?) i found this white on white molecule fabric from my now place of employment, and it was the perfect science addition to this quilt.  the top was knocked out in the month of april, and then sat around forever waiting for the perfect quilt back. the shop that i bought all the math fabric was had a retirement/closing sale, which was so sad to have happen, but i was able to swoop up some of the red math fabric for the binding, which was a perfect addition to the quilt as well as it went with the backing. i just love this little star tree topper.

we have always had an angel on the top of our actual christmas tree, which would have been a little tricky to piece, but man did sewbrainy designs NAIL it with this cute little star.
no math fabric in the star, just some cute itty bitty stars on stars on stars.

originally i was going to free motion the woodgrain that i've done before on this quilt, but i kept going back to the poinsettia stitch i did on the norweigan woods quilt.  i had to refrain from doing it again and again and again... but this was PERFECT for it.  i used a white aurifil thread for the quilting, both top and bobbin, and i just love how it gave it the perfect texture from a distance and then close up, you can see the flowers and berries. this backing was EXACTLY what i needed for this quilt, and i couldn't imagine anything else going on it.  little did i know, it was on the way to our shop!  well, it came in just last weekend, so this would have been waiting awhile for it.  anyways, i did a strip of vanilla grunge to break up the prints, since i don't mind piecing backs, but also can't stand when prints don't quite line up.  these grumpy faced "not ameowsed" cats by dear stella are the best... so much so, i have four more yards of this fabric in my stash now.  whoops! this quilt went home with ben and aileen the week they were in down due to the chaotic fires in oregon as well as the ones here in california (hence all the hazey looking photos).

i had a lot of fun putting together this quilt, and since the pattern comes in a few sizes, it could make a great wall hanging or pillow for christmas next year! i can already imagine a lot of fussy cut ornaments that would be super cute.  maybe these grumpy festive cats even!

pattern: festive fir by sew brainy designs
quilt count: 145

christmas week

 WHAT.
how has it gotten to be almost an entire month since my last post?

ooof.
well, to be honest... things have gotten crazy, so that's totally on me.
but i'm just popping in to say that a few things are under way.

my christmas quilt FINALLY got finished last week!  
i quilted it at some point during the month, and then just got binding on it.
i'll be photographing it this evening, and HOPEFULLY getting a post up for it before christmas.
i know that gives me like... three days to do so... so fingers crossed!

i also never posted aileen & ben's christmas quilt either...
so here's to hoping i can get that post up as well.
in addition, i made a lot of gifts for my friends i don't get to have mug exchange parties with this year, and block party with caliquiltco is still going strong.  we're off from new videos these next two weeks, but i'll be making my samples over that time to really get the ball going for january's shows.

plus, i've got a personal project endeavor i plan to kick off january 1st...
and yes, i realize that is just over a week away... THE STRESS IS SETTING IN!

i was able to gift my bold blocks quilt to my dear friend and co-teacher from this summer, and the excitement she had when receiving it was well worth it.  

once my orders come today in the mail... i am DONE with my holiday shopping!  it was looking rough there when i had ZERO tracking information for about a week and a half.  ugh.
happy christmas week to all of those celebrating! 

short and sweet... but probably a little long winded.

so i had intentions for a longer post, but between last week and this one, i've got a whole heck of a lot going on at work to get ready for.

plus, i totally meant to get another christmas quilt blogged last week... but clearly that didn't happen and set my schedule back a bit.  oops.

last week was block party number 2, and i feel like it went quite a bit better than the first week.  i demonstrated how to make the hexi muggy ruggy using the creative grids hexagon trim tool, and they turned out pretty cute.  i didn't get a chance to take a good photo with my camera... and i think i failed to post on instagram as well.

i also made the full table runner as a sample to go with week 1's leaf block, and it turned out AWESOME.  i quilted it up and finished it up for saturday's live show (for my show it was only the top) and look forward to hearing how well it sold.
which this also means that a finshed project means another blog post in the works. i already informed my family it would be on the table for thanksgiving, so it will get used before fall is gone.

this week i'm demo-ing another creative grids ruler to make some placemats as well as show how else you can use the block if you don't want to make all the placemats or the table runner.  that's what this blog post's main photo is of, so you can tune in for more about that soon :)
block party is at 9:30am PST every wednesday over on facebook at cali quilt co
if you are one of my few blog followers and haven't met me in real life, shout out in the comments when you watch.  i'd love to know what kind of traffic i get here!

friday i FINALLY quilted my christmas quilt.  i also tested out my new video camera that i bought over the quarantine summer, and it worked okay-ish, but i think the battery died or it got bored before i finished.  maybe it ran out of memory card space?  i'm not sure.  but i also learned that if i'm going to free motion and record it, don't put the camera to my right...  whole lot of my backside in view.  
my plan is to get the quilt bound this week so it is all ready to go by december 1st.

but that should be interesting with block party planning, black friday working, a dentist appointment today AND thanksgiving happening.

plus all the HSTs i still need to make for the all star quilt.

i should probably set a goal for that to make a certain amount a day.

100?  is that realistic?
there are 54 squares of each color... so if i make a full set a day, then i'll be game.

maybe i'll just HST marathon on thanksgiving.  its not like i am useful for any of that cooking process.

i also need to clean up my sewing table a bit...
i put my laundry away FINALLY... which ate in to a lot of my sewing time.

stupid adulting.

plus, my computer keeps shouting at me about running out of space.

ACK.

i've retreated and returned with progress

this past weekend was our first ever retreat for the sacramento modern quilt guild.

it was a short, but very eventful weekend that was well worth it, and a well needed escape.
friday morning, i packed everything up (don't be surprised i waited that long...) and then grabbed lunch and a quick stop at wal mart before beginning my voyage.
i picked up one of my guild members that lives just down the road from me, and after a quick stop at the shop to get ironing boards and wool mats, we were on our way.  our ETA started off at 3pm, but the change in weather quickly pushed that back past 4pm.
driving in snow for the first time can be checked off my list.  that's also why i borrowed my dad's car instead of mine.  thank you, all wheel drive.

once we finally made it, we checked in and got our machines unloaded before locating our cabin.

we did a lap around the area, thanks to the confusing map, and then we found our home...
are you ready for this??

see that TINY little window up at the top? that's where i stayed with three other guild members.

that is our room inside (my bed was the back right one) and even while we had the hike up the stairs... and more stairs... we were thankful we at least had a bathroom on our floor!  after putting our stuff in the room and gathering what we needed, it was back to the parking lot, and then the hike down the next set of stairs before settling in to get going for the evening.

as you can see, we each had our own little island for sewing, and remained masked up unless we were on our island.  after a few welcome notes, an ice breaker game and dinner, we were sewing away for the rest of the night.  well, i was trimming, trying to get all my current HSTs ready to go for the morning.  and i got almost all of them done.
we left around midnight the first night, and then had to hike up the INSANE stairs.
the four of us realized quickly how out of shape we were, and probably spent at least 5 minutes trying to regain our regular breathing once we got back inside our cabin.
oh... and i'm not just talking about the cabin stairs...i'm also talking about THESE stairs!

we went down them each day, and that first night was easily the worst, since they still had remnants of snow and ice on them.  SUPER fun.

saturday was all day sewing!

a few games thrown in here and there, like a fat quarter swap/steal and the kona/aurifil challenge.

i'm please to say i got the most right out of each set.

all the konas that i've had to pull in the last few weeks has really paid off in more ways than one.  ha!

what can i say?
i might get a little competitive when prizes are involved...
and i did feel a little guilty for constantly winning thing.  oh well!

we got a cool collection of swag from olfa, omnigrids, the mqg and cali quilt co, including a cuddle scarf a few guild members sewed that night.  i ALMOST sewed mine as well, just to say i've sewed minky, but i was too in the zone with making my star blocks.  we also battled technology and got the saturday night facebook live show up on the big screen to watch and see what they decided to sell while tayva was out of town.

saturday night i stayed until about 11:45 and was part of the last three to go.  i lucked out and was able to hitch a ride back to the cabin instead of taking those stairs in the dark all by myself.  at that point, i had managed to get 31 of my 120 blocks done, which was perfectly okay with me, since it meant i had less than 100 to go.

sunday morning we had to pack up, and get everything out and clean before check out.  we had to be out of the cabins by 11 and out of the main hall by 12.  i pretty much threw everything in my suitcase haphazardly, since it was only going to come out when i got home.  i managed to sew and get a total of 36 blocks done (4 color sets of 9) which was fabulous in my book.

loaded up the car, and after cleaning we were out of there and hit the road around 1130.

stopped by the shop to drop off the boards, and then dropped off my fellow guildmate before heading to take my dad back his car.

all in all it was a great little escape to have some solid sew time in a nice, scenic environment.

i'm totally looking forward to next year, in hopes we get one more day at the site, and our fingers are crossed we will be able to stay in the dorms.  the cabins were cute and nice, but man would having everything in one place AND get fed be amazing!

i ended up working yesterday to make up for some of the time off, and catch up on some of my impending work projects as well.  some great kits are coming together for shows, and my sewjo is still holding up strong.  be prepared... block party is looking like it is going to be pretty awesome tomorrow!  

norweigan woods christmas quilt

it's time to meet my first shop sample quilt!

working at a quilt shop has been AWESOME, and making quilts to have on display has been one of the perks of the job.  quilting for work, and then having an awesome project in the end?  don't mind if i do!

tayva showed me a handful of quilt patterns and asked if i was interested in making any of them, and when i saw this quilt with trees made out of triangles, i fell in love.  originally, i had another line of fabric in mind, but when that quickly sold out on a live show, i found the farmhouse christmas line of fabric from northcott and fell in love with the cute little candy canes and gingham prints.

i had to add some extra emily to it, by creating the star out of moda grunge as well as the entire background.  silver grunge is probably my favorite shade of gray to use.  it is perfectly perfect! 

i debated doing a white star, since i wasn't sure how the yellow would blend with the other fabrics, but after some convincing, lemon drop yellow grunge was there to stay on top of the trees

piecing the triangle trees was incredibly easy.  i actually did most of them at a sew day with the sacramento modern quilt guild.  the templates are included for all the triangle shapes as well as the stars.  there were a few pattern corrections, but it was just the labeling of pieces.  no measurement changes or anything. i just love these little trees!

i was pretty certain i was going to gift this quilt to someone (not that i had any idea who at the time) but i'm pretty sure i might keep it...  even though i still have my own planned christmas quilt to finsh up... which i finally bought thread for too!

i didn't use the red snowflakes in the trees, so i thought they would make the perfect binding.

and they did.

i have been talking about binding options with a lot of people lately, given my job, and i've come to find that i'm all for a bolder binding that really frames up the quilts.  if it is lighter or more subdued, its great and all... but boy do i love that red against the gray!

alright now this quilting...

i had planned to go in and just free motion woodgrain all over it, but once i saw this holly berry/poinsettia pantograph, i couldn't NOT use it.  it went so well with the prints in the fabric, and added a great all over texture to the quilt as well.  the way it popped out over the darker colors, but blended in with the rest... perfection.

and i loved the candy canes so much, i couldn't help but use them for the backing.

i'm not one that devours candy canes by the package during the holiday season, but they are probably one of my favorite festive prints to have in fabric.  plus the holly berries and snowflakes just make it that much cuter!

spud cat... always in the way.
with the new shop open, plus the grand opening this weekend, i was able to make a few kits of this pattern for customers to buy.  many had been asking for awhile, and since the fabric had come and (almost) gone, i was able to get 9 kits put together.  it was pretty awesome seeing people buy them, since that meant they really liked my choices!

now that this quilt kit has had such success, i cannot wait to see how well the dinosaur kits do.  which is totally on my list of things to get together soon, so stay tuned if you shop our live shows!

pattern information: norweigan woods by abbey lane quilts

quilt count: 144

boxed up beauty and the beast quilt

i'm in LOVE with this quilt!
for being a (huge) baby quilt, it couldn't have turned out any better.
and the best part?  it went to live at my best friend's house for her sweet baby girl.when erika was pregnant with jackson, figuring out the fabric for that quilt was a breeze.  (see it here!)  but when it came to this little one, i was at a complete loss of what to do.  do i do another winnie the pooh one?  do i do something simple and basic?  do i make it match her nursery?  WHAT DO I DO???
so the plan just sat.
and sat and sat and sat.  until one day, someone posted a thread in a quilting group i'm in asking what fabric lines everyone is drooling over.  then, someone in the comments shared the riley blake beauty and the beast fabric line, and as soon as i saw it, i was putting a fat quarter bundle in my cart and calling it a day. i don't think i quite had an exact plan right off the bat, except that this fabric needed to happen.

i knew cluck cluck sew had easy, awesome, fat quarter friendly patterns, so i cruised through their selection and decided on the boxed up quilt.  this pattern featured the fun prints in a great way, without chopping them up and eliminating everything that was cute about them.  once the fabric arrived, it was then time to decide on a background color.

i could have easily done white, but that would have been asking for danger with a baby quilt.  my first instinct was green, then i started to second guess it... i tried some pinks, i looked at dear stella moonscape dots, but my eyes and my heart came back to the konas.  i landed on kona asparagus, which was the perfect shade of green to go with the leaves in the rose prints.  i also decided that more fabrics needed to be featured in this quilt.  the crib size only needed 7 fat quarters, and well... i just bought a full set of 18...
so what did i do?i went ahead and made the lap size version of the quilt!
sure, she's just a tiny baby right now, but now she can use it for years and years!  i also went ahead and used 15 of the fat quarters and changed up the ratio used in the quilt (3 sets of each when it was 10, down to 2 sets of each at 15).  i took out the three brown fat quarters, since they stood out SO MUCH.  i used my design wall to figure out the layout of the large blocks, but that part was actually the hardest.

the blue/yellow/pink ratios were a little mismatched, so it was harder to create a balance of everything when creating the final layout.  i had to fussy cut some of the smaller pieces for the sashing type strips, because i knew it would drive me CRAZY to have sideways prints.

i used a day at my parents to get the little strips thrown together and then sew together the complete quilt top.  once those little bits were all laid out, things went together pretty quickly.  minus the occasional cat laying in the middle of the project, but such is life.

i quilted it using a rose garden pantograph that i used on a previous quilt, because when you're doing beauty and the beast, it OBVIOUSLY has to be roses!  the backing and binding are out of the same rose print from the line, because as soon as i saw it, i couldn't imagine anything else to frame up the quilt.  the colors were perfect.

i mean cmon, just look at how cute that little beast guy is! erika was originally due on october 6th, but after little baby gemma decided to turn herself in the wrong way, she was induced at the end of september.  

that sure kicked finishing this quilt in to high gear, and i was sewing the binding on the day that she was born.  it took a little bit longer to get mailed out to her, due to finding a package the right size to fit it in... because poly mailers are MIA right now, like no other.  but i did receive word when it arrived, and that it is already well loved!this quilt turned out better than i could have imagined!
well, given that it started off with nothing imagined, i couldn't be more thankful to have stumbled across that riley blake line by way of the facebook group.

there is a secondary pattern that was also included in this, and i cannot wait to take a look at that and give it a go.  truth be told, i have SO many patterns i have purchased, i don't even know where to begin on some things!  i really just need to pull out all the ones i've done and work my way through them, even if it is just as a charity quilt to work through my stash (which i'm sure i've mentioned is way excessive and a bit overwhelming most of the time)

so here's to winding down the rest of 2020 with wrapping up current projects before blowing the roof of with the plans i have for 2021.  but first...
i'm really just itching to meet the little one that got this quilt and snuggle her.
texas is so far away though... :(

pattern information: boxed up by cluck cluck sew

quilt count: 143