I am joining the #2023QuiltingQ1CheckIn hosted by Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl. Like many quilt bloggers, a primary motivation for blogging about my quilting is to have an ongoing journal about my quilting journey. I have found that weekly, monthly, semi-yearly, and yearly goals have been extremely valuable to check my progress on goals and to reassess my priorities, and now Yvonne is offering us an opportunity to check in regarding our progress during the first quarter of 2023. It reminds me of the quarterly Finish-Along updates from a few years back that I found both useful and motivating. This exercise is particularly beneficial for me as it helps me to not get too tempted by all the amazing opportunities to join (I’m talking about you–Alison Glass’ 2023 Trinket Sew-Along!) and stick to what is aligned with my current priorities. I took a minute to write them down the other day, and here they are:

1. Make quilts and other small projects for friends and family.
2. Make at least one donation quilt (or quilt top) per year.
3. Expand my piecing/quilting/designing skills.
4. Use more of my stash.
5. Continue to make projects with fabrics and colors that feed my soul.
6. Connect with the quilting community by regularly blogging, reading other blogs and commenting when I can, and participate occasionally in sew-alongs when I have time in my schedule.

Now let’s take a look at what I thought I would prioritize for this year back in December. From my 2022 Recap/2023 Planning Quilting & Stitching post, I have copied and pasted the Probables and Possibilities for 2023 with some annotations in bold print:

Probables for 2023

• A paper pieced long quilt to cover my recliner in the living room using a modification of Lee Heinrich’s Chevron Star pattern. I need the quilt to be long (in this case 90″ to accommodate shrinkage from multiple washings). This is my Turquoise Stars quilt. The quilt top is completed and is 87″ long because I didn’t want to have to buy any more background fabric. (See post here).
• A Quilt Your Life quilt after taking the online Seaglass Quilting Class by Allie with Exhausted Octopus that will involve tracking different kinds of exercise including riding my Peloton bike, strength training, flexibility routines, balance and posture exercises, and days I walk at least 10K steps. I will be able to use some of the time I allotted each day this year to making flying geese for my temperature quilts in an intentional way to improve my health. I have continued to ride my Peloton bike daily but have not incorporated any other kind of exercise into my daily routine. I plan to do so post-retirement. I still hope to make a Seaglass quilt later this year, but it most likely will not be a Quilt Your Life quilt.
• A Mosaic Story Quilt, pattern by Amy Friend at During Quiet Time. I have been cutting 2.5″ on-point squares for this project that I plan to make late summer. For a brief tutorial on how I fussy cut these on-point squares, see post here .
  
• A camping quilt for my niece, Kim, most likely using the Ripples block from when I participated in the Bee Hive a few years ago. The last time I made this block was for Roseanne when she was the Queen Bee (see these cute Christmas Ripples blocks here). This project is finished except for the binding. (See post here).
• Participate in Quilting Gail’s SAHRR2023. I thoroughly enjoyed participating in this year’s SAHRR2023 sew-along. (See post here).
• Make a donation quilt. I’m leaning toward making a 14″ x17″ quilt for Jack’s Basket. I have some adorable zebra fabric that would make a cute and fast basket quilt. I will be participating in Confessions of a Fabric Addict: Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge 2023 and will be making a boy’s baby quilt for Little Lambs Foundation of Utah. I still may make a mini quilt for Jack’s Basket later this year.
• Make a beach-themed economy block quilt for my friend, Annette’s 60th birthday. Not started but I have purchased some beach-themed charm squares.
• Finish my Sashiko Daisy Pouch. I did get it finished, and I love it! (See post here ).

Possibilities for 2023

• Participate in Jaybird Quilts 2023 Temperature Quilt Sew-Along. Haven’t participated thus far this year, but I did finish my three 2022 temperature quilts in early January (see post here)
  
• I’ve really been enjoying reading posts about Lone Star Quilts on the Island Batik Lone Star Blog Hop. And hands down my favorite Lone Star is the one on Emily’s jacket featured on her The Darling Dogwood post. The Lone Star quilt that has been on my quilty bucket list for awhile is the Luminary Quilt, and if I make it, I plan to use scraps from my Alison Glass fabric stash. Maybe in 2024
• Make a Colorburst mini quilt, pattern by Sassafras Lane. Possibly later this year
• A Christmas quilt for my bestie, Mary, pattern to be determined. Not started yet
• Some other small Christmas projects like table runners, mini quilts, and more Sew Tiny ornaments. Not started yet
• My cousin, McKenzie, and I each independently bought the Easy Bargello Quilt Pattern by Busy Hands Quilts and have talked about having another sew-along next year using this pattern. Maybe her mom and grandma might want to join us? McKenzie and I have both finished our Easy Bargello quilt tops, and I sent mine off for quilting to Rebecca at Rebecca Grace Quilting. I am expecting it back from her any day.
• Hologram Quilt, pattern and fabric by Christina Cameli (I have already have both!) Maybe in 2024
• Harmony and Light Quilt, pattern and fabric by Christina Cameli (I have already these too!). Maybe in 2024
• Coffee Sashiko Fukin mat by SashikoLab. Maybe later this year

One Additional 2023 Project

When I visited my friend, James, in Albuquerque earlier this month, I was so impressed with his Mid Century Modern home, especially with the tile in his guest bathroom.

I decided that I wanted to make a Mid Century Modern quilt for him in grey and mustard fabrics for his 50th birthday in August and started drafting blocks in EQ8. Below are some of the blocks I may use in his quilt.

Initially I thought I would make this quilt in the Quilt As You Go style, but I don’t have the time right now to become more skilled with this technique, so I will be sending it to Rebecca for quilting. We’ve already chosen an awesome Mid Century Modern quilting design.

So that’s it as far as my reflections on the first quarter of 2023. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings!

Linking up to Quilting Jetgirl: #2023QuiltingQ1Checkin.

For my March 2023 One Monthly Goal, I decided to make a Turquoise Star quilt using five stars from Lee Heinrich’s Chevron Star pattern.I found these blocks to be quite challenging when matching the points, so I was really glad to only make five stars and to allow the quilting to do much of the work in giving this quilt its Wow factor. In the photo below, the background fabric which is Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Elements Night Sea looks grey, but here is a link to a digital swatch that will gives a closer approximation of the true color (closer to navy blue). The Pure Elements fabrics used in the stars are Tile Blue, Maldives, Cozumel Blue, and Fresh Water.

Rebecca of Rebecca Grace Quilting will do the longarm quilting, and she is going to use some designs by Karlee Porter to create a custom quilting look. The blocks are 15″ finished, and the quilt top measures 66″ x 87″, so there is a TON of negative space where Rebecca’s quilting can shine.

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: March 2023 OMG Finishes.

I have had a blast participating in the Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) sew-along this year. It’s been fun figuring out how to incorporate each border prompt given to us weekly by six different co-hosts.  And equally fun has been seeing everyone else’s SAHRR projects by so many talented and creative quilters. I used a variety of Alison Glass fabrics from my stash and only had to purchase the purple 2020 Sun Print Stitched fabric for the final border (the color is called Liberty). The finished wall hanging measures about 26″ square. I decided to quilt my project simply using stitch-in-the-ditch quilting with thread that matched each border.

The threads from the center to the binding are: Aurafil 2250 Red, Mettler Orange 594, Aurafil Medium Orange 5009, Aurafil Canary 2120, Aurafil 1125 Medium Teal, Presencia 311 Electric Royal Blue, Presencia 268 Majestic Purple, and Aurafil 1100 Red Plum. I used a cool thread burying tip by @jackiegillies that was super handy for burying really short threads.

For anyone interested, here is a recap of my SAHRR starting with the center block:

For my 2023 Stay at Home Round Robin project, I decided to make a color gradient wall hanging using Alison glass fabrics and coordinating Kona solids. I made the center block with one of my red-orange Alison Glass prints along with Kona Coral and Poppy. I used the center of Kitty Wilkins’s Fierce block which she designed for the 2019 Summer Sampler to help participants strengthen their tiny paper piecing skills. See the complete Fierce block made by Kate@SwimBikeQuilt here. My SAHRR2023 center measured 4.5”square unfinished.

Roseanne with Home Sewn By Us gave us our first border prompt which was the Spool Block. I paper pieced the tiny strips of “thread” using 1/4″ graph paper. It was about 7″ square after the first border.

Wendy with Pieceful Thoughts gave us our second border prompt which was Stars. I paper-pieced four Sew Tiny Arkansas Stars, pattern by Kitty Wilkin. I added strips of a gold Alison Glass Trinkets fabrics, and with my second border complete, my SAHRR2023 project measured about 9.5″ square.

Chris with Chris Knits gave us our third border prompt for the SAHRR2023 which was the Hourglass Block. I opted to just make four hourglass blocks in yellow/green fabrics. With the third border completed, it measured about 13.5″ square.

Anja with Anja Quilts gave us our  fourth border prompt for the SAHRR2023 which was the Flying Geese. My regular followers are aware that I’ve made my share of flying geese when I made three temperature quilts last year–read about them here. So what was another eight flying geese! With this prompt, I started moving from the warmer colors to the cooler colors  and decided to make eight 1.5″ x 3″ finished flying geese units in turquoise/green fabrics with some gold and yellow accents to tie into the last two borders. With the fourth border completed, it measured about 17″ square.

Emily with The Darling Dogwood gave us our  fifth border prompt for the SAHRR2023 which was the square-in-a-square unit. With my fifth border completed, it now measured a little over 20″ square. I had so much fun with this project using some of my favorite Alison Glass fabrics and even repeating her lovely Dwell fabric in Sunshine and Pond to create more balance and places for the eye to rest. And using Alison’s rainbow moons in my square-in-a-square corner blocks just made my day! They are SO perfect for fussy cutting!

Gail at Quilting Gail gave us our last SAHRR2023 border prompt which was the pinwheel block. I used a paper-pieced pinwheel block from EQ8 combining both blue violet and red violet fabrics. And just to reiterate, Alison Glass’ fabrics are SO fun to fussy cut! Below is a close-up of a one of the pinwheel blocks.

Linking up to Quilting Gail: SAHRR2023 Quilt Parade.

Gail at Quilting Gail gave us our last SAHRR2023 border prompt which was the pinwheel block. I used a paper-pieced pinwheel block from EQ8 combining both blue violet and red violet fabrics. Alison Glass’ fabrics are SO fun to fussy cut! I have the sixth border sewn onto my SAHRR2023 project, but I’m only going to share one of the pinwheel blocks now and will show everyone the last border on May 13th when we participate in the SAHRR2023 parade on Gail’s website. I hope to have it quilted and bound by then. To see my other five borders, click here.

Linking up to Quilting Gail: SAHRR2023 Sixth Border Linky Party.

For my March 2023 One Monthly Goal, I am planning to make a Turquoise Star quilt using five stars from Lee Heinrich’s Chevron Star pattern. At one time I thought I wanted to make a more complex quilt with 13 stars, but these stars are super challenging to line up the points, especially with my solid fabrics which tend to be less forgiving when it comes less than perfectly aligned points. I consider myself to be an intermediate paper piecer, and I have to confess to pulling out all the tricks (glue basting, long basting stitches, and being willing to sew, unsew, sew, unsew, sew, etc) to get the center of the star decently aligned. It reminds me of grad school where the number one requirement for success is not superior intelligence but rather the ability to persevere!

So I have decided to let the quilting do much of the work in giving this quilt its Wow factor. I have been in touch with Rebecca of Rebecca Grace Quilting, and she is going to use some designs by Karlee Porter to create a custom quilting look. There will be a TON of negative space where the quilting can shine.

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: March 2023 One Monthly Goal.