PQ10.1: Hope Springs Eternal

I've dabbled with Kim Lapacek's Project Quilting for a few years. Until now, though, I've only ever finished and posted one project, last year's tiny Nebraska Home quilt. 2019 started with quite a few small and medium projects in my head and on my drawing board. Project Quilting seems like a good way to make some of them happen.

The first challenge was "Hope Springs Eternal". I had been making and discarding drafts of my miniquilt for the Modern Quilt Guild's MiniQuilt Swap. Some scraps from a couple of attempts became this pillow cover.

To more literally fit in the theme I added some vintage rick rack found at an estate sale. The finished project holds a 12" x 16" pillow form.

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The pillow may become a piece of holiday decor or get gifted to my niece whose name happens to be Hope.

2018 Quilting Goals in Review

Like many quilters, I try to start the year with looking back on the progress made towards last year's goals and set forth some goals to work towards over the coming year.

2018 in Review

In early 2018 I identified 5 quilty goals:

1. Quilt More - This is always a goal. There were months I did well and months I nearly didn't turn on my machine. I am pleased with the quilts I was able to finish, and I made progress on projects both new and old. 2018 Finishes can be found on their own page.
2. Document my Quilting - My intention was to blog more. I've done a fair job of Instagramming my work, but I want a record with a few more details. I was horrible at this. seventy-five of my 2018 posts have been written between Christmas and New Year's and back-dated to match when they should have been written. My haste to write numerous posts has made them all too short and lacking the details I had hoped to document.
3. Quilt for Us - Unless someone made it upstairs to my studio, a visitor to our house would have no idea that a quilter lives here. I started two quilts to live in our living room for movie nights, tent-making and sleepovers. One is down to just binding and one is about half-pieced. While not finished, I'm satisfied with this progress and will keep these two projects near the top of my 2019 list.
4. Publish a Pattern - This moved to the back burner. I'm not sure what my thoughts are about publishing. I have quilts in the design stage that I think would make great patterns, but the market is over-saturated. Craftsy's recent structural changes don't really surprise me, as I think we are in the early stages of a market correction in quilting. But, it was one avenue for new pattern designers to connect with potential customers. Publishing patterns was an early stage goal of being able to market myself more as a quilt teacher, but there are other avenues to do that. My current day-job, school and family commitments limit my time available to teach so that may be on indefinite hold, too.
5. Finish - I started the year with numerous UFO's and even more designs on my computer and formulating in my head. Like in 2017, I joined in the All People Quilt UFO Challenge. I only managed to finish two of the twelve identified quilts, though some others made measurable progress. I finished ten quilts in 2018 which was near 2017 where I completed eleven quilted projects.

2018 was not a year where I smashed my goals, but considering some of the craziness that happened in the rest of my life in 2018, I'm OK with where I'm at and looking forward to 2019.

Ag Literacy: A Summer Outdoors

Our kids are at an age, 4 and 9, that being more intentional about agriculture and food literacy is a current parenting goal. Even though we live on a farm, our farming enterprise focuses on row crops that don't allow for involvement by the kids. We undertook two projects this year: chickens and a vegetable garden.

In March we obtained fifteen chicks a few days old from a nearby Extension program that hatches eggs in elementary classrooms across Lincoln, Nebraska. The lived in a washtub in the kitchen for a few days before moving to the garage, then a chicken tractor and finally (finally) a rehabbed chicken coop. Really, you haven't lived until you've put a metal roof on a chicken coop in a blizzard ....

This first batch of chicks ended up being ten hens and four roosters (one didn't make it). We encouraged the kids to play with the chickens.

While George was busy planting our field crops and making sure all his clients had the parts they needed to get their crops planted, the kids and I built raised garden beds using an Ana White tutorial. We planted a mix of seeds and seedlings focusing on "things interesting to a four and nine-year-old" like purple bell peppers.

Both Anne and Henry were fully engaged in the garden and chicken project stepping up to help with weeding, watering, and feeding. The first egg and the first tomatoes were pretty exciting days!

As spring turned to summer, we added broiler chicks to the poultry enterprise. These fast-growers had very different behavior than our soon to be layers! Anne did end up taking a pen of three broilers to the fair and earned a purple ribbon.

Henry's highlight was a plant we found at the local farm store labeled, "World's Largest Tomato." No other cultivar information was included but Henry decided early on that this was his tomato. It was a relief when we were able to pick a tomato about the size of a softball late in the season. Henry got a little creative in watering ...

George spent many evenings rehabbing the farm's old brooder house to make a suitable home for our layer hens. It needed moved, a new roof, repairs to the sill and lower siding, among other things. George was able to get the building frame and siding in great shape, but we ended up putting the old roofing back on so the hens and one rooster could move indoors during the first snow storm of the season. The chickens are happy but will be getting nesting boxes, light, wood shingles and a few other things in 2019.

Girls, Inc., Plus-Block Quilt

One of my quilting friends in the Omaha Modern Quilt Guild was approached by Omaha's Girls, Inc., about providing quilts to a new facility they will be opening in early 2019 for girls who have aged out of the foster care system. This was a project I was happy to contribute. Early in the year I told Kim I would make a quilt - one of seventeen or so to be donated.

I went through my stash and selected a stack of fabrics I thought would be fun and appreciated by girls in their late teens and early twenties. I opted to make a giant plus-block quilt to highlight the fabrics.

The quilting and binding were done by Jillian Hoistad of Lincoln, Nebraska. She did a beautiful job, and I'm so glad she could be a part of this project. She has an amazing heart and was very excited to be a part of something that will empower girls.

Anne's First Quilt

Anne decided to make a Lisa the Unicorn quilt from Elizabeth Hartman for the fair. Like most of her patterns, Lisa is a little intense to cut out as it has many unique pieces. Anne got a little overwhelmed and a few weeks before the fair, we decided it was not realistic for her to finish it.

She had been playing with my scrap basket all summer and began organizing pieces into strips. With some encouragement, she assembled an improv top for a quilt for her American Girl Doll. I may have bribed her a little by promising Minky for the back if she finished the top before she went to a week of summer camp. While she was gone, I sandwiched and quilted the piece (acceptable for her 4-H level for someone else to quilt it). She finished it with a facing when she got home.

The county fair 4-H judge was not impressed. She pointed out nearly every aspect of the quilt as something she did not like - the colors, the fabric, the design, the size, her seam allowances, it should have a hanging sleeve, the facing, the hand stitching on the facing. Honestly, the only thing she liked was the quilting, which she was aware that I did. One of the lessons of 4-H that is sometimes hard for youth to learn, is that the result is one judge's opinion on one day. Usually judges provide constructive criticism to help youth understand that decision and provide a learning experience so the next project is better. In this case, every statement started with "I don't like ..." Had she phrased her opinions using elements and principles of design or quilting procedures from the project manual or acknowledged that she read the one-page narrative Anne provided, I would understand. Yes, the quilt could use more contrast. No, it isn't the most complicated pattern ever made by an nine-year-old. The hand stitching was pretty awful. As a 4-H judge who has been through judge's training in many disciplines and taught it, I was frustrated with this judge's feedback. (And, I've shared my frustrations with the 4-H staff in my county office.)

We had decided to enter her quilt in the Nebraska State Fair Open Class show prior to the county fair. It was a better experience not only because of the appropriate feedback from the judge, but also because Anne had a wonderful moment with some of my quilt mentors who took the time to encourage her and give her feedback that will make her next quilt better. Thank you for great mentors!

2018 Fair Quilts

For awhile now, I've shown quilts at my local county fair and the Nebraska State Fair in the Open Class Division. In 2018 I finished a couple of quilts that had been in the works for awhile and included a class project and my one and only entry in a Project Quilting Challenge.

Make It Fun Quilt
The Make it Fun quilt was begun as a part of the Improv Sampler Quilt Along hosted by Patty Dudek of Elm Street Quilts in 2017. Each block was improv-pieced in response to her weekly prompts. The blocks were showcased in previous posts: 1 and 2. I designed the setting. This quilt was special and then Marsha Gormley Swanson of Dog Ear Creek Quilts added her magic. It was fortunate to win the best of its lot at the Saunders County Fair and was named the Best Improv Quilt at the Nebraska State Fair in 2018. It also hung in the 2018 Lincoln Quilters Guild Biannual Show.

Lola the Llama
Using one of Elizabeth Hartman's adorable patterns, Lola the Llama is Kona and batik on linen. It was quilted at David M. Manglesen's in Omaha. It was begun for my neighbor's baby who is now two but should have a llama quilt to go along with her real-life kitties, dogs, horse and herd of goats. Hopefully I'll finish her sister's quilt soon so she can have it. Lola earned a blue ribbon at the Saunders County Fair and hung in both the Nebraska State Fair Open Class Quilt Show and the Lincoln Quilters Guild Biannual Show.

Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend
I was fortunate to participate in a workshop with MJ Kinman at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum early in 2018. MJ guided us through creating a gemstone quilt using a freezer paper template piecing method. I quilted it on my Pfaff. My mini was finished just in time to hang in the Lincoln Quilters Guild Biannual Show. It also earned a fifth place ribbon in the Nebraska State Fair Open Class Quilt Show.

Nebraska Home
Kim Lapacek's Project Quilting challenges have caught my attention for quite some time. I really wanted to dive in this year but life got in the way. This was my lone entry for the first challenge: Hometown Proud. Since Nebraska, in some ways, is one big small town, it seemed apt to try out Cassandra Beaver's raw edge appliqué meets quilting via many stitches. I was pretty pleased with the effort. The Saunders County Fair judge wasn't as pleased. :) It received a red ribbon in its class.

Upcycled Picnic Blanket

One of my quilting mentors, Dorothy Heideman Nelson, has encouraged me for a couple of years to enter in the Textiles Open Class show at the Nebraska State Fair in addition to the Quilt Show and I finally had a project in 2018 I wanted to make and enter. One of the challenges is that the entry cannot be eligible for the Quilt Division.

When planning a denim upcycle night for my 4-H club, I found a post on Pinterest that was a denim quilt I wanted to make. Simultaneously, I had been looking for projects to use the feedsacks chicken feed comes it. It is a woven plastic, much like a lightweight tarp. Thus, the upcycled denim picnic blanket was born. By sandwiching two sturdy layers without the batting in the middle, it would not be a quilt by definition and only eligible for the Textiles Division.

As the blogger describes, I cut six- and two-inch strips of various shades of denim and used a 60° angle ruler to join pieces to make strips. I happened to have one pair of red denim capris that had an unfortunate incident with a purple crayon in the laundry to add some accent to the blues.

The top was sized for four chicken feed sacks cut open and stitched together. For added interest, I rounded the corners. The binding is a raw edge denim strip.

It earned a fourth place ribbon at the Nebraska State Fair in the Open Class Textiles Division in an upcycling class. It took me a bit to find it in the show because it was hung with the feedbacks facing the viewer and the denim "quilt" hiding in the cabinet. :)