Patterns By Jen 2020 Color Challenge coming soon!!

While I have yet to finish my blocks for the Patterns By Jen 2019 Color Challenge, it is with much excitement that I announce I am a blogging for the upcoming Patterns By Jen 2020 Color Challenge year! It promises to be a great year with fun blocks, wonderful colors, many bloggers, and sponsors.

Head over to Jen's blog post for the full list of host bloggers to see what they are currently up to and their interpretations of Jen's colors with the blocks as the year progresses. I will be sharing about a few of the blocks, but which ones?? That will be a surprise! My personal goal for 2020's challenge quilt is to complete the top, have it quilted, and donate it to my local Project Linus chapter.

Jen will be letting us in on sponsor and prize information soon, so stay tuned. In the mean time, start going through your stash for color selections. A fat quarter of light and a fat quarter of dark should be all you need each month. She has also created a file in the announcement post giving the option to have one background color for all the blocks in your quilt. Some participants choose to make two quilts, so this creates yet another block option to meet that need. Oh, so many possibilities this year!!

Anyway, thank you for joining us on a fun and colorful year ahead! 

Keep quilting!

Fawn

Where to start?

Do you find yourself stuck with the dilemma of which project to take on first? Maybe it's about taking the leap of getting started with that first project? Some have solid deadlines, but are workable. Others are personal projects with new to learn techniques. I have people tell me to schedule when to do this or that. Get it on the calendar, in the planner, up on that board, or whatever the technique may be. Yep. That's all fine until my health throws a wrench in the works and adds days or even weeks in there that I didn't have to give up. 

Here is what works for me - I make very few hard commitments throughout the year due to my medical issues. I have to come first so I can be present throughout all avenues of life. This, of course, applies to me and my specific circumstances. Take the time to think about what will work for you.

Be honest with yourself from the start. Then be honest with those around you. Communication is key, so be sure to ask for help wherever it is needed. 

On that note, starting this blog was one of my quilty goals for quite some time. The biggest hurdle is patience with myself. (Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth - is that still a thing?? Ha!) I will be posting projects whether they go well or not. Any experience is a learning experience! 

The photos above are a tiny glimpse of  "behind the scenes" around here. One of the photos shows fabrics for a jellyroll rug...kind of. I am taking the concept and turning it on its head. The true kicker? I have never made a jellyroll rug before. It will be a learning experience. Any positive vibes you have to send my way that this project goes off without a hitch is appreciated!!

The other photo? It's secret sewing to be revealed in the new year that I also took and turned on its head a bit. Patience is a virtue for that reveal.

Just these commitments take up a great deal of my free time outside of work and family, so I am particular with the projects I take on. Would I love to do more? Absolutely! Do I value my health - physical and mental? Absolutely!! Choose wisely.

On that stitch, thanks for reading!

Keep quilting!

Fawn 

What do you do?

It is true that everyone has bumps in that road called life. "How we handle them is what matters" is the mantra commonly spoken. Have you ever asked why a person just stops calling, texting, or backs out of scheduled engagements? Do you assume and make comments that they are always flakey? Do you know why that youthful looking person needs that handicap parking space though they walked into the store unassisted? A better question is, do you have the right to ask or judge?

I have a connective tissue disorder called Ehler's Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and number of other medical issues that provide daily challenges to living nobody can understand unless they are me. At least one of my children inherited this genetic condition from me and has another disorder called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) that has made her life challenging in a very similar way to mine, yet more so. None of these things can be seen unless we have to wear a brace or use some other type of assistive device. Others tend to reduce what we have to typical injuries or basic aches and pains. This is far from the case. The truth is that pain scale in the doctors office is not correct for patients such as us. The 10 rating on that scale is more like an 8 for us....maybe. Our tolerance to pain, tolerance to medications to regulate said pain, reactions/negative interactions to medications in general can be very tricky. The majority of doctors are not properly trained to understand or care for patients with our particular issues. 

So, why do I bring this up? Not a sympathy vote. I have been living this life all my life. Fighter from day one. But I will mention EDSin my posts from time to time as it is a part of my life. I want to bring awareness to a genetic disorder that affects more of the population than doctors know because they now understand it is misunderstood and misdiagnosed by medical staff. The medical world is slowly acknowledging it has a lot of catch up to do. 

I challenge each of you to look at how you react to those around you when they "can't" or you see an individual doing something you consider unacceptable. Ask yourself why you are thinking that way? It truly is not ok to judge a book by its cover. It is so much easier to empathize. Then get out there and spread some love for ALL!!

Quilty fails...or are they??

Are our fails truly fails? 

It is my preference to see all experiences as learning experiences. Before I tackled that first pattern I picked up at Quilt Expo, I thought it best to dabble in some projects that were more experimental. Don't want to take on that first serious project and potentially ruin all that fabric. What I did have on hand was a decent enough stash of fabrics to start participating in a quilt challenge that has changed my life.

Fail #1

Kim Lapacek has been hosting Project Quilting for 10 seasons. I started participating during season 8 with my first mini-quilt. The season opened with the challenge theme "Eight is Great" where participants were to incorporate the number eight into projects as we interpreted with additional basic guidelines. I had what I thought looked interesting on paper and in my head, but the end result was not as grand as I had hoped. From the uneven measurements to the added flare that really wasn't all that flashy, here is what I called "Infin-8":

Fail #2

My second fail is actually my very first quilt. It was made from a fat quarter bundle that came with a free pattern I knew was easy enough to assemble. The catch? I had zero experience with binding. None. When working in the factory we finished quilts differently, so I decided to ask my mom and reference video tutorials. The binding on this quilt is quite embarrassing, but what I learned was so very valuable. Since this quilting encounter, I have dug deeper watching more tutorials and reading bloggers suggestions on machine binding because my fingers have a hard time with needlework. It was essential to find a better way. If you click on the photos to get a closer look, feel free to zoom in on the top photo (the back of the quilt) to see just how uneven that binding turned out:

Fail #3 

The third fail I am going to share is another Project Quilting challenge piece also from season 8 but week 5 with the theme "Well Dressed Man". I missed some stitching around one of the areas on this quilted pillow sham I made in honor of my husband's many years dedicated to our country serving in the Wisconsin National Air Guard. This mistake was not noticed for at least a month. I learned to look my work over better before calling it complete. Here is the photo of that fail we love to this day:

Final Thoughts

My fails are never fails. Every single one has been a stepping stone on my quilting journey. I jumped into this world with some rather big ideas knowing that there was much learning to be had before I could put those ideas into motion. This blog is one such idea that has come to fruition. The opportunity for pattern testing is another. Pattern design is another path I am starting to explore. All of these possibilities have opened because I took the leap on those learning experiences - not fails.

What do you consider a quilty fail? Have any you care to share in the comments?

Keep quilting!

Fawn   

How I got started

Luckily, a few years ago my mom invited me to attend the Quilt Expo (now called the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show) in Madison, WI. I was hooked! There I bought my first fabrics and pattern. See below the quilt that started it all. Fishing Frogs from Attic Quilts is the name.

While working on that particular pattern I discovered mistakes in the instructions that brought me along another path - pattern testing. Here are a few of my test quilts from working with Patterns By Jen whom I knew first as a fellow childcare provider. Check out her link for more quilty fun and a link to buy the patterns below and more.

Mod Squared by Patterns By Jen

Twisted Flight by Patterns By Jen

Criss Crossing by Patterns By Jen

I enjoy working with Jen's patterns as they are beginner friendly, yet you can easily make them advanced as I did with Friendly Flight. Criss Crossing has also been customized. Taking on testing for Jen allows my skills to grow and creativity to flow.

In the next post we will visit some of my quilty fails. Some are personal projects and others are parts of challenges. Are they really fails? All are part of learning.

How did you get your start in quilting? Let me know in the comments.

Keep quilting!

Fawn