Crafty Goals for 2015

The first bit of this new year is dedicated to finishing up swap commitments from last year. I finished my mini quilt for the Schnitzel & Boo swap last night and will wrap up my tote for the Instagram Tote Swap this week; both will be in the mail soon.

Mini quilt progress

With those almost done, I’ve been thinking a lot about what to put on my plate for the rest of this year! Sewing and quilting, along with other crafty things, have become such a big part of my life that I find myself wanting to do more, be more…and yet, the devil (or angel?) on my other shoulder reminds me, yet again: hobbies can just be hobbies, and no matter how much or how little I get done, it is enough.

That said, I want to try a few new things, and to do that, I’ll need to give up on a few old things. Making Emma’s stocking in 2013 followed by a year-long cross stitch sampler in 2014 have left me a little burned out on cross stitch at the moment, so I won’t be doing any of that in the near future. I’ve also decided not to sign up for any more swaps for a few months, at least, so I can concentrate on my own projects.

But here’s what I do plan on:

Pile o’ Fabric’s 2015 Skill Builder Block of the Month. This quilt is kind of intimidating…and I decided that means I should go for it! There will be a new block every month, so in a way this takes the place of what my cross stitch sampler was last year, in the sense that it’s something I’m committing to keeping up with. I’m excited to learn a lot of different techniques along the way.

Stitched in Color’s Curves class. This is a “quick” 5-week class all about sewing curves — and it starts next Monday! I really hesitated to sign up for another class right on top of the Skill Builder BOM, but since the BOM doesn’t get started in earnest until mid-February, the timing actually works out ok. The biggest reason I chose this class is because I really want to learn how to make this Oodalolly quilt. (But also because I haven’t done a lot of sewing with curves, so it’ll be another good learning experience.)

Make all the baby quilts. People in my life keep having babies, and those babies need quilts! I’ve got three in the works already. (And by “in the works” I really just mean they’re on my list, not that I’ve actually started on any of them. One of them will be made from the Oodalolly pattern mentioned above.)

(Credits, in clockwise order: lilabellelane, carriestraka, alexouq, kamiemurdock)

Make progress on a La Passacaglia quilt. I came across several quilts made from this pattern (see picture above) in November and they BLEW. MY. MIND. I immediately ordered the book — Millefiori Quilts by Willyne Hammerstein — because I just HAD to see how it’s made. It’s got thousands of pieces plus I’ll be using the English paper piecing method, which means it will all be hand sewn, which means it will likely take me years to finish, and that’s no exaggeration. I have zero expectations of finishing this quilt in 2015. Maybe not even 2016. We’ll see. This is what I did in November, before setting it down for other projects. As you can see, there is a loooong way to go.

Make a lap quilt for myself. The wildwood quilt I gave away was the perfect size for snuggling on the couch, and made me realize how much I want a lap quilt of my own. I’ve never actually made a quilt just for me and that definitely needs to be remedied this year.

One Little Word album. Part of the OLW class is making a scrapbook/album from monthly prompts. I’m interested in seeing whether 1) I can keep up and 2) I enjoy doing it. I’ve mentioned before that I love the look of Project Life but am a little doubtful that I would be able to keep up with it. Since the OLW album is only monthly, I’m hoping it will be an easy way to dip my toes in the water of the “modern scrapbooking” world.

So that’s that: one class, 5 finished quilts, progress on a 6th, and a monthly album. There will certainly be other projects that come up, and since several of these items are more focused on the first half of the year I may end up posting another goal list in the summer. Either way, if I do everything on this list by the end of 2015, I’ll be pretty darn happy!