2014 Goal Visualization Quilt

This quilt is a document of my list of measureable goals for 2014.

The wheels started turning for this quilt when my husband Nate asked me one day, "Has anyone ever used quilts as data visualization tools? Like infographic quilts?" I said I didn't know, but it sounded like an interesting idea. I thought about what data I'd like to document in a quilt, and settled on something very personal, my New Year's goals. I have always been a person who makes New Year's Resolutions, despite repeatedly reading that they don't work, no one every keeps them, etc. I didn't care, I made them anyway, always hopeful for the self improvement they might bring.

A few years ago I noticed an Instagram friend talking about her measurable goals for the year. More specific than the hazy concept of New Year's Resolutions, measurable goals have a number attached to them. I decided to adapt her approach. For 2014, I had 14 measurable goals. I assigned a traditional quilt block to each goal. (I picked 14 different blocks that were made from half-square triangles, just blocks that I visually liked). The idea was to make a block for each of the times I was supposed to do each task. So if my goal was to host friends for dinner 4 times in the course of the year, I'd make 4 blocks. If I met my goal, those 4 blocks would go on the front of the quilt. For goals that I didn't meet, I'd break it down into a ratio. For instance, I only listened to 6 audiobooks, when my goal was 20 (too much tv). So 6 of those blocks went on the front of the quilt. The remaining 14 blocks were pieced into the back of the quilt. And if I exceeded my goal, I made the extra blocks in a different colorway (red/orange/yellow). There is a key on the label of the quilt, so viewers can understand it, and also so I can remember everything. 

This quilt has a lot of tiny piecing and a lot of piecing in general. While I started it in 2014 when I was actively trying to accomplish all these measurable goals, it took until 2017 to finally finish it. Nikki Maroon quilted it for me, and Mitch Hopper helped me design the label, which I then printed on Spoonflower. Mitch Hopper also helped me take pictures of the final product. This quilt measures 53"x78". I was happy to have it accepted into the juried show at QuiltCon 2018.

The finished top

Completed quilt

Quilt label and key

Quilting detail

Complete back

Happy as Larry clamshell quilt

In the summer of 2016 I was lucky enough to attend a workshop taught by Latifah Saafir, hosted by my guild, Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. I love all of Latifah's work, and her glam clam pattern is brilliant.

I had fun picking out colors for this quilt. I wanted lots of candy colors, some pops of neon,denim, and some text prints. In picking my fabrics I studied one of Latifah's quilts, Neon and Neutral, that I have long admired. Her quilt inspired me to include the pops of neon and the text fabrics. Also, Kona announced Highlight as their color of the year in 2016. I was seeing it everywhere and I wanted to try my hand at using it.

It was amazing to use a die-cutter to cut all the clamshell pieces. It was my first time using one. I was able to borrow a guild-mate's cutter at a sew-in. Cutting these shells was so quick and easy with that tool.

I tried to make the layout pretty random, but with little clusters of color throughout the quilt. I'm so pleased with how this quilt looks. Clamshell quilts are so classic but I feel like the colors and prints here are really fun and fresh. This quilt just makes me happy. That's why I named it Happy as Larry. It's sort of a play on "happy as a clam." That seemed too on the nose, so I opted for another phrase that means the same thing. I first heard the phrase "happy as Larry" in the movie Strictly Ballroom, a mega-favorite from my youth. 

Piecing the clamshells, row after row, can become a little tedious, especially as the quilt grows. By the last few rows I felt like I was really wrestling a beast under the needle. I felt so triumphant when I finished piecing this top. I had to celebrate. I finished this top at a Chicago Modern Quilt Guild retreat weekend, the perfect place to knock out a project. 

Mitch Hopper took these photos of the final quilt for me. Nikki Maroon quilted it. Simple curves and grids, as per my request. 

I tried something new for the back of this quilt. Society6 is a website where artists can upload their images, and customers can purchase them printed on a variety of products. So I ordered their product called a wall tapestry, with an image from a collage artist I've been following for several years, Ben Giles. The fabric is polyester, but it quilted up nicely, and I love the fun image on the back of the quilt.

quilts and pillows for Sarah's Inn

Our guild made items for a local charity, Sarah's Inn in Oak Park. Here is a description of their work from their website. "Sarah’s Inn provides comprehensive services for families affected by domestic violence so that they get the support they need to find safety, rebuild their lives, and heal. Our legal support services help ensure that survivors of domestic violence receive equal rights and protection under the law. Sarah’s Inn is a community leader in educating children and adolescents about how to cultivate healthy relationships to prevent future violence from occurring. Working in partnership with local stakeholders, we run education and training programs to promote an appropriate community response to violence."

They do great work right here in our community. We were so happy to be able to gift them some items to make their counseling rooms more comfy. We all worked from the same color palette, and made small quilts and pillows in either solids or prints. These are the items I contributed. As a guild we gave much more. I'm always grateful for opportunities to use my sewing for good. 

A quilt for the Taylors

I needed to make a gift for our good friends.  They were expecting their second baby. But I hadn't made a quilt for their first baby, so the second baby couldn't get his own, right? That's my logic, anyway. So I thought a family quilt would be more appropriate. I made a large throw size quilt (75"x65"), big enough for Kristin and her little boys to snuggle with right now, but sorry, Colin and Taylor boys in the future, it's definitely going to be too short for you. Without really planning it, this quilt became a sampler for the classes I took at QuiltCon 2015. I learned to make the circles and pebbles in a class with Rossie Hutchinson. I also chopped up the doodle I made in Sherri Lynn Wood 's class and incorporated that into the patchwork. The construction of the top was improvisational and ruler-free. I thought much too long and hard about what to do with these blocks from my QuiltCon classes. In the end I threw them haphazardly on my design wall and loved this simple layout. I quilted this on my Juki 2010Q and it's far from perfect but I love it. I did echoes in a few spots and then straight lines or grids on the rest. I'm proud of this one. Everything came together beautifully.

My "doodle" from Sherri Lynn Wood's class

Doodles, circles, and pebbles  

The finished top

 {This actually turned out to be a trade, since Kristin Taylor is a talented artist. A quilt for an awesome portrait of my family. Thing is, I totally would have given this to them anyway. Suckers! JK, I love those guys.} 

Quilt for the Taylors

I did a huge log cabin block for the back of the quilt.

Simple Shapes Alphabet Sampler

Last year I played with making letters using drunkards path and half square triangle blocks. I wanted to create the entire alphabet in a similar style. I created upper case, lower case, and condensed upper case letters, and put them all together in this quilt. My goal in designing each letter was to use the simplest piecing possible to clearly convey the shape of the letter. That's why I call this my Simple Shapes Alphabet.

Quilt in my sketchbook  

Letters in progress  

Preparing circles to be cut into quarter circles  

I hope to someday write up a pattern or tutorial for all of these letters.  They are really pretty simple and many quilters could probably figure out how to make them just by looking at them. A few tricky letters got special treatment, but they are for the most part comprised of whole squares, Drunkard's Path blocks, and half square triangle blocks. Pattern-writing is not my strong suit, so it might take a while for it to happen.  But I'll get to it one of these days.

Top in progress  

Competed quilt  

The fabrics for this quilt were generously provided by Andover fabrics. They are mostly Lizzy House prints and Andover's textured solids. I loved working with them. When trying to figure out the layout of the letters and how to use the colors I had been sent, Carrie's Bradshaw's curtains (from the early seasons) came to mind.  I love the big grey and coral stripes.

Quilted by Nikki Maroon. Finished quilt measures 77"x93".