2021 year in review

 Whew! What a year! While it would be easy to focus on all of the crazy negative things going on in the world right now (no, I'm not going to list them. you already know!) I'm choosing to focus on the positive. And there sure was a lot of it in my world this year. Here are the highlights.... so I never forget how blessed I was in 2021.

Urban Emergence

In February, my group quilt, Urban Emergence was part of Quiltcon Together, the virtual MQG show that replaced in person Quiltcon this year. It was my very first quilt accepted into Quiltcon. Imagine my surprise when I won first place in my category! As if this wasn't enough, it was chosen for publication in the Quiltcon magazine! What an honor!

Later that month, Sarah Goer and I formed a pARTnership, inspired by Danielle Krysa's In 

tandem Art project. Sarah and I have continued to meet on Zoom every two weeks all year long, encouraging each other in our artistic journeys. One of the greatest things to come out of our friendship is the start of our new improv bee, Quilts Unscripted. This group is incredibly talented and inspiring! 

Again in 2021, I was able to participate in the Virtual Quilt Guild where I met so many amazing quilters. One relationship that came out of that group is my collaboration with Karen Bolan. Karen and I have also been meeting often on Zoom and have shared a collaborative quilt project (Welcoming Lamp), a series of blog posts (Exploring Collaboration) and coming soon..... a published article on Collaboration in Curated Quilts magazine! This was completed in 2021 and will be arriving in mailboxes early 2022.

Welcoming Lamp

One other thing I am so proud of this year is the completion of my Through Ellyn's Eyes project. When I set out on a six month personal journey to create a cohesive body of work and explore my creative voice it seemed daunting at best. The more I worked through it, the more joyful it became. I am so lucky to have had the time and the resources to complete this project and look forward to sharing it with guilds in the coming year.

Through Ellyn's Eyes quilts

So, 2021 proved to be a productive, fun year for me. Most of these things were not even on my radar a year ago, so who knows what 2022 will bring? Regardless, I look forward to sharing it with you. Happy New Year everyone!

A Collaboration with Sarah

 Several months ago, when Sarah Goer and I began our Zoom calls based on In Tandem Art (read more about that here) we decided to issue each other a challenge. We each chose a photo from our archives, sent our photo to the other, and then made mini quilts inspired by the photos. It was great fun and a good way to kick off our stint as pArtners. In case you are wondering, yes, we are still meeting over zoom every 2 weeks, holding each other accountable, inspiring each other and occasionally solving world problems (I wish!).

The photo I sent to Sarah is this one.....

During the strict quarantine times of Covid, hubby and I would go driving around our area (north Texas) and explore buildings in small towns we'd never seen before. I love the colors and architectural details of this building. 

Sarah created a wonderful minimalist mini inspired by my photo. 

Sarah's quilt measures 9"x7"

I love that it captures both of the things I loved about the building. 

Sarah sent me this photo of a door at the Rock of Cashel in Ireland...

I was intrigued by the angles created by the molding on the door. Also the neutral color palette, which is not my norm at all. I loved the green creeping into the aging stone and wood. Here is the quilt I created...

my quilt measures 13"x13 1/2"

I used all prints (another unusual choice for me!) and fabric from my stash. 

This was a fun challenge and a great way to collaborate and learn more about each other. I highly recommend you find a quilty pArtner and try something similar.

To read more about this project, check out Sarah's blog.

creative books

 This week in our In Tandem Art discussion Sarah and I discussed books that have given us creative inspiration. Here is a fairly comprehensive list of the books we talked about. Links to sellers are for your convenience only, I don't receive a thing from any of the sellers....

my stack of creative inspiration

General creativity:

Find Your Artistic Voice by Lisa Congdon

    (a personal favorite of mine and a topic I'll be deep diving into in the coming months)

The Little Spark by Carrie Bloomston

A Stash of One's Own a compilation of knitting short stories that apply to all kinds of general creativity

Head Heart and Hands by Deborah Boschert, a workbook for developing your creative voice

An Artist's Journey through Wonderland by Katie Fowler (recommended by Sarah. I'm anxious to get my hands on this one)

Anything by Austin Kleon (Steal Like an Artist, Keep Going, Show your Work)

Improv Quilting:

Noteworthy by Crimson Tate, my go to improv alphabet guide

Madly Modern Quilts by Carole Lyles Shaw

Inspiring Improv by Nicholas Ball

Modern Quilt Magic by Victoria Finley Wolfe

Improv Patchwork by Maria Shell

The Improv Handbook by Sherri Lynn Wood

Design Essentials by Lorraine Torrence

Create your own Freeform Quilts by Rayna Gillan

Free motion and walking foot quilting:

Step-by-step Texture Quilting by Christina Cameli

365 Free Motion Quilting Designs by Leah Day

Walk and Walk 2 by Jacquie Gering

I hope you find something inspirational in this list. I know I have! What other books do you turn to for inspiration in your creativity? 

Tracking your WIPs

 As previously promised, here are some insights on tracking your Works in Progress, courtesy of me and my pARTner, Sarah. This is from our In Tandem Art conversation last week (which ended up being a phone call since thunder boomers kept knocking out my power and my wifi that day. ugh).

Sarah and I have come to realize over the last few months that when it comes to works in progress, we have very different situations! Sarah tends to have dozens of projects at a  time at various stages of completion, while I am more of the "see it through to the finish" kind  of gal. I typically only have a small handful of projects in the works. Nonetheless, most of the solutions we came up with for tracking these projects work for both of us, and would work for anyone anywhere on the WIP spectrum (is that even a thing? it is now).

Some methods that we currently use, or have used in the past include:

A chalkboard on the sewing room wall (I confess this is mine. I need that list IN MY FACE at all times!) Please note that in my world at lease, the chalkboard must be whimsical and cute. I guess a white board would be equally effective.

Both Sarah and I have participated in the bloggers Finish Along in the past. You can check out some of my finish along posts here and here. Basically, at the start of each quarter you list the things you want to finish and then at the end of the quarter you report in as to how you did, keeping you accountable and earning you the opportunity to win prizes. My understanding is that this has since moved from blogs to Instagram. 

Another way to use Instagram is to set a daily goal for yourself and document it with a hashtag as you go along. Sarah is currently doing #99DaysOfWIPs where she is working on completing projects that she started in quilt classes. 

Something I have never tried but I know is popular with many quilters is tracking in a Quilter's Planner.

American Patchwork and Quilting does a 12 month challenge every year to encourage finishes. I know my local quilt store does something very similar.

Sarah educated me on the Trello App, basically a digital bulletin board. I imagine and old fashioned cork board and 3x5 cards would work too (although it would be much more difficult to carry around in your pocket!)

Do you have other ways to track your WIPs? Please share them in the comments so we can all learn more.

In Tandem Art

 Several months ago,  I was listening to an episode of Danielle Krysa's podcast, Art for your Ear (do you listen? I find it very inspiring.) and she talked about an idea she and a friend had called In Tandem Art. I encourage you to read her blog post here to better understand what it is all about. Basically, to participate, you find yourself a pARTner to come along side you, encouraging you and you doing the same for them. The idea intrigued me so much that I couldn't get it out of my head!

That night I was texting with Sarah Goer, a newish quilty friend, and told her all about it. I asked if she wanted to give it a try and she was all in! We decided to meet via zoom every other week (Sarah lives in Northern California and I am in Texas. While it would be great fun to meet twice a month in person, it simply wasn't practical) and held our first meeting the end of February. Since then we have met faithfully every two weeks (allowing flexibility when we had a conflict) and we've enjoyed it very much.

my pARTner, Sarah

A little more about Sarah, she is a modern quilter, quilt teacher and lecturer, a wife and mom to two great kids who occasionally pop their heads into our zoom meetings. She and I have participated in a bee together for a while and recently organized a new modern improv bee.... more on that another day.

We decided to set a general topic for each meeting, and have found that doing that helps us focus and to each gain something from our time together. Some of the things we've talked about include Creative Goals, Creative Block, our Childhood Creativity and what inspires our work. This last week we talked about how we track our works in progress. It occurred to me that some of the things we talk about might benefit others, so, with Sarah's permission, I am going to begin sharing some of that here. I promised her I wouldn't share anything personal or juicy, sorry folks! Some things are just not intended for internet publication!

In my next blog post I will share some of the thoughts and ideas we had for tracking our projects. Meanwhile, I encourage you to go read Danielle's post and think about who your pARTner might be!