Four Projects I Made Little By Little

Want to know a secret? Even though quilting is my job, it’s still exactly that – a job. And sure, I might be able to squeeze in a little extra sewing time for fun at times of the day when other people with jobs can’t, but the truth of the matter is that I too still struggle to make time for the hobby side of my quilting. I know that the same can be said for many other people for whom quilting is only their hobby – finding time when life is busy or stressful can be so hard.

When that’s the case, the thought of taking on a new, big project can be so daunting. No matter how much the quilt might excite you, thoughts of “How? When?!” can still fill your mind with doubt on whether or not you should take it on. I’m here to tell you that it’s ok if it takes you time. It’s ok if you buy the pattern that has deeply inspired you now, ready to make it later when you have the time. It’s ok to make a start, and then put it away for a time.

Over the years, I have found that I can finish the big projects if I take it little by little, as long as they come under two main categories of inspiration – creative value or sentimental value. And as a result, the timeline pressure to get it done is eased, as the internal motivation will keep me going even if it takes a few years. This is why whenever I run a quilt along (and I’ve run a lot!), I will always remind you to take it at your own pace, whatever speed that might be. I will enable and equip those who are pushing along with the schedule, and encourage and motivate those who are taking their time to do so with grace.

Let me share four such projects that were deeply internally motivated to get done, regardless of the timeline, to show that it can be done!

A deep personal connection and meaning to me or the recipient is a great motivation to get it done.

These quilts are my favourite to make – I love to make quilts for others, and the excitement of being able to hand over a finished quilt will push me through the harder parts of a project.

Tula Pink City Sampler Quilt

This quilt was a little bit of both categories – creative vision and deeply personal – but it was definitely the desire to have a meaningful quilt on our bed that drove me to finish it, and to get through the sashing of 100 blocks… that’s a loooot of sashing, folks! My vision for this quilt was for a relatively neutral quilt, as my husband doesn’t have quite as colourful tastes as I do, with a gradient from black through grey, white, and light blue to navy across the diagonal.

As for the fabrics, I went scrappy, and I also went for very sentimental as the quilt blocks lend themselves nicely to fussy cutting. Having lived in Japan for four years, there’s a lot of Japanese fabrics, as well as some other personal tidbits like Star Trek fabric (a family favourite). The pièce de résistance was the fabric used for the sashing and borders – it’s a fabric my husband and I designed together that looks like a Japanese newspaper, and yet the “articles” include things like our wedding vows, the Bible verses read at our wedding, meaningful quotes from books, and the weather report is for some of our favourite cities! It’s available on Spoonflower here if you want a piece yourself.

It has now been on our bed for a couple of years, and it’s definitely on the list of “Save it if there’s a fire”. I feel like most quilts are replaceable, but this is the only quilt I would be absolutely devastated to lose. Like, the thought of it being destroyed somehow makes me tear up.

My Small World Quilt

Now, this is still a work in progress, but for once, it was a project started knowing full well it would be my next long-term project. I have always thought the outside of the It’s A Small World ride at Tokyo Disneyland would make a great quilt pattern. The ride is genuinely in my top 3 favourites – partly because of the amazing set design, but also because it was a guaranteed chance to almost never line up for long and to also then sit quietly in a climate-controlled environment for 10 minutes or so, haha! Tokyo winters are cold and windy, and the summers are hot and humid – the ride was a respite. So I very quickly fell in love with the My Small World quilt pattern by Jen Kingwell when it came out.

But I also knew my track record with personal projects like this, so I avoided making it until some friends were discussing making it and I had FOMO so I jumped aboard too! While we originally had grand plans of keeping each other accountable and sticking to a timeline, 2020 had other ideas, so we’re all slowly working our way through it when inspiration strikes. Maybe one day we’ll be able to get together once again and have a My Small World sewing day!

If a quilt is of high creative value to me, it will eventually get done so as to complete my creative vision.

These are the quilts for which I have a master plan of a creative vision I want to see come to life. It usually revolves around the colour palette I’m experimenting with, or sometimes it’s also about conquering a technique. Although I almost always conquer a technique through a smaller project, such as a pillow.

The Spanish Farmer Quilt

This quilt started out its life as a Farmer’s Wife 1930s sampler quilt when the first quilt along started in 2015. I was greatly inspired by my long-hoarded stash of Kate Spain fabrics (she was my first fabric designer crush) to create a colour wheel quilt from the blocks. This meant that each block was using just one colour of fabrics, and many of them with low contrast between the pieces of the block.

I kept up for the first couple of months of the QAL but then things petered off as Christmas came along, then we were preparing to move countries, and then I started the Tula Pink City Sampler quilt for which the blocks were much easier to make… Eventually, I cut my losses and destashed the book because I realised that if I tried to keep making the complex blocks, it would never get done!

Over the past 5 years, I’ve dipped back in at times to make more various 6″ sampler quilt blocks – whether that was from the City Sampler book, or to make some of my AccuQuilt BOM blocks. It was often a project I would take on quilting retreat with me to have a project on which to just potter about over the weekend. And slowly, the pile of blocks grew bigger and bigger.

As I neared the end of the block making this year, I started pulling sampler blocks from my book, Mini Masterpieces, and there was even a special guest star quilt block designed and sewn by my daughter! And with Melbourne in stage 4 lockdown, I had ample time to spend time each day for a couple of weeks putting the quilt top together column by column to finally see my colour wheel vision come to life.

Women Of Advent Quilt

The Women of Advent project was passion project, borne of a creative desire to explore my faith through quilting. This quilt was not just achieved by making it day by day, but was also designed bit by bit. Granted, this wasn’t a long-term project like the other quilts mentioned in this post, but the whole process of bringing this quilt to life was the epitome of bit by bit, day by day.

Most passion projects are like that, one where you enjoy the process and tackle it step by step until it gets done, even if it’s not in sequential order. For this quilt, it was designing in batches as I was inspired, then sewing 1-2 blocks each day in whichever order they were designed. Now it’s at the point of being quilted bit by bit, as I spend some time on most days free motion quilting each block and filling in the sashing.

Breaking down steps of the quilt making process into smaller chunks like this not only helps you mentally feel like you’re making progress, but when it comes to quilting, it helps your body too. Free motion quilting a large 72″ square quilt is a full body workout, haha! So worth it, but still limiting it to 3-4 blocks at a time and perhaps a row or two of sashing as well. By then, my neck and shoulders are done!

Any quilt is possible if you take it one step at a time.

I have been quilting for about 8 years now, and if there’s anything I’ve learned over that time, it’s that any quilt is possible if you take it one step at a time. Sometimes some external motivation and accountability is great to get things done in a timely manner, and other times it’s about enjoying the process without rushing the timeline. There is space for both in quilting, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!