2023 Wrap Up

Wrapping up 2023 with a revisit to some favorite adventures, quilts, and people!

It's nice to take a look back and revisit these moments from the year. Reliving the fun, the hugs, the music, and the thrills from memory is a bight spot at the close of the year and a good way to remember how much was packed into 2023!

Also looking at the quilts made this year. Lots of minis this year, for several swaps which challenge my creativity. This year included some amazing experiences with exhibiting my quilts around town! First in a fiber art show and then in a solo show at the National Quilt Museum (which is ongoing through Feb. 20, 2024). What a thrill!

Travels and hugs and music and bears and mountains and silliness and FUN filled 2023. Here's to closing this chapter and to turning the page.

My Quilting Medley

My Quilting Medley - my solo exhibition is now open at the National Quilt Museum and runs through Feb. 20, 2024!!

I am beyond honored to have an exhibit here and to share my quilts! I'm inspired by colors, music, pop culture, travel, & family, and hope to reflect those in my work along with a love for free motion quilting. 

Quilting is my creative passion and I enjoy trying a variety of techniques, methods and styles. Of course they each have my signature bee hiding in the stitching, and it'll be fun to see visitors discovering them!

Summer Star Flower

Somehow forgot to share this stellar quilt I finished over the summer. This is Star Flower - made especially for baby V, my newest God daughter. Her older siblings also have star themed quilts, though none of them are the same design. I love knowing they each have their own special quilts, but that they also coordinate.

I had a pattern for this ring of stars just waiting to be made into a quilt, so the real fun was pulling prints and colors from my stash. I decided to jazz it up with the extra corner stars and had just enough of the blue for the background!

The swirls set off the ring of stars, and it was a joy to meet baby V and gift this quilt. I know it'll be loved! Here's a peek at the bumblebee too.

(Becky's Version) ...are you ready for it?

A look at my latest quilt which is called (Becky's Version). It's inspired by the Eras Tour and a love of Taylor Swift's music. I knew there had to be a way to mix these two favorite things. Of course I took it with me to snap some pix before watching the concert film!

The fabric colors coordinate to each of her albums, and the number of strips in each color represent the number of songs on that album! To go one layer deeper, in one of the rows, I placed the strips in album release order. Taking notes on how to add easter eggs Taylor-style.

It's quilted with organic lines in the coordinating colors, and I've also quilted the album titles into their respective colors. Spot that bee! ;)

I'm in love with it and am loving jamming out to the vault tracks from 1989 (Taylor's Version) alongside all the other songs!

It's going to be away for a little bit as I have a mini solo exhibit coming up at the National Quilt Museum!! Super thrilling, and this quilt will be in that!

Your Story Begins for A

Catching up on sharing some finished quilts and logging them here. This is a quilt I made & gifted for a dear friends' first baby. It's called "Your Story Begins" and I hope it'll be well loved for many years to come!

S is a book lover, so I wanted to incorporate that into my design. I combined some #talltalesblock with some little library blocks by @kitschempire, along with some bunting for a book lovers dream! It was fun choosing the fabrics for each of the books, especially using the text print for the inside book pages.

As a fun surprise for S, I used some Anne of Green Gables fabrics I've been hoarding for a while. We're both fans so it was begging to be used in this quilt for baby A. It was a delight to stitch and create as a special gift.

Exhibit at Hotel 1857

I am thrilled to say that I'll have some of my quilts in a show at a local hotel! It's 2 months, and my works are featured alongside quilts from several quilty friends fiber art works, and all of them are for sale. 

Once I was asked to contribute some pieces, I started making lists and digging through my wall pieces for things to submit. I pulled some older small quilts, and made a couple new pieces as well, trying to include as many as I could have ready.

Of course, I made sure that each of the pieces had my signature bee quilted into them, which turned out to be a good plan, as some friends told me they stopped by and went looking for the bees! I love that by making this my signature and adding it into my quilts, it's also something interactive for viewers to try and find in my quilts. Really makes me try to be sneaky with blending bees into the fabric colors, tiny bees hiding out, and adding multiple bees occasionally in the free motion quilting.

Once the show was up I went by to see them all on the walls, and grab some pictures. We'll see if any sell, but honestly it's a thrill to even have them on exhibit somewhere in public! How awesome!

Make a Mini Make a Friend - 2023

This year I joined in with the Modern Quilt Guild mini quilt swap, it's the 2nd time I've participated, and it did not disappoint! This is a fun swap and I enjoyed creating something for my partner @margaretfleisher. I wanted to incorporate improv curves, and combined that with some paper piecing too. 

I started with some doodles, playing with the arrow shapes and then drew them out so they could be paper pieced. Other than a dislike of purple, I had free reign for color and started pulling the green and yellow from my stash, then added in the blues for contrast. After piecing the three arrows, I auditioned several fabrics before deciding on the orange dots.

I love free motion quilting, and once this was all together, it was fun creating different designs in each section! The middle design is a new one to me - and I'll use that again!

Swapping with Margaret at QuiltCon was fantastic! We pulled and flipped our quilts at the same time and I think both of our eyes lit up at what we saw. This is what Margaret made for me - and it's perfect. The curves, the colors, the fabrics, I love it all and can't wait to add it to my wall of quilts.

Many thanks to our swap fairy @lovinglissa as well. There's a huge crowd of swap groups and partners, so you get to see what others have made and there are so many amazing quilts being shared!

#mqgminiswap2023 

Make a Garland

Back in December I won a kit for the Garland quilt by SuzyQuilts and in January she hosted a Sew Along for the pattern. So of course I joined in on that! 

The kit fabrics were solids, in a Christmasy color way, and I added some grunge metallic stars in red and green to the mix. I can't resist adding prints to all solids, and was glad to have just the right shades of the stars to include. 

Making the scrappy strips took some time, but it was fun to mix and match pieces without a plan in mind. Once those strips were finished the rest of the top came together quickly. So far, it's still a top, but it'll be fun to quilt and have ready for winter.

Camp Memories

This piece brings back memories of camp trips out at Rocky Gap State Park. We went most summers as a family; swimming in the lake, canoeing, hiking, campfires, and all that goes with camping & being outdoors! The best weekends!

Sometime back my Momm was giving me some of my mementos from childhood, and this napkin/bandana we colored after a girls only camp trip surfaced. I knew I wanted to keep it, but wasn't sure what to do with it while keeping it....until I realized I could turn it into a quilt!

I had this jungle themed fabric in the stash, and while our camp trips weren't in the jungle - it had the right style to it! I had fun matching thread colors and free emotion quilting the design. It needed a little extra, so I went all in by adding seed stitches throughout the background and really love how it looks. A perfect way to cherish good memories in a mixed style. Even the back has style!

Hello 2023!

Happy New Year friends!

Hope yours has started out well. Mine has been busy getting back into the normal routine, grocery runs, laundry, and work. After 2 weeks off and crossing time zones, waking up for work has been rough this week!

I thought I'd take stock (like many other makers) of my WIPs at the start of the year. This is not a promise or guarantee that I'll finish each of these pieces this year, but it certainly helps me to revisit the WIP pile and see what's there.

Finished Tops:

Improv City - from the 2021 Improv QAL

Bee Bears

GS Quilt

*have to get a photo of this one!*

Star Cluster - 2 tops- from the NQM 2020 QAL

Improv Tree mini

Mini Moda Love

Loose Geese

Mardi Gras round robin

*Not sure I have a current photo - will get on that!*

Currently my oldest WIP so far as I can tell.

Not Yet Tops:

NQM BOTM Round 4 Quilt - need final blocks completed

New Projects:

MQG mini swap due in Feb

A Temperature Quilt project! Starting in spring, Momm & I are working on our own quilts, using the same color palette and design

This month I'm joining in with @SuzyQuilts for the Garland Quilt Sew Along since I won the pattern and fabric bundle to make this one in a giveaway!

I'm sure there will be lots of quilting this year and I'm looking forward to it all!