Tag Archives: milestone quilt

Forty Peaks Quilt Beginnings

April 12, 2021 kittywilkin 7 Comments

This year I celebrated a big milestone birthday, and I thought it was high time I made a quilt for myself to document it. I’ve discovered how powerful positive feedback loops with quilting and adventurous living can be, through our Summer Adventure Quilt back in 2017 and my 2020 Miles quilt that kept me running despite the pandemic. My 40th birthday felt like a perfect occasion for my next foray into quilting my life. I pulled out my Quilt Your Life project organizers and dove into planning.

During the weeks leading up to my birthday, I reflected a lot on age and what it means to get older, the power a measly number somehow has on my psyche, and how to break free from that feeling of impending mortality. I fully know that 40 isn’t “old” and that there is much grace and wisdom found through aging, but the whole “over the hill” thing got to me. In embracing the wonderful things that come with age, I decided to play on the “over the hill” bologna and instead, focus on climbing mountains. For my first year as 40, I hope to climb to 40 mountain peaks, celebrating my 40 year old body, mind, and soul from the highest points. Of course I’ll be making a quilt block to document each peak reached. I’m calling it my 40 Peaks Quilt, and I’ll be documenting it on IG under #40PeaksQuilt and hopefully blogging about it here.

This past weekend, my 40th birthday and associated quilt project kicked off with a bang–I have 3 peaks under my belt already!! The first hike was a birthday hike, celebrated with my kids and a few hiking friends and their kids. We headed up a favorite local-ish mountain on a gloriously warm and sunny spring day, and it was perfect.

The day began in an unexpected way: I woke up to an overflowing drain line in the basement, so instead of birthday breakfast in bed, I spent the morning helping Gare carry everything outside into the sun to dry. It was so apropo!! A friend came over to help, we got the drainlines all snaked, and Gare graciously offered to stay home and do the mopping, cleaning, and drying while I headed out on my planned birthday hike.

It was an absolutely stunning Maine spring day, and our hike up Blue Hill Mountain was delightful. I discovered that my sweet Finn, who during my last adventure-tracking quilt was my enthusiastic block holder, is very much like his mama and prefers to be behind the camera rather than in front. The photos of me shared here were taken by Finn.

So was this one, but this was his first official photography gig, so it’s all good. Hah!

Here’s the one photo he let me take of him as block holder, but I do think he will much prefer to be the one taking the photos during this project. Time to train the next generation of memory capturers!

The fresh air and sunshine was amazing, some dear friends joined the kids and me–including one of my fellow Mountain Mamas from our #SummerAdventureQuilt days, who I hadn’t seen in over 13 months. Then the day was capped off with our first gathering of any size–a bonfire outside, with everyone masked and distanced, but oh so happy to see each other. Many of the adults were fully vaccinated, we all wore masks and stayed outside, but just being together for the first time in over a year was the most amazing birthday gift. And we made plans for a regular weekly hike day all summer, so our Mountain Mamas Lugging Babies & Towing Trekking Toddlers will be reunited, now that our babies are five+ and we’re the ones being towed by our speedster youngsters as they race up the mountains.

Block one for my 40 Peaks Quilt, done! I am planning to stitch some embroidered details on each block to track the people who accompany me on each hike, but I’ll share more of those details in the next post.

The next day, we dropped our three kids off at my fully vaccinated in-laws’ house and Garrett and I headed to Acadia National Park for a date hike, our very first time away from our kids in over 13 months. It was another gorgeous sunny day, and it was amazing. I love our kids dearly, but we all were very much ready for a day apart!

L: The part I was thinking about when I planned my 40 Peaks quilt project. Sunshiny bliss on the top of Acadia Mt. R: Looking down along a part of the trail we’d just climbed, just one glimpse of the endless stone stairs that ascend parts of the two mountains we hiked.

Gare and I hiked the Acadia Mountain & St Sauveur Mountain Loop, hitting two more peaks and getting in a serious workout! Those trails were STEEP!! Halfway up the second mountain, I commented, “When I thought of this project, I wasn’t thinking about this part! I was thinking about the epic views at the top!” But lo, you have to take the whole journey, not just the peaks, right? If that’s not a metaphor for life, I don’t know what is!

One of the gorgeous views along the way. The day was GORGEOUS!

The hike ended up at 4.6 miles total, with an elevation change of 1,176 feet according to Strava. Because we hit two peaks, I am going to use two mountain blocks for this hike, and I haven’t yet fully decided how I will be marking the mileage. The block I brought with me, and which is in the photos for Acadia Mt and St Sauveur Mt has the color arrangement for a 3.5 mile hike. I made a 4.5 mile hike mountain for the second peak, and might just plan to do something similar for future multi-peak hikes: I’ll bring a block to designate part of the hike, and plan to make a new block after the hike to document the full mileage.

The first three peaks for my 40 Peaks Quilt documented in fabric. Hike mileage is color coded in 1/2 mile increments, and the embroidered arrows are adults on the hike, and french knots are kids. I am using Aurifil 12wt thread in natural white-2021.

This is one part of this project I am still uncertain about: I love documenting memories through photos on each hike, but realize that without knowing the final mileage until the end, I won’t always guess correctly if I bring a guess block with me. Initially, I was thinking that maybe I would bring the previous hike’s block on each hike, since then we’d have a block for photos with us, but then the blocks would be documented on a different mountain than the one they represent. I might opt to relax the mile documentation aspect a bit and take a guess on hike mileage so that I can bring blocks with me on hikes, making notes so that the end quilt still accurately represents the mileage. I feel like for this project, the data tracking doesn’t rank as high as the memory making and adventuring, so this feels like a potential solution. I’m not fully decided yet, so if you have any ideas, please leave them in the comments!

Either way, my positive feedback loop is in place and underway. I’m getting out in nature, climbing to new mountain peaks (I’d never been up St. Sauveur Mountain before), and enjoying the best views in Maine. I can’t wait to see where this project brings me, how my health and well-being improves through doing it, and to what gorgeous heights I climb over the next year. Bring it on, 40!

Design, Life, Quilting

Quilt Your Life! Live Virtual Workshop

December 14, 2020 kittywilkin 6 Comments

I’m excited to share that I am offering my first-ever self-hosted, live virtual workshop! Quilt Your Life: Milestone Quilts for Every Moment is a quilt planning workshop scheduled for December 19, 2020 from 7pm-9pm EST.

I will be hosting the workshop via Zoom and have listed registration in my Payhip shop. I’m super excited to be taking this first big step into being able to share my creative process with all of you while everyone stays home and is safe in the face of the rising COVID-19 cases in the US.

There has been so much talk about “pivoting” businesses because of the pandemic, and to be honest, March brought so many family changes, stress, and uncertainty, I instead opted for the “put the business on the back burner” course of action, and focused on helping my kids through virtual school, working through the emotional toll of having all five of us home all the time with no outside help or friends fully in our bubble, and finding the new rhythm needed to help all of us meet our emotional needs and be gentle when someone is having a rough day. This is hard. We spent a LOT of time outside, hiking in remote locations, hitting up the secret beaches, and working in the garden. It’s been hard work on everyone’s part, but I think we have actually begun to find our stride. Only took 280 days or so, but I’ll take it!

Now that we are getting back into the swing of virtual school once again, I’m ready to dive into this next step. This workshop is designed to introduce you to the idea of creating Milestone Quilts–quilts that document some aspect of your life–and help you create a plan to create your own such quilt.

I have been exploring the world of Milestone Quilts for the past 5+ years, beginning with Finn’s Milestone Quilt made during the first year of his life, and I have learned so much along the way. I have also confirmed the powerful positive feedback loops that can be created by making a quilt like this, especially this past year when my 2020 miles quilt kept me running despite the upheaval of life as we knew it.

As we are entering the final weeks of the year, my 2020 miles quilt (#my2020milesquilt) is still getting me out in the below freezing weather to run. Without a single race since January 1st, I’m pretty happy with the fact that I’ve met my goal of running more than 500 miles this year. This quilt has also helped document many other important aspects of the year, from the group runs with my fellow running quilters at QuiltCon right before the pandemic began, to the first days of lock-down, to the week I joined a virtual Womxn Run the Vote relay and logged 50 miles worth of activity, including 29 running miles–my longest mileage week by a lot. This quilt will tell a story, that’s for sure!

Even with fairly regular running, I’ve been slacking on my cross-training exercises, and my body notices. For that reason, I began a short, one-month-long milestone quilt tracking plank. push-ups, and Russian twists, to help motivate myself to do even just 1 set per day during the month of December.

Nearly halfway through the month, and it’s working! I’ve done some amount of exercise every day, and I haven’t woken up with a sore back or neck since! Positive feedback loops are the best! Note: I am making two versions of the same quilt, with different color assignments, so the photo above shows progress for both. Same data, same length of time, same block pattern, same fabrics, just different color assignments for the activities and intensities. Pretty neat, huh!?

If you are interested in learning more about Milestone Quilts and how to make a plan to quilt your life, I encourage you to join me for my virtual workshop this Saturday evening. It’s going to be loads of fun! I’m also working on creating printable pdf planning documents to help you track and plan your activity, so keep an eye on my Payhip shop for those. In the meantime, I hope that your sewing is bringing you peace and that you are staying safe, at home as much as possible and masked when out and about! Be well, my friends.

Quilting

My 2020 Miles Update & A Pattern Sale

February 4, 2020 kittywilkin 5 Comments

The long, long month of January is in the books, and so far I’m not only keeping up with my running quilt, it’s still motivating me to get out there logging miles on days when otherwise I’d probably skip it. Here’s my progress so far, all sewn together and ready for February.

I kicked off the year with a 5K race and a personal record (PR) of 26:28.9 (woohoo!), snuck a hike in there in the middle, managed one back-to-back run duo, and finally started adding some longer runs with a 6 miler and 5 miler toward the end there. To read more details on how I plan to make this quilt, what each strip and color represent, and why some strips are skinnier than others, check out my first post My 2020 Miles Quilt here.

I love the way the tree looks in there to represent our 2 mile snowy hike, and can’t wait until summer when hikes are much more frequently scattered throughout this quilt!

I’ve been tracking my miles on a Project Planner page in my Quilter’s Planner, which helps my peace of mind that I’ll remember what activity I did each day, and also will help me know without uncertainty how long each row is. Since I ran so frequently in January (12 times), I’ve decided to extend my rows to 70″ instead of 60″, since if I continue at this rate, I would end up with a quilt that would be about 60″ x 102″! Tracking my progress on graph paper will help me know exactly when to end one row and begin the next.

Here’s a peek at the tracking from earlier in the month, before I changed my width to 70″. I’m getting close to the end of the first row at this point, as well as close to 50 miles, when I’ll stitch a little 3″ runner from my Run Run Run pattern into the strip to designate the completion of 50 miles. I’m actually only 7 miles away from 50 miles as of this morning, so I’m plotting out a 7 mile long run for tomorrow so that my little runner will be in a purple color, too! We’ll see if I can motivate myself to get out in the 27 degree forecasted cold for a long run, or whether I split it up over tomorrow and Friday and accept a teal runner marker.

This quilt has definitely motivated me to get out there and run on even the coldest days, with most of the runs logged here in Maine, where I crunch along on frozen ground, sometimes snow and ice, and always with lots of layers.

It’s pretty even if it’s frigid.

It also motivated me to get a run in while I was traveling to teach at the Houston Modern Quilt Guild, which was a very different experience with 74 degrees and 100% humidity. I certainly enjoyed the big trees and ample green during that run! Without the promise of earning a run strip for my quilt, I doubt I would have woken up early to fit a run in before a long day of lecturing and teaching, so this quilt is certainly doing what I hoped it would–help keep me on the positive feedback loop of running regularly and inspiring me to sew more. Win, win, win, ad infinitum!

Yesterday I took a bit of time to cut strips for miles 2 through 9, as well as a bunch of cross training and rest day strips. Now I’m ready to go, set up for success for February, since all I’ll need to do is get out there and run, then grab the coinciding strip to add to my design wall. Here’s to a fit and fabulous (and maybe a bit brighter) February!

Speaking of pink, I’m having my annual Spread the Love Pattern sale now through February 14th, so be sure to use code LOVE2020 at my Payhip shop for 20% off! Stock up on Night Quilter patterns now, and spread the love!

Design, Quilting

My 2020 Miles Quilt

December 30, 2019 kittywilkin 18 Comments

I’m discovering that if there’s a way to intertwine the fibers of life with my love of quilting, I’m going to do it! Between the Milestone Quilt I made for my third child in 2015-16, the Summer Adventure Quilt I made documenting our summer adventures during the summer of 2017, and the tiny adventure blocks I made in 2019 (I may not have shared them here yet!), it’s clear I have a thing for documenting my days in the making of a quilt.

With my new love of running, and the start of a new year and decade upon us, I decided to pull inspiration from the temperature quilts people make to track the high and low temperatures through the course of a year and make a color-coded quilt tracking the miles I run or hike in 2020. Sharing this idea on Instagram, a good number of fellow running quilters expressed interest in joining the fun and making their own, so I thought I’d outline my thought process and plan here in as much detail as possible.

If you’re a runner, walker, hiker, cyclist, or any other active adventurer, I invite you to join me in the making of a quilt documenting your miles. I’m hoping that the thought of “earning” a quilt block will help get me out there running even short runs more consistently, as well as doing more cross-training between run days. Running helps me not only feel physically strong, but also helps me feel more mentally strong, fighting back that mean voice in my head to help assure me that I can do hard things on even the toughest days.

The Basic Plan – Color Coded Miles

The foundational idea behind my plan is to coordinate colors of fabric with a certain number of miles run or hiked. Years ago I cut up my Kona color card and attached magnets for easy use, and this was a perfect opportunity to pull them out and work on a color flow I liked. I am hoping to train for my first full marathon this year, so I knew I needed colors for 1-2 mile runs all the way through 20+ miles. I chose colors I liked the most for the lower miles, since I know that many of my runs will be between 2-6 miles long and I want a quilt that’s heavy in my favorite colors! I then built a color flow from there, working my way all the way up to 21+ miles. Here are the colors I chose in case you want to use the same:

Number of Miles – Kona Color by Robert Kaufman Fabrics

If you know you run more miles, you can make the allotted mile span longer to compensate, OR you could choose more colors to keep it going. For example, instead of each color representing 1 mile span, you could have each color represent 0-5 miles, 5-10 miles, 10-15 miles, etc. This would make the same color flow fit no matter how far you run, ride, or hike in a given activity.

I have decided that each color will coordinate with any run or hike’s whole number. So a 3.5 mile run will be in the 3 color, a 12.9 mile run will be in the 12 color, a 13.0 mile run will be in the 13 color, etc.

Special Codes

I will designate races with a Kona Citrus yellow top corner using the stitch and flip method of adding the corner. (I’m starting my year with a 5k race so I have that block ready to go for January 1st, as seen above).

If I get a PR in a race, I will add a smaller Kona Cyan corner on top of the yellow.

Each time I reach 50 miles, I will sew a 3″x3″ runner block from my Run Run Run pattern into the bottom of the block to visually show larger milestones. At the end of the year, I will easily be able to see where I hit 50 miles, 100 miles, 150 miles, 200 miles, etc.

I plan to count the miles we hike as well, since I want to encourage hiking miles as well as running miles, so for every hike, I will show that the miles were earned hiking by piecing a 3″x3″ Kona Kiwi tree into the bottom of the block. I will likely adapt a tree block from my Summer Adventure Quilt pattern for this.

Cross Training & Rest Days

In any training plan, cross training and rest days are essential, too, so I plan to mark those as well using Kona White and Kona Titanium fabrics. At first I was thinking that Titanium would represent cross-training days, but I think I like the aesthetic of the white better, so I may switch and make white the cross-training days to add motivation for me to do something–planks, yoga, push-ups, Russian twists, really any type of cross-training exercises–on days I don’t run. I’m going to see how the first week of the year goes before deciding for certain.

Cutting Measurements

I will cut each run/hike mile block at 3.5″ x 9″, which means they will finish at 3″x8.5″. Initially, I was planning on cutting them to finish at 3″x9″ but by cutting to 9″, that will allow me to use smaller cuts of fabric (1/4 yard cuts and FQs) efficiently.

I will cut Citrus squares for races at 3.5″x3.5″.

Cross training and rest day strips will be cut at 1.5″x9″ since I want to mark those days, but emphasize the miles.

Tracking Miles on Paper

I will be tracking all of my miles on a Project Planner page in my Quilter’s Planner, and once a row reaches 60″ I will begin another row. I most likely will plan to sew a week’s worth of blocks (really, just color fabric strips) together at a time, and will cut a bunch of strips of each color in the beginning so that most of the time, all I’ll need to do is pull a strip and add it to my design wall. I like to set myself up for success and this is no different!

Fabric Requirements

Buying fabric for a project like this is tough, since I have no real way of knowing how much I’ll need. For me, I know that the bulk of my runs will likely be in the 2-5 or 6 mile range, so I bought the most yardage of those colors (assuming 40″ as the WOF, 44 run strips can be cut from a yard, 22 can be cut from a half yard, 11 can be cut from a quarter yard, etc.). For miles 8 and above, I ordered 1/4 yard cuts since I can’t imagine myself going on more than 11 eight plus mile runs in the year. I guess time will tell, and we’ll see how it all shapes up through the course of 2020! I ordered my fabric from Fabric Shack since I know they have nearly all of the Kona colors and allow 1/4 yard cuts to be ordered. The one color they didn’t have (Honeysuckle) I ordered from Fabric Bubb, which is another good option for ordering 1/4 yard cuts of alllll the Konas.

Optional – Daily Run Temperature

I toyed with the idea of tracking the daily temperature as well as my running miles, but ultimately decided against it, since I know my sewing time is not copious, and I really want to make this project a fun and encouraging thing rather than a stress or burden. If you know you have more time to sew and want to track the high and low temperatures each day, that would be another fun bit of data to track along with your miles run. I thought about using smaller squares for the bottom corners to indicate low and high temperatures, or adding skinny strips to the bottom of each run block (cut to 1.5″x3.5″) for both low and high temperatures (you’d need to add 2″ to your rest and cross training days if you opt for this route), so those are two ideas if you decide to add temperature tracking as well.

Having this all mapped out, the fabrics chosen and partially cut, and a plan to track the miles on paper as well as just in fabric makes this feel like a fun and manageable project to add onto the many others I’m sure to want to finish and begin in 2020. You can follow my progress on Instagram @nightquilter under #my2020milesquilt where I will likely share weekly updates. If you want to join in and create a quilt tracking your miles as well, please let me know in the comments and let me know how I can see your progress, since if enough people are interested, I will create a Facebook group so that we can all cheer each other on and help hold us accountable to reaching our goals.

If you have any questions about this process, or there are details I inadvertently left out, please let me know and I will update this post with answers and more details. My hope is that my thought process is clearly mapped out so that you can decide which route you’d like to go with your own version.

Here’s to a fun year of getting out into the world, facing challenges head on, and stitching those experiences into a quilt.

Life, Quilting

My Best of 2017

December 30, 2017 kittywilkin 10 Comments

I’m in the thick of that time warp of a week between Christmas and the New Year, and I admittedly don’t even know what day it is. We are traveling, visiting my family in New Jersey, spending days relaxing, visiting, and watching the kids play with toys, aunts, and uncles. I *do* know that it’s not yet 2018, though, so I’m reveling in that end of year coast into the new year.

My dear friend Cheryl at Meadow Mist Design is once again hosting a “Best of” linky party, inviting bloggers to share the best five posts from 2017, so it’s a perfect time to look at the analytics and statistics from my blog, as well as reflect on my personal highlights from the year. I invite you to reminisce along with me.

Most Viewed Blog Post(s)

I’m considering this one a tie, since the views for these posts have a less than 20 views difference:My Staggered Quilt pattern release for Quilt Theory’s spring collection had the most views from 2017. I did not have many big quilt finishes this year, and this is definitely one of my favorite quick and easy patterns, so I’m excited to see this one at the top.

A very close runner up was my post about Finn’s Milestone Quilt finish. This project is very near and dear to my heart for obvious reasons, and I’m happy that its completion was as exciting for you as it was for me. What an epic project, and I’m happy to report that Finn sleeps with the quilt every night and still drags it around with him from time to time.

Most Viewed Tutorial Blog Post

I was happy to see that my Easter collaboration with Hillary of Entropy Always Wins ranked the highest on tutorial posts this year! A combination of using repurposed materials (leather, wool, felt, etc) and hand stitched detail, this project is uber versatile and so much fun. It also can be made in any imagined shape, so it’s pretty timeless.

My Favorite New Project

While my Summer Adventure Quilt didn’t rank among highest views, it’s definitely my favorite new project. I’m guessing that the fact that I’ve not yet been able to complete all of the blocks and get the quilt top together is part of what’s to blame with its lack of public enthusiasm, since it’s kind of hard to be enthusiastic about a project you haven’t yet seen in its entirety, but it’s one of my favorites. I’m hoping to have the blocks finished and the quilt top complete by early 2018, so it just might actually rank a bit higher next year. Time will tell!

2017 Best Nine on Instagram

Since I love Instagram so, I would be remiss if I did not share my top viewed posts there as well. This collection is a fun one, including my big 10K follower milestone, two of my favorite Greenery quilt blocks, my Bee’s Knees quilt, Plenty of EPP, from Flowermania, to Moonstone, to the EPP and pieced skinny bins I made for an Art Gallery Fabrics stitchy party with Mathew at Mister Domestic, and a cameo by the gorgeous mini quilt Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl made for me (bottom center). Neither Finn’s quilt nor my Summer Adventure quilt made the cut this year, but they still rank high in my list of favorites for the year.

Most Viewed Blog Post EVER

While the blog posts listed above rank highest of those written in 2017, the post about the one hour basket (that took me six hours to make!) written back in 2015 was the most viewed ever with over 7,000 views since it was written. This was such a fun make, featuring my favorite Alison Glass fabrics paired with Robert Kaufman’s Essex linen, but also is a favorite since I made this basket while attending a class with quilty friend Sarah from Berry Barn Designs at one of my fabulous quasi-local quilt store, Alewives Fabrics. It’s fun to see how timeless this post is, and I’m thinking perhaps it’s time I make a few more one hour baskets. They are a super handy and quick project!

Thank you, as always, for following along with me here, sharing in my inspiration and project progress, and creating the community I hold so dear. I’m hoping to blog a bit more regularly in 2018 and look forward to sharing more tips, tutorials, project progress, and inspiration with you! I hope you have a wonderful, peaceful holiday season and look forward to a colorful, productive, and FUN 2018!

Life, Quilting

Finn’s Milestone Quilt Finish: Two Years!

August 28, 2017 kittywilkin 20 Comments

Whoa summer! What better post to spearhead my return to blogging than this one!?

This is a bittersweet post to share. Finn’s Milestone Quilt, the quilt that I created to document his first year of life, sewing and photographing one block per month, is finally finished. It’s quilted and bound and was gifted to my sweet third child for his 2nd birthday nearly 3 months ago. Yes! Baby Finn is officially into toddlerhood and joining the ranks of the twos (I daren’t call them “terrible”).

Finn is jumping into the twos with a gusto, expressing his emotions and emphatically requesting (demanding?) “I do it! I do it!” for just about every activity in life. He’s a joyful, social boy who absolutely adores his older siblings, and thusly, mimics their every move. While heart-meltingly adorable, this poses difficult when the 5 year old pitches a fit and storms off in a rage because he can’t cut up all the fruit and vegetables in the house and make soup in a giant pot on the stove at 8 in the morning. I should note that if he ate the soup, I would have no problem with this plan. Finn will watch, then as soon as Max storms off, will exactly replicate his angry sounds and stomps and follow him in an adoring rage. Life is… fun.

Truly, though, I’m blessed. Even on the most challenging days, I know that I will look back at these years with longing, wishing for Finn to come ask for kisses only so that he can impishly wipe them off with a giggle, then ask for more. Remembering how magically a mommy kiss can heal a hurt, and how simply holding my hand makes even a fearful task manageable. Wouldn’t it be fun to be able to hold onto the blissful moments, and like childbirth, block out the chaotic torpedoes of childhood destruction? Or will I miss those too? Only time will tell. For now, I’m happy to have completed Finn’s quilt and hope to see him drag it around behind him on his adventures.

Now, how about a bit about the quilt?

After debating whether to use different quilting designs in different sections, or going with an all-over quilting design, I decided to mix it up. I quilted with a variety of Aurifil thread to blend with the different sections of the quilt while creating a variety of textures. I used 40wt 1148-Light Jade with 50wt 4093-Jade in the bobbin for the dark turquoise sections, using a free motion quilting boxy spiral motif.

I used my go-to 50wt 2600-Dove to quilt wavy straight lines with my walking foot in the lightest areas, creating a smooth flowing feel.

Then I used 50wt 2692-Black to stitch nearly in the ditch, tracing the seam lines in the black log cabin section. This helps define the log cabins while emphasizing their boxy nature. I like the way the squared quilting in the darker sections plays with the smooth flow of the quilting in the lighter section. I certainly need to practice my free motion quilting more, but I’m happy with this quilt finish!

I opted for the Stoff fabric that looks like birch trees as the backing, and honestly until writing this post, I forgot that I had mentally decided on the *other* fabric I bought back when Finn was 10 months old! Oh well, the birch trees look lovely, too!

I used a scrappy binding, perhaps for the first time, using up some of my black and dark grey strip scraps. I machine stitched the binding to the front of the quilt, and then hand stitched it to the back with 50wt black Aurifil thread. Normally, for a baby quilt I would machine stitch the binding completely, but I wanted some extra time to reflect on the making of this quilt, and stitch my love into it just a tiny bit more. Or maybe I’m finish-averse. I haven’t decided yet! Either way, I know that if the binding ever begins to fall off, I know just how to fix it, so no worries! I think it will be nice and secure.

I hand wrote a label and stitched it down with the binding on one of the back corners. Doesn’t it look delicious? For as easy as labels normally come to me, this one was tough. I wanted to write more than the usual “Made for x, by y, date, location” but also didn’t want to write a novel. I definitely could have written a novel. This will have to do. My love is there. My silly boy clearly knows it! (Click the photo above to see a larger version for easier reading).

So, thus ends the era. The exciting, fun, endearing, and so sentimental Milestone Quilt project has officially come to an end. Finn will continue to grow, quilts will continue to be made, but I can’t help but be more than a little sad that this project is finished. Next up: I hope to create a photo book with all of the progress photos and growth updates. One more way to drag this project out juuuuust a little bit longer! I will also be lecturing about this and other quilts to mark milestones at QuiltCon 2018 in Pasadena, so please come have a listen if you are attending QuiltCon!

I also started another version of a milestone quilt in my Summer Adventure Quilt, about which I’ll share more updates shortly! Just because you don’t have a newborn baby doesn’t mean you can’t create a quilt to document your days!

snuggling with Finn under his finished quilt — Early morning story snuggles with Finn and his quilt.

Thank you so very much for joining in with this fun project, and I hope it has inspired you to find ways to make the creation of a quilt a manageable task even when impossibly busy, and to find ways to document your days through the construction of a quilt. Here’s to the next fun adventure!

For direct links to each of the monthly posts, visit the Milestone Quilt page here. Later in the week, I’ll link up with Let’s Bee Social, Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday, and TGIFF hosted at Finished or Not Friday since this is a pretty epic finish and I’m excited to finally share it!

Life, Quilting

Summer Adventure Quilt Beginnings

June 21, 2017 kittywilkin 29 Comments

I’ve recently begun a really fun summer project to help replace the absence of Finn’s milestone quilt, now that that’s completely finished (blog post coming soon!).

In the spirit of documenting our days through the creation of a quilt, I’ve decided to create a Summer Adventure Quilt with each block representing a different family adventure. Each block will accompany us on its adventure, be photographed along with our fun, and then become a part of a quilt stitched together in the fall.

Since our adventures primarily consist of hikes and beach days, I am making an improv tree block for every hike and an oceany, quasi-improv block for every beach day. The beach day blocks are entirely inspired by the Beach & Boots block from Piece n Quilt’s 30 Days and 30 Blocks sew along in 2015. I really wanted the white negative space to be a big part of the block to match the aesthetic of the trees and this block fits the bill! To go with the improv trees, I am making mine a bit wonky and imperfect, so I’m not using the exact measurements in the tutorial, but the overall design is the same. I decided that I will be making mine in full and half blocks to increase the wonkiness of the quasi-improv nature of my piecing.

I will be making a few unique blocks here and there to represent other adventures, such as a tent for when we go camping in the Adirondacks with my parents, a bridge for when we visit my husband’s dad and stepmom (GrandDude & GrandPrincess) in Pittsburgh, and a big sailing ship I made for a Camden Harbor tour we went on last weekend while GrandDude and GrandPrincess were visiting us here in Maine, shown above. I hope to fit these blocks in smoothly with the rest of the quilt and think it will work nicely!

Here’s my progress so far!! As of today, we’ve been on 8 hikes and 1 Camden Harbor tour (on a lobster boat, but the tall ship is representative of the harbor, not the vessel!). We have not yet “earned” the ocean block to the right of the ship block, but I included it for the photo to help show how the block will work into the overall quilt.

Perhaps the most fun aspect of this quilt is that one block accompanies us on each adventure, and therefore appears in memorable photographs. I’m hoping to be able to put a photo book together at the end of the summer with photos from each adventure. It’s a big hope, since my list of hopes is endless, but I really think it would be the icing on the cake for this project.

I’m grateful to have a wonderful group of mom friends who also have kids the same ages as mine and who love to get out and hike. We have created a Mommy Hiking Club (unofficially coined Mountain Mamas Lugging Babies & Towing Trekking Toddlers… it’s a bit of a mouthful, but gets the idea across!!) and we are determined to hike at least once per week with all of the kids. Our hiking groups vary from 3 moms plus kids to up to 5 or 6 moms plus kids, just about every mom is also carrying a baby or toddler in an Ergo or similar carrier, and everyone is welcome. Sure, sometimes there are crying babies, whining toddlers, bug bites, scratched knees, and I’ve been known to have to carry both of my boys (ages 2 and 5) simultaneously on some hikes, but it’s all worth it! Here are some memories from a few of our hikes (since we are 8 hikes in, I am not including every one, but from here on out I will try to share regular updates!).

Blue Hill Mountain, Blue Hill, Maine
The FIRST hike of the summer!!

Great Pond Mountain, Orland, Maine

Ecotat Garden Trails, Hermon, Maine

Camden Harbor Tour, Camden, Maine

BirdsAcre Trails, Ellsworth, Maine

Here’s to many more adventures, and to keeping up with the quilt blocks so that there’s always one on the ready for any given adventure. I currently have 3 extra trees and 3 beach/ocean blocks ready to go, so right now I’m feeling ahead of the game!

What adventures do you go on with your family? I’m brainstorming other blocks I could make, and *might* make a few rainbow segments to include for every time we see a rainbow this summer. Rainbow sightings are always exciting!

I’m linking up with Let’s Bee Social since it’s been a while!

Happy stitching, and happy adventuring!

Community, Quilting

My Best of 2016

December 27, 2016 kittywilkin 13 Comments

Ahhh, the time of year when busy is an understatement, yet still the desire to stop and reflect over the past year–perhaps in the twinkle of some Christmas lights with a hot mug of something sweet–is strong. The phase of feeling more stressed than blessed has passed, the excitement of Christmas Eve and morning has calmed, and now I’m enjoying the holidays in a relaxed, family-filled, grateful way. What better time to do some reflection?

Once again, Cheryl from Meadow Mist Designs is hosting her “Best of” linky party, inviting bloggers to share their five best posts from 2016, so I thought it was a perfect time to take a look at the statistics and reflect on the highlights of the past year here on Night Quilter. I’ve put together five of Night Quilter’s “bests” for the past year (plus one personal added bonus), and I invite you to reminisce along with me.

Most Viewed Blog Post

Without a new baby announcement like last year, this year’s most viewed post was the tutorial on how to sew perfect curves. I’m especially excited about this one, since one of my goals for 2016 was to tackle curves, and I feel like I made great progress in that category. I love this method as much as you do, and I’m so glad I could share this with so many of you!

Most Viewed Non-Tutorial Blog Post

Since my most viewed post from 2016 was a tutorial, I decided to also share my most viewed non-tutorial post. In Planning a Colorful Year, I shared the Riot of Color planner cover design I made for the Quilter’s Planner (which is still available for free, here–and fit’s the 2017 Quilter’s Planner! if you haven’t gotten yours yet, I highly recommend getting one here–this planner is life changing!), as well as a giveaway for a planner. It’s hard to say whether the gorgeous melding of Alison Glass fabrics with Essex linen is what drew the most attention, or if it was the chance to win a most coveted planner, but I am proud of this post all the same and I’m glad you liked it, too.

Most Viewed Blog Post
(not including Tutorials or Giveaways)

If you take all tutorials and giveaways out of the running, the one hour basket (that took me six hours to make!) was the most viewed. This was such a fun make, once again featuring my favorite Alison Glass fabrics paired with Robert Kaufman’s Essex linen, but also is a favorite since I made this basket while attending a class with quilty friend Sarah from Berry Barn Designs at one of my fabulous quasi-local quilt store, Alewives Fabrics.

Most Exciting New Endeavor

2016 was a big year of new endeavors for me, so this category requires a tie:

Yvonne Fuchs quilt in Quilters Planner 2017 — Quilt by Yvonne Fuchs, included in the Quilter’s Planner 2017

I kicked off my quilt photography business venture by doing all of the photography for the 2017 Quilter’s Planner, photographing 14 quilts and quilted projects in gorgeous natural locations along the coast of Maine. The photo above features Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl’s lovely Starlight Crystals quilt, photographed along the coast in Acadia. Quilt photography combines three of my loves: quilting, photography, and the beauty of nature, so I’m so excited to be offering it to anyone seeking to get epic quilt photos for publication or just for fun.

I was also one of seven quilt designers to launch Quilt Theory, kicking off with my premier pattern Ocean Path. With the enthusiasm and drive of fearless leader Michelle Bartholomew, we are working on our second round of patterns and are constantly expanding the reach of the Quilt Theory pattern cards. You can find much more information and the full line of available patterns here.

2016 Best Nine on Instagram

Since I love Instagram so, I would be remiss if I did not share my top viewed posts there as well. This collection is a fun one, including lots of posts about my stress-free stitch-wherever-the-wind-blows embroidery hoop, a fun Alison Glass table runner I don’t think I’ve shared here yet, a progress shot of my Eye Spy Picnic Plaid quilt, a progress shot of all of my thrifted City Sampler blocks, the free Safe with Me pattern I made in an attempt to spread positivity and support for those who need it, and a glimpse of one of my favorite quilt photos for the Quilter’s Planner, the epic sailboat shot of Cheryl Brickey’s Canvas Lines Quilt.

Favorite Project

Technically this is my sixth category, but I can’t let my highlights pass without remembering the completion of the Milestone Quilt Blocks for my son Finnian. While the project didn’t make my top viewed posts for 2016, it is still the project that filled my heart the most. My little babe is now 18 months old, walking, talking, signing, dancing, jumping, exploring, and smiling his days away. His quilt top is together, and I hope to get the quilt layered, basted, quilted and bound early next year. There’s something about making a quilt for your child, marking his progress and growth with a bit of stitching, that really takes quilting to a new level. I’m so grateful that my silly husband made the crazy suggestion (fully in jest) on the day our third child turned 1 month old that I should make a quilt block each month for a photo shoot, since without that little laugh-filled exchange, this project would have never come to be.

2016 was a big year, with many new endeavors and a seemingly endless list of fun projects and adventures. I’m still working on the fine art of saying no and understanding my own limitations, since I really truly want to do it all. I’m a maker through and through. I’m hoping to keep 2017 fairly low key, focusing on finishing projects I’ve already begun, and participating in a few sew alongs with a relaxed mentality. Then again, I have some big goals I’d like to pursue, so we’ll see when and if those kick it all up a notch. I’ll write more about that in a future post, since after reflection comes planning and goal setting. I’m so glad I have my Quilter’s Planner for that!

Thank you, as always, for following along with me here, sharing in my inspiration and project progress, and creating the community I hold so dear. I hope you have a wonderful, peaceful holiday season and look forward to a colorful, productive, and FUN 2017.

Life, Quilting

Finn’s Milestone Quilt Flimsy Finish

December 9, 2016 kittywilkin 29 Comments

It’s about time! Six months after finishing the last block, I finally squared up and assembled Finn’s Milestone Quilt top! For those of you new to this project, I made a quilt to document my third child’s first year–one block per month for one year of his life. I finished the blocks at his first birthday, and until just this past week, they have sat quietly reflecting on what a year it had been. You can see all of the blocks taken with monthly photos of growing Finn HERE.

I finished this quilt top two days before Finn’s 18 month milestone, which was the mental deadline I gave myself, so I guess that’s what I get for giving myself such a far-off deadline! But life with kids is busy, this summer was a whirlwind of new endeavors and family adventures, and it, like so many other projects, got tucked away out of sight and out of mind. I’m glad to have it out, quilt top together, and ready for basting and quilting. I won’t count on a Christmas finish since I have two other projects I also want to finish and Finn truly won’t mind waiting a bit longer, but I can hope.

So, Finn! He is as wonderful and cheerful as ever, growing into such a bright soul of a little boy. In these photos he’s wearing a shirt gifted to him at birth by Nancy, one of my quilty friends met through conversations over blog posts–thank you, Nancy!

I really wanted to get some photos of Finn wrapped up in his quilt, but he wouldn’t have it. When I tried, he enthusiastically shook his head no and ran off. When I flopped the quilt to the ground, he at first picked it up and looked at me as if to say, “What are you doing, Mama? This doesn’t belong in a pile on the ground!” Even still, this post is full of photos. I know you wouldn’t want it any other way!

When I asked Finn to put his quilt on his head, he ran off to jump on the trampoline instead, impishly grinning at me the whole way. He loves to jump, loves to run around with his older siblings, playing chase or attempting hide and seek. He loves “shooing” the chickens and exploring the natural world. Finn is so independent, and will often focus on a project (shaking a toy around in a bowl, or putting something in and out of an empty bottle, for example) for quite a while. If you will play with him, Finn would throw and catch a ball for hours.

He’s so much fun to watch, constantly learning and exploring the world. Finn is starting to talk a bit more, but still primarily communicates with “Daaa” and pointing. His signing is just now starting to take off, which is fantastic since we’ve recently discovered that he has hearing loss, same as his older siblings (and same as me, his mommy, although mine started much later in life).

I was finally able to lure him back to his quilt with a block tower. Finn loves to stack blocks and then knock them over! I love to play the game of seeing how tall I can make a tower before he decides it’s smash time. Unlike his big brother who excels in demo, Finn likes to help build just as much as break down the towers.

Once I spread the quilt out on the floor, Finn was all about it. I was able to get some fun photos of him playing with blocks on his quilt with fun little upward grins when he discovered that I was standing on a chair photographing from above.Such a sweet boy!

Then of course, as soon as I was off the chair, he wanted to carry it around and climb up on it, too.

He loves flexing those muscles of his, and boy does he learn fast!

A little more about the quilt. I ended up switching around some blocks to get a better aesthetic balance. Since the quilt design developed as I went, I didn’t necessarily make the blocks in any order, so this rearrangement was pretty easy to accept. Sure, the final layout is different than the ones that appear in the progress posts, but that’s okay with me.

After I sewed all of the milestone quilt blocks together, I did a “victory lap” of stitches around the entire perimeter of the quilt, about 1/8″ from the edge. I saw Christa Watson of Christa Quilts encourage people to do this after finishing a quilt top, and figured it’s a great idea for holding everything together, especially when a photo shoot with a toddler is imminent.

Although Finn didn’t drag the quilt around as much as I thought he might, the victory lap was definitely worth the extra time it took to stitch!

Now all I need to do is get this layered, basted, quilted, and bound. No biggie, right? I think I’m going to use an all over boxy meander free motion quilting motif with my favorite neutral, Aurifil 2600-Dove in an attempt to keep it simple. I’m looking forward to getting this quilt into the circulation of family use, but am also savoring the journey.

Thank you for following along, and hopefully your final update on this quilt will be before Finn turns 2!

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it Friday. Gosh, it’s been a while! A flimsy finish is still a finish worth celebrating, though!!

Life, Quilting

All in a Year: 12 Months

June 6, 2016 kittywilkin 22 Comments

And just like that, all of the blocks for Finn’s milestone quilt are finished and my baby is officially one year old. They say “babies don’t keep” but somehow it feels like the past year flew by especially quickly. I won’t even try to pretend I won’t miss this project dearly now that it’s mostly finished. I do still need to piece the top and quilt it, so no worries–you haven’t seen the last of Finn and his quilt!

Within the past week, Finn has fully mastered walking and now prefers it over crawling. He joyfully walks circles around the house, his wobbly steps getting stronger and smoother by the day. This joy of walking certainly made this photo shoot the most difficult yet! I got one, only one, photograph of Finn relatively near his final quilt block, and while it’s not as clear as I’d like, it’s staying.

Twelve months is 12 months, and not even mommy’s most sincere and pleading attempts will keep a newfound walker from walk, walk, walking! Just as a reminder, here is Finn with his very first milestone quilt block, 11 long months ago:

Isn’t it absolutely mind-blowing how much babies grow and learn in such a short time!? Life is an amazing thing.

My big kids brought home a couple of balloons from their cousin’s first birthday this weekend (we had a full family birthday weekend with both Finn and cousin Reagan born 26 hours apart), and they have become the favorite toy for all three kids. (Safety note: Yes, I know that balloons are not technically safe for babies, so I will reassure you here that I only allow Finn to play with the balloon when I am directly supervising him!) I figured giving Finn something fun to hold was my best bet at having him stand still for even a moment.

Even still, Finn would rather walk around than stand still, despite my best efforts. C’est al vie. Such is life with a brand new walker!

Add an eager almost-four-year old big brother helper, and the majority of my photos looked like this:

or, more accurately, like this:

This is part of what I have loved about this project, though. It has given me an opportunity to sit down, reflect, and write about life in the current moment. By documenting each month of my baby’s life, I’m also documenting our life as a family. With our busy lives, how often do we take a moment to write about our day? I have loved that this project has given me the motivation to write, reflect, and document the joyful milestones in Finn’s first year.

Finn continues to have a sweet and joyful disposition, complete with his newfound ability to express frustration and flop himself face down, crying, on the floor. Overall, though, he is a happy boy and a super helper. He loves to help me unload the dishwasher, taking out each utensil and holding it up for me (as long as I’m quick enough to take it within a second or two). When he does that, I always say “Thank you!” and now it sounds like he says, “Thank you!” right back. This morning while I was getting dressed, he joyfully opened my dresser drawer and started taking out folded clothes, tossing them on the floor one at a time and saying “thank you” after each one! Oh, the innocence of babes!

Finn has helped take these blocks off the wall for the very last time. Next up is squaring up the blocks and sewing the quilt top together. I’m going to give myself a month in which to do it, since it feels like an attainable goal. Setting realistic goals is still something I’m continuously working on, and something this project has helped with greatly. As much as I may have itched at times to make extra blocks, or up the ante to two blocks per month, I’m SO glad that I stuck with my original plan of one block per month, since deadlines have a funny way of sneaking up on me. Sure, it took an entire year, but all of the blocks for Finn’s quilt have been made! A finished quilt is just around the corner.

For those of you new to this project, you can see the full quilt layout plan, HERE in the 3 month post. The blocks are all completely finished now, and just as planned! You can see the full progression of Finn and his quilt’s growth HERE or by clicking the “Milestone Quilt” tab at the top of my blog. Thank you for joining me on this journey! I’m not considering the journey over just yet, since I will check in with quilt finishing progress, too, with Finn’s help of course!

I’ll end this post with a few peeks from Finn’s first birthday party. He had such a great time!