2023 In Review

Here are my accomplishments for 2023, followed by pictures and headings only. Details are in my past posts as indicated by a clickable completion date after each name. My own assessment of how well I met my 2023 goals is after the pictures of completions. 

2023 COMPLETIONS:

• 4 quilts
• 6 quilt shows + 3 shop hops
• 3 toys / cloth books 
• 8 burp cloths
• 2 blog books
• 8 home decor
• 3 vests twice
• 2 tote bags
• 0 crocheted or knitted  items

3 QUILTS

1) Pieces of Blue (4/10/2023) ~ 38" x 49"

2) Popsicles (4/17/2023) ~ 19" x 18"

3) Tipus and Treetops (9/4/2023) 48" x 48"

4) Community Gift Quilt (12/23/23) 54" x 72" ... block contributions from Cut Ups quilt group

6 QUILT SHOWS + 3 SHOP HOPS

Shop Hop with my Daughter (1/3/2023)

 

Sacramento quilt show (3/26/2023)

Stir Crazy Museum Show in Danville, CA (6/14/2023)

Alameda County Fair (7/16/2023)

Long Beach International Quilt Festival (8/4/2023)

Celebration of Quilts, Footloose 2023 by Central Oklahoma Quilt Guild (8/6/2023)

Brentwood Quilt Show Pearls of Wisdom by Delta Quilters Guild (9/3/2023)

Savage Quilter Shop Hop with my Daughter (9/6/2023)

Back Porch Fabrics visit in Pacific Grove (9/30/2023)

3 TOYs

Blanket for Joy (1/23/23) ~ 16" x 16"

Cat and Mouse stuffies (2/7/23) started by Lillian and William, grandma completion only

2 BLOG BOOKS

DianeLoves2Quilt - Volume 18  (1/25/23)

 DianeLoves2Quilt - Volume 19  (11/12/23)

8 BURP CLOTHS

8 Burp cloths (3/5/23)

8 HOME DECOR

2 King Size Bathing Beauties Pillowcases (3/6/23)

1 pillow (10/12/2023)

2 house pillowcases (10/17/23)

 2 mini pillows (10/25/23)

1 Mickey Mouse pillow ~ 15" x 19" (11/24/23)

3 VESTS

Adventure Vests 7/17/23

Elongated, Patched Adventure Vests (7/23/23)

2 TOTE BAGS

Knitting tote bag for my sister (9/30/2023)

 Recuperation tote bag for a friend (12/18/23)

REVIEW OF GOALS

A condensed summary of my 2023 goals (1/16/23 post) is:

1) Work from my stash ✓

 ......any little I bought new, I used up immediately 

2 ) Utilize tools I have and learn how to use new ones ✓

 ......got practice with wavy rulers

3) Interface with other quilters ✓ 

.......joined small group, blogged, attended zoom meetings, went to shows

4) Intersperse small projects just for fun, growth, satisfaction ✓ 

.......yup, sure did

• I did pretty good on the intent of each goal, but I made no dent whatsoever in using up any of the kits from my stash. I really would like to start nibbling down those kits that are languishing in my stash. Hurray, though. I did not buy any more kits either.
  
  
• Other than the small wall hangings, anything I made I gave away, so in essence there is a fabric volume reduction in my home.
  
  
• Alas, I did not knit or crochet anything in 2023, which I was surprised to reveal to myself. I think a key aim for 2024 is to get better at writing goals that I will be pleased to have accomplished. Or else I might just sit back and let the "scraps" fall where they may. After all, this is my hobby, and not my livelihood.

Cut Ups Community Quilt

I belong to a small twelve-person sub-group of the Amador Valley Quilters called the Cut Ups. We gather monthly and, at each meeting, one member proposes a block pattern and fabric selections. Members each make one or more blocks. Once gathered, assembled, sandwiched, and quilted, the finished quilt is donated to charity. September was my month and I picked a block pair from the Open Options quilt pattern by Material Girlfriends. Each member made two pair of blocks. There were twelve colors choices from a fat quarter bundle, paired with white. Here is an example of four blocks, two complementary pairs, in one of the twelve colors.

After playing around with the forty-eight blocks on my design wall, this was the decided arrangement.

The backing was a deep royal blue and the quilting pattern was one of diagonal waves. Quilted with white thread, the wavy lines show up best on the back.

 

It was bound with a blue binding, accented with red piping. Labels were added on one back corner.

This quilt will be ready to be give away to a community charity after a quick washing. The washing with Synthrapol® and Color Catchers® are a must to preserve that white fabric from discoloration from the dark blue. This quilt has no name. The new owner can decide that. Here is the finished quilt. It measures 54" wide by 72" tall.

Boudoir Bathing Tote

As a quick gift for a friend recently having surgery I whipped up this tote bag. It is the second one I have made. The first one, in a knitting theme focus fabric, was for my sister and is shown in my post for 9/30/23. The pattern I used was Turn It Into a Tote, a one-page set of instructions designed by the shop owner of Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove, CA. The pattern takes only ½ yard of a theme fabric and 1 yard of another coordinate. It is fast becoming one of my go-to patterns especially for gifting.

The bathing beauties of the theme fabric are so outrageously self-indulgent they seem to evoke a smile, just as one should be when pampering oneself after surgery. I chose the lining and strap fabric in a cool tone color combination of mint and aqua. The shapes reminded me of the flagstone flooring you might find in an upscale luxurious bathroom ensuite. I included the extra fabric with the tote to display the other ladies. One can never get enough of relaxing in bubble baths.

Mickey Mouse Pillow

When I attended the Long Beach International Quilt Festival with my two granddaughters last July, they were fascinated by an embroidery machine that was stitching an image of Minnie Mouse. The previous day, when we were not there, the demo embroidery sample had been Mickey Mouse and we got to take that sample home with us. It has about a 4" border on all four sides of Mickey before trimming. I promised the girls I would make Mickey into a pillow.

 

These embroidered images take literally hours to stitch completely. We had to leave before Minnie was finished but the girls were thrilled that we had Micky Mouse as a souvenir.

Based on the rectangular shape of Mickey Mouse, the pillow would be a non-standard shape. Even if I could, I would be unable to buy an appropriately sized pillow form. I had stowed away an old worn and and torn white bed sheet which I'd cut up, planning to use it as a base for a strip quilt. Cutting a piece of that sheet to the correct size, I used it and a bag of polyester stuffing to make my own pillow form. 

All the light blue swirls in the embroidered background fill reminded me I had the perfect fabric in my stash for the pillow backing. There was enough that I could make a generous ruffle all around as well. Since I thought it was unwise to deal with a zipper next to all that bulk of the ruffle, I made an overlapping envelope back instead.

The Mickey Mouse embroidered section measures 10½" wide by 15¾" and I added a 2⅜" wide ruffle all around. The pillow is very plump and, taking that into account, the pillow measures approximately 15" wide and 19" tall. I can't wait to give Mickey to the girls when they visit at Thanksgiving. Yes, they liked it!

My DL2Q Blog Book - Vol. 19

When Blog2Print had a 35% off sale I seized the opportunity to publish my 19th DL2Q blog book. The site has sales often enough that I rarely, if ever, pay full price. Here are two pair of pages from inside the book. The first pair is images of my "Third Saturday of the Month" outdoor quilt displays. The second pair is my daughter, visiting from Oklahoma, sandwiching her Story of the Sky creation to quilt on my Sweet Sixteen Handi-Quilter. Those glossy pages seem to enhance everything. Blog2Print really does a nice job. I am always pleased with the finished bound hardcover book.

 

DianeLoves2Quilt - Vol. 19: October 20, 2022 - June 15. 2023
Volume 19 contains 248 pages over a time period of nearly 8 months in 23 posts. I picked a cover design, Mini Print - beige, that blended with the gray Christmas Cars quilt and complemented all the blues of my daughter's quilt Story of the Sky.

The Dedication for DianeLoves2Quilt - Vol. 19 and the subsequent Table of Contents read as follows:

Spectating at the Houston International Quilt Festival starts off Vol. 19: participation in the Stir Crazy Museum Show closes it. In the intervening pages are visits with my daughter and grandkids, sharing sewing and quilting with them. A crocheted cardigan is included, tucked away among small sewing projects and finished UFOs.
- Diane Chambers

I added DianeLoves2Quilt - Vol. 19 (far right, beige) to my shelf with the others. They all look relatively the same thickness, but are not, really. DianeLoves2Quilt - Vol. 8 (middle, medium blue) and DianeLoves2Quilt - Vol. 9 (middle, sage green) are the thickest at 429 and 355 pages respectively. This number of pages is actually a bit awkward to handle when holding the book and browsing through it so I like to keep it to between 200 and 250 pages. The number of pages and number of posts do not necessarily track with each other chart. The nerd in me cannot be suppressed as I show this lack of correlation in the following chart of number of pages in blue columns and the number of posts in a red line.

The number of pages also does not reflect the time period covered. The thickest books do not necessarily cover the longest time period. In the following chart, the red line of "months covered" do not directly follow the blue columns of "number of pages".  When I just started blogging, it took me almost a year and a half (17.8 months) to build up enough posts for a 228 page book. Mostly I get these books printed about twice a year. For any of my readers who want to try these books, for me and my post style/length/photos I've learned the following rules of thumb:

• 200-250 pages is a comfortable thickness for holding and browsing
• the number of months covered depends on how long the posts are; I aim for 6-8 months
• 24 posts makes a one-page table of contents
• keeping track of cover colors gives me variety when displayed on the shelf; in my humble opinion, consistent colors are not as exciting and also run the risk of a style or pattern being discontinued

These are links to previous volumes and reminders to what covers I selected. Volume 12 has the best, most complete, selection of hints.

• DL2Q Volume 19 posted 11/12/2023 cover choice Mini Print Beige
• DL2Q Volume 18 posted 01/25/2023 cover choice Polka Dots - yellow
• DL2Q Volume 17 posted 07/05/2022 cover choice Red Swirls
• DL2Q Volume 16 posted 01/29/2022 cover choice Strawberry Chocolate
• DL2Q Volume 15 posted 01/29/2022 cover choice Orange Swirls
• DL2Q Volume 14 posted 12/28/2020 cover choice Red Hearts
• DL2Q Volume 13 posted 04/24/2020 cover choice Solid Green
• DL2Q Volume 12 posted 02/23/2020 cover choice Waves-N-Whirls
• DL2Q Volume 11 posted 03/04/2019 cover choice Tree
• DL2Q Volume 10 posted 07/05/2018 cover choice Brown Swirls
• DL2Q Volume 9 posted 06/22/2018 cover choice Polka Dots - green
• DL2Q Volume 8 posted 06/27/2017 cover choice Polka Dots - blue
• DL2Q Volume 7 posted 06/27/2017 cover choice Polka Dots - pink
• DL2Q Volume 6 posted 06/27/2017 cover choice Red Swirls
• DL2Q Volume 5 posted 12/16/2015 cover choice Green Swirls
• DL2Q Volume 4 posted 03/18/2015 cover choice Plum Flowers
• DL2Q Volume 3 posted 03/18/2015 cover choice Flowers - yellow
• DL2Q Volume 2 posted 04/14/2014 cover choice Flowers - pink
• DL2Q Volume 1 posted 04/17/2013 cover choice Blue Swirls