2017 Quilting Reflections

As 2017 comes to a close, I've enjoyed reflecting on the progress I've made with my New Year's Resolutions, quilting accomplishments and amazing adventures.

Let's start with a progress report on my 2017 New Year's Resolutions:

1.  Grow my business:   Mel Beach Quilts
A lot of planning and energy went into expanding my teaching/lecturing business including:

• Visits with 19 different guilds for a lecture and/or workshop, in addition to teaching at two quilt shops in the Bay Area!
• Promoting my workshops/lectures at Meet the Teachers, sponsored by Northern California Quilt Council and Southern California Council of Quilt Guilds, and NCQC's All Star Review, each of which has led to teaching/lecturing contracts!
• Enrolling in Abby Glassenberg's Newsletter Jumpstart class to learn the ins & outs of publishing my own email newsletter, which I have done on a monthly basis since August!  Many thanks to Abby as I've really enjoyed having this opportunity to share my love of quilting with my followers!
• Published almost 100 blog posts sharing my quilting/teaching adventures!
• Creating free-motion quilting video demos to share via Instagram and Facebook, which have generated quite a positive response in terms of views and comments!
• Launched two exciting new workshops (Mod Mandalas and Mod Molas), a new lecture (Dare to Dye!) while also enhancing existing classes with fun new variations and samples!

Phew!  I am exhausted just after making that list!!  I am really pleased with how my hard work is paying off and all the amazing quilters I've met along the way!!

2.  Create Quilts to Enter into Juried Shows
This year, I strived to create quilts that were "quilt show worthy," while also exploring some new venues to enter my quilts.  This year, my quilts traveled to the following juried shows and exhibits:  Road to California, QuiltCon East, AQS Spring Paducah, MQX, California State Fair, Pacific International Quilt Festival, Threads of Resistance, Cherrywood Van Gogh Dutch collection, Hoffman Challenge Traveling exhibit and New Quilts of Northern California.

I was also fortunate to have several of my quilts go onto win special recognition & awards:

• Spinning Stars, 3rd Place in PIQF's New Modern Quilt Competition
• Thunderstruck, Finalist in MQG's Riley Blake Creative Rockstar Fabric Challenge
• Rhythm & Blues, 1st Place in Small Modern Quilts, California State Fair
• Peace of Mind, 2nd Place in Small Modern Quilts, California State Fair
• Always Follow Your Heart, 3rd Place in Small Modern Quilts, California State Fair
• Orange You Glad I Got the Blues?, 2nd Place in Small Art Quilts, California State Fair 

Show Worthy Quilts!

3.  Dyeing with Intention
While I did not have as many Dye Days as I would have liked, I dyed with intention as I...

• Refined my dyeing formulas and techniques, and achieving more vibrant colors and exciting patterns!  
• Created stunning hand dyed mandalas that make for beautiful wholecloth quilts.
• Experimented with some indigo dyeing where I learned some new manipulation techniques.
• Shared the fun with family and fellow quilters in my new Dare to Dye! lecture/trunk show.

4.  More Series Work
New designs & technique variations were explored as I worked on four different series.  The first two were a continuation of series from last year and the last two are brand new and led to two new workshops!!

Magnificent Wholecloth Quilted Mandalas

Slice of Improv

Bias Tape Applique Modern Mandalas

Mod Molas

5.  Continue My Quest to Eradicate UFOs
This year, I began with almost 20 UnFinished Objects accumulated from the past 6 years:  2011 (2), 2012 (2), 2013 (6), 2014 (1), 2015(4) and 2016 (4).  I managed to complete 3 of these UFOs while making significant progress on another 5 UFOs (to the point that they are ready for quilting!!)  I am revisiting some of the remaining UFOs and deciding whether I want to carry them to completion or donate/exchange them with fellow guild members.  I was also more mindful about not adding new UFOs to the mix, by limiting the number of new projects started, especially in workshop projects!!  As a result, I am only adding 4 new UFOs (3 of which are awaiting quilting with the last one still being pieced as it was started in late November!!)  So while I am ending the year with just about the same number of UFOs, they are much further along as the majority of the list is awaiting quilting/finishing!!

Completed UFOs!!

More Highlights from 2017:

• 43 Finished Quilts (2 large lap/twin sized, two large wall/crib sized and mostly small wall quilts/minis) along with a number of fat quarter sized workshop samples!
• 17 Quilt Challenges Completed:  6 Project Quilting 1-week challenges, 3 Project Quilting Off-Season 1-month challenges, Riley Blake Creative Rockstar Fabric Challenge, Hoffman Fabric Challenge, Cherrywood Van Gogh Challenge, Michael Miller Our Yard Fabric Challenge, What the $%&# Was I Thinking? Challenge, SCVQA UFO Exchange, Pantone Color of the Year and MQG Flying Geese Challenge!  Nothing like a deadline to provide the motivation to finish!!

2017 Quilt Challenges

• Promoting Awareness & Activism through my quilts.  On multiple occasions, I let the current political news/world climate drain my creative energies.  Rather than give into the growing feelings of hopelessness/fear/frustration, I decided to channel hope, love, compassion and awareness into several of my quilts!  Many thanks to my family & friends for all their love and support that helped me work through some challenging issues, range of emotions and giving me the confidence to voice my own concerns with the current political landscape. 

• Other Quilting Honors:
• Chosen by my guild as one of SCVQA's Featured Artists for our biannual Quilt Show!
• Selected as an Aurifil Artisans!
• Featured Artist (episode 2112) on The Quilt Show starring Alex Anderson & Ricky Tims!!

More Amazing Quilting Adventures!!

Wowza!!  What an absolutely creative and fun-filled year!!  I look forward to seeing what fun new quilting adventures await me in 2018!!