It’s that New Year Stuff

January 12, 2020December 28, 2024 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

When I’m deep in the tired mind blahs, mindlessly wandering through my Feedly list can sometimes yield nuggets that flash in my brain and perk me up. I follow Zen Habits, and this week Leo Babauta’s words plonked into my brain with a spark.

Screen Shot 2020-01-11 at 11.31.05 AM.png — Apparently even Tarot cards are aware of this brain-fog issue.

What caught my eye was How to Have More Focused Hours in Your Day. I see a lot of these change-your-life-in-the-new-year articles. After having lived a few years on this planet, I usually just ignore their advice, but I did like this:

[Any] success I’ve had in increasing my focused time comes down to three habits:
• Asking myself what meaningful, impactful work I can get done today.
• Creating space for the meaningful work instead of just doing busywork or being distracted all day.
• Working in fullscreen mode and diving in.

So I was interested to see that he and I have the first thing in common. I’ve used something similar for years: after I’ve ditzed around for part of the day, I ask myself “What do you want to have done before you quit working today?” and after identifying that ONE thing, I get to work on it. It’s cured a lot of procrastination issues when I use it.

He expands by noting that “Most of us just dive into our inboxes, social media, favorite online sites, and busywork to start our day. We might have some bigger tasks on our lists, but they get lost in the woods of our day. It’s an incredible habit to take even a few moments at the beginning of your day (or the end of the day before) to give some thought to where you’d like to concentrate your attention. What is worth doing today? What is worth focusing on? What is worth spending the limited time you have in this life?” [italics are mine]

He approaches the second idea — of creating space — in a more roundabout way. It’s almost like we have to trick ourselves. He says “Set aside the next 20 minutes for writing, or getting moving on a big project. I don’t have to do the whole project in this time, but just the act of giving myself more space to focus is a huge shift. This is more of a mental act than a physical one: you just tell yourself that it’s time to focus on this important task. You breathe, and say, ‘This is worthy of my attention and effort right now. Let’s put aside everything else and give this some space.’ “ January 2020 Messy Room But it’s also hard to get going when your sewing space looks like this.

Notice the chair is clear. I can still do some work. That’s what he means of working in the third idea, fullscreen mode: ignore everything else around the edges, and just focus in. I used to only be able to work in a very clean, very tidy sewing room. But I got over that. I still like to clean it up, and did leave it sort of clean when we went up to Utah to help Mom and Dad clear out their condo of 30 years, in preparation for moving to a senior community, but I brought back various sewing things, a small Viking sewing machine THAT WAS MADE IN SWEDEN (I know, I know!) and I just plopped them around.

I spent three days quilting My Small World, and now it’s ready for borders. I need to put a slim border around my Temperature Quilt before I move forward, and just like that…I am making a list in my mind about what I want to do first.

It’s also helped that the busyness that has been present in my life since — say, about September — culminated with our First Monday Sew Day this past week (pictures, above). It’s quite gratifying to see Hayley, a beginning quilter, turn out such pristinely perfect pinwheels (lower left corner). She’s only been sewing for about a month, and puts me to shame!

Here’s our flier from that day, where we covered snowball blocks and half-square triangles:

For the handout, click on this title: FirstMondaySewday_Jan6_2020

Still working on revising Home, Sweet, Home–there are lots of new illustrations to make — as I will be teaching this a lot this year and want a shiny new version to take with me when I visit Guilds. I also began new duties as VP of Communications for our local Modern Quilt Guild, and have my first board meeting next week. I’m impressed with all the service I hear that you give to your Guilds and wanted to do the same.

Finally, I always begin the new year by writing my thank you notes. These, from Quiltfolk, were perfect. I hope you all have good beginnings to your new year!

Happy Old Year Ending (Wrap-up)

Happy Old Year Ending 2019

December 31, 2019December 28, 2024 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

I am a firm believer in making lists. There are Best Seller Lists, To-Do Lists, Grocery Lists, Honey-Do Lists, in short, lists for everything. A grand event in my world is making a list of tasks, then whipping out my yellow marker to cross them off when completed. I even have lists of lists, and many of them are in my calendar.

Quilts 2019 Conglomerate.jpg

2019 ListQuilts.jpg
This is my list of what I accomplished in 2020, quilt-wise. We won’t talk about the other stuff (like shoulder surgery–yikes!).

You haven’t seen number 18 Azulejos yet. And in a little more housekeeping, Field Flowers, number 7 in the listing above, is listed as 188 in my Quilt Index, since I posted about the top back then, and like to keep them together.

Five Merrion Square Quilts.jpg

Can’t believe I made five Merrion Square quilts. But here they are.

I also made a couple more Tiny Quilts which aren’t listed; they are free patterns available in the tab “Tiny Quilts” at the top of the blog. Crossroads SModerne.jpg

This was a highlight of 2019, as I am quite a fangirl of this magazine.

Here’s one you haven’t seen on this blog yet. It’s Home Is Where the Heart is, a re-do of my Home, Sweet Home pattern. Lots of people would rather piece in the doors and windows (the smaller version has you fuse them on), so I am in the process of refreshing the pattern; it will be available Febrary 1st in PayHip.

The backing shows scenes of New York City, and reminds me of my daughter, who is in totally besotted with that place. She was born there, but we moved when she was still tiny. The city is in her DNA, I’m convinced. 2019 completed Quilt Tops.jpg

But I still have some work to do. Tannenbaum was on my Christmas Day post, and it needs ~~a few more~~ tons more squares for the borders so it can live on my bed in December. Small World is pin-baseted, ready for quilting, as is the City Streets variation. And that Temperature Quilt will soon be finished (like tonight).

Output number Sign 2019

So, even though I started the year with that surgery which sidelined me for a few months, I think my output has been decent. I also visited seven different guilds, taught seven workshops, and wrote/refreshed many of my patterns. I’m not listing the number of doctor visits, trips to the grocery store, visits to the car dealership, nor the trips to see my children/grandchildren/parents/family. In this blog, all revolves around the quilt, and my Quilt Index (or Indices, if you want to get technical).

And why is a quilt index important for you? I was sitting next to Judy R. in December’s Guild meeting, and the question came up “Who has made the most quilts?” Several women raised their hands, but Judy popped her hand up and said “Elizabeth has! And has a Quilt List to prove it!” (She’s very sweet.) It made me, yet again, happy that I’d made a quilt index and kept it up to date. In this new upcoming year, I’d like to encourage you to start one, if you haven’t already.

BTC and ESE Matching Outfits — That daughter and I, long long ago.

If you are new to this blog, last year I wrote an introduction of who I am. In this space, I generally talk about my quilts, places I go that are textile/quilty related, as well as discuss quilt/work/create topics once in a while. I keep this quote of Thomas Merton’s handy, perhaps to help me keep perspective:

“We live in a society whose whole policy is to excite every nerve in the human body and keep it at the highest pitch of artificial tension, to strain every human desire to the limit and to create as many new desires and synthetic passions as possible, in order to cater to them with the products of our factories and printing presses and movie studios and all the rest.”

For now, for today, it’s time to unwind from that tension, take a break and close out this year, looking forward to the next. In all ways, quilting can help.

German Happy New Year

Prosit Neujahr 2020!

Creating · Happy Old Year Ending (Wrap-up) · Something to Think About

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

December 31, 2018December 28, 2024 Elizabeth E.25 Comments

Happy New Year 2019

That saying in the title is Welsh for Happy New Year, and one custom is that the children in old Welsh villages would “rush around the village visiting as many houses as possible to collect sweets and money. The visits had to be made before midday, so it was often a race against the clock!” The gifts were called calennig, and often referred to a skewered apple that the children would carry around.

I have no gifts for you, other than myself. But then you aren’t rushing around knocking on my door, either.

I have some new readers, and thought I’d re-introduce myself at this time of Happy Old Year Ending • Happy New Year. (I first learned to say Happy Old Year ending from a well-traveled friend, who said it was from somewhere on the African continent, and although I’ve never been able to corroborate that, I still like the idea of being happy with an ending.)

I’m Elizabeth Eastmond and I am the sole writer of this blog.

l to r: Julie, Melissa, me, Laurel, Simone, Lisa. (PS Simone doesn’t really look like this. She likes to pull faces. Her texts always make me laugh.)

Jeehye and I, in front of Porcella’s quilt.

That daughter and I, long long ago.

I first began writing in 2007, sliding quilty posts in amongst my then regular blog, OccasionalPiece, which at this point, is resting (it’s been resting for several years). The blog name, OccasionalPiece, morphed into OccasionalPiece~Quilt, then I dropped the tilde (~). When I started trying to find a web address, I shortened it even further to OPQuilt, because who wants to try and spell Occasional or Piece?

Piece originated not in the term “piecing” but from the fact that at the time I started writing online, I was in Graduate School, getting my degree in Creative Writing. We called our writings “pieces” as in a “short story piece” or “a piece of my novel.” In my mind it expanded to include my cloth piecings, and any slice of my life–so that’s why you’ll see some travel, some family, current events, cooking, and yes, an occasional piece of writing. Oh, and art. We’ve got to have art!

NYC11_18_12c highline — *Sculpture on the High Line; the birds perched there, but they are not a part of this piece of art*

I keep a listing of my quilts–or as we say in Creative Writing, a catalogue of the body of my work–up above on 100 Quilts, 200 Quilts, and am starting on the 300 Quilts list. Everything is linked, but not illustrated, and I’m sorry about that. I would like to have a listing of photos, but that’s in my Someday category.

While it’s traditional on this week to do a year-end round-up of Quilts I’ve Made or lists of Hope I Finish These This Year, and while I love other people’s inventory, this year I found my own lists and write-ups pretty boring (really, can we stand one more look at Frivols?) except, perhaps, for the lovely one below, gifted at a new baby shower:

Deneese baby quilt

Personal stats: I have four lovely and clever children, eleven brilliant and handsome grandchildren, a perfectly amazing and wonderful husband. Our last family photo, since we are scatterered over four states was two years ago, and one was missing even then. I like the word lovely and use it a lot. I’ve been divorced, remarried, had two major surgeries, a scattering of small ones, but consider myself healthy, and try always to follow my grandmother’s advice to keep my whines to myself, with the caveat that if something interrupts the output of quilting, I might put it up on this blog. I make mistakes. I cherish my faith and crave harmony. I love going to quilt shows. I like to sing, mostly to the stuff coming in off my playlist. I am not totally in love with Smart Technology (still having fights with our new Christmas gift: “Siri, why are you singing in the middle of the night?”), but adore my mobile phone and its capabilities. I like to laugh, have a fairly honed capacity for snark, and cry in tender and emotional scenes in movies. In short, I am like you. I am not like you. But I hope to count myself as someone who writes something that you’d like to read.

But generally, this blog is about quilts. Quilting. Our quilting world. Things that pertain to it. It might be about a quilting personality, or quilting commerce. It is not a newsletter. It’s my calennig, my gift to you.

Happy Reading.

Happy New Year!

Happy Old Year Ending (Wrap-up)

Happy Old Year Ending • 2017

December 31, 2017December 28, 2024 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

This year’s main quilting events: Shoulder surgery in January, which pretty much sidelined me for a long time. That’s at the top of the list, because whatever I did after that was like icing on the cake. My achievements — or lack of, depending on your view — can be found under the tab “200 Quilts,” a handy way to navigate the morass of blogland.

But here’s some eye-candy, quilt-style.

2017 Makes_1

2017 Makes_2

and a few more…

2017 Makes_3

So, in spite of a lame start, I did manage to get a few things made. That’s why I do these posts–they are more for me, to say…hey, you didn’t do so bad. So often we only notice what we don’t do, what we can’t make or achieve, as you’ll notice by my language in the intro, where I denigrate my accomplishments.

I did some some traveling, which expanded my horizons a bit, to the European Patchwork Meeting…

Tokyo_Yuzawaya

…as well as Seoul and Tokyo (accompanying my husband to his meetings). Next travel is to Ontario, California for Road to California, and to Pasadena for QuiltCon 2018. Luckily both are within an hour of my home.

I’m joining up with Cheryl’s Linky Party, because I’ve found it so fun to browse what everyone else has been doing this year. My top five posts for 2017 are:

Mini Sew-Together Bag. I recently moved the pattern up to Craftsy and am happy that it has helped find a wider audience of bag enthusiasts. The rest of my patterns are on PayHip (link to the right).

Mini Sew Together Bag_5b stuffed

2. Christmas Tree Skirt. Although there is no pattern, there is enough information on this post so you can make your own. I’m still surprised by how much traffic this post gets.

christmas-tree-skirt-2014

3. Shine–the Circle Quilt Post is a busy place, as I make available many EPP patterns for free, so you can make a circle block either for a quilt, or pillows or wall-hangings. And this year, the quilt will hang in Road to California.

4shinecirclesquiltl

4. Two posts are virtually tied for the same place: the post on how to convert a Chuck Nohara block illustration to a pattern, and the posts showing the tutorial on my Piggies quilt.