falling to pieces {a finished quilt}

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you probably noticed I've been blogging less and less often over the last year or so. A lot of things contributed to this (increased work hours, and a lot less sewing time are the primary reasons!), but I'm determined to change that this year and get back to blogging more regularly and hopefully getting back to my YouTube channel as well - I have had a lot of requests for more FMQ video tutorials, and I love making them so I'm hoping they'll become a semi-regular thing. We have just come back from a fantastic beach holiday and I'm feeling recharged and inspired to sew again (after six weeks away from my machine), and I'm planning on that energy being channeled into my blog as well! 

Anyhoo, today I'm sharing a quilt I made toward the end of last year - a mini quilt made for the QuiltCon EZ Quilting Triangle challenge. This is a pretty wordy post - there's a bit of background involved in explaining why I made this quilt (not something I often need to do with my quilts), which is why I haven't gotten around to sharing this until now ;o) I did enter this into QuiltCon, and it wasn't accepted, but it was a really important quilt for me to make so I'm completely at ease with the fact that it didn't make the cut (admittedly, it probably helps that Molecular was juried in, so I do have one quilt in the show!!).

So, the background. I think I mentioned early last year that my youngest had started school and I landed a casual job as a lab technician (I'm a scientist turned quilter) as well as working and teaching at Frangipani Fabrics a few days a week. This worked beautifully up until September when one of the full time lab staff broke his leg really badly and I was offered regular hours. I went from working very part time to working five or six days a week, as well as still trying to do my normal amount of being mum/quilting/etc. Something had to give, and it just happened to be my mental state that suffered. A lot. I stopped sewing. My motivation to sew disappeared entirely. And I struggled with this big time - I had no energy or desire to pursue the one thing that instantly relaxes me and helps me find my centre, which upset me deeply.

So, this little quilt (she measures about 28" x 32") is important for a few reasons. First and foremost it's a reflection of my mental state a few months ago. But almost as important, making this quilt was incredibly therapeutic - I rediscovered my love of quilting, had a tonne of fun making it and will happily hang it in our house. It took a surprisingly long time to piece this one - the triangles are quite small (2" high from memory) and the borders are 1/2" finished, so it wasn't a quick quilt to make. I really enjoyed the process though, and I'd love to do more tiny piecing this year. I savoured the entire process of making this quilt, and that's something else I want to focus on this year - slow, deliberate sewing.

I used a double layer of wool batting on this quilt, so the texture is really gorgeous - it's all fairly simple organic straight line FMQ, using the lines in the piecing to inform the quilting. I used a variegated grey Aurifil 40wt thread for the quilting, which adds a bit of interest over the low volume background fabrics. I love the addition of that little ghost triangle too (a nod to the class I took with Krista Withers last year at QuiltCon.)

I have a few blog posts coming up in the next few weeks (my next Farmers Wife tutorial, introducing an exciting blog series I'm participating in, and a few finishes from last year that I still haven't shared), so you will definitely be hearing from me a bit more regularly. Let's see if that continues beyond this month - but I have the best of intentions ;o)

xx Jess