The Sea Glass Quilt

Back in May I wrote The Sea Glass Moment, I had a little bit of a moment where it all just seemed like the right idea to start a new project!  The Sea Glass Quilt was born and I am really pleased with the result.  I have learnt some important lessons from the Summer too and I’ll share these with you at the end.

The Summer Lovin Sea Glass Quilt

This was a project inspired by Kitty from the Night Quilter and Allie from the  ExhaustedOctopus.  They started The Summer Loving Sea Glass Sewalong.  It really sang to me.  I was burnt out and running on low.  The simple task of discovering and taking part in something that brings you joy really hit home to me.

Over the 3 Summer months I kept a log of 10 different things that bring me joy:

1. Sewing my Beaufort Quilt
2. Sewing for the Focus Cutting Sewalong
3. Sewing for Two Tiny Makes
4. Nights away
5. Day Trips
6. Paid Fitness
7. Free Fitness
8. Teach myself Illustrator
9. Reading
10. Decorating the Hallway

I used a collection of one inch scraps for my sea glass pieces as this is the size of my scrap collection.  Most bigger pieces are considered useable in my book!

My purple scraps have been completely annihilated!!  Here is a drop the whole quilt:

It is lap quilt sized.  I have quilted it onto triple layers of jersey type material as this is what I had on hand.  I am always quite careful to use what I have over buying new just to make something work.

As it was a jersey and brown I tried out something new to me, the rag rug effect.  I free motioned quilted each of the squares then joined the blocks up in the end.  It’s super fluffy now and the brown borders remind me of sea weed!

Overall I am really happy that I tried something new and really happy with the effect!

How I Kept Track

I have never really been any good at keeping tracking pages in my journal, I struggle with the consistency of it.  Kitty and Allie provided us with sheets of tracking papers too, I decided not to use them as I felt that I would have printed them off and then had nowhere to keep them safe.

Normally in my world anything that I have laying around gets swooped up by the kids in someway so I’d have had to hidden it and that defeats the object of meaning to track.

I used my bullet journal instead.

As you can see from this, my go to method is MESSY! I don’t keep a polished arty journal at all.  I use my journal space to keep track of my Two Tiny Makes ideas and having this book laying round really helped me keep track.

I found as I had made the Summer Lovin Sea Glass Sewalong an intention for 3 months and I was keeping track of things that bought me joy. As well as getting to play with pretty fabric that I got into the habit of being able to mark down if I had done the thing that day.

What I learnt

With everything that we do in life I consider it a chance to learn and grow.  There are things I learnt this Summer so I thought I’d share them with you:

It’s okay to drop things that don’t mean what you first thought they would.

The Sewing for Focus Cutting Sewalong on my list became a “task” for me.  I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I should. I’d picked it as a project that I once enjoyed.  I still love to EPP and slow sew of the evening but I no longer get the same joy that I once did.  Will it stop me joining in on the sewalong in the future, I am not sure as I always like to try.

Keeping specific on what brings you joy

It’s very easy to say – doing something creative – well I do this everyday, all day pretty much.  It really helped me to pick out something specific and feel that sense of achievement of working on that one thing.  Getting to tick off that square meant that I had moved something I enjoy forward.

Same with Decorating my hallway – I could have put DIY down – but specifically selecting the one area of the house meant that I cracked on in that area and got it finished without being distracted.

Tracking so much is hard

I have never really stuck at tracking.  I keep a bullet journal and they are prime targets for tracking life events.  I’ll do a week and then start forgetting to keep track.  Working with Kitty and Allie on this project felt like a good idea, accountability to getting a sea glass reward every time I completed something..

You know what though, I just find it hard.  I managed it for 3 months, my longest yet.  As soon as September rolled round, the end of Summer, I stopped.  Having all the things to keep track of just felt hard.  What really helped was the getting the sea glass pieces that meant what I was creating was unique to the summer.  I just don’t feel like I want to carry it on.

Free Motion Quilting is okay

I’ve never ever in my life attempted so much free motion quilting quite so successfully before.. Do you know what it was that saved me, the 10″ squares I was working with.  When I previously tried to free motion on my Marcelle Medallion quilt it was big and I struggled to get nice stitching.

This one really helped me get in the flow and by the end of it, even though some of it was messy I can really see how much progress I made in getting even stitches and nice effects.  Note how I’ve not shown you the back!!

The Last Push is the Last Reward

September rolled around and I knew I had collected all the pieces of sea glass fabric over the Summer into a jar.  A jar is symbolic to me as a good place to store important things!  October rolled around.  November…  Those little pieces of fabric were at risk of becoming “that” project I started one year.  I must admit I panicked that this was going to be the case so one Thursday morning in November when my plans were changed for me I just started… Didn’t stop until a week or two late the quilt was finished.

I think it helped that it was always destined to be something small.  That last push to complete was a true reward.

I have really enjoyed the Sea Glass Quilt project and really proud of myself for getting it finished.  It may be small but it be mighty! Let me know in the comments if you have ever embarked on a project like this.  Would love to know how you got on… x