Day 31: A 100 Day Update
Big quilty discoveries have been made, and a whole new quilted path now lies ahead.
I started this 100 Day Project with a focus on making actual progress on my Jane Austen quilt, but on Day 5 something magical happened and everything changed! The very short story is that I found my quilting voice, and as a result I also found a whole new quilting path to follow professionally. The longer, more complete version of that story is too big for one update. In fact, it’s too big for just one section of a Substack newsletter, or even just one quilt. Bare with me, as I have so much to share that I’m going to have to spread out the details into future updates, but I’m ever so excited about what’s to come that I’m trying to at least share a peek into what’s happening.
Let me attempt to tell you the story, and explain what the coming months hold.
Way back on the morning of Day 5, or rather, on February 26, 2026, I was sitting on my back porch with my dogs, stitching away on the center block of the Jane Austen quilt I initially set out to be my focus for these 100 days. This has become my morning routine. After I finish dropping my kids off at school, I come home, grab my stitching, and turn my attention to my dogs. They get to enjoy having me outside with them, and I get to start my day in the fresh air with my needle, thread, and thimble. We all kind of win with this arrangement. Anyhow, I’m out on my back porch, stitching away in that rhythmic, slow, calming, repetitive, mindful manner that I love so much, and my mind begins to wander. . . .
This is what I love about hand quilting. It’s an activity that forces me to ground myself in one place, my hands are given a task, and my brain can heave that cleansing, cathartic sigh of finding a bit of calm within a crazy, hyperactive existence. Within these moments of calm, my brain can wander freely and explore the questions my heart holds the closest.
. . . And on that porch on the morning of Day 5, with the Jane Austen quilt in my hands, my brain once again began pondering whether or not I would be able to both hand appliqué and hand piece that entire quilt? It’s a question I’ve been pondering for months now, but there was something about the way the question had been growing within my thoughts that whole week. This idea of hand piecing a quilt was beginning to take over. It was calling to me, and on the afternoon of Day 5 I finally paused all that I was quilting, and turned my attention towards finding an answer.
That afternoon, I had begun working to excavate the enormous mountain of clutter that has taken over my sewing area these last six months. In doing so, I came across a couple of fabric sets and quilt pattern books I recently picked up at my local quilt shop. The pattern books were from Fabric Café’s 3-Yard Quilts series, and the fabric sets had been carefully selected and packaged by the crew at My Happy Place Quilt Shop. I picked the fabric package that spoke to me the most that afternoon, grabbed the quilt pattern I initially paired it with, and off I went! A short bit of cutting, marking, and stitching later I had found my quilting voice!
Suddenly, I was a Completely. Different. Quilter!
I have always loved the simplicity and mobility of hand quilting, but embracing the added step of hand piecing has felt as if I am home at last! It has peeled away and cast off so many layers of doubt, uncertainty, and anxiety I didn’t fully comprehend my quilting experience contained. I felt as if an enormous vice grip had released its hold on my chest and that I could breathe deeper than I have for months. I felt as if I found the calm in my body and a song in my soul. I felt as if I had finally found myself: who I truly am as a quilter.
I’m not one for “never” statements, nor am I about to get rid of my sewing machine, but discovering my affinity for hand piecing has unlocked a whole new quilting adventure for me. Very quickly, I began contemplating what to do with all of the quilt kits and projects I already have waiting for me. All of those quilt patterns are written to be used with a machine. They include steps using strip piecing and chain piecing and all these other sewing techniques I’ve learned that all require a sewing machine. How, I was asking myself, do I make these quilts I’ve already fallen in love with (and invested money into) and yet still feed my quilting passions by using my thimble? The answer revealed itself pretty quickly. I will be using my machine to finish specific projects, and I will trust the quilting skills and knowledge I’ve developed over the last 11 years I’ve been doing this, and I’ll adapt the other patterns to work with my thimble as needed.
I will hold off on elaborating more on this epiphany because it’s one of the exciting quilting paths I’m about to journey down. Not only am I planning on sharing my stories about what this will look like for me, but I also have the most perfect quilt project to start with that will beautifully illustrate my point. Stay tuned as this journey will be taking us to a Cabin Beneath The Stars!
This dramatic turn of events also opened a door that will allow me to chronicle a milestone year in my life through a quilt pattern I’ve been trying to find a project for, and I’ll get to do it while also learning about an iconic fabric line I’ve been super curious about. Put another way: I’ll be Stitching My Way To 50, thanks to Plains & Pine’s Temperature Quilt pattern, and a couple of Liberty Fabric bundles from DuckaDilly. I’m in the planning and prepping stage for this right now, but my “proof of concept” tests have been encouraging. This quilting adventure will start in just a couple of weeks.
And of course, there’s my Woodlands Creature Quilt. That’s what I’ve decided to call this 3-Yards Quilt project that unlocked the world of hand piecing for me. This quilt has taught me a couple of pretty important life lessons that I look forward to sharing more about, but those can wait until I have it finished. As I type this, I’ve finished the whole body of the quilt and I’ve begun adding the boarders. I’m hopeful I’ll have it completed within the next week or so.
As I said, it’s been an incredible 31 days. It’s a little bonkers to think about how I started these 100 Days working on one project that has been weighting on my heart for months, only to have three more quilt projects pop up and call to be worked on. Never fear, I’m not abandoning Jane Austen. I’m embracing an important lesson I learned from my personal literary pursuits: books have timing! Sometimes it’s just not the right moment in your life to read that particular book. Put into quilting terms: quilts have timing too! I needed that Jane Austen quilt to help me find this quilted path I’m now headed down, but it’s not time for me to finish it just now. I look forward to picking it up again in the future. Perhaps, I’ll do so for my next 100 Days.