We all have our hobbies. I may not have a singular hobby, but all the hobbies I have tend to fall into some sort of fiber art – think sewing, embroidery, knitting, crochet. I wanted 2021 to be a time where I could be a little less haphazard about my hobbies, but that really hasn’t happened. 2021 has been a wild mess in our lives, and while we were hoping for a quiet autumn and winter seasons, moving has put a kink in that. I’m excited for this move. We’re still waiting on news from the complex we’re interested in, so keep your fingers crossed for us! Even with this move looming in our near future, I still find myself in need of time to really unplug from the stressors in my life, so I am making sure that I take time to engage in the hobbies I have.

We all have things that make us feel like it’s “okay” to engage with our hobbies. One of the things I struggle with is that my hobbies tend to create things. I often choose to not engage with my hobbies simply because I don’t have a space or use for the item I create. I’ve also really missed having something that I can provide volunteer hours for. As I was researching a quilt that I’ll be (hopefully) showcasing at the end of December, I came across the idea of charity quilting. I dug a little deeper into the topic and found out that there are many organisations with the sole purpose of collecting charity quilts. I felt like charity quilting would really fill a space in my life that would help me feel fulfilled in a way that I wasn’t. I found a local chapter of The Linus Connection. Their goal is to provide handmade blankets to children in crisis, and that really spoke to me. Bex and I investigated the next meeting date, went and had a great time. Immediately after this, our lives got very busy, and we haven’t been able to make it back. That doesn’t mean that it hasn’t been on my radar though!

The Linus Connection accepts cash donations as well as donations of blanket making supplies or craft store gift cards. What this means is that you can hook into the local group, and they have almost anything you could need to create a blanket for a child in crisis. We didn’t realise this when we first went, but it was a welcome surprise. I planned to make a couple of quilts, so we went through the fabric stash and selected enough fabric to make several baby blankets. While there is a plethora of free quilt options available online and through The Linus Connection itself, I didn’t completely follow any of the available patterns. I took inspiration from Stash Buster 9 from Just Get It Done Quilts. I liked the idea of a rainbow of colours, but the measurements in her cut pattern just didn’t fit with what I needed for the quilt sizes used by The Linus Connection. I took some time to modify the cut sizes, and honestly, I’m pleased with the resulting top.

We also found an adorable trio of fabrics that I thought would be lovely in a straight patchwork quilt as well. I’m not used to working with such large motifs in my fabric, but the happy little monsters were cute and would do well with a larger square. I’m really pleased with how the squares are coming together as well. It feels cheery, and I smile every time I see it. These quilt tops are easy and straightforward in a way my other quilting project isn’t. They’re also a nice space for me to let go of a lot of the more complex things gripping my brain.

Everything I’m showing today is a work in progress. We live in a time where we are bombarded on social media by beautiful, complete projects that are started and finished in a quick video or singular blog post. If I only showed completed projects here, I wouldn’t have anything to post until December. Completing the project has never been the cornerstone of my life. The journey to the end has always provided me with more knowledge and insight into myself.

What I’m learning:

There is something beautiful about simple patterns. My other quilting project is much more complex and much larger. I was hitting a place where I was dreading sitting down to work on it. The project is so large that in order to complete it by December I started in August. I need short, simple projects to operate like a palate cleanser so that I can keep going with my marathon projects.

Sewing, and quilting more so than many other forms of sewing, has a HUGE ironing component. My normal idea of breaking down a larger project into small pieces that offer my brain a moment of completion doesn’t work with quilting, at least not for me. I learned this with my bigger project and have put that into practice with these smaller quilts. I get so much more enjoyment out of the process now! Instead of ironing between each piecing step, I’m building my sections as much as I possibly can without going to the iron. This does two things - one, I don’t have to leave my iron on all the time, and two, I can lump all my ironing into short sessions. When I was ironing as I went, I would end my quilting time feeling like I hadn’t accomplished anything at all. Now I feel like I accomplished a lot more when I can end my time by ironing out completed sections that are MUCH easier to see. It disrupts my checklist for my larger project, but it also has made these charity quilts feel much more real to me. I can sit down for an hour and have a small quilt top almost entirely completed.

I knew that I enjoyed quilting. When I made my first quilt my goal was to try all the steps to see if I liked quilting as a hobby at all. Now I’m learning to refine my process so that I can give myself some mental space and engage in something relaxing. I still hate cutting out pieces, no matter how many things I do to make the process less awful. I’m thankful that I have the space to engage in something that tickles the creative part of my brain while still being helpful to someone.

If you’re interested in charity quilting and are in the greater Austin area, I encourage you to check out The Linus Connection. Their website keeps a small archive of completed quilt pictures, and the meetings have a show and tell component. Bex and I really enjoyed getting to see the completed quilts. It felt like a mini-art show. Meetings aren’t even necessary. Their website has everything you need to know about how they need their blankets structured as well as alternate drop locations. It’s also not limited to quilts! They accept knit and crocheted blankets as well as weighted blankets. Hopefully I’ll complete these quilts before we move, but I’m not stressing out about it. I’m thankful that I have an opportunity to do something I enjoy for someone else in need.