Welcome to a fresh new year and to a fresh new Stitched in Color pattern club! It is such an honor that so many of you are sewing along. Exciting! After you registered for the club, you downloaded the Positivities Prelude document and probably started dreaming up ideas for your quilt. But are still feeling hesitant about how to approach this project?

I get it. We are going to be interacting with this quilt for a year, so you want to love, love, love both the process and the result. The best approach for you depends upon your personality, of course. Here are a few different ways to approach your Positivities quilt journey. Maybe you will see yourself and your needs in one of these options, and thereby find your way to a happy, creative flow!

absolutely no planning

Don't have space in your life or your head for pondering these things? Does trying to choose colors or come up with a quilt mood leave you feeling drained? That’s okay, you can relax and just sew along. Or, really, sew by number!

Positivities quilt pattern is intended to be sewn with 9 solid fabrics. You can buy the solid fabric kit at Sojo Fabric or source these Tilda solids from a local shop. Each time you sew an element for your Positivities quilt, the pattern will tell you which number solid to use in each part of the block. Easy peasy. You fill in the other parts of the block with your scraps, again following color hints provided by the pattern.

The result? Your journey is peaceful and decision-free and your finished quilt looks a whole lot like this mock up, with your scraps as personalization. Win!

Hold My Hand

You like lots of structure, but a little freedom too. You want to make a unique quilt with your own colors, but all these decisions can be daunting. Okay, friend, we can do this. You need to invest the time to plan now, to create that structure you crave, so that the rest of the year you can relax and trust the process.

Choose your own palette of 9 solid colors. That’s one background color and eight additional accent solids. Use the tips in the Prelude document to match each solid to a number, 1 through 9. Buy the appropriate amount of solid yardage for each number.

Now you’re set! You don’t have to plan all the nitty gritty details. You can follow the number framework in my pattern and trust that the accent colors will be spread out nicely over the finished work and that you’ll have enough of each color. Use your scrap fabrics in an intuitive manner when prompted by the pattern, giving you a taste of creative freedom with each month’s work.

When I designed this version of Positivities, I took the “Hold My Hand” approach. The placement of the solid colors matches the framework of the quilt pattern. I know exactly how much to buy of each solid, based on the pattern, but the color palette is unique. Also, I am confident that I would enjoy the relaxed combination of following the pattern, plus using my scraps throughout the year.

be a Free Spirit

Planing, what’s that? You love dreaming about all the many, many options, but you don’t want to limit yourself by coloring in a color sheet in advance. Where’s the creative journey in that?

Okay friend, I love your attitude! You don’t need to plan ahead, but let me give you one or two tips. A sampler quilt will usually become chaotic if you approach every block as a stand-alone creative experience. I suggest that you zero in on a mood or loose palette for your quilt or identify a few inspirational prints that will set the tone. Also, it really helps if you choose 1-2 background colors that you’ll use consistently in the quilt.

To help you keep tabs on how your quilt is developing, consider using the color sheet as a record of your progress. Color each patchwork group after sewing it. In this way, the color sheet allows you to see how all the already-sewn elements are working together at a glance.

intentionally design

You my friend are a big fan of the planning phase. You love to dream about color palettes and fabrics, and also to curate the perfect stack to bring your dreams to life. I bet you already got busy with that Positivities color sheet, eh? Maybe you’ve colored a few and are still trying to narrow it down to one, haha!

I suggest that you disregard my placement of the nine base solids. You probably want to place the solids a little differently than I did, so trying to follow my pattern to the T is going to make you feel stifled. Do choose 1-2 fabrics for the background and buy the recommended 4 yards in total for that. For the rest of your solids buy 1/2 yard cuts of each. That should be more than enough no matter how you want to use them, thus granting you the design freedom that you crave. I think you will also benefit from choosing prints for the Visions blocks in advance to ensure your palette harmonizes with those showy blocks. You will enjoy using scraps, but only so long as the outcome is cohesive and beautiful, so nail down those Visions blocks to ensure a pleasing outcome.

I created my Peachy Positivities quilt in this manner. The placement of the colors does not follow the Positivities pattern framework. Instead, the colors are placed where they simply look best to my eye. If I were sewing this quilt, I would enjoy searching out fabrics for the Visions block prints that really bring my dream to life, even if I have to buy them new. Then I’d use scraps for the the rest of the quilt following my color scheme.

So what kind of mode are you in these days? I can actually see myself in all of the above. It really depends upon the balance in my life at the time and what other projects I am also working on. Positivities is something you will be sewing all year, but likely alongside other creative pursuits. My hope is that it offers an ongoing source of joyful creativity, in whatever form nourishes you these days.

Now is the perfect time to join us. Positivities club is still on sale through Wednesday the 10th! Tomorrow the January edition goes out to everyone who is already registered! Talk soon, friends.