What happens when two of your favorite Quilty humans join creative forces to offer one life-changing summer sew along? You sign up immediately, that’s what. We are thrilled to report that Aurifil Designers Kitty Wilkin of Night Quilter and Allie McCathren of Exhausted Octopus have teamed up to create the Summer Lovin’ Seaglass Sew Along.
This incredible Summer event partners Allie’s love and affinity for Seaglass Quilts with Kitty’s amazing Quilt Your Life program. Did we mention that Seaglass & Color Crush, Allie & Kitty’s curated Aurifil collections, are the perfect partners?
Let’s dive into what exactly this sew along is all about, what to expect, and how to get started, in the words of Allie & Kitty. We hope that you’ll leave feeling as inspired as we do!
This collaboration is a combination of Kitty’s Quilt Your Life technique and Allie’s Seaglass Quilting technique, but as a whole it’s so much more than that. Already we’ve experienced the beginning momentum of people in the quilting community across the world working together on this one goal: to move mindfully toward that which brings joy and peace to yourself.
It’s so easy to push ourselves to the back, to make time for others and not ourselves. Other responsibilities can seem more pressing than our own needs. We all deserve to take time to feel those joyful moments. The laundry will always be there – right now let’s boost each other up. Something amazing happens when we take time to fill ourselves up: our cups spill over, and suddenly we have more to give while feeling fulfilled.
We feel so strongly that everyone deserves to feel this in their lives, no matter how busy they are or how that joy looks to them. For some it might mean hiking mountains, and for others it might mean taking a moment to sit in the garden. All of it is valid and worthy. What brings you joy?
How exactly does the Summer Lovin’ Seaglass Sewalong work?
Kitty: Let’s say your favorite summer activities include going to the beach, swimming, hiking, walking, reading, gardening, cook outs with friends, and hand stitching. You really love painting but you struggle to make time for it. Add that in! Once you have the list of things you really love to do and want to prioritize this summer, you’re ready to go.
Allie: Let’s say I want to be reading more this summer (I do, by the way). Let’s say I also want to be running more, and painting. Oh, and going swimming. Writing makes me so happy, but I rarely make time for it.
You’ll assign each of those activities a color. As you make time for them, you’ll earn a seaglass piece in that color. You could keep it simple and earn a piece each day that you do that activity– you either do it or you don’t. OR you could decide on time increments and earn a piece for every 30 minutes, or every hour, or every mile–it’s your project and completely customizable to fit YOUR life!
What if you really only want to focus on prioritizing one activity? That works, too! You can make a seaglass quilt tracking different subcategories in your one topic–like for swimming, you could earn different colors based on whether you swam in a lake, pool, ocean, or river.
At the end of the summer you’ll bring together all the pieces you’ve earned and put them together into a seaglass quilt. It will look beautiful but also represent all of the things you made the time for. It’ll be a reminder of how you prioritized what was important to you and how good it felt to do that mindfully.
Organization Tips
Kitty: I’m using the muffin tin organization method suggested by Evie @evie_landry for pieces prepped and cut and ready to earn, and it has been most helpful!
Allie: Seeing the parade of “joy jars” from people getting ready to start tracking their data is giving all of the happy excited feelings.
Here’s mine. The jar where I’ll keep my earned pieces of seaglass representing the activities I do over the summer. It’s physically empty now, but already it’s overflowing with gratitude to you all, this brilliant community that continually steps up to show support, love, and kindness.
What to expect
Throughout the summer you’ll get specialized trackers, instructional videos about how to choose colors, fusing and shaping your seaglass pieces, how to arrange and quilt the pieces, and check-ins to help keep you motivated along the journey. We’ll have giveaways and prizes along the way for people participating with us in this summer of joy. But most importantly, we’re here to encourage you to do more of those things that bring you the most joy in your life.
The ‘Why’
Kitty: Once you experience a life in which you intentionally prioritize and seek out your own joy, pleasure, and well-being, everything changes. The world expands in a most liberating way. Why go back to where you put everyone else before you, where joy is only something that can fit after the work is done (pst, spoiler: the work is never done)?
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I fully acknowledge that not everyone’s joy seeking will or can look like mine, but I stand behind the fact that every single person DESERVES joy daily, and that making an intention to prioritize that can be transformative in the best way.
Allie: My friend Kitty is a data nerd like me. She uses data from her life to inform her quilts, blending real life action and intentional living with design. When Kitty came to me with the idea of this collaboration, a data driven seaglass quilt sewalong, I was completely on board.
I’m so looking forward to this summer of prioritizing joy as Kitty has. I’ll be collecting my own data about the things I want to be doing more of and using that to create a very special seaglass quilt.
I’ve made so many seaglass quilts that at this point, I’ve lost count (really). If I had to guess, I think I’m somewhere in the 70s maybe. But this one is going to be unique, and very dear to my heart. The quilt that I make from this sewalong is going to represent the times I actively chose to seek joy, doing things to fill my own cup, and in turn having plenty left over to fill up those around me.
So… this Summer, make time for yourself and prioritize your JOY. Sign up for the Summer Lovin’ Seaglass Sew Along today!
I signed up for this, and I’m being charged for the project, but I haven’t received anything from you after the first pages for each month and advice on choosing colors. I’m missing information on what to do with my pieces. The beginning instructions mention fusing the pieces but the directions weren’t clear. And it looks like some of the pieces are already stitched? Is this program only available on Instagram? It’s annoying to feel left out of everything when I’m paying for participating. I didn’t expect to have to spend time on Instagram trying to figure everything out by myself.