2022 was not a big quilting year for me. i chose to focus on other things in my life, specifically a home we purchased that needs renovations and additions. this was a massive creative project for me and left no time for anything else. however, that project came to a halt in september and i picked up quilting again in the latter end of the year.
my 2022 instagram top nine by likes
i don't think a year has to produce a lot of finishes or even have a ton of quilting in it to be a successful quilting year. i immensely enjoyed the quilting i did get to do, worked on several projects i really like, moved a good handful of projects forward, and started some new ones i'm excited about. that's a good quilting year to me.
i began the year with a finish during the holidays in january, which was nice, but as it was only completing the binding on a project that had been around quite a while, it doesn't exactly feel like it's a quilt that belongs to this year. still, i finished off "guys and dolls improv quilt," which is my 50th full size quilt completed.
that does feel like something to celebrate!
when i started quilting in november 2010, 50 quilts seemed like an impossible number to ever reach. one stitch, one session of sewing, one completed quilt at a time and here i am. it doesn't matter a bit that it took 11 years to do it. they were quilts, after al!
in january i also helped a group of young ladies from church put together a charity quilt. when a youth activity i was in charge of had to be changed last minute, i pulled out several fabrics i was willing to part with (mostly heather ross bits that came in bundles of which i wasn't over fond) and had the girls assemble four patches. i thought because they were cute fabrics they'd make a cute quilt. however, the results have left me stumped as it feels like a halloween quilt with all the purple, orange, and black in it. i'll either adjust something or just finish it off soon and get it donated.
in february, my youngest, d5, and i went to quiltcon for a day to check out quilts and shop at the vendors. initially, she kept saying "blanket" instead of "quilt" while we were talking about the displays and i finally told her no child of a quilter should do that and she was embarrassing me, haha. all tongue-in-cheek, of course. it was a really fun day with my daughter, who was inspired by the children's quilt section to possibly submit her own work in the near future. i really enjoyed seeing the work of quilty internet friends in person, too.
i kept making those
addictive crossroads blocks, at some point after march finishing the top.
in the spring, i took "cheery easter quilt" with me on spring break for some handwork pleasure.
in april, the house came on the scene. parts of it were recently renovated and it's as if the previous owners knew a quilter would be living here next. there are several quilty-style cement tiles on the property that i just love. but this is also when actual quilting came to a complete halt as i got involved in the design process for the additional work that needed to be done.
but eventually i can see myself making quilts inspired by parts of the house. in time.
in may, my oldest daughter gave birth to my first grandchild. i'm smitten. he's a complete bundle of joy and we all adore him. i haven't made a quilt for him yet, but it doesn't feel wrong and there's plenty of time for that coming up.
in june we somehow tore ourselves away from the baby and took a family trip to peru. quilts aren't a thing in peru, but i did see this sign in the airport that could make a great quilt. i would swap the toucan, which we didn't see, with a hummingbird, which we saw a lot.
alpaca textiles are the thing in peru and it was everywhere. we brought home throw blankets, sweaters, scarves and a table runner similar to the one on the bed above. there are some amazing artists doing fantastic work all over peru.
hst sighting in the gothic district, barcelona
in august the mr. and i took our 25th anniversary trip two years late (thank you, covid). delayed or not, it was a fabulous two weeks in paris, provence, and barcelona. i saw plenty of quilt inspo everywhere that deserves it's own post.
a quilt color palette sighting in a shop window in paris.
gaudi was a quilter at heart - he broke tiles and put them back together, and made use of other people's scraps. his work is so creative and unusual.
freshly home from our anniversary trip, i took our younger son/middle child out of state to college. this is such a big transition for us. we now have more children out of the home than in it. four down, three to go, not that i'm in a rush. it actually makes me so sad, as happy as i am about the people they're turning into.
this move was also noteworthy because my son took his mama-made quilt, star on the field, with him to college! this was all his own decision and it warmed my heart to no end.
quilt inspiration sighting on a wall across the street from the NY public library in NYC, spotted on a trip for our d3's 16th birthday in september.
i got a bee in my bonnet about d5 getting back to work on her "the pleasantest thing" quilt and we got it basted so she could quilt it, which she started doing.
while i was basting things, i decided to quickly baste a quilt for myself and got "liberty holly hobby" samiched together. (samiched is my lingo for sandwiched, quilt speak for when all the quilt layers are basted together.) i wanted to have handwork available. never mind that i have four other quilts in that phase. this one had a back already made and just wanted to be put together. plus, after months of no quilting, i was itching to do something with fabric.
things with the house had hit a bump in the road and i was doing some quilt therapy to deal with it. i pulled out a few other projects and did some little bits here and there.
then we officially put the whole house project on hold til the new year (long story). that's when i decided i'd had enough and was going to put quilting back in my life.
i made more houses for my 2020 quarantine commemorative quilt, shelter in place.
i worked on handquilting "
liberty holly hobbie" whenever i got a chance, including between sessions at a
feed my starving children food packing event our family organized for our community. don't i look like a quilting granny with my hairnet, readers, and handwork?!
i put more fall strips together for this fun scrap quilt i've had going for a while. i finished the top in december.
and of course i played with the growing baby boy. this photo happened to be on one of my quilts. it made it into our christmas card this year. i love that.
by november, i was in full quilt mode again. i even started some new projects.
i started a new
crossroads quilt in low-volume fabrics and am so in love with this project.
the little corner cut-offs from "shelter in place" have become my leaders-and-enders project. i'm probably going to add the
hsts i'm getting to that quilt somewhere.
i saw a cute and colorful improv tree christmas quilt and decided the leftovers from my "shelter in place" quilt would be a great palette for the pattern and started that mid-december.
my philosophy on starts is that you don't get finishes without starting. if i want to make a quilt and have an idea, i just start it so that it's put in motion. eventually it will become a finish.
late november i was perusing the beautiful "quilt lovely" book by jen kingwell and was taken with her "bonnie lass" pattern. it's all scraps in a fun chaotic swirly pile. i knew i had the scraps to do it, so i pulled out the scrap basket and got cutting. it was the most fun i've had quilting in a while, and that's saying a lot because i've had a lot of fun quilting the last quarter of this year since i picked it up again.
baby boy helped his grandma put blocks together. or at least looked on as i did so. he's going to grow up with memories of me doing this and at some point will actually be helping me, i think.
the week before christmas, i had just settled in next to the tree with "betsy scrappy trip" to get the binding on her before year's end when my sister, loree, called and asked me to help her make two little dolls quilts for the bunk bed santa would be bringing her daughter.
i couldn't say no.
we spent a day sewing strips together and making the doll quilts.
my daughter, who lives next door with her grandmother for now, came over with baby boy and was doing some work in a chair outside my sewing room. baby boy kept peeking around the corner into 'grandma's magic room," as my daughter calls it, to see what i was up to.
in the lull between christmas and new year's, i finished the fall scrappy strips quilt.
as the year blinked out, i finished off the binding on "betsy scrappy trip" on new year's eve.
that was my second "finish" for the year - another quilt started and mostly completed quite a while ago and not really associated with my making this year at all except for that binding.
two other items of quilty note for the year:
at some point in 2020/2021 i decided to get a new roll of batting as the roll i had at the time was getting low and i like to keep it on hand. i couldn't find warm and natural anywhere. joann crafts didn't have it in store or online. i couldn't find it to order on the internet, either. i figured it must be a victim of covid and bought what joann crafts did have on the bolt instead, some brand i'd never heard of. but i didn't like the look of the new batting much.
in october, when i basted those four quilts, i used up the last of my w&n on the bolt. i decided to look one last time on the internet to see if i could scrounge up a roll somewhere. low and behold it was back on the market! with great joy, i ordered a new roll, which was delivered right to my house early december. merry quilty christmas to me! i really am so very happy about this. i think it may even be taller than my last rolls, which will mean better scraps from making quilts, possibly two per width instead of one. as for that other brand roll, maybe i can donate it?
when i became an active quilter (and ig poster) again in october, i started getting lots and lots of ideas for new quilts. the inception phase is one of my favorite parts of the process. some of my ideas center around making companion quilts to previously made quilts in the same fabrics, particularly some of my solid-colored quilts. i made a trip to the local-ish store that carries the full line of kona solids and stocked up on a bunch of colors. that was so fun. not so much for the lady who had to cut it all, but they are always so kind to me about it. probably because i'm a paying customer?
that wraps up my year in quilts.
finishes: 2
completed tops: 4
starts: 4
start-to-finish: the doll quilts
backed and basted: 5
handwork project that got some stitches: 5
sometimes when you (i) see other quilters churning out quilts on the regular, it feels like i don't get anything done or that i'm really slow. and i AM. the way i overlap projects and sometimes go months without quilting means a quilt will often be worked on sporadically over several months or even years. i rarely start and finish a quilt in the same calendar year, much less 365 consecutive days.
and THAT'S A-OK.
i've had a great year, even with half of it off the needle and thread.
i hope you can say the same with your quilting however it went for you this year.
now let's see what 2023 is going to do for us.
