Monthly Archives: December 2022

2022 is a Wrap

It is New Year’s Eve today. Lots of people are looking back at their year and thinking forward to the new year. When I think of last year it makes me tired. We worked so hard to get our house ready for sale, listed and then sold. Planning the move was done by my husband but yikes, it was a lot of work! Then settling into the new house, getting things set up and figuring out life up here. It certainly wasn’t a year for loads of sewing, at least not in the first half of the year. I made up for that in the second half of the year though!

Nine quilts finished.

The above collage shows the nine quilts I made. Some of them had been started before our move but most were started and finished since I got up to Washington. My two favorites are the snowflake quilt shown in the center and the bold patchwork shows on the lower right. But they were all fun! Three of these quilts were sent off to Mercy Hospital for their use with terminal patients. (By the way, if you aren’t aware of Mercyful Quilts, click on the tab at the top of the page. I love helping to organize lap quilt donations for them). After I made the collage, I realized I forgot to show one other quilt I finished so to be accurate, there is actually a tenth quilt!

Projects made in 2022

This collage shows a variety of projects I made in the second half of the year. From aprons to tote bags and placemats to teddy bears, I really had fun with these. I love having my sewing room organized and ready. When the mood strikes, I can shop the shelves and find something fun to work on. These sorts of projects keep me motivated. The variety is important to me in order to avoid feeling stagnant. Also, these smaller projects provide the satisfaction of a finish much sooner than quilting. My favorites here are the very spooky ghost costume and the two matching sundresses show in the center row. There are other items I didn’t photograph for whatever reason but those include another apron, a market bag for Julia, a nightgown, and a fabric toddler book.

Meadow Quilt for Nick & Jess

I did take a look at the top post for 2022 as far as the number of views and it was my post on the Meadow Quilt. This quilt is a beauty and I loved making it because it was so unusual. It is one I would make again because I can see it down in so many ways – a fall themed quilt with leaves, a winter themed quilt with dark night sky blues and silvers on the back ground and snowflakes for the collage. It is the perfect blank slate for creative collage. It also is fantastic for using up scraps.

OK – let’s look forward. Goals for sewing? Just to sew. Make things, enjoy what I am making, and try, try, try not to let the comparison demons rob me of that pleasure. (Instagram – I am talking about you!) Otherwise, no real goals. I have enough fabric in the sewing room to make hundreds of quilt tops. The roll of batting still has quite a bit left on it. I think the only purchases I (might) need to make are backings. But you know I will keep my eye out for thrifty ways to obtain backings – guild sales, thrifting, etc.

Goals for 2023? Hmmm…. I will lose 20 pounds, eat whole foods, exercise twice daily, live a totally minimalist life, read all of the classics, meditate daily, and keep my house clean 100% of the time. Bah ha ha ha ha! I have one goal. This is to find a way to volunteer in my new community. I had a few services in California that I enjoyed helping out with. Now that I am here and settled, it is time to find something to give some time to. I have a couple of ideas to look into – this is my only goal.

Finally, I have to say I am enjoying getting back into a blogging routine. When I closed my shop, a number of people asked me if I would stop blogging. While I certainly wasn’t nearly as active on my blog this year (only 36 posts), I do enjoy the relationships within this community and plan to keep it going. I like the writing, the journal that is kept here, and the conversations with readers and friends. Let’s keep the discussions and sharing going this year!

Wishing all of you the best in 2023 – here’s to good health, creativity, happiness, and connection!

Linking up with Meadow Mist Designs Best of 2022.

Christmas Happenings

Happy Holidays to you! Last I wrote, we were planning to spend Christmas Eve and day with my son and his family. We haven’t had the pleasure of watching the girls experience Santa and all of the related excitement. Alas, it was not to be. My son and his wife came down with the bug and were feeling ill. It was decided that each family would have separate Christmas celebrations in an effort to squash this virus we keep passing back and forth. We will go see the kids when given the all clear. We did FaceTime on Christmas Day and it looked like they were doing well enough. My DIL was on the couch trying hard to get well since she has to be at work today.

This year I made a strong effort to limit the use of paper when wrapping gifts. The challenge was actually quite fun and a bit success.

Here are a few of the gifts I wrapped using either holiday gift bags I made this fall or large pieces of fabric as wrapping paper. The gifts looked really cute under the tree.

The result!!

Check out the small pile of paper on the right. Often times we fill a large trash bag with paper on Christmas morning. Granted there were only the three of us here, but this is still a huge improvement. On the left you see the stack of bags, folded fabric and ribbons all ready for next year. Hopefully next year I will have more gift bags made so when my husband wraps his gifts he won’t have to use paper. At any rate, I call this a success.

Dairy Free Eclairs

Ray was the baker for our Christmas dessert this year. He made these incredible eclairs. The ganache and the whipped cream filling were both dairy free. I was so impressed.

The week before Christmas the girls went to visit Santa. When asked what she wanted, little sister replied “a box with stripes and polka dots and a purple bow”. Santa told her ‘he would see what he could do’. These words from Santa so impressed A and she repeated them to me verbatim several times. She was focused on that box and even before her visit with Santa, she only asked for that exact box.

My daughter in law really wanted Santa to come through on his promise. Not finding any striped and polka dotted boxes, she made her own with stickers. I love this so much – making A’s Christmas wish come true. By the time they unwrapped these gifts on Christmas morning, little sister was so overwhelmed by everything that big sister had to open these for her. But I know she will remember that she got just the box she wanted.

The weather has been fierce for much of the country lately. I am holding good thoughts for those who have been impacted by the tragic storms in the Northeast. Not comparable at all, but still interesting, was the ice storm that happened recently. My husband took this picture of our rain chain. Two days after this storm the temps climbed to 50 degrees and everything melted off.

Today I am meeting a girlfriend for breakfast. We were really good friends in the 1980’s. Somehow we lost track of each other but with the help of the internet I found her last year. We have been chatting on the phone regularly since then. She doesn’t live up here but happens to be visiting family about 40 miles from me. I am so excited to see her! We think it has been 30 years since we last were together. Off to get ready for my date!

Wishing everyone a year of joy, good health and loads of creativity in 2023!

An Unexpected Hiatus

It has been so long since I have written a post, I hardly know where to begin! From mid-November to now, I have been sick with one thing after another. This has been incredibly annoying! There are so many respiratory viruses going around and I believe I have sampled all of them. Our area has been hit so hard that my primary care physician’s office is unable to see any respiratory/flu cases in person because the staff has come down with it and now they are very short handed. It is just wild. The kids have it the worst and the children’s Tylenol and Motrin is flying off the shelves. Anyway, in case you’ve wondered, that is what caused me to go missing. I have been reading and watching TV and doing bits and pieces of sewing as I could.

I think I need to do a general post to catch up with what has happened around here. This blog is somewhat a journal and I can’t just ignore a whole six weeks!

In mid-November my amazing sister hosted an early Thanksgiving for our family. There were about 50 people attending and another 15 couldn’t make it. We haven’t had the group together in a very long while and this was great fun. My parents have six children (my sisters and I) who then in total had 21 children and those grandchildren have had 16 children. If you add in all of the spouses and partners, we have one big family! When I think of the numbers that make up our group, I always come back around to my parents. I am so grateful they had a big family and started this whole ball rolling!

When we all got together it seemed like every single one of the kids attending was coughing like crazy. The following week, the adults started to catch the bug. It was nuts – but also worth it to be able to see everyone in one place.

Two weeks later was Thanksgiving. We had dinner at my son’s house. Look at this big girl learning to baste the turkey! We enjoyed a smaller group this time. It was pure luck that most people felt decent for the holiday. (The girls have also been sick constantly for the past 6 or 8 weeks).

Being home so much did allow me to work on a holiday quilt. I saw a free pattern by Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs called Candy Circle. I have a very large bin of holiday fabrics. Many of them were already cut into five inch squares which made putting this together quite easy. I chose the gray and white background to give it a modern wintry look.

When I had the quilt top on the floor for basting, I decided I wasn’t happy with the large expanse of gray in the center. Not sure how it popped into mind, but I thought adding a big snowflake would be fun. My husband created the template for the snowflake and I found some white, tone on tone fabric with a very slight shimmer to it. Perfect!

I fused it to the center while the quilt top was on the floor and then stitched the raw edges of the snowflake first, before I started to quilt it.

Quilting this piece was a bit unwieldy but overall, it went really well. On each section, white, gray, and colorful, I did a different motif. This kept me interested – honestly, quilting something this big becomes a bit mind-numbing for me after a bit.

It is now on Julia’s bed and I think she really likes it. (I couldn’t resist the snowflake pillow when I saw it in the store. It looks like it was made for the quilt!) Most impressive to me was the fact that I made the quilt top completely from stash. I had to buy the backing fabric but otherwise, this was all made using fabric and batting I had on hand!

In the early fall, I went to a quilt show and as I wandered the vendors, I saw this advent calendar. I know I could easily make this but it was all finished and so cute. Supporting the vendors is important – I know I was very appreciative when quilters shopped my booth at shows in the past. I picked it up for the girls and later on headed over to the Dollar Store. Each pocket has two items in it, one for each girls. Some candy, some hair ties, stickers, and holiday stamps. This picture is from the first December 1st. I think they have enjoyed their daily treats. (It is hung somewhat high because of their Labrador – A calls him a Wabrador– puppy who would surely sniff out the forbidden chocolate).

Moving on! I have also been sewing gifts for the girls for Christmas. I am excited to be able to spend Christmas with them. We haven’t ever been there to watch them on Christmas morning so this year will be extra special.

This apron is for little sister. It is lined so she can wear it either way. This fabric is an older print that has been in the holiday fabric bin for a while now. I think she will love the cookie print. For big sister I made one with princesses and castles. It is already wrapped and somehow I forgot to take a picture of it.

I also made each child a teddy bear. I have never made a stuffed animal and have to say, this was really easy. For me, the most challenging part was stitching the mouth. I had to take it out a couple of times to get a decent result. The teddy bear pattern is from TieDye Diva. Here is a link for you. The pattern comes with some clothes and I did use them for the pants. For the hoody, I went over to Best Dressed Bears. She has lots of simple and super cute teddy bear clothing patterns. Here is the link to the hoody. The patterns over at Best Dressed Bears are made for a slightly bigger stuffed bear so I just made the pieces a smidge shorter in length which did the trick.

OK – I think that sums up the last six weeks. After soooo many boxes of tissues, cups of tea and honey, inhalers, antibiotics, humidifiers, and more naps than I can even count, I think life is back on track. I hope you are healthy and happy. Julia is home and has been patiently waiting around for me to feel better. We love going to some of the cute towns around here for window shopping and just enjoying the Christmasy vibe. Hopefully we will do that tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Linking up with lots of fun blogs. Check it out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.