My Year in Review and Happy New Year!

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope the new year brings all the best to you all.  I am praying for some of you that I know have family members with health problems.  My wish is that everyone gets better.  This is going to be an interesting year for us as my husband has submitted his retirement paperwork for the Army.  The poor man has been in the Army since he was 17 back in 1983.  I don't think he is going to know how to act when he becomes "free."  Before you ask our plans, let me assure you that we don't have any.  Yet.  We are waiting to see where he will get a new job.  As I said, it is going to be an interesting year!

This is the time of year when everyone, everywhere is talking about the past year, and trying to sum up what they accomplished.  I am no exception.  I began going through my photos to see what I had accomplished this year, and goodness, I found quite a few!  I decided to combine many of the photos into collages to keep the amount of pictures to a minimum for this post.

I began the year fervently working away on what many of you are doing right now--Bonnie Hunter's mystery.  This is my version of Easy Street, with a patriotic color scheme.


Vintage Schnibbles, the Schnibble group for the year, got a late start in April. I managed to make each project, and had lots of fun photographing them!

Sinta and Sherri are so great to host the group and display the parades each month!  I hope they are doing it again this year.

Another big finish was this quilt for my daughter.  The center part was done, I just needed to add the 9-patch border, and get it quilted.

I even made a set of pillow shams to match.

Our own bed got a new quilt.  We upgraded to a King and so needed a larger quilt.  About the same time, I found this pattern.  I finally got it all finished and on the bed just in time for summer!

Speaking of patriotic, do you remember that I spent all the time from Memorial Day to Independence Day working only on red, white, and blue projects?  Here are some of them.

In that patriotic period, I also pieced the sampler quilt that was a project for our Bee.  One of these days, we are going to show them all together.  I've seen a batik version, a red, white, and black version, etc.  Hopefully I can share some of them here.  Mine, of course, is patriotic.

And apparently, it is also sideways!  Look at the cute feet of some of my Bee ladies who are being sweet enough to hold it up!  We were all sitting around the pool at that meeting. 

I made these 10 little quilts for our guild to give to hospitals to wrap around stillborn babies.  After the parents hold the baby, then they get to keep the blanket. 

It wasn't just quilts that I made, either.  I like to make purses, pincushions, etc.  Here are some of them.

At the bottom left is something I haven't shared yet.  I made it for my Santa Sack Swap partner--it is an iron caddy that unbuttons to lay flat so it can be used as a pressing surface.



I finished piecing this quilt--the pattern is Old Elegance by Patchalot.  I call my version "Chocolate Covered Cherries" for the color scheme, but every time I see it, I think of Marcie Patch--the pattern designer--who taught the class.  We haven't seen each other since, but we remain blog/facebook/and instagram friends.

I made quite a few small quilts, too.  Many of them have gone to live elsewhere.  I think I need to make some more to replace them!

This quilt was on my list to make for 2013.  We saw it made first as a lap size and then it grew to be used on a twin bed as a bedspread, so it is king sized.  It has also gone to live in its new home--with my parents.

I made the ribbons for the quilt show.  There were 9 in total, and during the show I was thrilled to find out that I got to take one home!

Part of the fun in blogging is doing sew-alongs or group projects.  The two on the left were from the Temecula Quilt Co.  (Remember the tiny, 2" baskets?)  The upper right is Nabby's Dowry, from Pam Buda's blog, and the bottom right one I made from blocks that a dear friend had sent me years ago.

This is THE ONE, though.  Of all of the projects I did this year, I think this is the one that will always say 2013 to me.  My Dresden Doilies in French General fabric. 

 From yesterday:  some of the Christmas quilts I did.

And finally, another project that I had on my "to do" list for this year.  I began the year doing it, and coincidentally, I'll be beginning next year doing the newer version of it:  Monique Dillard's Blogger Girls Block of the Month.

When I heard the premise of this quilt--that you make two versions of the same block, but alter the placement of the fabrics and values, to get a two blocks that look nothing like each other, I was intrigued.  It was lots of fun to do, too.  I eagerly awaited each new instruction that came out on the first of the month from January to June.  I was so thrilled when Monique asked me to be one of the bloggers this year!  Guess what?  Tomorrow is THE DAY that all the fun begins!  Be sure to check back to see it and get the details.  It is going to be another fun quilt!

Thanks so much to all of you for your comments and feedback!  I find it fun to share my projects and a bit of my life and would do so even if no one read it, but to hear from some of you that you also enjoy it is quite amazing and gratifying.  On top of all that, some of you have become dear friends to me, as well, even if we have never met.  I guess my other wish for the New Year would be that we could all get together at some fabulous retreat and meet up and sew together!

Have a great year!

JoAnne