2013 – a recap

It’s not too far into January yet, so I think a recap for the past year is still allowed right?  I always find it amazing and helpful to myself to set a visual reminder for what I’ve accomplished over the course of a year.  Quilting and Sewing is not always a quick venture…certainly not for me at least.  And it’s easy to feel like you didn’t get much accomplished because the pieces can literally take months or even years to finish.

So I’m always surprised when I look back over and see that, yes, in fact I did do a few things this past year. 😉

I made a few princess dresses for my gal.  I slowed down with that because my original goal was to make less glittery options for her but my girly girl just loves the sparkle.  So if I do any more, I know that I need to add more embellishments…an Elsa dress is sounding fun though…

I made Alice.

Rapunzel

Minnie

I’m also very proud of all of the UFO’s that I finished.  A bit shout out to the faithful members of Project UFO where we’ve been working for the past couple of years on our UFOs and just staying on top of our projects.  It’s really helped to push me to get some pieces finished.

My oldest UFO by far (about 10 years) was finally finished with the help of the fabulous Krista Withers who quilted this for me and we donated it to the emergency care workers from the Sandy Hook shootings.

An Asterisk quilt begun as a bee quilt was finally finished this year and gifted to one of my fabulous SILs.

I finally finished this swoon “mini” quilt that I hand quilted and then gifted to the lovely fabric designer Laurie Wisbrun who has shared so many of her delightful fabrics with me!

I finished up another old bee quilt from a few years ago and haven’t managed to give this one away yet.  It’s waiting for the right home!

Making gifts for friends is truly one of the greatest things I love about being a quilter.   Whether I’ve made the gift entirely myself from start to finish or been a part of a larger group, these pieces have all had special places in my heart this year.

A strawberry block for a special quilt for Kerry (verykerryberry)

I adore this mini I made for Elena (hotpinkstitches) and I adore Elena as well.

I made this quilt for my husband using my designer bundle from the Fat Quarter Shop for Father’s day.  I love triangles and I could do this again!

I made this quilt and gifted it to a favorite newlywed couple friends of mine.  It might be one of my favorite pieces from the year

A beautiful group gift quilt that I coordinated for one of my best quilty friends having her first baby!

I rarely get to make patterns from other people, but I did a few this year!

Here are a couple of pieces from Ayumi’s book, Patchwork Please.

One of Penny and Kerry’s paper pieced pattern from Sew-ichigo.

I was able to make a fun quilt top for Heather Bailey using her new line from her free pattern for testing and display purposes.  That was exciting!

And I made this gorgeous leather accent bag from Lindsey’s pattern from Sewing Summit (lrstitched)

I picked up more garment sewing this year too and hope to continue more of it!

A Washi dress for myself

and a coordinating dress for the girly

custom fit PJs

the most darling dress that is a combo of Sarah Jane fabric and Liesel Gibson’s dress design.

a three tiered black laced ruffled petticoat

A voile Tova Top ( I love it!)

And then those just for fun things…

a ballet bag for Caitlyn that happily gets used every week!

pretty pouch teachers gifts

cornice board for the bedroom

canopy playset

a voile quilt hand tied to a down comforter aka heaven

I didn’t manage many swaps this year…life was busy! But I did make these items for the sewing room swap.

I went to Salt Lake City for the Sewing Summit and taught a class on sewing curves with my original pattern.  What a crazy fun weekend!

I was interviewed by Pat Sloan for her radio show!

Then there is the publishing world.

So far you have seen my Christmas tree skirt from Echino fabrics.  This is happily going to one of my best friends!

I have some projects in another book I’ll show you all soon.

And then there was the LITTLE matter of this…

yeah… just a bit of work from this past year.  That would be another 14 quilts and 2 pillows that I made that I can’t show you yet.  Along with the pattern writing and other book writing… I can’t WAIT to share more of that.  This helps keep me in a bit of reality check in case all of these above doesn’t look overly impressive. (Have I mentioned that I’m an overachiever before? lol)

So I guess 2013 was pretty productive.  I have to admit that I slowed down at the end…I was just plain worn out.  There are new projects on the horizons but I want to be more balanced this year if possible.  I’m not quite sure what that looks like or means yet, but I’m desiring that.

Here’s to a hectic crazy 2013 for me and hopefully to a new, more balanced 2014.  Let’s see what becomes of that!