And That's a Wrap For 2015!

2015 Finishes

Looking back at my 2015 quilty accomplishments I feel a bit overwhelmed at all the quilts brought to the finish line, but also a nagging sense of 'is this it?' So puzzling as the time invested adds up to a whole lot of hours. What's with the 'is this it?' stuff? It must be the UFO's--the quilt tops that I would so love to see finished up and being used. Ah well. There's just never enough time in the day is there? Ten years ago I would have been bouncing up and down with joy at getting through twelve whole quilts, not to mention a little doll quilt and pillow {not pictured}! But don't worry, I'm still happy as can be. There's times I want to pinch myself just to see if it's real. Is this me? A true blue quilter?

Working on my Fire Quilt this past year, I actually gave myself tendinitis, which still plagues me occasionally. Who'd have thunk it? Quilting doesn't seem all that strenuous! But it happened, and luckily I caught it in time to not completely shut down my hand stitching/quilting efforts for the long term. I have learned to {ugh!} pace myself through the days and weeks and not go off on those extreme hand stitching/quilting marathons that are so tempting when a finish is right. around. the. corner.

So... the stats on the 2015 finishes. This is just something I like to take a look at--probably only interesting to me:

• 1 doll quilt
• 1 wall hanging
• 1 baby quilt
• 4 lap-size quilts
• 6 bed-size quilts

• 1 quilt {the doll quilt} was completely machine quilted
• 5 quilts finished with mixed machine and hand quilting {4 using Perle Cotton for hand quilting, 1 with regular hand quilting thread}
• 7 quilts completely hand quilted {3 totally using Perle Cotton, 1 using mix of regular and Perle Cotton threads, and 3 using only regular hand quilting thread}

• 6 quilts in all {old and new} were gifted

I'm obviously working on trying to loosen up and be satisfied with mixing machine quilting with a bit of hand quilting. That was one of my goals for 2015 and it helped me end up with one more quilt finish than last year. Don't know how it's really possible to compare, as every quilt is different in size and stitching application, but it sounds good in theory!

And here's a closer look at my Big Star quilt, one that was finished up earlier in December when my computer was being worked on. The wintry outdoors made the quilt look just a little less vibrant than it actually appears, but my oh my, did this quilt sneak up and melt my heart.

Big Stars finish

I've had an on-again, off-again love affair with this quilt from the very beginning, but am absolutely thrilled to have it finally finished up. It's a permanent reminder to me to try the hard stuff and not give up. I was quite terrified to be sewing these big stars in the first place but while working on the hand quilting found myself touched by all the imperfections and mistakes I kept finding. Do you see them? Good, neither do I {from a distance}. But I know where they are and I'm charmed by them all the same. Because I did it. I won out over the little voice in my head telling me I could never sew this sort of thing. The mistakes are proof that it was indeed, a difficult project for me at the time!

A closer look

I also wrestled with the idea that I was cheating this quilt by not quilting more densely. It wasn't until the quilt was bound, washed and dried that I could more clearly see that this quilt didn't need the heavy quilting after all.*sigh  That slightly looser pattern makes for a much more cuddly, snuggable quilt--something I for one, am always striving for. Why do I even bother to doubt my instincts about these sorts of things? I haven't listened to the quilting police for a very long time. Which means, essentially, that it's been a  royal waste of my time to fret.

Moving forward for 2016, I fully intend to keep hand quilting with both Perle Cotton and regular hand quilting thread, continue making an effort to mix machine quilting with hand quilting, finish new quilt tops up along with older quilt tops so as not to have any sort of disconnect, continue to explore and play with improv. {figure out how to incorporate it into my quilts and make it part of my 'personal style'}, continue on with my love for applique {of course!} including other quilter's patterns plus whatever I dream up. I also want to keep trying to learn and grow, and more importantly, as Sweet P said so very well, keep having fun! Lists and goals are all very well, but quilting is supposed to be my happy place. Have-to's have a way of sucking out all the joy. Here's to another great year of quilting! The journey is never quite what I expected, but it's almost always much, much better than what I originally envisioned.

I couldn't end the year without also saying 'Thank You' once again to Tim Latimer. I credit him with giving me the initial impetuous {years ago} to be more prolific with my hand quilting via his very inspiring blog.