Thursday, December 31, 2015

2015 Recap of my Year

Today is the last day of the year.  2015 was a good year for me.  Today, I am going to give you a recap of the year by reminding you of some of my posts I made this year.

My word of the year was Clarity, and I tried to be more clear in everything I did.  In my communication, I tried to make sure that people had enough background information to understand what I was saying, and tried to choose my words more carefully instead of taking the lazy way out. While there was effort and improvement, I will continue to work on this.


In my home, I tried to clear out my spaces to be more open, welcoming, and easier to maintain. I was extremely successful in this.  I got rid of some big furniture pieces and either bought something smaller or went without a replacement.  I reduced the number of flower beds in the yard. There has been substantial progress in the  family room, the kitchen, and the yard.  Other rooms also have made progress, but not to the extent that I want. I will continue to work on them in 2016. And it wasn't all cleaning-type work either.  I framed and put up artwork that had been in the closet for years, put up tiles for a back-splash in the kitchen, replaced a defunct dishwasher, had some electrical work done, and purchased and painted a picnic table so I could enjoy the outside as well as the inside of the house. Yesterday, the contractor finished installing a new front porch on my house.

In quilting, I had a lot of fun.  Although the number of quilt finishes I had in 2015 is low, there are many works in progress that provided me a lot of joy this year.  I kept my focus on the projects I was working on and I hope to finish them in 2016. Most of the quilts I made this year are made up of different blocks, so if you have been following along, you have been able to see my progress block by block throughout the year.


In February, I showed the finished the Christmas Tree quilt, which I showed you again recently.


In February, I joined the Elephant Parade Quiltalong, hosted by Lorna Mahon of Sew Fresh Quilts. I added more animals and people throughout the year, and in September, I finished making all of the blocks. These blocks were a lot of fun to make, and now it is just a matter of trimming some blocks, choosing a layout, adding the sashing, and putting them into a quilt.


I also joined A Life of Plenty Quiltalong, hosted by Jeni from the Willow in February. I think I made my last block for it in March.  There are still many more blocks that have been prepped. Even though I was enjoying making both quilts,  I realized that Elephant Parade and A Life of Plenty were competing against each other with my time and space.  Since they both required me to dig through my stash, and different parts of my stash, it might be better for me to do one at a time.  I do really like this quilt and hope to get back to it soon.


In August, I showed the finished Irish Chain Quilt.


From September through November, I worked on the Islamic Tile Quilt. It is now a top and needs to be quilted.


I started the Quilty 365 Project in November, where I make a circle a day. This project is a year-long project, and I have been making a circle a day most days. I've slowed somewhat on this, but hopefully I will get back in a routine for making these circles. These circles have gotten out of order as I was showing them off, but I will be putting them together soon.


 


 In November, I started the rail fence quilt from Sujata Shah's book, Cultural Fusion. All the blocks are now made, and I just need to put them together into a quilt.

This is the first time I have finished making blocks, and yet not taken it to the next level of making a quilt top, and yet I am at that stage for two and a half quilts.  I think it is just the excitement of making the next quilt that distracted me from finishing the quilts I started.  I enjoyed making the blocks, and I enjoy seeing completed quilts, so I am hopeful that all of these quilts will be shown as finishes for 2016.



In December, I made this little quilt out of the leftovers from the rail fence quilt. I even finished it so I could be sure to have another finish for the year.


As a bonus, I want to show you something I haven't shown before. My family came over and we had a craft day, making these cute little strawberries. It is a great way to round out the year with family, and crafting.

I wish all my readers a happy and healthy New Year.  I hope it is the best year ever for you and your family.



6 comments:

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

A happy and healthy new year to you too!!

SarahZ said...

Oh my! Such sweet tiles!!! I love how you incorporated your word, clarity, into so many aspects of your life and home! Clarity in communication really resonated with me...I have often wondered if I lose folks in my blog posts by assuming they will intuitively just know what I'm talking about!!! :) I love love your little December rail fence with elephant...sweetness! Happy new year to you! On to 2016!!!

June D said...

What a wonderful set of accomplishments! I've been enjoying reading and learning from your posts and will continue doing that! Happy New Year Shasta! Here is to an even better one in 2016! : ) June

Lara B. said...

I love what a brave and adventuresome quilter you are Shasta! Your circles especially make my eyes light up, but all your work has a kind of joyfulness about it. Clarity was a word that worked very well for you! Here is to a beautiful 2016!

Kate said...

Progress is progress even if it's not a completion. You've got some very pretty progress to show for 2015.

Lisa J. said...

You've accomplished quite a lot this year Shasta. I'm impressed with all you've done in your home. You've accomplished a lot quilting wise as well. I love your little improv quilt at the bottom of the post, and the Islamic Tile top is out of this world. I also love the trees and the elephant parade. So that's pretty much everything. Have a wonderful 2016 Shasta and I hope you achieve the number of finishes you would like to.