Sunlight in Winter

Today, I am appreciating that the sun is shining.  It puts an extra bounce in my step, and the fact that it is Friday today, I have the weekend off, and the party music is already playing, has me practically dancing!

In case you missed it, I am making the Garden Mosaic quilt. I will be making mine all in yellow and white. It only has 16 blocks and is made up of these cute little blocks. I've already more than 16 of these cute blocks, but the people who have made this quilt before me have told me I needed more than 16 of these babies, so I guess I will make a few more. I have the pattern and still have fabric left over. I used up this yellow fabric - it was a remnant that was more than half yard, less than a yard. I have moved on to the next yellow fabric.

I really like piecing multitudes of blocks when I am excited to see how it will turn out!

2019 Calendar

I promised you yesterday that I would show you my 2019 calendar.  I did the same thing I did in years past to make the calendar - grab some random photos of my quilts and throw them in there and make some minor tweaks before calling it done.  Since it is just for me, it doesn't have to be perfect.

I think this picture was easily accessible because I used it in a previous calendar. Looking at the Trip Around the World quilt, the border isn't that wide, so I think I will be able to quilt this and call it done without needing to add any applique.

The template said 2018 so I had to take out the 8 and I couldn't find the right font for the 9, but I like it this way. I like this 9 better than the 9 they used in the rest of the calendar, so even if I had found the font, I wouldn't have used it.

Another unfinished quilt. See the 9? It looks like a g.

A finished quilt! It was made from swapped blocks.

This one is my favorite layout. I like how Rey and BB8 are ready for new adventures. I usually try to get the largest picture possible, but this one looks good even smaller.

I kept the wording in the template and they make me giggle paired with the quilts. I guess I do share some perfect moments with my quilts. I do appreciate my time with my quilts.

I like this layout a lot too, with the llama love.

This is my least favorite layout because of all that empty space. I should have put the LOVE graphic on the bottom. I can fix it by adding a real photograph or something else there,  so it isn't a big deal.

Another unfinished quilt, but I like how this page turned out.

This one is all right, but I should have centered the quilt. I like the welcome sign there but it really isn't clear what it is.

This one makes me giggle too. Family time shown under a bed.

This page had me scrambling for more pictures. I thought about changing the layout to one that didn't use as many, but then I figured I like to showcase more quilts. They don't match each other and are just thrown in there willy nilly, but I think it is all right.

This one is sweet. Probably would have been nicer on my daughter's birth month, but I do like the layout of the page.

This is the only one that had a season written on it. This one is okay too, I like how the graphic highlights this unfinished quilt.

365 Days of Appreciation

Today, I appreciate spices.  Yesterday, I made Lancashire hot-pot recipe. I didn't follow the recipe exactly but it turned out really nicely. It isn't a spicy dish, but I like how a change in spices can add so much variety to my meals.

I also appreciate all the people who make it possible for me to get food. The farmers, the distributors, the packagers, the transportation people, and all the people at the grocery store.

Linked to:
Off the Wall Friday - even though technically, I am putting it on the wal.

365 Days of Appreciation

Let's see if I can show 365 Days of Appreciation. I thought about finding just one thing to appreciate, so I would have enough throughout the year, but I have decided that there is nothing wrong with appreciating more than one thing a day, and nothing wrong with appreciating the same thing more than once.

Day 1

I already missed posting yesterday, but yesterday, I appreciated:

1. Zeus - he keeps me on schedule and makes sure I get my exercise every day and that I eat on time.
2. Day Off - I appreciated having a day off to start following my resolutions - not that I made any, but I did try to clean, exercise and eat healthy.

Day 2: 

Today, I appreciate the people who work in the background and magically make my life more convenient:

1. The mail carrier who brings me my mail every day. I especially like that she brought me my Shutterfly calendar today. I'll show you the calendar tomorrow when the sun is out when I can take better pictures of it.
2. The Shutterfly who printed my order, and the people who told me about the free calendar.
3. The people who bring the electricity and the internet so I could order the calendar and share it with you.
4. The people who picked up the yard trash, the recycling and the trash. The schedule motivates me to fill up those cans and my house is better for it.

Final 15 Minutes to Stitch of 2018

I waited an extra day to post the 15 Minutes to Stitch Recap so that I could incorporate today and finish out the year.

The settings of my blog somehow changed and the font looks smaller and the margins look bigger. When I tried to change the settings, the settings that show up in the editing process don't look like what the blog actually looks like. I have made the settings super big in the editing process, and hope it doesn't look as huge on your screen. Please let me know how it looks to you.

 

15 Minutes to Stitch

This week,  I have been quilting the Drunkard Path quilt. I sketched out a meandering plan and showed the picture of the plan to my sewing machine, since I learned that I had to do that last time.  But it is a complicated meander - the finish of one S curve is supposed to be the start of the next one, and mostly it isn't working, but hopefully it isn't working consistently enough to look okay.

Since I don't want to change the thread for piecing, because my last sewing machine told me not to mess with anything when things are working, and because I don't want to use up my purple thread and don't want to use anything but white for the new quilts, I have just been cutting and pressing more pieces to get them ready. The black and white is for the ATC Holder and the yellow is for the Sunshine in Winter quilt. I like how the colors go so well with the kantha quilt I bought this month.  I don't know which came first, but apparently this is my mood right now.

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  8 out of 8 (to incorporate the final day of the year)
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  312 out of 365 sessions
Success Rate: 85%

Linked to:

15 Minutes to Stitch Week 52. Thank you so much Kate for encouraging me every week.

I will continue stitching every day and start a new count for the new year.

2019 Word of the Year

My word of the year for 2018 was confidence. My goal for this year was to quiet that voice, and say back, "Yes, I am sure" instead of thinking "I think so" and pushing through despite my lack of assurance.

Unfortunately I have to say that it wasn't very successful for me. It worked okay for the most part, but it didn't permeate everything I did, like the Clarity word I had used before. Part of the problem is that it isn't an ongoing idea that affects everything I do. I am normally confident enough in normal, daily things, so the word only needed to be used in those times when I wasn't feeling confident, and it is hard to not feel what I feel. Also I tend to be a humble person, and I'm not quite sure how to be humble and confident at the same time.

There isn't anything I wish I had the confidence to do that I didn't do, but I didn't reach out to do anything that needed confidence either.

Anyway, it is time to plan a new word for the year. This year, I didn't have to look for the word on a list of words like I did last year. It came to me shortly after Thanksgiving, when gratitude is the motto. I kept thinking about it and since I am still thinking about it, I will use it for 2019.

Appreciate

Appreciation is more than being grateful. It is seeing the value and worth of everything and everybody in my life. It is about recognizing things that are normally taken for granted.

High Road Quilter's 2018 In Review

In the past, I showed my finishes for the year, but last year, I showed a summary of my quilting year. I liked that better so I am doing that again this year.

January

In January, I resumed work on the Circle 365 quilt. I started with block 201 this year.

I also showed you my progress on the On Ringo Lake quilt which was started late last year as a mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter. Pointless Puzzle was a small quilt top I started with some leftover blocks from On Ringo Lake.

On the January 30, I showed you my finished Adinkra quilt, which was started in 2016. It set a pretty high bar for the rest of the year.

February 

In February, I kept working on the circle blocks.



I made these little quilts for a Valentine's Day swap. The one I sent to the swap recipient took a nap at her post office so it was pretty lucky that I had made two, and I was able to send her the second one. I got the first one back more than a month later.

I kept working on On Ringo Lake and finished making all the blocks.

I did some stitching on my orange crazy quilt block.



Also in February, I made a tiny book to fit in the French mints tin.

March

In March, I kept working on On Ringo Lake blocks.

April

In April, I kept working on On Ringo Lake blocks and the sashing.

May

In May, I kept working on On Ringo Lake, practiced some crochet and stumpwork. I also started taking an online crazy quilting class, which I did not finish.

June

In June, I finished the On Ringo Lake quilt top and promptly set it aside. This one took a great deal of time, and I am so proud that I was able to keep working on it without getting side tracked.



I made another stumpwork lady.  I did some more work for the crazy quilting class.

July

I made this small flag bird.

August

In August I made a Death Star for the Droid quilt and worked on a vintage stitchery.

September

In September, I started Sweet Land of Liberty sewalong, and the Colonial Bricks quilt.

I also finished the small quilt I made with On Ringo Lake fabric. It started out being called Pointless Wonder but had a name change to Unassuming Quilt at the last minute.

October

 

I kept working on the Colonial Bricks quilt. It was supposed to be a simple and quick quilt, but other quilts keep hopping in line in front of it.

I made these two little quilts in October.

In October, I made a belated housewarming present.

I also made more Sweet Land of Liberty and circle blocks.

December

 

Throughout the year, I have been making a few circles now and then. I've made progress on the Circle 365 quilt. I've passed the halfway point.

I finished the This Droid is Not For Sale quilt.

I finished a latch hook my daughter made and turned it into a pillow.

I've been working on quilting my drunkard path quilt. It is my oldest UFO.

I've started an ATC holder.

I started the Sunlight in Winter / Garden Mosaic quilt. This slowed down the progress on finishing UFOs, but my quilts are used to jostling for their place in line.

With all of the small quilts I made this year, my average finish time has gone down significantly. It now takes me an average of 251 days to finish a quilt.  I generally don't mind that the number is big, because fun, not productivity is the goal. Also, I would make simpler quilts if I wanted quicker turnaround times, but the simpler quilts don't hold my interest and sometimes leave me disappointed with myself for not choosing a more challenging quilt when I do finish them.  Once the drunkard path quilt gets finished, that average number will go back up. But I do like that number to be smaller, so I might need to make smaller quilts in 2019 to make that number smaller again!

Day 29: 31 Day Blog Challenge

Random photo of the day: Scenery