Word for 2022

 

 Sometimes a new word for the year comes through a lot of soul searching and looking through lists on the internet. Other times, it comes and slaps you in the face and says, "choose me".  I think you can guess that my face is still smarting right now.

 I find that the Word of the Year that requires research gets easily forgotten in the year. The Word for 2021 is Respect, and I had to look on my blog several times this year to see what it was!

Sometimes when I make a post here, I worry that it might be boring. I worry that the weekly posts that say whether I stitched for 15 minutes a day may be tedious for my readers. I try to keep it interesting by including a photo or more, but I can't always show a WIP photo, especially with winter lighting. For my last post, I hadn't taken a lot of photos that week, so there wasn't much to share.

Then I had some books that were coming due to the library. One of them is Show Your Work! by Austin Keon  I've also been reading books about stories, like StoryWorthy by Matthew Dicks. Books take away from quilting time, but hopefully these books will make me make the blog more interesting next year.

 

The quote above is from Show Your Work!  I am not trying to gain more followers as this blog is more of a diary for me but I do want to make sure that I make it worth the time for the people who take the time to visit me . I do have a lot of interests and am continually seeking out more input. I read a lot of blogs and look at a lot of books.

 Here is a basic summary of the book. Some things I already follow. I share my work as I go along, without worrying about whether it is successful. I share things often, but don't have time to do that every day. 

I am going to work on telling good stories and teaching more. I want to share what inspires me, even when I don't immediately put it into practice. I can share more interesting things I have found and read while being careful not to infringe on anyone's copyright.

Can you think of any other ways I can make this blog more interesting?

2021: Week 50 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

When last we met in my last post, I told you that we had our family birthday gathering. It went well, and with a clean house, I rolled right into a meeting with the customers at work.  My desk faces the wall, so my zoom screen behind me shows the dining room table in the living room. It kept me from making any quilting messes, but I didn't have any time to make a mess either, so it all worked out.

 Lots of long hours. Although I didn't have a time zone change to deal with like others did, I did have to wake up earlier, and since we didn't travel, Zeus had to make a time change too. He is a stickler for the schedule so he does not like the schedule upended like that.

2021:  Week 49 and 50 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

I see I didn't post for Dec 5. Probably because I didn't do any quilting and was too busy getting ready to meet he customers. For the week ending Dec 12, we ended on Thursday, and instead of working on Friday, I decided to take a long weekend to recover. This gave me time to turn my living room into a sewing area again and to make more progress on my Halloween mini quilt. I didn't take a photo of it in the daylight, so it will be a nice reveal for you to see it all finished.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 14

15 minute days this year -- 281 out of 346 days

Success rate  = 81%

 

 

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

2021: Week 48 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

2021:  Week 48 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

I spent my week getting ready for the gathering and having the gathering. We had a good time, even though some members of our family was not able to come.

I spent a couple of sessions to put the remainder of the pieces on the Halloween block. I plan to have one or more quilt finishes before the end of the year to offset the many quilts I have started.

15 minute days this week --2 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 274 out of 332 days

Success rate  = 83%

 

 

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

2021: Week 47 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

2021:  Week 47 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

It's been busy at work while we gear up to meet with the customers. I am hosting the Thanksgiving gathering this year, so I have been spending time getting ready for them. This means that there hasn't been a lot of sewing, but I did have all those loose pieces I needed to press for the October house mini quilt. I decided that it would be better for me to go ahead and lay them out and press them down instead of leaving all these little fused pieces all loose. 

It took two sessions to put it together, and now I will put it away until after the gathering.

15 minute days this week --2 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 272 out of 325 days

Success rate  = 84%

 

 

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

 

 

 

I took the photos when it was dark outside, but I wanted to keep a record of my progress.

2021: Weeks 45 and 46 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

We had a nice extended colorful leaf season. It has been wonderful to see all the different hues of autumn and see the colors fall in the breeze.

The cold season has begun.  First we had frosted tips on the leaves.

It's getting colder now and we had snow showers yesterday and big puffy snowflakes this morning.

Let the animals eat the Halloween decorations.

2021:  Week 45 and 46 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

I didn't get around to posting my status last week, but I did a lot of quilting. Besides making the red postage stamp block, I also added more to my dots and dashes quilt and started a Halloween mini and a scrap mini quilt. I will take photos of all those soon to show you.

This week, I only did some quilting today, so my progress last week helps cushion the blow from this week.

15 minute days this week --8 out of 14

15 minute days this year -- 270 out of 318 days

Success rate  = 85%

 

 

This week dropped the success rate but I can take heart in the fact that I was at 83% last year.

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

 

2021: Week 44 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

I continued taking lots of photographs this week, and have gone through my October folder to see if there were any other photos to show you. 

 

Most of these photos are taken with an iphone. Since I am taking so many photos, I thought I would try to submit some to Shutterstock. 

 

They rejected all of the ones I submitted, mostly due to compression and focus. It's okay. I am not upset. I figured that if they were usable, I should try. If they aren't, I can share them on my blog without worrying about it. 

 

I think I need to take photos with a better camera, but these are fun photos that happen when I am walking my dog, taking advantage of the situation.  

 I tend to take the photos pretty quickly, with the  leash in one hand and the camera in the other.

 

After I decided which photos to include in this post, I loaded more photos from my phone, so I will share those with you later.

 

I really liked the clearing in the clouds after the rain.

2021:  Week 44 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

Did you see the eye in the clearing clouds photo above this heading? 

This week, I finished the purple postage stamp block, pressed it, and started the red one. I got sidetracked a little bit with thinking about ideas for a mini quilt, but in the end, I decided I was more interested in making progress on my current projects.

I'm still enjoying my work and trying to get back to the habit of sewing every day. I managed to do it this week.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 262 out of 304 days

Success rate  = 86%

 

 

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

 

2021: Week 43 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

With the shorter days and cooler weather, I have been focusing on getting my house ready for the winter. Even though I have been spending most of my time at home anyway, I feel the need to be ready to continue to do that for the winter.

I am also working full time, doing my favorite part of the project.

Most of the photos in this post were taken while I was looking for closeup photos.

2021:  Week 43 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

Another wimpy report. I started the purple postage stamp block. I have the rows done, just need to sew them into a block. I have also chosen the next color. Just like the photo of some gravel looks like a rocky beach, the tiny squares in the postage stamp block gets special attention.

15 minute days this week --3 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 255 out of 297 days

Success rate  = 86%

 

 

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch