Happy New Year!
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| Miss J with her Farm quilt |
Today, I'm taking a look back at 2024. I finished eight projects. You can see them on this
page. Finishes dearest to my heart were the two quilts that my granddaughters had a hand in making.
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| Miss K and her string quilt |
I stretched myself taking a couple improv workshops and working with solid fabrics. I embraced Irene Roderick's technique of dancing with the wall and look forward to playing more with this type of piecing. I did finish two improv quilts.
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| "Play" an improv quilt |
I used parts from a past Saturday workshop to make a small project for the book, "The Year of Less," by Cait Flanders. Reading that book empowered me to make a better effort of reducing my stash and reducing my treasures in general! While I didn't make great gains in stash reduction this year, I will make significant gains next year. Since February, I've followed my
shopping ban. It hasn't been as painful as I thought it would be!
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| Lime Sprinkle |
I did participate in three mystery quilt alongs--
Indigo Way with Bonnie Hunter; Stars Like Spaghetti with Alycia at
Quiltygirl.com and
Secret Agent with Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle. Indigo Way and Stars Like Spaghetti will be awarded as Quilts of Valor. I was able to use my stash to totally piece the Stars Like Spaghetti top.
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| Stars Like Spaghetti |
I did use a lot of my red and blue scraps for Bonnie's mystery. One blue fabric I had picked up at an estate sale at least 20 years ago. I petted it often; but found I either had too much or too little when I went to use it. While I could have used a little more of it in Bonnie's project, I made it work!
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| Indigo Way |
Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle delivered such a fun mystery which they titled Secret Agent. I am intrigued with achieving transparency effects which is what drew me into the project. I quilted it with an all over design on my domestic machine. The all over design was a first for me to do on my domestic machine. I also used the leftovers to piece most of the back. It is a two sided quilt!
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| Transparency |
I also participated in making a group quilt from musical themed blocks Clark County Quilters guild members had made. I look forward to sharing that project in this blog sometime after March. I loved working with the other members in the group--there were six that began and five that finished.
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| Transparency back |
2024 was also a repair year for my body. In April, I had my right knee joint replaced. In July, I had cataract surgeries on both eyes. (I love the brightness of the colors now. White still seems iridescent to me!) In October, I had my left knee joint replaced. I'm not as "recovered" as I had envisioned from the knee surgeries so at times, quilting just wasn't comfortable to do!
The last day of December (yesterday), I had a manipulation procedure to break up the scar tissue in that knee. Breaking up the scar tissue would allow me to improve my range of motion and to lessen the pain I am experiencing. Coming out of the procedure, I had intense pain. Childbirth was four times easier! I also had non stop vomiting which mostly translated to dry heaves for about six hours. This morning, I feel more stable. Let's see how many PT exercises I can accomplish throughout the day. Time will tell if the procedure worked!
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| Miss A making blueberry muffins |
Our London daughter made several trips stateside so we were able to play, squeeze and hold our precious youngest granddaughter in person! All in all it was a good year.
