A Look Ahead and A Look Back

The words came out of my mouth before my brain fully registered them, "Here's to 2025; we're a quarter of the way through this next century." Gulp. How time goes.

So here's a quick look back at 2024.

A look at my Quilts of 2024 page tells me I made 33 quilted projects. That isn't counting the countless (ha) makeup bags I made or three mug cozies. Eighteen of those were quilts, six were pillows, nine were either tote bags, placemats, or runners, and one was a garment, a pyjama top. A conservative estimate of makeup bags would be around 15-20.

Here are just a few.

It was a good year in other ways, 44 books read (the 44th should be finished today, so I'm counting it as 2024), nearly 1000 km walked,  loads of yoga and meditation, no fabric purchased (shocker) other than two metres of muslin for bag and cushion layers, four UFOs completed, two of which were Postcard From Sweden quilts, both from a kit I bought two years ago at Mad About Patchwork.

two USOs (UnStarted Objects—those wannamakes and patterns-with-fabric-bought projects) completed, the Canada bench pillow and the Santa Belly cushions,

and three patterns published.

I did get some new fabric: Northcott Fabrics supplied the beautiful Stonehenge Gradations fabrics for my quilt along, Luminous Layers, which is in the lower right of the first collage.

My annual quilt along was a success again with thirteen participants. I had fun with Project Quilting once again, as well as the SAHRR—Stay At Home Round Robin. My fish quilt is in the first collage. Two grandbabies lolled about on it while the total eclipse happened in April. And once again I participated in the RSC, Rainbow Scrap Challenge, making two quilts. I gave two Quilt Tales for the Heart and Mind presentations, both in southern Ontario.

There is sadness that still burbles up inadvertently from the loss of Xena in February.

Her favourite place: in the car

A life-changing, worrisome event that now is being successfully managed by a wonderful team of gastroenterologists at the U of Alberta Hospital was when Brady was diagnosed in April with Crohn's disease. A very precious memory from June was when our entire family which spans two provinces and one state participated on the same day in the 5 km Gutsy Walk to raise money for Crohn's. I'm so grateful for science and technology that allowed Brady to be healthy enough to complete the 5k, but also allowed us to communicate in real time over texts and FaceTime.

Scrappy Rainbow Stars which is being donated for the national Crohn’s disease fundraiser in 2025. 

A look ahead to 2025 sees me blogging once or twice a week, maintaining my 3k per day minimum walks, aiming for 45 books, four of which will be once again read with my U of A alumni book club, working on UFOs and USOs, publishing three or four patterns, hosting my annual QAL, participating in PQ Season 16, which starts in just four days, the SAHRR which starts January 13, and the RSC (I'm so glad we're starting with pink!) I have a few requests from Dayna, and the Bear Paw quilt to finish up right away as well.

A learning curve and new adventure for me this year is doing my Quilt Tales presentation over Zoom for a guild in BC later this month. I'm putting the finishing touches on the slideshow, which is different from my live presentation because there I do have about half of the quilts to show in person, so with a virtual presentation they all need to be on slides. I may offer this to guilds, so stay tuned. The in-person presentation has been so well-received that it would be fun to share it further than just southern Ontario. If I think of anything else, I will update this post! 

I've not posted as much this year, but I don't want to stop as this blog has enriched my life beyond anything I could ever have envisioned when I started it in September 2013. The friends I have made I cherish; the experiences, the learning, the sharing, the joy it gives me are all so precious. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading these posts, for laughing and crying with me, for the messages you send, and for the support whether it's commenting, purchasing a pattern, participating in an activity, or simply feeling connected to each other. May 2025 be a creative joyous year for all of us.