Song of the day - “He’s making a list and checking it twice”. Don’t be afraid to sing along! This time of year my list-making skills go into overdrive. I collect Christmas wish lists for each family member and check them off as my shopping is done. I make a list of meals to serve when all of the family is at our house so I can be sure to have all the ingredients I need to keep their stomachs full. I keep a list of all of the projects that I would like to work on throughout the year. Now it is time to review the list that I made at the beginning of 2022 to see if anything was accomplished in the sewing room.
Of the nine projects that started on the to-do list I was able to finish five of them and make some progress on one other. Not too bad! Four of those six projects involved the grandchildren so I definitely had some motivation to get those done! I made counted cross-stitch stockings for Ruby and Henry. I made a paper-pieced Harry Potter quilt to hang in Henry’s nursery and a Grinch advent calendar so that he could count off the days until Christmas. I also finished a Super Secret project which was a baby quilt for Henry made out of blocks that his mother had stitched when she was about ten-years-old. I gave it to her for her baby shower in February and she has used it for Henry’s tummy time.
The fifth project that I finished was for our Quilt Guild’s charity project. I would have liked to make a quilt from start to finish but just did not have time to do so. Instead I quilted a top that one of our members made and donated my time in that way. The project that I made some progress on was my English Paper-Piecing Trip Around the World quilt. I now have almost seven rows finished and was glad to have a project to do in the evenings once the counted cross-stitch stocking were done.
Sadly three projects on the list received no attention at all this year. They were the Flowers for my Wedding Ring pattern from Quiltworx, Dear Jane, and a scrap quilt made from a pattern called Katie’s Quilt. To be fair these are large projects that will require quite a bit of my time to finish. The big question for 2023 is whether or not I should even put them on the to-do list. I really would like to make at least some progress on each of them this next year but I’m not sure even that will be possible.
Part of the reason that these quilts got pushed to the bottom of the list is that other projects came up throughout the year such as a fabric garland for Ruby’s first birthday in March and a mug rug kit from the quilt shop in Pella, IA that I made in October. I also made a pumpkin wall hanging from a kit that I purchased at Betz’s Little Shop in Newman Grove that I donated to our PEO auction as well as a table topper for Cousin Arn and Kathy Hottovy’s new house. I finished the year with a Grinch Advent Calendar kit that I made for Henry and two doll quilts for Ruby. These were all small projects that only took one to three days to complete.
A larger quilt that I added to the list this year was the Swoon Sixteen pattern by Camille Roskelly that I plan to make for Ruby out of fabric by Sherri McConnell and Chelsi Stratton. I have all of the fabrics cut and sorted into bags as each block uses three different fabrics. The next step will be to stitch the 20 blocks together. Can’t wait to see how it comes together.
In addition to my projects I stitched a total of 32 Quilts of Valor and 65 customer quilts. One of those customer quilts was a paper-pieced pattern that took 185 hours to complete from start to finish. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog on that project!
Another blog topic is the list of next year’s to-do projects that I have already been thinking about. Exciting life events in our family mean more stitching projects for me! Be watching for the big reveal in a couple of weeks.
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