Saturday, December 31, 2011

Farewell 2011!!

2011 wasn't the best year of my life -- it was quite productive for me, workwise and also in terms of sewing -- but it was actually one of the most stressful and unbalanced years of my life, although I don't think one would get a strong sense of that from this  10-month-old blog...that's not really the function of stitchy blog, is it?  The generosity of those of you who have read and commented is truly one of the bright lights of my 2011.  Thank you so much for your kindness. 

I threw together a mosaic of some of the things I made this year.




1. DW's brown bear quilt, 2. FMQ experiment, back, 3. 9-patch baby quilt, 4. Spring baby quilt, 5. Baby "I" on her quilt!, 6. wedding quilt, finis!, 7. the big one, 8. orange string quilt, 9. "Links", 10. Ms. H's quilt, 11. In Bloom, for my mother, 12. In Bloom, back, 13. [gray geese] over the rainbow, 14. Garden Fence quilt, finis!!, 15. Sweet Pea Quilt, 16. sneak peek of Little Apples quilt, 17. sneak peek of Little Apples quilt, 18. a little knitting, 19. gnome pillow, 20. a well-loved gnome pillow, 21. M5882 dress...first try, 22. ModKid "Frida" dress #2, 23. naturally dyed wool, 24. natural dyes, 25. shibori experiment 1, 26. Penelope and the new pillow

Now I'm happy to move forward to a new year and a fresh start.

I have lots of resolutions in mind, including some that are very important to me personally, but are not craft-related. In a first draft of this post I detailed all the things I wanted to revive and reintroduce to my life.  While it was productive to put all those things in words, I don't want to weigh down this forum with too much of that stuff.  Suffice it to say that  I'm hoping that 2012 is the year I finally emerge from the (most recent) fog of pregnancy-babyhood-toddlerhood. I remember this process from the last time around...so here we go again!

I actually do have some sewing goals in mind...probably more than I can accomplish this year, realistically.  But why not aim high?  Here are the ones at the front of my mind right now.

*experiment with my quilting: the geometric wonders in Charlotte Warr Andersen's One Line at a Time, Encore, more play with my free motion quilting, more hand quilting.

*design in EQ7.  I finally watched the video tutorials, and am very excited by what this program can do.  Yay.

*design and make my father a king-sized quilt. Queen-sized is the largest I have made (start to finish) to date.

*finish my "Farmer's Wife" blocks.

*finish my Mystery Quilt.

*finish my hexagon projects.

*make one of the beauties from String Quilt Revival.

*get my new serger (still on layaway) and whip up a bunch of knit dresses for Frida.

*make some summer dresses for myself.



Whatever your experience of the past year has been, 
and whatever your hopes for 2012, 
I wish you a very sweet new year's eve and the best for the coming year!

8 comments:

Tong said...

What a productive 2011 you've had, you should be very proud of yourself and what you've accomplished, both in front of and away from the sewing machine! By the way, that machine quilting book looks amazing, I might have to get it myself. I'm also hoping to do some hand quilting in 2012, I just ordered a bunch of Finca perle cotton threads and a colour card. Here's to a even better 2012, Happy New Year!

Kim Brackett said...

You really did have a productive quilty year, didn't you? I love the mosaic. I hope you accomplish all of your goals, both personal and quilt-related, in 2012. Happy New Year!

Annabella said...

Happy New Year Jennifer to you and your family! Your makes for 2011 are beautiful and I`m so happy to call you a bloggy friend!

LizA. said...

Wow! What a productive year! Love the mosaic. Hhmmm, thanks for reminding me of those Farmer's Wife blocks....guess I should dig them out and get working on them. Happy New Year to you and I agree with you--it definitely is time for a fresh start.

Sheila said...

Happy New Year to you too Jennifer.None of us really know what goes on behind our blogs, hope 2012 brings all you wish for.

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

What a productive year! And great resolutions...I hope 2012 is a marvellous year for you!

quirky granola girl said...

gosh. i've got finish my FWQAL blocks and my hexies project on my list, too. i'll cheer you on, too!

Carolanne said...

That is quite the body of work Jennifer! The dyeing is wonderful and you are crazy talented! Amazing - see you on Saturday!