2013 Year in Rearview

Taking a look at the past year in my life and my quilting journey is like looking in a rear view mirror. I cannot see everything behind me just the important stuff following me closely. Might be a good time to pull over and let the traffic pass so I can get on with my road trip.

Facebook timeline highlights tell me that some of the top events of 2013 were in order of happening but not necessarily in order of importance: 

• new windows in my house in April
• new granddaughter born in May
• new pickup truck in June
• my husband's haircut on Sept
• my trip to Poland in Oct

But it did not mention:

• completing the first course for my doctorate in dialoguing with God through journalling.  
• 3 trips to New Brunswick to visit my daughter - she has visited here twice this year. 
• Babysitting my 7 month old new granddaughter 3 days a week and loving it.
• And, I started a blog. I am loving it. I love the writing, the editing, the publishing and then connecting with quilters and family all over the world.

 2013 saw absolutely no quilt finishes.

• The only thing I actually quilted was a scrap sandwich to check out the viability of the background fabric I have been using for Dear Jane. It is not conducive to hand quilting so I will not. It will machine quilt up nicely if I can only decide how I will approach doing it once I actually complete it. My machine quilting skills are at a beginner level, even though I have been machine quilting (sort of) for about 10 years. Over the years I have focused on making full sized bed quilts intended for use, until I started on blessed Dear Jane. My skill levels and techniques have greatly  improved but I keep wanting to start more projects. Dear Jane, bless her heart, will be to look at and not for common use.

2013 saw 4 new quilt starts.

•  I decided to invest in a gzillion dies for applique for  my GO cutter and even had 4 dies custom made to be able to cut out just leaves for the 1814 reproduction quilt I started on Oct 1. More on that when I have some progress to show. I am using fabric from my stash for the background and leftovers from the Dear Jane project.                                                                                                                       
•  I am convinced I can make a Baltimore style quilt with  my GO gadgets in a weekend. However, I have been researching (that's what I call reading endless blogs and books and watching you tube tutorials) on Red and Green quilt designs and raw edged machine applique. More on this when I have pictures to show my progress. To date, I have spent an entire day preshrinking, ironing on fusible web and cutting out ALL background squares, borders, backing squares and batting squares from my stash and leftovers from Dear Jane. I plan to machine quilt it as I go and then connect the squares with a 1 inch sashing.  This project was spread out all over the dresser, bed, ironing board and sewing table in the white room that I had to totally de-clutter before my daughter and her husband arrived for Christmas.

• I cut out all the blocks for a lap sized disappearing 9 patch in 1930's prints and solids from my stash. I discovered that the 5 inch charm pack blocks are really 5  x 4 1/2. So, I had to cut all new ones. then I took a month sabbatical from quilting and forgot to actually sew it up. It would take a day at most.

•  I joined the Chester County Criswell Quilt group reproducing the 1852 wedding quilt made for the marriage of Alice McClellan Criswell and Jesse Jackson Smith in Chester County, Pennsylvania. I am absolutely loving working on these unique applique blocks. I joined in on the beginning of year 2 of 3 and now have almost caught up. I have completed  11 and have 4 part done. I have not even attempted to figure out #12. I precut all the background squares from fabric from my stash and bought a few new civil war reds and greens to use along with left overs from Dear Jane. I prepped a bunch of blocks and have them ready to pick up whenever I want to keep mu hands busy or avoid doing any real work.

2013 WIP I worked on several other quilts over the year:

• I completed the rest of the 169 blocks for Dear Jane and am now working (rather slowly) on the triangles and kites.
• I did some needleturn applique on the corner triangles for my baby Baltimore.
• I worked on a few blocks for the JT2  and another 2 coloured similar sampler, but using my GO gadgets.

On my wish list of quilts to start with all fabrics ready to go in project boxes:

• JT2 Benjamin Briggs BOM from Dear Jane and Sentimental Stitches beginning Jan 1
• Dear Jane 2 in Brights as soon as I complete DJ
• Bali Wedding Stars from Judy Neimeyer in a king size as soon as I complete DJ
• Love Entwined 1790 Marriage Coverlet by Esther Aliu after I complete DJ
• Di Ford's Antique Wedding Sampler on impulse when I forget what else I have to do after I complete DJ.

It appears that I am intrigued with the more complex quilt patterns. I have ideas swimming around in my head on how to complete many of the UFO's in my cupboard. Most of them have all the fabrics I need to complete them in project boxes. One of the reasons I did not complete quilts was not having enough of the right fabrics so that is partly why I started buying the rest of the bolts with discount for backgrounds to make sure I had more than enough. This started when I was the purchaser and teacher for the Q@F Dear Jane. We will be having a weekend retreat here at the Farm the end of January with some of the girls working on DJ blocks.

I found out that my 88 year old aunt in Poland is reading my blog to learn more about me and my family here in Canada. So, I will write more about me and my family, my faith, my life on the farm, my journey as a 60 something's doing doctoral studies and why I go to India so often as well as quilting. I might even remember to take photos along the way.

I have yet another project box with all the books, notes and instructions for the current course I am working on for my DCC. It is called "The Normal Christian Life" by Watchman Nee. I had a lot of it done, then I was given a different format in which to do it so have to go back and redo about 1/3 of it. 

New Year's Blessings,
Chris