Best of 2015

There’s a fun link party going on for quilt bloggers. Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs has invited us to share our top five posts of 2015. It’s a great way to find other interesting bloggers, as well as to remember some special moments from a diverse year. (Click into the post linked above and you’ll find links to dozens of blogs’ best five.)

Cheryl says: “To take part in the link party, simply write a blog post highlighting your “best” 5 posts from 2015 and linkup. There is no set way to pick your best, you can pick your posts anyway you would like, some examples include:

• Posts with the most views
• Posts with the most comments
• Posts that provoked the best discussions
• Posts showing your favorite 2015 finishes
• Posts of your best tutorials
• Posts that are simply your favorites“

It’s been a while since I’ve cared much about view counts or comment counts. I already showed you some of my favorite finishes. I’m going with some of my favorite writing! In 2015 I’ve published about 150 posts (not including the few reblogs,) so choosing wasn’t easy. But here they are.

1. At the beginning of 2015, I published Transforming the Past|Transforming the Future. It describes how my quilts hold memories both bright and dark.
2. My 300th post published in May. The post itself isn’t much, but I sure enjoyed the comments!
3. Labels constrain us in so many ways. How we label ourselves and how we label our work can hold us back. Here are a few of my thoughts on “modern” medallion quilts. (And this might be cheating, but here I write more specifically about why I battle with labeling ourselves, rather than our quilts.)
4. Here’s another cheat. I wrote a series of posts on quilting as a business, and a subseries on cotton and cotton fabric production. The final post (so far) was Conversations with Artists. There are links to the rest at the bottom of that post.
5. Finally, and as an appropriate follow-up to #4, is My Book Proposal. It outlines the process I encountered in developing and submitting a proposal for publication.

The Mountain. 60″ x 60″. Photo by Jim Ruebush.

And through all of this I’ve been climbing my mountain, learning and trying things I wouldn’t have taken on even a couple of years ago. I look forward to a new year, with new challenges ahead.

Thanks to all of you who stop in, read my blog, drop a comment or question now and then, forward my site to friends. The interaction with you makes this all so rewarding. Thank you. And Happy New Year!