Reflections on 2016

I’ve been enjoying the annual review posts of many blog friends. As a “journal entry” to aid my own memory, I’ve written one of my own.

First, the stats. Here is the list of quilts I made, roughly in the order of completion:

1. Beth’s Carousel — kaleidoscope
2. Isaac’s Big Block — big bed quilt
3. ReConnected — for Padre’s wedding, big couch throw size
4. Moonlight Waltz — big medallion
5. VA hospital quilt  — block quilt from Moonlight Waltz leftovers
6. Untied — hand-quilted wall-hanging
7. Iowa In My Mind — guild challenge art quilt for Son
8. More Precious Than Diamonds — big bed quilt using 60 degree diamonds for Em
9. Stars for Nora — multiple block sizes baby quilt
10. Still Climbing Mountains — big couch throw for Julie
11. If I Had A Nickel — stacked coins big couch throw
12. small group round robin — of course, this was 5 projects
13. VA hospital quilt — shooflies and HST block quilt
14. VA hospital quilt — hourglasses block quilt
15. placemats — 4 of them of HST for Son
16. Kim’s Christmas stocking

I don’t keep track of yardage used, but given this list, I estimate I used about 100 yards of fabric for completed projects. (That isn’t net usage, including new acquisitions. It’s just use.) Some years have used more; some have used less.

Besides those, I quilted eight projects for my local guild. And I started three more projects, two of which are “waiting” and one which is nearing completion.

Of the 16 completed projects listed, 13 have been given away or otherwise have owners in waiting. Besides those I gave three other quilts completed in prior years. My stockpile has not grown. 🙂

I published 111 blog posts here, which is 49 fewer than in 2015. A few of them were reblogs, including our series on Scotland. A few were some I chose to republish from earlier days.

Odd that I carried a sense of “not doing much” all year. But the year was odd, really. It began with a 10-day trip to the east coast, and it ended with a 10-day trip to the west coast. In between we had another trip to the east, as well as almost three weeks in Scotland. We made two short overnight trips for hiking in Iowa.We helped our nearby daughter with some home renovations, making several trips out of town for that. We both injured knees, and I hurt both of mine! We both undertook physical therapy and continuing rehab. My longarm tension got glitchy to the point of needing service. And then there was the election, which left me gasping and grasping for words for much of the year.

No wonder it all seems disjointed. It was!

In truth, I don’t think anyone but me cares about how many quilts I made or of what type, or how many blog posts, or why my year seemed less productive than usual. This was a thoroughly self-indulgent post, written as a review for myself.

I will follow up with a few photos, and with links to a few favorite new posts from the year. In the meantime, if you’ve gotten this far, thank you for indulging me!