Reviewing 2019

It’s always interesting looking back at what was achieved during the year.  My first finish for the year was not till March, I think we must have been busy tripping away in the caravan for some time early in the year.  I finally completed my long winded Animal ABC quilt, which had been hanging around for ages.  I had fun collecting animal print fabrics for this quilt, and pen friend Janet from Australia really helped me out when she printed out a picture of a Quokka to send me to use for the letter Q.  This one I’m keeping for future babies in the family.

Animal ABC quilt

Next up was making six draw string project bags to put my UFOs in, so much nicer than having things stuffed in plastic.  I really didn’t want to get involved with making vinyl pouches with zips, that seemed much too hard for me, so did a simple design using netting and various fabric choices for the top and bottom.  The bags certainly do their job very well, and I can see at a glance exactly which project is put away inside each bag.

Project Bags

The final finish for March were two little nine patch cot quilts.  I’d had nine patch blocks stitched and hanging about for ages, and finally did something with them.  Not too sure if I used all of them up, there could well be some more hiding away in a crate somewhere.

Two nine patch cot quilts

In May I put together all the HST blocks which dated back to our UK trip in 2008.  These traveled with me, and I noted down flights, train and boat trips, where we had stayed, attractions visited, people we had met, all that sort of thing.  A real fabric diary of our wonderful trip.  The blocks were finally stitched into pinwheels, and assembled together.  I plan to use this as a quilt backing sometime in the future, and will probably have to add fabric to the outsides to get the correct dimensions.

Memory Pinwheels

In June I finally completed my selvedge bag, and stitched two little mug rugs for overseas pen friends.

June finishes

And July saw me stitching up a donation cot quilt from neutral string blocks.  These were originally made for a Quiltville Mystery quilt, which I obviously didn't keep working on.  In fact, I have enough of these blocks left to make another two donation cot quilts in the future!

Donation quilt

August was a great month, with three finishes, although you must remember that I had been working on these projects off and on for a while.  Two large quilts came back from being commercially quilted, Running Free, for my grand-daughter Megan, and a Pinwheel quilt for a friend’s grand-daughter, so I had bindings to apply and stitch down.

And then I completed Jingle Christmas Runner for our coffee table, a combination of stitcheries and piecing in Christmas fabrics. 

Jingle Table Runner

Another Christmas quilt was completed in November, always good to get this sort of project finished before Christmas.  This was my Christmas Mystery Quilt and it started with a whole lot of 5inch squares of festive fabric from a Sew Wot Christmas gift a while ago from Helen.

Mystery Quilt

This was my first year taking part in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and each month I diligently stitched both Bow Tie blocks and Selvedge Asterisk blocks in the suggested colours.  I worked hard to get both projects completed before the end of the year.  The Bow Tie was a donation quilt, and the Asterisk quilt was made for my car.

RSC projects

And last but not least December saw me busy making cushions for the caravan.  I completed a stitchery Christmas cushion, then made six other cushions from extra matching  upholstery fabric I had purchased.

Cushions for the caravan

I like to support the charity Foster Hope who gives items to children taken into foster care, and this year I have donated four cot quilts, eight small soft toys, and a dozen draw string bags.  These bags are used by the children to keep their toiletries in, or used for pencils and such like.  And after the terrible tragedy of the Christchurch Mosque shooting rampage, I joined many other quilters from New Zealand and around the world to make heart blocks in green, as requested.

And I’m pleased to say that I even managed some knitting this year and completed a blue toddler’s jumper.  Then two other projects which had been hanging around for ages finally got finished, a pretty pink hooded baby jumper, and a cream winter cardigan for myself -  I wont tell you how long that has been waiting for me to get on and finish!  (Won’t mention the socks I’ve been knitting the last couple of winters and are still not finished.)

We have been out and about in our caravan for various trips throughout the year, some short, and some a little longer.  Our big trip this year was riding the Indian Pacific train from Perth to Sydney.  That was really enjoyable, wonderful food, and lots of off train excursions to interesting places.  We had boarded this train the previous year and the trip was cancelled due to a derailment further up the line, so this was our second attempt to do this trip.  Luckily it all went to plan this time.

Stop on the Indian Pacific train trip - Cook, “The Middle of Nowhere”

So that’s been my year, another busy one, filled with stitching, social outings and lots of caravan trips.   Meeting up with my Sew Wot friends each fortnight is always special, and I attend the local quilt club when I can.  It’s been a great year, we can't ask for more than that, can we?