Looking Back at 2024

I can’t quite believe that we are already at the end of another year.  It is time to have a look back at what we have been up to over the last twelve months.  This is something I have done for the last few years and I do enjoy having a quick read over them and seeing how we have fared.

At the start of 2024 I made a post with my wishes for the coming year.  Let’s see how things panned out.

As usual, I set some goals for my stitching and joined in with some challenges.

Once again, I joined in with the One Monthly Goal challenge.  I missed achieving my goal for a couple of months, due to travel, but caught up by the end of the year.

A new challenge this year was the Chookshed Stitchers’ Challenge arranged by Deana.  This consisted of nominating and numbering ten projects or tasks. Deana would then select one number at random each month and we would work on that project or task.  Having only ten projects gave us a couple of extra months to make up for any time we were unable to complete the task in the nominated month.  I’m pleased to report that by using that extra couple of months I was able to meet all my goals.  I’m looking forward to joining in again next year.

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge featured again this year.  I worked on a few projects, but completed none.  

Firstly, I continued to make the split nine patches I had started in 2023.  

I also made a few crumb blocks and started a few hexy flowers.  

What ended up being a lot of fun was working on the Fishy Business Quilt blocks in rainbow colours.  Sadly, I fell off the wagon in the second half of the year, so they are an ongoing project.  I hope to make two donation quilts using these blocks.

The Rainbow Fish were such fun that I started a second version of the quilt using batik fabrics.  I’m loving how this is turning out.  Once again, it came to standstill in the second half of the year, so is ongoing.

I did manage to make quite a few donation quilts.  Some went to a local charity that supports victims of domestic violence.

One was used as a raffle prize at the church fete.

There were a couple of things that didn’t progress how I had hoped, one being the Blue Quilt.  I need to remove a couple of borders, as they were flaring, and adjust those borders. They are the checkerboard border you can see here as well as a narrow border that was added after this one.

I have become somewhat obsessed with hexy flowers since autumn, when I made a couple of random ones as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  This morphed into making the Bigs and Smalls quilt pattern by Anorina Morris.  I have stitched 111 one inch hexy flowers and 8 two inch hexy flowers.  I am currently in the process of appliquéing them to background squares.  It has surprised me how much I have enjoyed the process,  It has also meant that other projects have been put on the back burner.

I started a little stitchery when we were overseas and rather than just adding a simple border, I had a play and made a little wall hanging.  It was a bit of fun.

This year I again played along with working on something crafty for 15 minutes a day.  It really motivates me to get at least some little thing done most days.  The hexy flowers were a perfect project.

This is how I ended up:

December = 26/31

Year to Date =  336/366

Success Rate = 91.80%  That’s a little bit down on last year, but I think anything over 90% is definitely a win.

Being a bit of a nerd, I set up a spreadsheet with some goals.  This is how I went.

Complete 24 projects = 25

Quilt 12 quilts = 12  (I had hoped to achieve more here, but Monique has not been playing nicely for the last few months.  Once she is sorted, I should be able to make some good progress - and complete some more UFOs.)

Complete 12 UFOs = 9 (I had listed 24 UFOs to choose from)

Complete 12 donation projects = 10

I started 25 new projects during the year and have completed 16, so there is the start of next year’s UFO list.

I am really enjoying the social side of stitching, continuing to attend my patchwork group on a Wednesday and the U3A group on a Friday morning.  These groups mean that I get much more handwork completed these days.

Participating in the Chookshed Stitchers Zoom sewing sessions continues to be a favourite way to spend time.  It is such a lovely group of women.

Finally, visiting Baradine for sewing retreats is the best fun.  This time with a second retreat in the spring being a bonus, as well as a free motion quilting workshop at the craft shop in Coonabarabran.

What else did we get up to during the year?

Things started out on a sad note, as we farewelled our cat Joey.  He was sixteen and his time had come.

Travel is always a feature.  The main trip this year was rather unplanned and impromptu.  We decided on the Friday afternoon to go to the Isle of Man for the TT motorcycle races and had everything booked that evening and left on the Monday morning!!! I still haven’t got around to blogging about most of the trip.  I may still get to it.  I do hope so.  Anyway, we had a great time while there and in England.

We had quite a change with our caravan trips too.  After the ute started to give us grief, we made the decision to buy a small truck to pull the van.  Enter “Frank” the Fuso truck.  We are very happy with him.  He is shorter than the ute and Mick finds him surprisingly zippy for driving around town.  The vision from the cab is terrific, being so high and, best of all, there is no worries about being overweight when towing the van.  He has already done quite a few miles.

Our first trip was to Baradine for Scrub Stitchin’, when the above photo was taken.  

We then took him to Canberra in May, so that we could see the Rajah Quilt, the Ancient Egypt exhibition, both Parliament Houese and Mr Squiggle.

His next trip was to Queensland, where we visited Dalby, Bell, Gayndah, Cania Gorge and then on to Rockhampton to visit our friends.

We have also taken him to Forbes and Lake Cargelligo.

And finally, Braidwood for the Airing of the Quilts.

As usual we had quite a few days out.  Quilt shows and open gardens seemed to feature a lot.  We went to the Blue Mountains Quilt Show, the Rajah Quilt Exhibition at Canberra, the Sydney Quilt show and the Braidwood Airing of the Quilts.  We visited open gardens at Cowra, Bathurst and Crookwell.  

Meanwhile, we are also enjoying just being at home.  Mick has become really involved with his lawn bowls.  Not only is he playing twice a week, he goes down and practices on a couple of afternoons and has started taking an active role in looking after the grounds. 

I have continued to read some books, but still not as many as I would like and tried quite a few new recipes, but once again, not as many as I would like.

So that wraps up another year of retirement.  Life is definitely good.

My Goals For November

I’ve been umming and aahing about what goals to set this month.  So much depends on how Monique plays.  She has been to the doctor and I think she is going to play nicely from now on……..fingers crossed.  Also, this will be another month with commitments that take me away from my sewing room.

This is what I have come up with.

ONE MONTHLY GOAL

This has been the hard one.  In the end I’ve decided that my goal will be to complete the two little koala quilts that I pieced at Baradine in September.  They were also my Chookshed Stitchers’ Challenge for June.  It will be good to have them completed this calendar year.

FISHY BUSINESS QUILTS

I haven’t made any progress on either of these quilts in the last couple of months.  Maybe I will get to it this month, maybe not.  We’ll see.

HEXY FLOWER QUILT

This will definitely move forward.  It is my go to portable project.

USE MONIQUE

It would be nice to quilt at least one other quilt this month, but we will see how things progress.

15 MINUTES A DAY

I will endeavour to keep this up.  The hexy flowers help on this front.

Everything else will be a bonus.

NON STITCHING GOALS

I’m not setting any goals here.  Life is a bit too busy at the moment.

Sometimes life is like that.

October Stitching Wrap Up

When I set my goals at the start of the month I took into consideration the fact that we had quite a bit planned for October.  As a result, my goals were rather simple and should have been quite achievable.  Well, maybe, my enthusiasm wasn’t what it usually is and not a real lot was achieved.  Here is what did happen.

ONE MONTHLY GOAL and CHOOKSHED STITCHERS’S CHALLENGE

I made a concerted effort at the start of the month and had these completed fairly quickly.  I blogged about them here.

FISHY BUSINESS

The only other real goal that I set was to catch up my Rainbow Scrap Challenge Fish and my Batik Fish blocks. Nope, nothing was achieved other than printing out October’s pattern.  My head wasn’t in the right space to work on it, as my cutting table seemed to be buried for most of the month.  I’ll explain in a minute.  Needless to say, I now have an even bigger task ahead of me to catch up.  It will happen.

MY WISH LIST

USE MONIQUE

The first item on my wish list was to use Monique to get a few quilts over the finish line, or at least quite a bit closer.  

I posted at the end of September that there was an issue with the thread that was tension related.  

After discussions with the technician, a new improved tension assembly was sent to us.  The result wasn’t any different, so we tried various other things.  I thought it was a bit better, but after doing a bit of quilting on a scrap piece it became evident that it is still not right.  I have not looked at it for a couple of weeks, but went back to it on Wednesday.  I give up!  We will now be travelling to the Southern Highlands for it to get a spa treatment on Monday.  Our plan is to leave on Sunday afternoon and stay overnight in a country pub on the way down, so that we don’t have to leave at sparrow fart and drive through lots of scrub in that roo time.  The technician will do the service on that day, so we can drive home on Monday afternoon/evening.  Fingers crossed that I will finally be able to make some progress on some quilts.

That is why my cutting table has been buried.  I usually have some “stuff” sitting on the long arm table.

DR SEUSS QUILT

I had wished to get the top completed with a couple of borders.  All that I have done is select the fabric for the two borders.  

HEXY FLOWER QUILT

I have made quite a bit of progress on this one.  Realistically, other than the first two goals, this is all I have worked on.  Who’d have thought my go to project would be hand stitching.

I have the first 57 blocks appliquéd.  

I have two of the large 2” hexy flowers appliquéd and one more pieced.  Just five more large flowers to piece and then appliqué. A few more flowers are stitched and, in addition to this photo, I have quite a lot more prepped, ready to just pick up and stitch into flowers.  

I have all the grey background fabrics cut.  I have to piece some of the large grey squares into four patches for the 2” flowers and to use up off cuts, created quite a few small four patches for backgrounds.  That will add a bit more interest to the quilt.  No, this isn’t a a black and white photo.  It just looks very monochromatic on my new cutting mat.

I’m really enjoying the process of this one and was so happy to be able to add some random scrap fabrics into the mix.  The fact that each hexy is appliquéd  onto a separate block means it continues to be a very portable project - perfect for taking to stitching mornings.

15 MINUTES A DAY 

I’m happy to report that I have worked on something every day, despite the Monique issue and consequent  lack of inspiration to work on anything sewing machine or sewing room related.

October = 31/31

Year to date = 281/305

Success rate = 92.13%

So, that is what I achieved this month.  Not as much as I had hoped, but it is what it is.  Now to start thinking about November.

Setting my October Goals

We have a bit on this month, which always happens at this time of year, so I will keep my goals rather simple and then just have a “Wish List”.  The fact that “Monique” my quilting machine is playing up has also caused me to realign my plans for the month.  

ONE MONTHLY GOAL

My goal will be to complete the Sashiko table runner.  There is a deadline for completing this project and I don’t want to leave it until the last moment.  It shouldn’t take too long to do.

CHOOKSHED STITCHERS’ CHALLENGE

There was no surprise that the number this month was 8, which is the “Anni Downs 2023 Christmas Stitchery (stitch and hopefully make a small project)”. I’ve decided that I won’t make a small project, just get the stitchery completed.  

You see, I have a few more of her free Christmas stitcheries that I haven’t done, so have traced off a couple more.  Also, during COVID I stitched the “Love and Hugs Christmas Stitcheries” and haven’t done anything with them.  Add to that, I have a couple of Christmas trees stitched and they are just sitting in a box too.  They are all redwork.  I’m thinking that once these three blocks are stitched I could work all the stitcheries into a Christmas quilt.  There is no rush, and all I am aiming for this month is to stitch last year’s stitchery.

RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE

After last month’s lack of progress, this month I hope to make the fish for August, September and October, as well as some more split nine patch blocks and at least one hexy flower.  Last month’s colour was “Dark” and this month’s is “Light” or add more of any colour you need or want.  I’ll make that colour lime green.

BATIK FISH

I need to make the September and October fish this month.

That is all that I am setting as my goals, so should be achievable.

Now for the “Wish List”…..

USE MONIQUE - when my thread issue is resolved I will quilt the Three Yard Dog quilt that is on the frame and hopefully the two koala baby quilts.

DR SEUSS QUILT - I’d really like to get the borders added, quilt and bind it.  If it happens, great.  If not it will still be there for another day.

HEXY FLOWERS - I’m sure I will continue to work on these.  They are fun and portable.

Now for my non stitching goals.

• Read a book
• Try a new recipe
• Have a fun day out

Anything else will be a bonus.