December 2022 Recap

Happy New Year to you all and hope you had a good 2022. Before I do my annual recap, I have lots to share from December. It was a busy month, but I also had two weeks off work and lots of good crafting time. 

There were four finished quilts this month, all of which were started in prior months. The first is Wind Drifter, a quilt that my mom and I hosted a quilt-a-long for. I finished my quilt top at my October retreat, quilted it in November, and bound it in December. This quilt is made with several Halloween themed fabrics, but I like that it doesn't scream Halloween - I think it will be a great quilt for the fall. It is a wall quilt and finishes at about 32" square. 

Wind Drifter by Robin Pickens

Next up is a memory quilt that I made for my friend for her Christmas present. These are shirts from her parents that she brought home several years ago. They spent some time in her closet and some time in my basement and this year was the year to get it finished. It hasn't been gifted to her yet but I don't think she reads my blog (and if she does, it will still be better to see it in person, right?). The orange piece in the top middle is from a quilted jacket, and the bottom right is two pockets - one from a Hawaiian shirt and the other from pajama pants which are also on the back of the quilt and make up the cornerstones. I hope this quilt will bring her lots of comfort and good memories. I quilted this one with big loops, a simple pattern that will crinkle up nicely, and it finished at a nice lap size. 

Memories of Mom & Dad

The next quilt is one that has been slowly progressing over the course of the last two years. I quilted it in early November but had several challenges with the quilting and knew I had a lot of thread tie-offs to do, which always makes me want to procrastinate. I also didn't have more of the first border fabric to make the binding with the same fabric. I dug around in my batik stash last week and found one that I thought would work - there is enough variability in the fabric that I don't think it stands out too much from the border fabric. I got the binding attached last week and then did the tie-offs on New Year's Eve so that I could officially call this one a finish! The pattern is one that's at least hard to find and may be out of print - Which Way's North by Judy Niemeier and is a paper pieced pattern. I purchased this pattern from my friend Lois' stash years ago and always planned to make it with batiks. I am so happy with how it turned out and love the light to dark shading. I quilted this one with wavy lines and some swirls and it is also a good lap size, although I kind of want to find a place where I can hang it and see the whole quilt. 

Which Way's North by Judy Niemeier

The last quilt is one I finished up on New Year's Eve afternoon! I decided earlier this week that it would be an easy one to finish as it should be easy quilting and I already had the binding made. It quilted up very quickly and was bound an hour later - it is nice to have one last finish for the year and one less UFO to go into 2023. This quilt is the pattern Mini Blossom by Fig Tree Quilts. 

Mini Blossom quilt top

My last quilting project was also started and finished in the last week - as I was cleaning up fabrics that needed to be put away, I realized that I had enough of this fabric left to make a patchwork project bag. All the other project bags I've made are the type with vinyl on the front, so this one was a nice change of pace. 

Patchwork project bag

Next up are a few stitching projects. I finished three this month and fully finished four ornaments. 

My first stitching finish is a shop model for my LNS - it was such a great pattern and so quick to stitch. I stitched this on 28 count Lambswool Lugana with called for DMC except for the two greens and the black, which are DMC Floche. The shop owner wanted to highlight this thread, which is used one ply - it is thicker and seems kind of silkier than regular DMC and it was great to stitch with one thread on 28 count. The floche is quite a bit more expensive than a skein, so I would use it sparingly, but it was nice to try something new. The pattern is Bumblebees and Flowers, Please by Cherry Hill Stitchery. It was my first pattern of this designer to stitch and what I liked most is that it came with both color and black & white charts. 

Bumblebees and Flowers Please by Cherry Hill Stitchery

My second finish for the month is By Golly, Be Jolly by Lizzie Kate. I bought this with the pattern, linen, and beads as a kit years ago at the shop in Evansville, IN. I have had this in my "stitch soon" pile for a long time and am so glad I pulled it out in November. This was such a quick stitch and I love the bright Christmas colors. It is stitched with called for threads on the kit fabric (which wasn't labeled). 

By Golly Be Jolly by Lizzie Kate

My last stitching finish is a big one - I started this on New Year's Day 2022 and finished it on December 26th. This is Winter Bell Pull by Tiny Modernist. I through this was a lovely pattern and would be nice to hang after all the holiday decorations come down. I stitched this one on 28 count Gossamer by Picture this Plus with the called for DMC threads, except for one substitution - I used Anchor white instead of DMC. I picked up the white and black spools a while back to see how I liked them and it was just about the same as DMC white :) I plan to finish this one as a bell pull, hopefully before the end of 2023! The color is really hard to capture on camera for this one - the fabric is a lovely light green with iridescent threads and is really lovely. I did have to change a few places on this where white was called for to light blue, as the white didn't show up very well. 

Winter Bell Pull by Tiny Modernist

Top half Winter Bell Pull

Bottom half of Winter Bell Pull

If that's not enough, I have a few ornament finishes to share with you as well. I was glad to have some time off to be able to finish a few to add to the tree this year. 

Noel from Lizzie Kates Tiny Tidings XIV, finished in an ornament

Christmas Alphabet by Heart in Hand, finished as an ornament tag

Holly Berries, a Victoria's Sampler Hardanger kit, finished as a pillow

Wee Santa 2021 by Heart in Hand, finished as a pillow

In addition to all this, I enjoyed the winter Orchestra concert, finished my own and all my team's performance reviews at work, baked, wrapped gifts, and took a few naps! It was a great month! Hope it was the same for you and best wishes for a Happy New Year. 

Here are the final stats for the year for those who enjoy seeing them. 

Linking up with Kate at Life in Pieces for the Stitching time report: 

29/31 days in December with crafting time = 94%
308/365 days in 2022 with crafting time = 84%

Linking up with Donna at quiltpaintcreate for the Stash Report: 

Fabric added this month: 5 1/2 yards (for a duffel bag I am going to make for my daughter)
Fabric used this month: 4 1/8 yards
Fabric added year to date: 17 3/8 yards
Fabric used year to date: 40 1/2 yards (the same amount as last year!!)

Stash usage over the last 12 years

Inspired by Kate, I have been tracking my usage with a graph and love to see this each year. As you might be able to see, I used the exact same amount as last year - and I added less this year than last year, but more than I did in 2019 or 2020. Overall, I have used over 658 yards of fabric since I started tracking in 2010! I used a lot to finish quilts from my friend Lois when I inherited her stash, and I have probably donated near 150 yards to our guild or other projects, but even with that, that's a lot of fabric to use over 12 years! So glad I have a good stash!