The End of 2009

Where has this year flown?  I feel like it was January just yesterday, not tomorrow!!

Ah, well...  Such is life.  Maybe I'll find more snippets of time in 2010 to quilt.  For now, let me reflect a bit on the 2009...

Quilt Finishes:
Not My Favorite Quilt
Amanda Jean's Nine-Patch Quilt-Along (Apparently, I didn't blog about the completion of this thing.  Naughty me!)
Phoenix Unbound I
Summertime Star
Flying Geese I (Again, I didn't blog the finish.  What was I thinking??)

Works in Progress:
Grandmother's Fan (at the flimsie stage, just needing a backing and to be quilted)
String Quilt
Phoenix Unbound II
Flying Geese II (also a flimsie and needing backing/quilt)

New Toys for the Year:
Janome 1600
Little Gracie II Quilting Frame
Brother PC-210, Runway Edition

As you can see, it's been quite the year for me!  I learned so much about quilting - the actual process of stitching the three layers together - by machine, anyway.  Not only have I experimented with the big quilting frame, but I've gone and practiced on my smaller machine, which I was terrified of.  You'd think it would have been the other way around, but I was pretty comfortable learning to drive the Janome on the Little Gracie II.  I've learned to make double-fold bias binding easily, and fairly quickly.  I've even gotten better at attaching it by machine.  I've learned to accept my personal need to purchase fabric online, due to my budgetary limitations.  My finishes actually outnumber the WIPs, even though two of them are mini-quilts.  They're finished, by God.

Keeping this blog has helped immeasurably in keeping myself motivated to keep going.  I'm really enjoying being able to go back and look at my progress.  Seeing all of those steps recorded...  It reminds me that the next step isn't so bad, lol!

For the year ahead, I would like to:

• finish the WIPs listed above.
• create matching pillow shams for Grandmother's Fan.
• make a table runner with matching place mats for my heirloom table - soon to be arriving.
• complete the takeover of my son's old room, and make it a proper sewing room
• buy a cheap table and cover it, to make a larger ironing space.
• complete three lap-sized quilts, made from vintage scraps, for my friend Suzanne and her two siblings.
• complete a wall-hanging for my mother-in-law.
• complete a wall-hanging for myself.
• become more comfortable with machine quilting.

It's quite the list!  It'll be interesting to see how I finish out 2010, but that's a post for - literally - another year.

To conclude, though, I would like to put out a big "Thank You!" to everyone in the online quilting community that has allowed me to follow their own trials and tribulations, for their inspiration and encouragement, for the give-aways and continued enthusiasm.  I can honestly say, if it weren't for this online community, I wouldn't have gotten nearly as much done, nor still have the love I do for quilting.  So, THANK YOU, and I hope that 2009 treated you well, and that 2010 is as alight with as much promise and hope as it is for me.