2016 in Review

I always do an annual reckoning, to see what quilting accomplishments I had in the previous year. 2016 was a very hard year around here. There was a lot of stress, a lot of drama, a lot of tears. If someone asked me how much I had gotten done in 2016 on the quilting front, I would have said not much. I just did some checking, and I've actually done more than I thought.

Here are my empty spools from 2016. It sure doesn't look like much, but it represents 8,000 yards of thread, or 4.5 miles. 

I started 2016 with 8 quilts on my deadline list, and I've finished 7 of those. The last is pin-basted and waiting for quilting. 

The total number of quilts I made in 2016 is 13, 5 of which were baby quilts.Three of the quilts I made were weighted blankets, and one was my first rag quilt. The rag quilt alone used 24 yards of fabric, as it's a full sized quilt, with four layers of flannel. Since so many quilts I made were baby quilts, I doubt I broke my usual goal 100 yards of fabric. One of the quilts was a king sized quilt, and a couple were twin/full, so maybe 75 yards total for the year?

Overall, it wasn't a great quilting year for me, but I did do more than I thought, which I found encouraging. I haven't sewed much of anything in the last couple months, but now that I've rearranged the house for the third time in one year, perhaps that will change. (This is literally the third bedroom I've been in in a period of 9 months, and we haven't changed houses!)

So, how is 2017 looking? Honestly, I have no idea! We've got 10 people living here, and I'm busy just keeping up with the housework. I'm expecting the living situation to change a couple times this year, but no timeline on the changes, so I really have no idea how things will go. I can't predict how much time I'll have available to sew, but I'm hopeful I can make sewing work in this new bedroom.

Quilting goals
1) Finish Miss A's big girl bed quilt that didn't get done last year. It's pin-basted and ready to quilt.
2) Make DS the Elder's wedding quilt, which is cut out. They got married July 2016 with little notice.
3) Make a wedding quilt that I've designed for a good friend of ours that was supposed to get married summer 2017, but eloped instead.
4 & 5) One of my niece's recently announced her engagement, but I saw on facebook today her sister just eloped, so two more wedding quilts to make. I'm thinking I could finish a couple UFO's for them. I started several very scrappy wedding quilts a couple years ago, knowing that all my nieces and nephews are hitting marriageable ages soon. That foresight may help me out, especially with these girls that I don't know well.
6) DH wants one of my quilts on our bed, but the old one was shredding. I have a UFO that's ready to assemble that could work for a while, until I design a quilt for this room specifically. 

I wouldn't be surprised if I end up needing another wedding or a baby quilt or two, but right now, that's my must do list. I have far too many UFO's right now, so my goal is to quilt one UFO for every deadline quilt. If I can stick with that, I'll have at least 12 finishes in 2017. Considering some of my deadline quilts are current UFO's, It should make a nice dent in my UFO's. I'd love to get far more quilts done this year, but since five of my deadline quilts are queen/kings, we'll see. Life is stressful enough, I'm trying to be easier on myself, and just do what I can. Someday life will quiet down, and I'll have more quilting time. For now, I'll just try to enjoy what quilting time I get.

Happy New Year!