The Year that Was

The year started with a bang with me designing 3 quilts and finishing 4 in the first 2 months.  I sent of the first of 2 quilts to Handmade magazine and another just a couple of months later.  The first was published in July of this year and the 2nd is not due to be published for another 3 months.  I don't think I will be pushing to have a quilt published again.

Maestro entered Year 9 and Mo started her final year of primary school.

I taught 2 terms of Beginners classes at Patchwork by Sea and totally enjoyed the interaction with new quilters.

In June I travelled to Brisbane for work to learn how they ran a paperless office and decide how we would implement it in Adelaide.

In July I started my Flowers for Alison free bom and many people have joined in and downloaded my patterns.  I don't know how many have actually started but I can see the finish line and the pieces are looking magnificent on the design wall in my sewing room (fire trap as my husband refers to it).

I did two wonderful classes this year in July and August with Jen Kingwell (one of Jen's Quilt is below) and Wendy Williams at a time when I really had to drag myself out of bed each day.

In September I was diagnosed with depression and have been on some medication that has helped me pick up the pieces.  

The sewing Mojo has been really unsteady over the last 6 months and Flowers for Alison has been a real load stone but we are getting there and I am now in the border planning stage in my head.   though I have 1 and half more blocks to hand appliqué.

We had a wonderful family holiday in Cairns, and I'd love to return maybe just with DH. It was the best family holiday we have ever had, wether it was the meds that made me mellow or just the fact that it was only short and nobody had time to get tired and irritable except Maestro, I don't know but it worked. We saw the reef, the rainforest, birds and crocodiles and relaxed.

Before we left I was contacted by the webmaster of Quilting Focus a New Zealand based web site to see if I would like to be a guest contributor.  This has turned into a weekly gig with an article by yours truly being posted once a week.

Maestro and Mo both received great end of year reports, and Mo is readying for the big change of Highschool next year.

Maestro received the top grade in his class for his year long research project and I was able to see his final presentation to the panel in the last week of school and it was amazing.  I don't know where he gets it from as both his father and I are not public speakers.  His topic was Comedy in Film and he did a fantastic job all year to get the work done, in between playing copious amounts of computer games grrrr.

Mo's Silent Film was award peoples choice at the International Silent Film viewing in Adelaide in October and we attended her primary school graduation in December.  She also had braces put on her teeth the week before Xmas and she has adjusted to them better than Maestro did when he first had them on.    We haven't once had to tell her to go and brush her teeth or put in the mouth guard that she needs to wear at night.  We also found out that she is going to stay tiny,  as one of the things they tell you is your height when you have braces and she is only going to reach 156cm which she is a little disappointed about as she was hoping to be taller than me but that isn't to be.

In December DH and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary.  We have never taken the time to do this but we made an effort this year and took some us time and I think it was good for us to have a bit of time for ourselves.

My yearly trip to Melbourne for work Xmas has come and gone, and Xmas day is just a blur now, I've not done much on my first week of holidays and been sleeping in and reading and generally relaxing.

My MIL is slowly slipping with dementia and my BIL is struggling to cope as he needs to be with her most days to ensure that she takes her tablets when she needs to.  We are going to have to make some decisions for them soon and I feel 2016 may be a hard year for them.

I have nothing quilting wise planned for 2016 other than finish Flowers for Alison. No classes scheduled and no project deadlines I think I will just go with the flow and see what happens.

This months blocks are finished and I have enough to put the first 2/3rd of the quilt together however I might not put the tiny appliqué block that I have just completed in the quilt and do another filler block to fill the place that is left, and give you the choice of what to do.

Well that is the year that was.  I'll see you next year with the pattern for the next blocks.