Thursday, December 31, 2020

Sayonara 2020🐭, Yōkoso 2021🐮

Farewell 2020! Welcome 2021!!! Here's a Grace and Peace Quilting review of 2020, and a preview of what's to come in 2021, the year of the ox/cow in Japan! First, 2020:

I quilted 106 quilts in 2020, 49 of my own, and 57 for others. Of my own 49 quilts, here's the breakdown:

2 Queen size quilts
2 Twin size quilts
7 Throw size quilts
6 Wall quilts
23 Baby quilts
7 Mini quilts
1 Table runner
1 Pillow

Here are two collages of all 49 quilts of my own that I made this year, plus 11 other sewing projects near the end, so I could round out the collage! (They are not in order.)

I have quilted a total of 713 quilts on my APQS longarm quilting machine since it arrived in June, 2012. I'm thrilled that I added computerized robotics to my longarm in February this year! The first month was very confusing and difficult, trying to figure out how it worked. Plus, the country shut down so all classes were cancelled. Then online classes started to pop up and I was able to take 3 on how to work the robotics, and everything started to click again!
Our local quilt guild, Dakota County Star Quilters, held our longest ever quilt show in 2020! It opened on March 10th and we took it down on August 6th--of course, we had several months of shutdown in between, where our quilts remained hanging at the locked-up county historical museum. I was very surprised and thrilled to win "Quilt Show Speaker Award" and "Viewer Choice 1st" both, on my Japanese Jamestown Landing quilt!!! 
Here are my 2020 "Top 9" quilt photos from Instagram. For the second year in a row, five of them are Meadowland quilts!!! Five are my own quilts, and four are quilts I quilted for friends: top/left and center/center are Missy's quilts, center/right is Quilter Bonnie's quilt and bottom/center is Lisa's quilt.
Once again I made an Easel Calendar for 2021, via Shutterfly, featuring some of the quilts I made in 2020. If you get on their mailing list, they offer calendars for free occasionally, plus $8.50 for shipping--"Creative pricing", to quote DH!
And, I made an Easel Calendar, using a different template, for my sister, Quilter Bonnie, featuring some of the quilts she's made, of which I quilted all but one, in 2020:
And speaking of calendars, here's a Quilter's Calendar you can download and print from Threadbare Creations by Rose Johnson, for free! I had five printed at Office Max on thicker paper and gave them to quilting family members and friends! Here's mine, hanging in my studio with a needlepoint I did back in '77. (Yes, my Mom gave it back to me when downsizing.)
One of the smallest, yet meaningful things I quilted this year was this pillow I made for my nephew for Christmas. It's made from a t-shirt that their family had given my Dad. It's been nearly 2 years since Dad passed away now, and I wanted to save the memory and laughs we had from that t-shirt. It was so like Dad, who fed the birds for all his life, could name all the different types of birds, was thrilled whenever a bluebird nested in one of his birdhouses and was always trying to figure out how to keep the squirrels out of his bird feeders!?! The quilting is Fern Gully, and the pillow form is a MyPillow travel pillow!
While sewing this year, I listened to 122 books, via RBdigital, Libby and Hoopla apps, all available free from our local library. Plus, books that my DH read aloud to me during sewing evenings! He can read aloud for hours!!! I keep track of my books on Goodreads, a free website:
My quilt small group did "Resolution Quilts" once more during 2020. We write down up to 13 quilts we'd like to finish during the year, and they get checked off monthly during our show and tell, as we finish them. For each quilt we list, we contributed a fat quarter. This year we did both solids and text prints. We'll do the drawing for winning lots at our January meeting. Here's my list of 13 for 2020 and my finished quilts:
Quilts 1 through 10, (3 and 4 are pictured together): ⤵️
And Quilts 11 through 13, with 13, Aslan the Lion, being my favorite finish of the year! ⤵️
For 2020, we're going more low-key: we'll be swapping different colors of 2 1/2" strips in batiks every month. 
The "Resolution Quilts" list has worked so well for me--for two years in a row I finished 13 quilts I've been wanting to make! So I'm making my own resolution list for 2021:
2020 has been a very confusing and murky year for all of us. We did have a huge bright spot though, with the arrival of our granddaughter, Laurel!!! Here she is wearing a llama sleeper on the llama quilt I made for her!!!
2021 is the Year of the Ox/Cow in Japan, where everyone sends New Years postcards. Here's one I love for all it's Japanese goodness: cherry blossoms, fans, cows, goldfish, top, gourd, battledore and shuttlecock, New Year's mochi, Mount Fuji at sunrise, coins and a lucky mallet, Mount Fuji in the clouds, bamboo, plum blossoms, evergreens, and a Daruma doll:
Happy New Year! Grace and peace!!! ~Nancy

18 comments:

  1. What a fun post today. It was like I was attending a quilt show in my kitchen! Such beauty you make and amazing productivity. Laurel is definitely the best part of 2020. I can't wait to meet her!
    Quilter Bonnie

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  2. What a year you have had, my friend, both in quilting and in your personal life! What fun to see all of your quilts, but that beautiful granddaughter is the best!

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  3. You have really had a productive and positive year despite all the challenges! All is such beautiful work but the Jamestown Landing really stands out to me. I've been wanting to make that quilt. If I can ever get through this border I'm stuck on maybe I can make one too :-) Thank you for sharing all the beauty and inspiration! May God bless your New Year!

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  4. Wow, you accomplished an incredible amount of projects this year! Beautiful quilts! Happy New Year!

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  5. What an amazing Quilt show!! I love them all - and am SO SO impressed at how organized you are!!! Look at all those numbers! Happy New Year to you!!!

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  6. Fabulous post! I too am impressed with the collage collections! I always say I’m going to do calendars...and I fail! Maybe 2021 for 2022! Now that’s planning ahead! 😊

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  7. Such fabulous quilts, you have been so productive in 2020. I love your version of Arrow Point Path! Your new granddaughter is adorable too! Thanks for linking up and happy new year.

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  8. What a wonderful list of achievements for 2020.

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  9. You've had a very productive year! I love the pillow you made from your dad's shirt for your nephew, what a great way to keep memories alive, and what a great shirt! Thanks for the link to the printable calendar! I printed one yesterday, I had been looking for a calendar to hang in my sewing room and this one is perfect. Happy New Year!

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  10. All I can say is Wow, wow and wow! wtg

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  11. Oh my GOSH! I cannot even fathom churning out that many quilts in a single year, let alone that many BEAUTIFUL quilts! I adore your Japanese Jamestown Landing quilt; how did I miss seeing that one before? And I'm right there with you about the computer robotics -- best decision for me, for sure. For the last few years, I'd felt like I had to keep slogging away, trying to get good enough at free motion quilting to justify the long arm purchase. After adding the IntelliQuilter, it feels like a role reversal -- now my long arm machine is working hard to justify its value to ME instead of the other way around! Happy New Year, Nancy. I hope the Ox or the Cow or whatever it is brings us a brighter, healthier, and safer 2021!

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  12. So much fabulousness in this New Years post. I am so pleased to see all that you did in one spot and am signing up for shutterfly right now! I love the idea of printing some of my quilts as cards (you know who I got that from) and this year I will do it. Here's the health, happiness and quilts in 2021!!

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  13. What a great way to see just how productive your year was! Sometimes it seems like we're just spinning our wheels, but you've got proof here in vivid living color! I chuckled at your Lion quilt. All the others were done early in the year, and the Lion snuck in just under the wire in December. Congrats on completing your goals! This year I have written down my goals, both quilty and healthy. I think this will help me get a grip on reality and focus on what I can control rather than things I have no control over whatsoever. It's a good thing!
    Happy New Year!

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  14. Excellent results in 2020 and best of luck o 2021's goal list, Nancy! Thanks for sharing a photo of dear, sweet Laurel, too. :o))

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  15. Wow, wow, wow!! A very productive year, and sooooo many gorgeous quilts! I love the photo of you with your machine ;)
    Thanks for sharing all these beauties!

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  16. What a treat it was to read this post with so many gorgeous quilts! Congratulations on such a productive year :)

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  17. Wow Nancy! I do not know how I missed this post, but it is wonderful and SO inspiring!!! Thank you for sharing all of this with us. You are certainly one of the most organized and productive people I know! Laurel is so beautiful, and it must thrill you so to see her snuggled on your quilts! All the best to you and yours in 2021!

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  18. Wow what a productive year on all fronts! Thanks for linking up the squirrel t-shirt pillow; I got a good chuckle out of it! Congrats on being a grandparent. :-)

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