2012 - It was a very good year

It is time to recap 2012. I finished 10 quilts (the last two photos there are backs to finish off the mosaic). Four have been happily accepted as gifts. One was a tutorial for the 2012 FAL at Quilter in the Gap. Noise gets to go to QuiltCon in Texas. The rest I use all the time.



I made 9 mini quilts, well Stars is a runner but she might also hang on a wall. Three went to secret partners in swaps. Shattered also gets to go to QuiltCon in Texas. Oh, and Shattered won the mini quilt category in the Tangerine Tango Challenge too.



I made 11 bags and pouches. Four of these went to secret partners in swaps. Five were created to make two tutorials, one for the September Fluffy Sheep Quilting Newsletter and one for Sarah at Fairyface Design's {Sew} Get Started Tutorial Series. Two bags have been gifted to some special young women. The weekender was part of the Long Weekend Blog Hop.



The other small sewn things group holds gifts, swap items, and pay it forward items. Only the name tag and one set of potholders (item 8) still live with me. And I did get 50 polaroid blocks back for the 50 I sent in Debbie's Picture Perfect Polaroid Block Swap but I have yet to photograph them, oops.



I took part in the 4 x 5 Bee, the Aqua and Orange Bee, the Modern Blocks Bee, Bee Blessed, Free Bee, Always Bee Learning, Bee a {modern}Swapper Bee, and the Modern Stitching Bee. Moving into 2013, only four of these continue and two of those are finishing soon. The blocks take two mosaics.



I love being in internet bees, it is a great way to meet new people and try things you would never have thought of. In 2012 I made 67 bee blocks. I still have one 2012 block left to finish. For 2013 I have decided I need a little more free sewing time so I am not signing up for any more bees for a while.



This last mosaic has pictures of beautiful things that were sent to me in my 2012 swaps. They are so lovely I added more than one photograph. Thank you again to each of my wonderful swap partners. Oh, and I will tell you more about that last package there in a few days, I have not had time to blog a proper thank you about it yet.

In 2012 I continued this blog into its second year. I travelled to London, England to attend the Fat Quarterly Retreat and meet many of my internet blogging friends (I have a ticket to go this coming year too!), I participated a Quilt-A-Long or two and the Finish-A-Long, I hosted my first QAL- the Mod Pop QAL - which is not quite done, I participated in the Travelin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop, I did a bit of pattern testing, I joined the Edmonton Modern Quilt Guild, I met many new blogging and real life friends and I had a lot of fun.

Oh and I started a bunch of things that are not finished - I also have chronic startitis. These will be my projects for the 2013 FAL, which I am hosting this year. I hope you will join me for that.

Before you all ask, I have no idea how I got this much done. My house is chronically messy, I never watch TV (but am getting my Christmas gift of a small sewing room TV this week), and I have fallen down in the exercise department. I do intend to improve on those things this year, so I guess I will just have to sleep less this year too.

I think that the real answer to "how do you do it", is that all of my internet and real life quilting friends, people who share with me on this blog, their blogs, on flickr, in bees, swaps, QALs, Guilds, Retreats, Blog Hops, the FAL, and other events continue to inspire me. The inspiration helps with the energy and the time is just found. Thank you all so much.

Added: I am linking this post Fresh Sewing Day which is hosted by Lynne from Lily's Quilts. The blogs who use this link are a constant source of inspiration for me - you can visit the blogs linked there and link up too.

The very best to all of you and yours for this coming New Year. Let's make 2013 an amazing year.

Best,

Leanne