Oh, boy, oh boy… am I ever late in posting!

More than a full year has gone by without me updating this blog… at all!

I’m going to blame it all on the pandemic. It’s involved a lot of adjustments for all of us, right? Personally, during 2021 I had to scramble to survive financially, as sales dropped drastically as a result of the second year of the pandemic. This meant I had to prioritize where I spent my time, so obviously work came first. Not a lot of time for personal sewing.

Obviously, there WAS some sewing. Just not as much as other years. And I seem to have been bad indeed about documenting the little I did sew during the year. Basically, I did put together quite a few small projects – things that could be sewn under an hour. And I don’t seem to have taken photos of everything I did manage to make. Oh well. So in this post I will document what I remember and what I actually have photos of.

Way, way back in time, when I first started sewing, I purchased this pattern to make a quiet book for my oldest son. He loved it. So I planned on making it again two years later for son #2… and it never happened. Ten years went by and I figured I would make it for my daughter. Cut out all the book pieces…. and they sat in a box for years and years and years. Two grandchildren were born and grew up into adulthood and I still didn’t finish this project for either one.

Now there is a 5 year-old granddaughter… and she will be the last, so I could no longer procrastinate. I finally put the book together, and it turned out to be as cute as I remember.

I still needed to deal with quite a few itty bitty fabric scraps, so potholders and placemats were also something I worked on throughout the year, most of which were given away as small gifts.

Something else I decided to play around with was my Easy Dresden ruler. I worked on a video tutorial, and had so much fun that continued making a few more projects.

A Christmas wreath, as part of our Christmas in July series:

A fall themed table topper:

And a Christmas table topper

Come around mid-year, a new “boy” came into my life. I grew up with cats and most of my life I have had a cat or two. My sweet Remy lived with me for 15 years and it was devastating having to put him down about 4 years ago when he developed cancer. Since then, I just didn’t want another cat and was quite ok sharing my life with only my two dogs. Here is my sweet Remy:

And then my daughter-in-law walked in with a new fella… and I realized I was doomed. If I hadn’t known any better, I would have thought this was the same cat. But he was still a kitten… Meet Gordie. Which is short for Gordon Ramsey – he’s always underfoot in the kitchen and nags, nags, nags a lot! 🙂 And, as all cats, loves to squeeze into baskets and boxes.

And obviously a favorite napping spot is on top of any current quilting project!

Fortunately, he quickly bonded with the dogs… all three are inseparable.

Back to the sewing projects…

The only large quilt project I worked on in 2021 was a bed quilt made with vintage blocks that were gifted to me about 20 years ago and which had been made by a quilter sometime in the 1930s. I have never seen this particular design before – the closest one I was able to find online was for a design known as English ladies. I think this is an adaptation of that design, and the quilter who sewed these blocks put her own personal twist on them. They are lovely blocks, combining applique dresses and hats with clearly 30s prints, and embellished with embroidery.

Coming close to the end of the year I did make several Christmas gifts… and forgot to take photos! Here is what I did document… and mainly because I also prepared some video tutorials, so had images for these projects:

Lip pouches:

Phone holders:

And a personalized stocking for a new family member:

Just before Christmas I got a serious sewing bug and spent a week working on one of my whimsical designs. It still needs to be quilted, so that is one of my goals for this or next month. This is “Morning Yoga:”

Last, but indeed not least, I did spend quite a bit of time assisting my fashion designer niece with a crochet project that will form part of her first solo show this upcoming April. I have done all the quilting for her on her previous two collections, and am also helping her with that on this current one. Now she is incorporating some crochet in this collection. This is the drawing of the last garment, which will be closing her 24-piece collection:

This girl loves VOLUME (the garment is actually made up of three different skirts!).

She sent me the drawing and pattern pieces for the top:

Which I then had to translate into crochet. It took time (we are both perfectionists) and was pretty challenging, but the resulting piece turned out exactly as she wanted:

As I understand it, she will be adding some applique pieces to the finished top.

And thus ended the year. The priority for the next couple of months is to help this niece with whatever quilting and crocheting are involved in her collection. The new year finds me crocheting a series of long strips that will become the ruffles of the skirt shown above. The next few days and weeks there will be a lot of Netflix and lots of crochet strips! 🙂

And hopefully 2022 will be a better year and I am looking forward to returning to more quilting fun!