I’ve been looking back at 2020, in the hopes that looking back will help me move forward in a direction that brings my family calm and happiness. Looking back at how we spent our time was fairly easy since 2020 didn’t allow for many big events. Still, Richard and I know how to enjoy ourselves even when there’s little to do or see or have. We are very aware of how blessed we are. Our children and grandchildren and great-grands bring us such joy and love. We appreciate our home and our community. And we are enjoying retirement: he has his woodworking; I have my sewing and quilting.
I accomplished much more this year than I had hoped. I suppose being home has something to do with it. (I don’t sew as much when we’re off traipsing around state and national parks.) Here are photos of some of the pieces and quilts I brought to some form of conclusion. This does not mean bound and labelled, as you’ll see. Like so many other sewists I made facemasks. When I’ve heard of people who have made hundreds of masks, I am awed. I finished about 100 and that was becoming a struggle.
Magnolia I (top) and Magnolia II (bottom).
Sewing Camp was a great success, despite having only three students. I was at first disappointed but soon realized that including a younger girl meant having to give her extra support. In the end, it was lots of fun and I hope to have another one.
I also attended the first of two retreats. Members of the Baton Rouge Modern Quilt Guild set up the retreats and they know what they are doing. Yvonne is a pro! She recruits people, collects money, and organizes meals. At the July retreat I worked on a Sugaridoo strip and sewed two tops. I have yet to quilt those tops but they are in the que, waiting their turn.
Sometime near the end of July Richard and I contracted CoVid and it took us much longer to recover than we’d hoped. As a result I didn’t complete any quilts in July and few in August. Two hurricanes hit Louisiana pretty hard. Though we had only a little damage, the worst for us was probably going without electricity. Louisiana is a miserable place to be in July and August when temps are in the high 90s and the humidity is just as high. Some days we had heat indices of 115. The poor guys who work on power lines. They can’t possibly know how much we appreciate them.
By September I was back on my game and completed two quilts that had been waiting for a while. All About the Boxes and The Retreat were easy, fast finishes. Perfect! About this time, with Richard’s help I opened a booth at Griffin’s Antiques and Main Street Market. In November I launched this website to have a place to sell my book and some of these quilts. Then in December I attended my second retreat which I haven’t even written about yet and we’re in a whole new year. I wonder what happened.
In the middle of all that, somewhere, I managed to fiinish writing my novel, This World So Fierce (here’s an excerpt), and self-published it through BookBaby. Since then I’ve mostly been trying to sell copies. Speaking of, have you gotten your copy? If not, you are in the right spot! Click on the title in the top bar or here. You’ll be purchasing directly from me, so you’ll receive a signed copy, if that matters at all. If not or if you’d prefer a digital copy, go to Amazon or Books a Million or your favorite book retailer. Thank you!
Whew! I was busy all year, wasn’t I? What about you? Did you keep busy with quilting or another craft? Leave a note linking your year-in-review and I’ll come by for a visit. Thanks for getting through this long post!
