2016 Year in Review

About a year ago I shared my 2015 year in review. It's time to do that again. First, let's go over the goals from 2016 and see how I did.

Goals for 2016:

• quilt 4 charity quilts a month - I smashed this by quilting 52 charity quilts during 2016!
• finish at least 6 unfinished objects during the year (I think I'll capture this in another post) - I think I managed to meet this objective, too. I need to find a way to capture this information that isn't in this linear format. It's just too difficult to go back and see the high points. 
• continue to work through my fabric collection with more projects aimed at Sew My Stash 2016 - I know I used the tag for Sew My Stash more than a few times, and several quilts came almost entirely from my collection (I've resolved not to call it a stash, it is a collection!)
• start the new year on a fabric diet and try to stick to it - this one was a solid failure. I should keep track of how long I make it before the first spree.
• spend some time working with InkScape and 5D Embroidery to create digitized embroidery designs - this one didn't even really get a nod. Sad, really, since I've had some really great ideas for designs and just don't have the skills to get them from my brain and stitched onto fabric.
• continue to blog at least three times a week. - I think I met the three-times a week goal for blogging. I really like the pace and will try to keep up with it throughout the year. 
• add to this list when I find something that needs to be added, new goals are important - I'm sure I added more projects even if I didn't write them down. I'm a list-maker, so it seems odd that I wouldn't have a good list of goals for the year. 
• work with curved piecing - I completed my first Metro Rings quilt, which has curved piecing and the top was made entirely from holiday prints from my collection. That makes this one a double-win!

First, the empty spool/bobbin count. It doesn't look like much, does it? It takes so long to empty a cone of 2000 to 6000 yards one can hold. 

• 4 cones
• 1 spool 
• 9 L-style pre-wound bobbins
• 3 M-style pre-wound bobbins 
• Total: 17 spools/cones. Most important to me is that one of those cones was used entirely during 2016 for piecing or assembly of projects.  

On January first I changed my rotary blade, cleaned out my sewing machine and changed the needle. Start the year off right!

This was my last shopping trip in December. I popped over to Spring Water Designs to pick up backing for Reindeer Games and couldn't resist adding some other yummy bits to my bag. This is the last splurge before the fabric diet.

• Total blog posts for 2015: 133
• Total blog posts for 2016: 173, I'm sure the 31-Day Blogging Challenge was a big part of that. 

Goals for 2017: Some of these will be familiar. 

• quilt 4 charity quilts a month
• finish at least 6 unfinished objects during the year - expect a post, or a few, covering the list of 12 that I sent in to Spring Water Designs for their challenge. 
• continue to work through my fabric collection with more projects aimed at Sew My Stash 2017
• start the new year on a fabric diet and try to stick to it
• spend some time working with InkScape and 5D Embroidery to create digitized embroidery designs
• write, test, publish at least one pattern
• host a sewing day in my studio
• add to this list when I find something that needs to be added, new goals are important
• get paid to quilt for others - no more free quilting!

I'm looking forward to 2017!