Best of 2016!

Hi, all!

Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs is hosting the Best of 2016, encouraging us to list five favorites:  blog posts, finishes, tutorials, whatever you want to highlight from your year.  Sounds like fun!  So here are my five favorites:

My Big Project!

This year I made and donated sixteen quilts to my doctor's office in celebration of my five-year checkup.  They are being used in the infusion center - one for each chair in the center!  You can read more about them, and see the quilts in detail, on this blogpost.

My First Time Hosting a Quilt-Along and Blog Hop!

This year I threw caution to the winds and hosted a 12-day blog hop! Twenty-five bloggers shared great ideas for Christmas sewing in July to give us time to actually make things before the Christmas rush.  And I also shared daily tutorials for a quilt-along to create this quilt...

...in about an hour of sewing a day for twelve days!  It appeared to be a big success, and it looks like we'll be doing it again this year.

My Money-Making Gig!

This was definitely the year of the t-shirt quilt!  I made at least eleven of them, and while they're still not my favorite type of quilting, they do go a long way towards helping support my quilting lifestyle.  And it's kind of fun to figure out how to incorporate everything the customer wants in their quilt.  I also learned how to use a spreadsheet program to design them, which was definitely a bonus!

Hands2Help Reaches New Heights!

2016 saw the highest number of participants (106) and the largest number of quilts (198) donated to charity since H2H was started six years ago.  That is SO AWESOME!!!  We'll be doing it again this year - come join in the fun!!  

Artisan Fabric Release!

One of the highlights of my year was being asked to help with the release of Kaffe Fassett's new line of fabric, Artisan!!  It was such an honor to be asked, and I hope I did them proud - I had a blast creating lots of fun pieces with these beautiful fabrics!  In fact, there were so many pieces I spread them out over three blog posts. You can see all of the pieces here, here, and here.

*&*&*&*&*&*&*

Wow, what a year!  2016 was amazing in so many ways, and I'm super-excited to see what 2017 has in store!  Starting in January, there will be a series of posts similar to the Sweet Sixteen and Nifty Nines series called Stunning Stars, featuring simple quilts with star motifs.  These posts will lead into Hands2Help 2017, which will run from March until early June.  Then in July, there will be another installment of the Twelve Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop.  And that's just the things I know about!  Who knows what else will come up?  I hope you'll stick around and be part of the fun!!

Hugs!

Sarah