Happy 2025!

Happy New Year's! This year has gone by so fast, and this time of year calls for some reflection and pondering. It's so contrived to review the previous year and look ahead, but it's also pretty important. This past year was one for the books.

I was able to be home from the hospital in time for new year's last year, so I spent the whole year at home. It was a pretty big year of recovery and challenges, but I feel so grateful our little family survived without too much wear and tear. January was largely a bust, and I spent time sitting in my sewing room wishing I felt up to sewing, but I felt foggy and uncoordinated. By February, I was more agile and able to sew again, though I was still a lot slower than I had been. But, I got my first finish in.

I didn't know if I'd be up for it, and I insisted my husband travel with me, but I did make it to Sewtopia in Milwaukee! It was in April, and it was my first flight post-stroke and I was nervous. Honestly, I don't know if I'll ever feel up to traveling without my husband again; he's a great advocate, and I just can't imagine being somewhere and having a medical crisis without him with me. I don't feel any great need to get over that fear, either. I've been through something extremely traumatizing, and I feel okay with that.

I won two ribbons for quilts this year, which was really big because I've never won any ribbons before at all! Both were patterns by Jenny Haynes of Papper Saxsten. One was first place in the fabric challenge for Sewtopia, and the second was director's choice at the Springville Art Museum's annual quilt show. Both were unexpected but very exciting. And I don't anticipate winning anything ever again, so I'll just be happy with these two and enjoy them hanging in my sewing room.

I just counted on my list, and I finished ten quilts in 2024. That doesn't include two tops I finished. I'll pick them up from being quilted in a few days. My husband has just now begun to think that maybe I have a few too many...and I am running out of space on the shelf in my linen closet, so I suppose he has a point. I didn't think I could ever part with any of my quilts, but I've been thinking about it since he mentioned it, and I think I've come up with a few that I could donate without too much sadness. Next step is to find a charity that will accept them. Preferably locally because I don't want to pay for shipping. 

We stayed domestic for our travels this year, I was skittish to be too far from home following my stroke. So we took our family on a roadtrip to the Pacific Northwest in June and to Kentucky to visit my brother for fall break. We also visited Capitol Reef National Park for spring break. I figured we should explore a bit of our own backyard this year; The United States has a beautiful landscape. 

I managed to read 36 books this year, and actually met my good reads goal! I don't generally listen to audiobooks, so I can't keep up with people who get through 100 or more books a year. I just don't read enough for that, and don't listen. Thirty-six is respectable: that's three a month and it gives me enough breaks so that if I don't finish a book each week, I'm not completely ruined. 

My stroke wasn't the only hiccup this year. My husband lost his job on the last day of school (he works in tech, not education, it just happened that day, and it was easy to remember because it was the last day of school). He spent 6 months looking for a new job and began his new job on the anniversary of my stroke, which felt a tad ironic. 

2024 was exciting in so many ways you don't want a year to be exciting. And a part of me hoped that after such a rough year, we'd be in a for an easier one. We were due, right? Of course, things never get tied up nicely in a bow like you hope, and after my strokiversary, I got some labs with mixed results and we had a daughter need some urgent care for an injury. And of course these two things happen during an interim when our COBRA medical coverage had been canceled by the insurance company for alleged non-payment when they had transferred our account without informing us. All just to prove that life will not be any easier, however much we feel we deserve it after a rough year. 

So what am I looking forward to in 2025?

I'll be heading back to Sewtopia this April, this time in San Antonio, and yes, my husband is coming. 

We've already got a trip to Florida planned for our girls, and a trip to Italy with a river cruise added on to celebrate our twentieth wedding anniversary. I can't believe we've been married for almost twenty years, I don't feel old enough for that. Until I remember that I've had a stroke and I am, in fact, getting old. 

As for sewing, I'm strongly considering taking Alderwood Studio's pattern writing course and starting a pattern business. I've been quilting for over 15 years, and I've sewn some quilts from patterns that were not very good...I feel like I could definitely make good patterns. So, watch for news on that front. 

I always have a dynamic list of quilts I want to make, so I hesitate to write it down here because it's always changing. But, I do want to at least start on the Pride and Prejudice quilt pattern from Fancy Lad Quilts. I hope to finish up the EPP stars quilt I've been working on for years so that I can start the Ice Cream Social quilt by Tales of Cloth. I also want to finish my Florence pattern, which I've been slowly working on for a long time. If I actually do begin selling patterns, it's one of the first ones I'll finalize, so that might be a good motivator. A more sure project I want to finish up is to make a quilt that is ready to give to someone who is facing a tragedy. I have a plan for a quilt top I've designed, and figured I'd test the pattern while sewing it up. It's based on the Passages quilt I made a few years ago, but with better measurements since I'm not limited by the contents of a Moda Scrap Bag. 

I'm going to keep my goal set for thirty-six books, and I've got a stack already I'm hoping to get to, including Ruta Septesys newest books, The Bletchly Riddle and I Must Betray You, which I haven't read yet. I'm planning to reread Harry Potter this year before our trip to Florida, and I've gotten a few books as gifts that I'd like to read soon, too. We'll see.

Of course, I have lifestyle goals I'd like to work on; with my lab work, I'm working on eating more fiber, going for walks after every meal, and increasing my protein while also lowering my stress. Nothing like bloodwork that tells you to lower to stress to really stress you out, right? But, I do hope to be a bit healthier in general in 2025. I've given myself grace for the past year when exercising wore me out too much, but I think at some point, I need to push through a bit harder. 

You don't need to read about all the minute details, the quilting stuff is the fun part, right? Do you have quilty goals for 2025?