Best of 2022

 

Today begins one of my favorite linky parties of the year. My thanks go to Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs for hosting this party for the past eight years. Thanks, Cheryl!

It's been a good year, all-in-all. We had a plumbing catastrophe discovered at the beginning of April, and that threw a monkey wrench into most everything that came after. The repairs are nearly finished now, with just a few cosmetic items to finish up. Nevertheless, it was a year of frustration with delay after delay after delay and an unprecedented level of unreliability and deception. We're glad to have the whole thing nearly finished, but we won't rest easy until the last worker has finished and left the building. Honestly, the whole experience has made me a little paranoid of any future plumbing leaks.

But let's get to the good stuff, shall we? On a positive note, we had a wonderful 2-month journey that took us from Oregon to West Virginia and lots of places in between. In choosing these posts to re-share, I went through the list of comments on my dashboard and selected the ones that generated the most "conversation."

1. The Reveal: Getting to Know You: Early in the year it was time for the reveal of my art quilt for the prompt "feelings/emotions." Possibly the most emotional event of my life was the day my son was born. I rendered into fabric a photograph taken in the first moments of the life of my younger son, Matthew. Here is the quilt revealed in that post. It was my first attempt at a human face:

 2. We'll Be Coming Round the Mountain When We Come: In a travel-related post, we were returning home from a winter trip to the south. I shared pictures of the beautiful scenery we encountered along our way. 

3. Threading My Way: The art quilt reveals turned out to be among the most popular posts of the year. In another process post, I talked about a "new technique," which was the prompt for this quilt. I settled on thread painting, which was something I'd wanted to try for a long time. A friend graciously gave me permission to use a watercolor painting she'd done while on a mission in Peru, and I rendered her painting into fabric and thread. Here's a picture of the finished quilt, "Peruvian Sunflowers":

4. "Animal Kingdom" Reveal: Fox Trot. In yet another art quilt reveal, a different friend (I have talented friends) graciously gave me permission to use her original photograph. I was happy for the prompt because I'd wanted to make this quilt for a long time. I call this quilt "Fox Trot." Here is a picture of the finished quilt.

5. Delight and Disappointment: Finally, I visited the Swan Island Dahlia Festival with my daughter-in-law, Mae, in August. There, we saw the most beautiful dahlias. After doing some work squirrel-proofing our greenhouse, some space was created for planting dahlias in pots. Currently, I have four bulbs on order. They'll arrive sometime in the spring. I took dozens...maybe hundreds...of pictures of flowers at the dahlia festival. You can see some of my favorites at this post.  And to whet your appetite for flowers, here's just one of the pictures you'll see there.

And this gives me an opportunity to thank all my readers and followers for supporting another year of my incessant prattle. I'm hoping we can all meet up here again next year to talk about all the good things to come. Please stay healthy and let's make the coming year the best year ever.