What Experience has shown me this year…

I did not have a Flock of Flamingos on my bingo card for 2023…but here we are, mid-January…

So as I sit here this last week in December, I amlooking back at 2023 with gratitude for all it has taught me. My word of the year this year was Experience, and it has served me well. Experience can be either a noun or a verb, and because of the duality - it has been a great companion this year.

2023 brought me to new locations - (in some cases, literally!) and brought my through some of the limiting beliefs that have been companions through the years. It also introduced me to some of life’s moments that I believe will be more familiar to me as I walk on. I am happy to say I am ending 2023 on a relatively peaceful note, and eagerly anticipating what comes next month.

But most of the story of 2023 can be summed up in a few words - Flamingos, #FabricFridays, Fences, and Frontiers.

Now doesn’t that just want to make you read more?

January found us observing a flock of flamingos on an excursion in Curacao. A definite experience we had missed.

In January, Mike and I returned to cruising and went south for a week on board the Explorer of the Seas. This ship was a smaller ship than we’d previously sailed on, , because for almost 3 years I’d been complaining about places being too ‘peoply’. We had an absolutely wonderful time, beautiful weather, and some great adventures. As it turns out, that was the most traveling we did all year, so I’m glad we got it in while we did.

During 2023, I began posting a series of photos from my stash on Fridays with the theme (and the hashtag #fabricfriday) of some of the fabrics I have collected along the way. It’s amazing how many of the fabrics I can remember exactly when/where I purchased it, while others appear in the stacks with no memory to attach to it.

I’ve been talking for years about working for the fabrics you already own before heading out to the store, and this was my attempt to appreciate the classics. All the fabrics are 100% cotton, and most just make me smile to the touch.

This year’s fence photo of Lilacs and Seaglass, on its’ way to the post office to be mailed to Florida.

If you’ve been around this blog for a while - thank you if you have! - you will recognize the fence, if not the photo. I call this Flinging the Flimsy over my neighbor’s fence, and it tells my longarm quilter that the quilt is on its’ way to her to make it look magic. This is Lilacs and Seaglass (before Cheryl Szynkowski adds her magic touch to it). Below is that the finished quilt looks like after it’s return, before it’s sent to Houston to the MD Anderson Ovarian Cancer Auction.

I’m very proud of the design of this one, and grateful that it helped to raise a record breaking amount of money for MD Anderson’s Ovarian cancer quilt auction. Cheryl makes it magic every time.

2023 also brought new frontiers to my quilt teaching schedule, and found me teaching classes for guilds and for shops. My classes were a mixture of my own designs, and some patterns from Sew Kind of Wonderful, and I love the interaction with my wonderful students, who continue to surprise me with photos of their completed quilts. As a teacher, nothing makes me happier than seeing finished projects.

There’s a LOT more teaching in the cards for me in 2024 - and I am looking forward to it.

I actually finished a region in the All New England Shop Hop!

Another new Frontier was crossed when I jumped into the All New England Shop Hop as a participant. Here’s a fun fact about me - until this summer, I had never participated in a shop hop. I’ve worked at them, done demos for shops during them - but they are so much fun. I discovered new shops (shockingly close to me!), rediscovered familiar ones…and supported local businesses along the way. I found unexpected treasures when exploring the shops in person (and not just relying on thumbnails on the internet). A case in point is something below that followed me home from the quilt shop…see below!

Black and copper ? Yes, please may I have some more!

What else - oh, yes. The Great Sewing Room Declutter (25 years in the making) that came through my room like a tsunami. Quilters shop much faster than they sew, and I had things stuffed everywhere. There’ a reason why you never saw the inside of my closet! My sewing space today is leaner and cleaner - and I have room to grow. Much more on that in 2024!

And well, meet Chanel, the newest addition to the sewing room.

So, after the tsunami of cleaning and decluttering went through, I actually jumped in and decided it was time for an upgrade. My 8900 (which I loved) has actually gone to its’ new home in Vermont with someone who adores all the features it has, and I brought home this one. I’ve never been one to name my sewing machines, but this one is Chanel - because she’s the fifth Janome machine I have owned. Possibly the last, but I wouldn’t want to be hasty now, would i?

This one is a 9450, and it has features and benefits I’m still discovering months later. I had been looking at this model for months, before deciding life is short.

And just when I thought I’d experiences that 2023 could deliver - this past week has delivered an end of year doozy that I would never have thought of. That’s one of the reasons this week’s blog is a bit late in being posted. On balance, it’s a VERY good thing for me, and I’m more excited about 2024 than ever.

I would say it’s been a quiet year on balance, and I’m grateful for all the experiences I have had. I hope this finds you, dear reader, happy and healthy and looking forward to the possibilities of a new year, and a blank page.

In next week’s blog post, I’ll tell you all about my 2024 Word of the Year, and why I chose it. Like this year, it’s a word that can have many applications to it.

Enjoy the day!