I started the year off making another vest for my husband, per his request, he wanted a denim vest. I lined it with burgundy ripstop. Later in the month I began work on Topper’s memory quilt, completed in time for his 10th birthday on February 6th. I also finally opened my Etsy store with the Railroad Denim Vest I had made in December 2021.
For Valentine’s Day, I made another denim vest for my husband. I purchased additional Lego sets for me and enjoyed putting together roses, lovebirds, and sunflowers.
In March we spent quite a bit of time organizing our basement. Unfortunately, I did not think to take before and after pictures, but we did make a great deal of progress. It had become a overrun with boxes when we had to empty the contents of our attic storage when our roof was replaced in 2020. We donated and recycled a lot of old electronics, clothes, and boxes.
In April, I added some new items to my Etsy store to complement my Railroad Denim Vest. I recently sold one of these brass trains, my very first Etsy sale, so I was very excited.
In May I made a second “Memory Quilt” for the dogs out of their grooming bandanas. I also updated and reintroduced my blog using WordPress.com. I had previously used a hosting company with WordPress.org which required a lot more maintenance on my part (e.g., updating plug-ins, which are mini programs that add various features). I am very glad I made the switch to WordPress.com and it is worth a slightly higher monthly fee since they provide great service as well as a free domain name!
I made a few more vests in June and worked on some other sewing projects, such as a gardening apron.
July and August were dominated by the online “Intro to Photoshop” class. I used my new skills to design a new logo for my blog and started making custom cards for family and friends. I also enjoyed creating virtual costumes for my dogs for Halloween.
By September I was back to quilting and I made a few quilts as gifts with some beautiful fabric I purchased at my favorite fabric shop in Gettysburg, The Needle & Thread.
In October I purchased a number of Hinzeit samplers to work on and completed a few of them during the fall. I have twenty to complete, most of them seasonal. I plan to combine them in groups of four and hang them over the mantle. I enjoy these small projects and keep one in my purse to work on if I have to wait at a doctor’s appointment, etc.
I finished up the year with several sewing projects. For my husband, I made a lightning fabric jacket. The jacket was considerably more work than the vests and used a lot more fabric, thanks to the sleeves and hood. I will not be making more of those any time soon!
I also completed several Mug Rugs using a pattern purchased on Etsy. With each mug rug, I included a coordinating mug and gift check in the pocket.
Finally, I started working on these Snowman Family Mug Rugs, using a variety of scraps from my previous quilting projects. This pattern was downloaded from ePatterns-Cental.com.
