Time for a 2020recap – I’m sure most of us are thankful to be saying goodbye to this year and hopefully moving on from the pandemic.
Focus on the Good Things
What were the bright spots of your year?
Two of my highlights were being published and meeting a new group of quilting friends.
It was rather comical (in hindsight of course) that my longarm broke down in the middle of quilting my first magazine submission project! Luckily, I have a friend nearby whose machine was available and I met the deadline. The full story is here. 
In October, I went on a retreat. It had been about ten years since my last one, and I had a wonderful weekend getting to know this fabulous bunch of ladies. Looking forward to future events 🙂
2020 Recap
I keep a notebook near my longarm, and I am currently working on project number 35 for the year! That is actually down a bit from last year when I quilted over 40 items. I do manage to work on a few personal projects in between customer quilts. I am blessed to collaborate with Jo. She brought me several different projects this year and they got my creative juices flowing. I described the custom designs in this video.
Speaking of video, I committed to uploading weekly videos on my YouTube channel. I met that goal, and occasionally had the inspiration for a daily series, like my 30 Days of Classic Blocks and FMQ. 
Just for fun
I love the yearly review tools available online! Year of Colour analyzes your Instagram feed for your most-used colors. Always interesting to see that mix. This year I did stay aligned with my True Blue name.
Top Nine shows you the most-liked posts from Instagram. Any time you participate in a group event such as a giveaway or a swap, you will get lots of likes, so that explains the top three. My mom won several ribbons at the Arizona Quilt Guild show, and my helper Harley has to get in on the act as well.
Since I try not to worry about “vanity metrics” such as Instagram likes, I made my own Top Nine for a 2020 recap with the projects that I feel are my best work from this year.
- Directions block of the month 2. Christmas Hippopotamus (I know you want to sing along!) 3. Ablaze pattern for #QuiltBlockMania 4. New Calypso, an AnglePlay design 5. Published! 6. Mash-up video 7. Teaching both online and in person 8. Longarm fun 9. YouTube growth
I’d love to hear about your favorite projects from 2020. If we get more of what we focus on, then we really should spend more time celebrating our happy moments.
All the best wishes to you for a healthy and happy New Year!
