Yes, it's already a couple weeks in. But I went under for a while there. I had kids at home for the holidays through the first week of January. After they left, I did have one good week during which I finished a top (see below), but then I just needed to take a little more time to hide out and decompress.
As I was coming back to the world, my daughter showed me her 2025 Bingo card. Have you ever seen one of those? She put a bunch of of fun things she wants to accomplish or do on a Bingo card. She'll be checking things off over the course of the year. I think it's a great way to keep it focused on 'play' not 'accomplish', something I need to learn to do :)
Of course, when I started making my Quilt Bingo card, my first step was to list out all the projects I wanted to complete in 2025. I have 20 tops (some are more Ebay tops, or my late mother's tops) that need to be longarmed and bound. Plus I have a bunch of quilts I want to design and make (most notably a baby quilt for my first grandchild!!!!)...
...obviously I had way more things I felt I needed to do than spaces on my Bingo card.
And it was starting to feel overwhelming and NOT FUN.
So I took a step back and came up with a different list. A list of fun things to try. Small projects. Designed to light a fire, not check off a list.
I created a Quilt Bingo card for me and one that would be perfect for a beginning quilter. You can download one of them, and/or a blank sheet to fill in your own creative ideas.
I'd love to see your Quilt Bingo card! Send me an email or share it on social and tag me!
Stars and Stripes from Leftovers
I have to come up with a better name for this quilt. It's made from the leftover pieces from another quilt I just finished piecing from my UFO pile. The colors in it were patriotic and I thought I could make a flag type of quilt. What I ended up with is more like stars over stripes. It will definitely be a fun one to do some custom quilting in all those blank spaces.
It's not the flattest top I've ever made, but I learned a lot and took my time to enjoy just getting to sew.
One thing I'm doing in 2025 is keeping a log of my quilting time. Not so much as a 'work' log but more to provide some perspective on how much time it actually takes to make a quilt. Piecing this top (not including all the design work) took a full 12 hours over 4 days.
In 2025, I will be doing my very best to do more quilting and doing my best to make it the peaceful fun experience it should be. So be on the lookout for updates on my projects and tips you can use in your projects :)
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