Now towards the end of this year this is my way of looking back: with the star for December I finished the last block for my 2014-quilt. Each of these squares mirrors to me a somehow remarkable incident in a particular month, often it wasn't anything major, but just something I've read, or a trip, or a conversation with someone that impressed me in a certain way.
My original plan had been to work with plain red and bright natural colors only, because there is such a rich tradition behind such kind of work that I wanted to carry on. On the other hand I wanted to leave traditions behind and do my own designs, using patchwork-technique only. But during the whole process of working on these blocks it seemed appropriate to leave some such "laws" behind and to play a bit more: it's still all individually designed, but there is one block for November with Redwork-embroidery only, the August-block shows appliquéd balls to juggle and in September I wanted to use fabric with a pattern in it and more such little examples where I bent my rules… which is a good thing to do, I think, to bend rules when something better comes up. Something I really wish to learn to do more light-heartedly.
Now the next steps are to add borders, to baste the top with the batting and the backing, to quilt it all, to add a label, to attach sleeves… and to find a nice place for hanging! It will all take time again, I'm working on other things as well, but I'm very pleased to have such a quilt-diary of a year that was important to me.
