2018 Best Nine

Now that 2018 is safely behind us ...

It is fun to look at the year in review through the Instagram 2018 Best Nine tool. 

I especially love ...

• That the studio is at the center of the Best Nine image—as that's where everything else was created,
• That my 2nd most liked image was of a scrap quilt I pulled together over 5 years ago and only posted in 2018 as Day 5 of the #IGQuiltFest as my favorite scrappy quilt,
• That my 8th top image was of the T@b awnings.  That's the business that has been funding my quilting this year (oh ... and paying my health insurance premiums ;-),
• That my 9th top image was of a quilt that I really struggled with—in fact I ended up remaking it (it was a commission) and giving this version to a friend that had just had her first grand-daughter.  It was a straight-line quilting failure as I apparently stretched the quilt as I put an angle into the quilting, resulting in completely stretched out borders. 

I love that we can look back on images of our efforts over the past year and see the good and challenges in each of them ... but when it comes to the quilting communities reaction, they make us feel good about ALL of our efforts! 

My biggest learning in 2018 was that, even after multiple failures, I really could straight-line quilt—and as a result of that, I felt a lot better about spending time working on more creative quilt tops as I knew they wouldn't necessarily now fall victim to my standard meandering stipple.  In fact, all of the quilts featured in my 2018 Best Nine, except the scrap quilt, were quilted with some version of straight-line quilting!  

That, fellow quilters, is what we call progress!

What was your biggest learning in 2018?

Happy New Year!

All the best,

Lisa