Hand Stitched Treasure: Year in Review

Showing posts with label Year in Review. Show all posts

Sunday, December 31, 2023

Happy New Year! & 2023 in Review

My blog has been neglected since I began graduate school in January of 2022. Even so, I decided to share a Year in Review post to reflect on past goals and create a few goals for 2024.

My five goals for 2022 were:

Continue working out and make healthier food choices. - This goal was not met. I did a LOT of sitting, reading books about teaching strategies, and working on my laptop.
Succeed at school. - I met this goal! Graduation was earlier this month and I now have a Master of Arts in Teaching with an ESOL endorsement. (ESOL = English Speakers of Other Languages.)
Spend more time with family and friends. - This goal was not met. Homework and working kept me busy.
Make visible progress on Twilight Duel and Fractal White Tiger. - This goal was not met.
Complete one crazy quilt project. - This goal was not met.

My goals for 2024:

Spend more time with family and friends.
Get back into running.
Complete Christmas Ornament Snow Much in Love.
Make a crazy quilted Christmas stocking.
Complete the Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2024, incorporating stitches from TAST.

The top 5 blog posts viewed in 2023:

The top 5 blog posts viewed since 2012:

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

2021 Year in Review

Happy New Year!

2021 went by so incredibly fast. I hope yours went well!

I do not believe any of my blogging goals were met, but it was a productive year. I made a tiny bit of progress on Fractal White Tiger.

Fractal White Tiger 12/31/2020

Fractal White Tiger 12/31/2021

A bit more progress on Twilight Duel.

Twilight Duel 12/31/2020

Twilight Duel 12/31/2021

And I nearly finished the little Santa I have been working on with our 3-week stitch-along (SAL.) Note: this photo shows how it looked on December 26th when my husband insisted I take time to relax for a bit.

Due to issues with my IT band, I had to give up my running goals. However, I discovered Let's Get Up! and the 21-Day Fix through Beachbody on Demand and my IT band feels sooo much better after completing both of these programs. I am hoping to work running back into my routine in 2022, but am not going to push it.

2022 Bullet Journal

In 2021, I also made the (tiny bit terrifying) decision to go back to school. This month I begin graduate school to earn an elementary education teaching degree. I am so fortunate to work with a great team of people that truly feel like family. However, I really miss helping students learn. So, I am both a bit sad to be leaving them and also excited about what the future holds.

2022 is going to be a year of change. So my goals this year are simple.

1.) Continue working out and making healthier food choices.

2.) Succeed at school.

3.) Spend more time with family and friends.

4.) Make visible progress on Twilight Duel and Fractal White Tiger.

5.) Complete one crazy quilt project.

If your goals for the year include learning hand embroidery or improving or expanding your hand embroidery skills, Sharon Boggon will be offering her Take a Stitch Tuesday Challenge again this year. You may learn more about it here. The first stitch has just been shared in this post.

For anyone curious, the 5 most viewed blog post in December were:

1.) 2013 Winter Challenge Results Posted at Evening Star Designs

2.) Christmas Project: SAL Update 4

3.) Christmas Project: SAL Update 3

4.) Polymer Clay Snowman Motif

5.) CQI Winter/Christmas DYB RR - Barbara's block is done!

Thanks for stopping by! I wish you and yours an amazing year and good health.

-Renee

Friday, January 1, 2021

2020 in Review

Happy New Year!

2020 was not the year any of us expected.
I do hope yours was not too bad.

I was blessed to have an essential job with coworkers I truly enjoy spending time with.

Last December we added a pet to our home. We finally found a pet I am not allergic to. Buddy, our bearded dragon, made this socially isolated year much easier to cope with.

My goals for 2020, shared in this post, were not all met. However, I did complete or make significant progress on these:

1. Finish my Heaven and Earth Designs "Storykeep Effects of Caffeine" based on art by Randal Spangler. Done!

Storykeep Effects of Caffeine Dec. 31, 2019

Storykeep Effects of Caffeine February 2020

2. Add at least 300 stitches a month to my Charting Creations "Fractal White Tiger" cross stitch based on art by Ricky Barnard. This would have added a minimum of 3,600 stitches. I did not work on it monthly, but I did add 6,458 stitches to it in 2020. (It appears the only the Small Fractal White Tiger is available now. The color of the nose was toned down in the smaller chart.)

Fractal White Tiger December 31, 2019

Fractal White Tiger December 31, 2020

3. Finish a row on my Heaven and Earth Designs "Twilight Duel" cross-stitch project. I did not meet this goal.

"Twilight Duel" December 30, 2019

"Twilight Duel" December 31, 2020

My health goals were to participate in at least 2 races and to track the miles I ran throughout the year. The races ended up being virtual, but these goals were met, as shared in this post. I ran 176 miles in 2020 and love the statistics provided on my Runkeeper app.

It will be fun to see how these change in 2021!

My goals for 2021 are pretty simple:

1. Make progress on Twilight Duel and Fractal White Tiger.

2. Work on some Crazy Quilt projects and actually blog my progress. (I'll share a bit of progress made in 2020 soon.)

3. Run 500 miles this year.

Wishing you all a very happy, healthy 2021!

Hugs,

Renee

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

2019 in Review

I wish you all a very happy and healthy new year!

Can you believe the last day of 2019 has already arrived and a new decade will begin in the morning?!

To all of you that work full-time, care for loved ones and still manage to find time for crafts and blogging, way to go! (I am still struggling to find that balance...)

I am afraid my blogging has been very sporadic this year. I have a few plans to hopefully change that in 2020. We shall see how they work out.

Thanks to a Christmas gift exchange, I finally have a few finishes to share from this year. These zipper coin pouches and tissue case covers were created for my co-workers - a couple of ladies I am very lucky to spend time with each week.

My goals for 2019 (shared in this post) were:

Eat more vegetables. - Done! My husband and I completed the Whole 30 Challenge, which helped a lot with this goal. (I ate a mint without thinking about the sugar, so I didn't technically finish the challenge, but my husband did!)
Drink more water. - I did well with this for a while, but need to increase my water intake again.
Get back into a running routine. - I did this for several months. My son and I even ran in a Color Run this fall. (He let me share the photo above.) Circumstances out of my control required a running break, but I am eager to get back to it!
Finish up some unfinished projects. - Some progress was made on 2 projects from my UFO list, but there were no finishes. My cross-stitch projects received the majority of attention.

Thanks to joining the Stitch Along (SAL) hosted by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea, I managed a fair amount of progress on my Heaven and Earth Designs Storykeep Effects of Caffeine (artwork by Randal Spangler.)

January 1, 2019 - 18.55% complete with 4,390 stitches.

0 of 4 pages finished.

December 31, 2019 - 75.44% complete with 17,850 stitches.

2 of 4 pages finished.

13,460 stitches were added this year.

If I meet my goal of 650 stitches every 3 weeks, this should be finished by July 12, 2020.

I joined a Stitch Around the World Challenge through the Facebook Stitchtalk HAED Challenges group. The goal was to add 53,855 stitches to one Heaven and Earth Designs cross-stitch chart. My personal goal was to accomplish half that amount on Twilight Duel (artwork by Ruth Thompson.) In reality, I completed just over 20% of the journey and I am thrilled with that progress.

January 1, 2019 - 38.90% complete with 57,412 stitches.

7 of 24 pages finished.

December 31, 2019 - 46.45% complete with 68,567 stitches.

11,155 stitches were added this year.

10 of 24 pages finished.

Next year, I hope to have more updates of my Charting Creations Fractal White Tiger to share on the Stitchy Start blog.

January 1, 2019 - 17.15% complete with 29,900 stitches.

4 of 30 pages finished.

December 31, 2019 - 20.58% complete with 35,868 stitches.

5,968 stitches added in 2019.

4 of 30 pages finished.

Next year, I hope to share more photos on Instagram. In 2019, these were the top 9 of the 45 photos shared. (I used the free tool at bestnine(dot)net to find my top 9.)

Happy New Year!
Renee

Monday, December 31, 2018

2018 in Review

This year feels like it passed in the blink of an eye! I think the photo above captures finishes from 2018. (However, I just realized the center artist trading card was actually finished in 2017 for the ATC Swap through the Crazy Quilt Quarterly Magazine. Oops...)

I managed 12 finishes this year. Of those 12, the postcards, mugs and the tote bag on the top right portion of the photo were created by other companies using photos of blocks I completed in 2018.

Click any photo for a larger view.

Sunday, December 31, 2017

2017 in Review

2017 - Looking Back...

2017 has been a fun year of crafting and making friends. I appreciate you all and love hearing from you. More details about the finishes in the photo above may be found on this page.

Unlike last year, several Top Viewed Posts of 2017 made it to the Top Viewed Posts of All Time list.

2017 Activities

2017 UFO Challenge

11 UFOs were finished! More details are here.

My 2018 UFO Challenge list is here.

Crazy Quilt Journal Project (CQJP)
December 31st is the last day to sign up for CQJP 2018! Details are here.

To see some eye candy, I encourage you to check out the CQJP 2017 blog - here - when you have a bit of time to ~~drool over~~ admire the pretty CQ blocks others created. My progress is below.

CQJP 2017 January Block

A tutorial to piece a crazy quilt block is here.

CQJP 2017 February Block

This tote bag was donated and raised $150 for engineering scholarships in Oregon.

CQJP 2017 March Block - in progress
The most recent blog post is here.

This will become a pocket on a tote bag that will be added to my Etsy shop.

CQJP 2017 April Block - pieced

This project was added to my 2018 UFO list. Once finished, I plan to add it to my Etsy shop.

InCoWriMo 2017

INternational COrrespondence WRiting MOnth is in February. 2017 was my first year participating. I will definitely join again in 2018! You may find my 2017 experience here and the InCoWriMo website here.

Sun, Sand, and Sea Block of the Month

This was hosted by Amy at Sew Incredibly Crazy. It was my first BOM and I absolutely loved it!

The orange & black Oregon State University theme made it all the more fun.

Find more details on this page.

HAED "QS Red Hearts"

13,385 stitches were added to this piece based on artwork by Ching-Chou Kuik.

Charting Creations "Fractal White Tiger"

10,207 stitches were added to this piece based on artwork by Ricky Barnard.

HAED "Twilight Duel"

17,213 stitches were added to this piece based on artwork by Ruth Thompson.

HAED "Storykeep Effects of Caffeine"

1,425 stitches were added to this piece based on artwork by Randal Spangler.

This is my travel piece and it only received 8 days of attention this year.

Instagram

This was my first full year using Instagram. You may find me here.

2017 Best Nine on Instagram.

HAED QS Red Hearts, Block 3 of the SS&S BOM, HAED SK Effects of Caffeine, and HAED Twilight Duel photos were popular.

Hand Stitched Treasure on Etsy
In 2017, I stepped out of my comfort zone and began listing products for sale in my Etsy shop. Etsy makes this easy and I have some fun plans for 2018.

Hand Stitched Treasure on Facebook
Encouraged by a few of you wonderful blogging friends, I started a Facebook page featuring blog posts and a few sneak peeks of projects in progress.

I wish you all an amazingly

Happy New Year!

Thank you for visiting!