Goodbye 2015

Goodbye 2015. 

I think it's fair to describe the past year as a roller coaster period in my life and the lives of many family members and friends.  I'm looking forward to the new year. 

I'm not making a list of resolutions, not even promising to finish all those UFOs, but I have some ideas and plans up my sleeve and I'm hoping it's going to be a better year for us all. I'm certainly feeling positive.

I am pleased that I completed the Contemporary Quilt Group journal quilt challenge this year. It was touch and go some months but I have twelve quiltlets that, I think, reflect the year. Here they are all together.

I don't know whether I will take the challenge again this year, I'll see what the rules are when they are published.  

I saw this on Facebook and thought it is a good wish for a new year so I wish it for all my lovely followers:

Happy New Year!!

Journal Quilt Challenge - Done

My last stitching of the year is done, the challenge journal quilt for December.  The text is from Longfellow's poem, The Rainy Day, and reads, "into a life some rain must fall".  I'm hoping for less rain and more sunshine next year.
I included fabric from November's quiltlet and also fabric from January's quiltlet, to give a full cycle of pieces.  I shall try and take a picture of all twelve journal quilts together in the next couple of days.

Now though, it is time to put the needles and scissors away and celebrate Christmas.  I have already had a lovely lunch out with my family and tomorrow I shall be cooking a Christmas lunch for big grandson and his parents.  It's going to be a quiet season.  DS and DiL will be with Jessica's parents and DD is in Germany.  The awesome Sam is with his father this Christmas so we will have a celebration with him when he returns home.  Of course there are people missing this year and I know I am not alone in expecting some poignant moments.  I send my love to everyone who has lost a special person during this year.

Band Samplers

Today I visited the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge where there are many things to marvel at. I don't think I have seen another collection where so many of the artists are household names.  Wow, it's by Monet, look a Rodin sculpture, and another, a Picasso.... Or where so many artefacts are so old yet intact and exquisite.  I also saw these band samplers, a style I've not seen before although I have seen plenty of "traditional" rectangular Victorian examples.  These are English and stitched in silks in the mid 1600s.  Photography was difficult in the low light conditions and with the work protected behind glass but I took a shot of both examples and a close up of a section of each. Enjoy.