Best of 2012
It was just a year ago that I started this little blog. Sometimes I feel like I haven’t really moved forward much since then, but then I look back at all I did accomplish, and I’m definitely satisfied. As reminder to myself, I thought I’d post my favorite projects from each month of this last year.
January 2012
I jumped on board with a pin cushion swap and decided to write a tutorial for a pin cushion caddy. It was one of the first posts on Sewing by Moonlight, and it is still regularly visited.
February 2012
In February, I made an addition to Karen’s starter block in the Be Free Bees free form robin that was an idea had been holding in my head for some time. It was a technique I had seen on a wall hanging in a quilt shop that involved 3-dimentional pieces of fabric sewn in to create the effect of water. I was thrilled to finally have the perfect project to try it out.
March 2012
In looking through my March project posts, I’m finding several that I’m pleased with. I posted my first quilt block tutorial, for a partially paper pieced (say that 5 times fast) block I called Sunset Squared.
I tried New York Beauty blocks and made them small, 5-1/2 inches, to add to Nichol’s quilt, which I had that month for the Be Free Bees.
My daughter still loves the ruffle skirt I made, and she happens to be wearing it today! (She looks so much older than she did in the photos from that post, just 9 months ago!)
April 2012
With winter over, I finally finished my winter table runner. Go figure. Now matter, though, I’ve been using it this year, and I love it! It’s great to have a seasonal decoration that I don’t have to put away after Christmas is over!
May 2012
Hmm, seems May was another good month for projects I loved. I was a guest poster at A Girl in Paradise with my Rainbow Double Staircase baby quilt. In that post, I said I loved this quilt so much that it almost made me want to have another baby. That “almost” has become a reality and Girl #3 is due at the end of March!
A friend requested a mei tai from a Michael Miller giraffe garden print, and I added an appliqué of one of the giraffes to the sleeping hood. So cute!
June 2012
June was actually a pretty productive month, especially considering I was gone for the entirety of the month. I posted my first tutorial (Virginia) for the Road Trip Quilt Along (the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tutorial for the QAL were also posted in June).
The mei tai I made for my friend Emily is one of my favorites. The reverse makes me just as happy as the “front” side. I think it’s the turquoise straps. They were her request, but they look awesome!
At my sister’s wedding, my mom and I presented her with a quilt we had been working on together for the better part of a year. It was made of 121 6-inch blocks from The Civil War Love Letter Quilt book.
July 2012
For the second month in a row, my family was on the road. We did a lot of camping and moving about, and thus, there was not a lot of sewing happening. I did manage to continue posting the tutorials for the Road Trip Quilt Along, including South Dakota, which gave me some trouble in the construction, but I really loved it when finished.
August 2012
My daughter was going to be starting her first season of soccer, and she needed a little bag to carry her shoes and water bottle. I wrote a tutorial for a little sports cinch sac that I made for her. Her favorite color is green, so the green soccer monkey fabric was just perfect!
September 2012
Even though I had never attempted hand embroidery before, I joined an embroidery hoop swap through Bee a {Modern} Swapper and finished my first hoopie! I love how it turned out, and my partner was happy too!
The “queen bee” for this month requested house blocks and I’m still giggling that I made a yurt quilt block!
October 2012
The Sewing by Moonlight Etsy shop opened in October! The shop is languishing a bit at the moment, but one of my 2013 goals is to get it in shape and increase my inventory.
I also tried English paper piecing for the first time and made a large rose star wall hanging, with the colors and design inspired by a photo I took at Glacier National Park.
November 2012
A mei tai is a project that requires a significant time investment, so a month in which I finished three mei tais means I managed to carve out some great sewing time that month! I also finally completed the quilt top from the Road Trip Quilt Along (now if I could just finish the quilting!).
Two new quilt block tutorials were posted in November: one was an update on the spider web quilt block and the other was a hexagon block I designed inspired by the triangles I tried in English paper piecing.
December 2012
For the last couple weeks of the year, I sort of dropped off the face of the blogosphere. We were out of town and there was just no sewing happening, not to mention, limited internet time. I’m not complaining: we had a great trip to visit both mine and my husband’s families in the midwest. Earlier in the month, though, I finally finished a mini quilt for a swap. What a saga that was. I ended up keeping it for myself, I had invested so much time and tears into it.
Since I kept that one, I had to make a new one to send off in the swap, and I’m just as pleased with my second attempt, and the design of a tree in the sunset.
Now to see what 2013 will bring! There is some amazing bloggy inspiration from the past year at the Fresh Sewing Day link up if you want more!
Very productive year Em
Nice work! 🙂
Impressive! Happy 2013!
You had quite a productive and lovely year! I love both of your December projects!
You were very busy! Very impressive work!
I just love your civil war love letters quilt. The colors are just beautiful. Your sister is a lucky girl. I also love the yurt block. It made me giggle too 🙂
I like everything you did last year, but my favorite is the last small wall hanging.