As I’m watching the media replay what they consider the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2022 I wish to share the good of my year pursuing my quilting passion.

I tend to be a person who is thinking about “what’s next” rather than dwell on the past. However, 2022 was a great year for my personal quilting journey.  I had multiple quilts published in three nationally recognized quilt magazines with more coming out next year. Upon encouragement from friends, I entered a quilt in the 2022 International Quilt Festival. Not only was my quilt, Roses Remembered, accepted but it was selected to be part of their 2023 traveling exhibition.  I was fortunate to be able to attend the festival and view my quilt hanging in the special exhibit, In the American Tradition, along with the many other creative exhibitions that this exhibition is known for.

With the help of my daughter, I published a quilt pattern book and have done well selling it with the help of friends who are supportive of my quilting passion.  The book, Hand Me Down Quilts, has also led to several opportunities to share my passion as an educator, lecturer and workshop teacher.

Late in the summer I was invited to share my Quilts of Valor during the celebration of QOV initiated by The Electric Quilt Company.  I use their software to design most of my quilts and was grateful for the added publicity it brought to my book, my website and my Etsy site.

A new venture was vending at a large regional quilt show in Missouri selling my vintage linens, patterns and home dyed fabrics. I had done a couple of smaller shows so was just a little nervous to try something larger.  It was fun but a lot of work and tiring for sure.

And since social media sites encourage a photo reflection I share some of my recent favorite projects in various states of finish but I’m on to the WIP’s and UFO’s that are calling my name in 2023.  I truly wish for all my quilter friends to have fun and enjoy Something Stitched every day as they share their super power with needle and thread.

I am so honored to have had my quilt Roses Remembered on display at the International Quilt Festival. It is now going to be part of their traveling exhibit for the 2023 year.  The pattern is now available on my Etsy site, PosieLaneLinens.  It is also included in my book, Hand Me Down Quilts, which is also available for sale on my Etsy site. Thank you to all who have been so very supportive of my quilting passion.

Down the road, around the bend, there’s an empty barn nearing its end.

Sagging roof, windows gaping, weathered wood, rusted hinges, swiftly aging.

(my adaptation of the first verse of a poem by Vance Oliphant)

For the last ten years my morning walk has taken me past a small park that allows the view of an old barn on private property. Having grown up on a farm with two huge barns ( at least they seemed huge to a young child) I feel that tug of nostalgia every time I see it through the woods. With permission of the owner I have been taking seasonal pictures every year, noting it’s slow deterioration. From those photos I have planned a series of seasonal art quilts to preserve it’s end of life story.

Work on the winter season neared completion before it came to me that “my” barn also served as a metaphor for year’s end and, indeed, the winter of our lives. As I collect, paint, dye, and print more fabrics and photos for the other seasons I also find new meaning to interpret the story, the history, the emotions that old barns, nearing their end hold for me.