2020 was simultaneously the most boring and most hectic year of my life. I can’t leave the house! (Boring.) And my workload exploded! (Hectic.) But I couldn’t let that crazy minx get out of town without another look to see what my 2020 highlights were. I’ll start with the quilty goodness and share a couple cool things from my work and personal life too.
2020 Highlights: Quilting
I went into 2020 with six quilting goals. Looking back, that was way too many! I managed to meet most of them despite All This, I crashed and burned on one, and I completely never understood why I made another. So here’s how I did:
Goal 1: Work More with Prints
Yep. No. This is my “what was I thinking goal.” I love solids. I’m pretty sure they love me. Why would I force myself into a medium I’m not drawn to?! I’m just really meh on prints and didn’t force myself into using them simply to reach a goal I never should have made.
Goal 2: Make 5 Mini Quilts
I think I got this one done. If not, I’m only one short. I have a pile of quilts to finish binding, and I think they’re all in there. One that I finished early in the year was using the leftovers from my Perfect HST quilt and hung on the mini wall in the studio. Once I dig the others out of the pile, I’ll do a post on all of them.
Goal 3: Make 5 Scrap Bins
Check! I finished out the rainbow and got most of my scraps sorted and organized. I need to figure out how to store my neutral scraps because there are way more than will fit in these little bins. This year I made green, blue, teal, purple, and multi color.
Goal 4: Make a Color of the Year Quilt
I made this goal because I usually join in on another blogger’s challenge, and no one was in the mood to do those this year as far as I could tell. I have drafted a pattern and cut out fabric to make a mini quilt from Kona Enchanted, but the pieces are sitting under the cutting table. Maybe that’s the fifth mini I couldn’t remember earlier!! So I’m counting this one as half done.
Goal 5: Sew Every Day
This was a crash and burn. As you’ll see in my job 2020 highlights, the beginning of the pandemic was a blur that included working, sleeping (a little), and eating (a little less). It was all I could do to drag myself between bed and desk, that I didn’t go into the studio for several months.
I did pick up some cross stitch projects because of the mindlessness of those, and that seemed to give me the jump start I needed to get back into the quilting game, and I ended the year on a bang and will post an update on that next week.
Goal 6: Find a New Studio Assistant
In February, Sir and I went to the shelter to look for a new feline friend. We wanted a kitten, but I wasn’t finding any there that I connected with. Then this toddler ginger cat looked out at me, and I was hooked. Meet William.
They told us he was about 3 1/2, but we believe he’s at least a year younger than that. When they pulled up his file to complete the adoption, they said, “Oh. We have a behavioral note on him.”
Then they went on for about 10 minutes about him being an ankle biter, a food thief, and a cat who loves to cuddle but hates to be picked up or petted. He was picked up off the street and adopted a couple months before we got to him. His street cat attitude was too much for his previous human, so she returned him just a few days before we walked in.
He’s come a long way since he joined our family. With a lot of treats and training, we can pick him up and hold him, and he loves pets on the head and chest. His favorite studio spot is on his blanket on the rocking chair. It keeps him close while staying out of trouble!
2020 Highlights: Work
I’m the chief of marketing for the Military Health System, which takes care of 9.6 million patients around the world: military members, retirees, and their families. It’s the best job I’ve ever had, but it was quite a whirlwind trying to get ever changing COVID information out to help people stay safe and informed.
There were crazy days for the first few months of the pandemic here, but we got through it. We’re still working remotely full-time as the US starts to set horrific records each day. I’m hopeful we can get our vaccine program off the ground here because I miss my team so much. Speaking of which…
Last month I learned that my team won the Silver Anvil Award from the Public Relations Society of America for our Bug Week campaign. The Silver Anvil is our Oscar, and this is the second year my team won! I’m so lucky to lead such a creative bunch of people.
2020 Highlights: Home
While Sir and I were eating our New Year’s Eve dinner, we decided to talk about the things we liked about 2020 and came up with a couple good ones.
Family
While he had a chance to go to Indiana with me in late 2019 to meet my parents, I have never met his family in person. They started doing Zoom chats every other Sunday, and I’m happy to say how lucky I am that they treat me like a daughter/sister. They’re an amazing family! I’m enjoying getting to know them this way before an in-person meeting that I won’t be so nervous for later.
Food
Of course! A couple months in, we started planning fancy Sunday brunches. In DC, where we live, brunch is practically a religion, and we missed going out for it. So we brought brunch home. We had some amazing variations on steak and eggs that were to die for! And I perfected my fried egg game quite nicely. I also fell in love with avocado toast. So good!
This month we’ve switched over from Sunday Brunch to Saturday Burgers. I had my first patty melt this past weekend, and I definitely see what all the fuss is about. Sir tells me he has already planned the menu for the next two months of burgers.
These weekly theme meals are giving us something to get excited about and plan around, and I think we all need a little of that right now.
So what were your highlights? Big or small, I want to hear about them in the comments!