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Octobers

I'm feeling very blah right now. This month has traditionally been hard on me; there are the birthdays of two loved ones now gone from my life that I have to get through, the pumpkin spice nonsense explodes, and Christmas things show up everywhere in a big way. As I write this it's been raining steadily for two days, so I can't really spend any significant time outdoors. I need inspiration and motivation, stat.

I have been looking in my own photo archives to see the projects I most liked from past Octobers in hopes that it would jog something, and saw this thrifted crocheted baby blanket that I acquired unfinished with the yarn and hook the maker had been using, and I finished it. I loved that project.

In 2024 I made a small quilt from a pound of fabric an Etsy seller chose and sent to me. That is a challenge I really enjoy and I've made several quilts that way.

In 2023 I completed the second embroidered recycled linen quilt in some of my favorite colors. This was one of the loveliest quilts I ever made.

In 2022 I made this quilt for a friend's new grandchild. I loved the colors.

Back in 2021 I wasn't working on a quilt but a slow stitched tote. I used a very worn piece of sacking as the foundation and improvised the entire design. This was the first time I really trusted myself to slow stitch, I think, and I loved the way it turned out.

Finally, back in 2020 I made this quilt for my mother, who was turning 86 in November. I never got any acknowledgment from her after I sent it, but her dementia had grown to the point that she probably didn't know who I was or why I'd sent her a quilt. I was happy to have made her something, and that was enough. It turned out to be the last quilt she got from me, as she died six months later, so I always think very fondly of it.

In the past I always had some reason for what I made that inspired me that challenged me in some way. I think I need a new challenge for October, one that ends up with just one project. So I'll think on that.

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