Needlecrafts Review of 2016

I can't believe I'm actually doing this 4 months late - I would have preferred it to have been posted on 31 December 2016, but here it is today - on the first day of May 2017 - the summary of my needlework year 2016.

I think it's safe to say that 2016 was Year of the Wedding for me.  I made stuff for 4 weddings, some of which ran in succession and kept me busy for quite some time.  I'm still wondering if the 'must get on with it' for so many weeks in a row is part of what's kept me away from embroidery most of the time since....??  Maybe I burnt out a bit.  May also be that I work better for a reason, rather than just for the love of the process and/or a lovely design.  It's in my make-up, I doubt I'll ever be any different in the way I work.

Here goes with the stats:

I made five cushions/cushion covers ('pillows' if US English means more to you.☺) which were:

- Two scatter cushion covers for us made with red fabrics, woven braids bought in Taiwan back in 2010 and machine metallic threads, both backed in black.  (I didn't get a decent photo of the completed braids one - they all bleached out.)

- One scatter cushion cover in hardanger: white and variegated peach on white and backed with peach and beige coloured fabrics.

- Two small wedding souvenir cushions, worked silk on silk to 'design specs' given by the couples (the grooms of which happened to be brothers.)

I also did two bellpulls, both as wedding gifts:

A wedding dress modesty panel:

A wedding card and an anniversary one:

Made a new Bible cover for my hubby:

Knit four baby cardigans (one still needed trimming up at the end of the year) and made two baby quilts:

And a 'finishing up' project where I mounted nine previously worked things (eight by me (including one I actually did in May), one by a friend) into cards and frames etc:

I also worked on one more knitting project - a scarf for me, and two embroideries, one of which was started in late 2015 (and finished in February 2017) and the other begun in August 2014 and is still dragging on ad infinitum.

Total number of full project completions was 16, plus the eight finish-ups of my own, makes a total of 24 for the year and 4 projects to carry over.  That's not too dusty, is it?  In fact, I think it may even be a record for me!  Even if I am a bit late.....

I'm adding no goals for the current year beyond that I hope that I finally finish the Paradise Island cross stitch and make that up into another scatter cushion cover and I have three small embroideries that I've prepared the fabrics and two of the sets of threads for.  I have another, quite major project underway at the moment and I'll be sharing that with you later this month.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2017