Time to let go

It's really time to let go of Christmas now! All the decorations went back in their boxes up in the attic a week ago, but I have kept this picture up until today. Now it will be wrapped in a sheet and tucked away until December. I stitched this picture eight years ago - I spent a few years stitching it... so it must be at least ten years since I bought the chart - and it is such a treat to take it out and put it on the wall in the beginning of December each year. It's like the official opening of the Holiday season here, when this old friend comes out of hiding. I fell in love with it at a Needlecraft fair in London and just had to buy the pattern from Lavender and Lace. It was a real challenge to stitch with lots of different shades of red, gold thread and beads. I splurged on a really ornate frame - not the kind of thing I usually go for, but this picture deserved someting extra, and for Christmas it is sort of all right even if it is a bit over the top. I have been trying to get some close-ups lately, but the light just isn't good enough to get a good shot.
Well, we are way into the new year and I'll have a quick look back at 2006 and what I accomplished. The blog has really helped me keep track of all the things I have made, and I have had a look through the previous twelve months and picked a picture for each month and created this little sampler of my work. Not too bad I think! One of he real accomplishements for me was finishing the project I had going over several years of making bed quilts for all my nieces and nephews. Upon finishing the kite quilt for the youngest in August I felt free to do whatever I like in future.
Of course I keep adding new stuff to my "to do"-list, so it is as long as ever - lots of fun waiting in the wings! There is that Amy Butler quilt - I have finally decided on the borders, so that looks promising.
The "Café de Paris"-top I finished in June is still waiting to be quilted. I put it aside because I couldn't decide on how to quilt it, but why keep worrying about that? Better finished than perfect, I think!
Then there is that tree skirt that didn't get finished before Christmas. I have promised myself that I wil finish it now before I put it away, but of course something else popped up, like it does... This time it was the arrival of a dear friend's first-born, and such a grand occasion calls for a quilt, of course, so I'm in the midst of a new project. But I will go back to the tree skirt when it is finished - I have promised myself that I will!
And all the other projects I have planned? I'll do them one step at the time and remind myself that the important thing is to keep having fun!