It’s 2016! Christmas is over – how did that happen?  And how come all the preparation and the big day itself are already fading memories?  It really does seem a lot longer than just seven days since 25th December!  Despite the time whizzing by there have been happy, peaceful, ‘enjoying the now’, family times for us and for those moments I’m very thankful.

Here in the UK we have endured the wettest, warmest December in 100 years of weather records.  Warm and wet means there really hasn’t been much sunshine at all; the short days have seemed very short indeed as grey clouds quickened the onset of night time.  So it was a bit of a relief to wake on the first day of 2016 and see a sunrise and even a touch of frost on the ground.

The Circle of Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini

I’ve had a two week break from my sewing machine as the ‘sewing room’ successfully transformed into it’s main purpose – the guest room.  As part of the holiday wind down I’ve read a novel cover to cover and completed a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.  Two things I wouldn’t normally do through the rest of the year.

In my previous post I gave a little review of my patchwork and quilting year and here I thought I’d take Cheryl’s invitation to join the Best of 2015 Linky Party sharing five of my favourite posts from 2015:

I’m including the Snap-shut, clicky, purse tutorial as it still amazes me that it gets looked at every week!; An encouragement for makers of charity quilts because I love the story of the family who cherished a quilt distributed to them after the WW2 bombing of London; Reflecting on being a work in progress as I am very grateful to the God who forgives and has the power to change even me; Quilting and the monster in me as a further reminder of how far I am from perfection and a good example of the kindness and helpful nature of those willing to pass on their wisdom to the online quilty community; and A walk through history as proof that I didn’t spend the whole year sat at my sewing machine or the computer!

Allison