My Year in Quilts 2024

End of the year is the time to reflect and evaluate—to celebrate successes and identify areas for growth in the coming year. That’s why I always write this review, which I call “My Year in Quilts 2024.” It was a very busy year, and I am glad to say that I kept my promise to write blog posts consistently. I also traveled extensively, yet despite that, I managed to create a lot. Once I start working on a project, I become completely immersed until it is finished.

As has been my tradition since 2019, I made six quilts for the quilt challenge group Fifteen by Fifteen. This year’s theme was “Inspired by Books,” and I chose three works by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. For each book, I created two quilts: for 1Q84, I made 1Q84 and Air Chrysalis; for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, I made The Well and another with the book’s title; and for Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, I crafted quilts representing each part of the novel. Here are all six:

I also created a few quilts for international exhibitions. Some were accepted, while others were rejected—an expected part of the process. For the “Ocean” contest at the European Patchwork Meeting, I made Red Fan Coral, which was unfortunately not accepted:

Another rejected quilt was Land of Fire, which I entered into SAQA’s global exhibition “Fire”:

However, my successes outweighed the rejections. Color Play: Red, Blue, and Yellow was accepted into SAQA’s global exhibition “Abstraction: Textural Elements” and is currently on display in Heidelberg, Germany. It even landed on the cover of the exhibition catalog:

I love creating quilts from my hand-dyed fabrics, which I dye in a special way using two colors. I call this process “Color Play,” and I incorporate small details in other hues for added depth. Here are some of my creations:

From this series, one standout piece is Three Red Dots, a 48×57-inch quilt featuring monochromatic colors—a rarity for me—accented with three small red dots. This quilt was accepted into Quilt National 2025, a significant achievement for me as a quilt artist:

Another highlight was a quilt I created for my daughter-in-law. She asked me to craft something from her father’s heavily mended woolen socks. This piece, Voice from the Past, was accepted into the 9th European Quilt Triennial in Heidelberg, Germany, that will open on February 9th of 2025. For the background, I used two scarves dyed with rust and plants, which I hand-stitched extensively:

I also have a passion for linen textiles and love repurposing old fabrics. One of my linen quilts, Song of Linen: Piano Keys, was made entirely from linen fabrics:

Additionally, I revitalized an old, worn, embroidered bed cover belonging to a friend’s mother. By combining it with linen fabrics and hand-stitching, I transformed it into a new bed cover:

Amazingly, I also completed two more bed quilts this year, both of which I hand-quilted:

As always, I contributed quilts to SAQA’s Spotlight and Benefit Auctions:

Another memorable project involved collaborating with my artist friend Lolita Braza, who specializes in creating ex libris prints. She printed some of her designs on fabric, and I quilted them into a wall hanging titled Suspended Moments. This project allowed me to showcase only a small portion of her extensive work, but it was a delight to collaborate on:

It was fun to work on each little block:

It has been an incredibly rewarding year, and I look forward to continuing my quilting journey in the year ahead!