I don’t always enter a Reflections post. But I did this year and want to show it ‘on the list’, so here goes…

another challenge down in the books. It was not a sure thing even as recent as January 1st. I bought 3 separate quilting books with A to Z blocks over the last year. Two were in January. And still I was not sure until the day I signed up which was the first day of sign ups. Talk about indecisive! I brought new meaning to procrastinating this year.

Another year to shuffle job, family, blogging and taxes. I complained a time or two about how many hours a day that I work. Some don’t really consider what I do as work. I won’t go on about that but I would say being self-employed anyplace and maintaining that career for 25+ years is validation enough to call my job work. Dealing with family is mandatory. Not much ‘splainin’ to do there. Blogging with my subject matter we’ll deal with in the next paragraph. And then the Taxes. Self-employed = itemization. That means keeping each and every receipt through the year and (hopefully) not waiting til the last month to go through them to tally up expenses. Unless you’re in this household. Ug! Will I ever learn?? Hopefully this year has taught me to be on top of the receipts if nothing else. Prayers sent were greatly appreciated.

Another year to expand my quilting experience. The picking out the fabric seems simple enough. The biggest demand of time is the cutting. The sewing didn’t even take as long normally. I say normally because a few times there were blocks that were a true challenge for me. And I loved my fabric choices this year. When each block was completed, I really liked each one of them.

But the down-side to my own 2018 A to Z Challenge was the fact that I did not truly like my block arrangement or the blocks when they were combined period. Each one stood alone wonderfully. But the quilt top left much to be desired by yours truly. I blame myself for not buying a little more fabric to fix that “one” in the middle–the Indian Square block. I will go ahead and leave it as is and hand quilt it. It’ll be a conversation piece for sure. But if there’s a quilt theme for me next year, it will be done way in advance, with ample fabric, and a different color scheme.

To reward myself, I purchased a t-shirt this year for my 5th year completion. Thank you for making these an option each year. It came in the mail Monday. 

Thank you to everyone who dropped in, liked, commented or supported me in any way during this challenge. This includes family and friends. I’m truly blessed to have such a phenominal circle of well-wishers.

And finally, thank you to all our hosts and co-hosts this year who went above and beyond to make this the best and most cohesive challenge yet. I truly appreciate all your time and energy invested in making our challenge a possibility this year and in years past. I’m convinced it’s a labor of love. A love for encouraging writers from all walks of life. I’ll be nominating you for sainthood just for the record.

Click here to see the latest information from the 2018 A to Z Blogging Challenge. There is a link to the Master List for this year, a survey, reflections link and coming up is an A to Z Road Trip. I hope you can check it all out.