The Joyful Summer of '23

Summer is by far my favorite season of the year. I love to swim and hit the pool early every morning. I love sitting on the back porch in the afternoon to read or stitch. And I love the long days of daylight. 

Joining the #summerlovinseaglassal hosted by Kitty @nightquilter and Allie @exhaustedoctupus was an easy decision and I just put the finishing touches into my quilt.

I am in love with my celebration of joy quilt for the months June through August! (In my last post, I considered extending my joy tracking until the first day of fall - September 23 - but I ended up getting lazy in my tracking so went with just the 3 months the SAL covered.)

I've posted about this SAL a few times - May kick-off,  June update, July update, and September update.

Besides making a fun quilt, my goal for participating was to be intentional about making time for things that I enjoy during my favorite season summer. It included things I usually do frequently - swimming and reading - and also things like seeking new adventures. I hoped it would get me out of the house more frequently that a typical summer.

Did it? Yes! 

What did I learn by participating? Actively seeking and recognizing joy makes me feel good. Earning a piece of seaglass was a more of a motivator than I had expected - when I saw a category was low in the overall count, I worked to plan more time with friends or playing pickleball than I would have likely done otherwise. A friend was participating as well so when we met for coffee - we were each tracking friend time! - we each earned seaglass!

Here is where my final count ended up:

• 13 days working on smaller creative works where improv and trying something were the goals. I spent the rest of the days working on larger quilts that were well planned out in advance.
• 19 days where some handwork project was worked on. I had hoped for more.
• 30 books read. I read daily in the early afternoon and most nights before sleep.
• 30 pieces earned for swimming. I earned a piece for every 3 miles swam which means I swam 90 miles!
• 9 sessions of playing pickleball. Early in the summer, my friends played early in the day while I was swimming. When we switched to evenings, I had the change to play often.
• 20 days which include time with family or friends. This could be my favorite category!
• 6 date nights. Spending time going out to dinner or a show was certainly a highlight
• 20 days with adventure. This category included all kinds of fun as simple as going out to ice cream as well as a trip to NJ.

Somewhere in the middle of the SAL I started earning seaglass for unexpected spontaneous moments of joy. There were 7 of those tracked. Should I do this SAL again, this would most definitely be a seaglass category.

The final quilt measures 14" x 25". The seaglass pieces were FMQ once fused down and then I added some big stitch x's in spots plus a '2023'.

Have a wonderful day! Patty