First Finish of 2026!

 

I've got my first finish of the year! This quilt is 108x108, not a small one. I'm actually keeping this quilt which is notable since I give away 95% of what I make. I read an article on making autumn quilts a while back, and it said to always add a bit of purple to elevate the color scheme. I did in this quilt, and I do like the purple added. This quilt is all scraps, different cream on creams, and lots of different fabrics in reds, yellows, oranges, greens, browns, and of course purples. There is more brown and green than the other colors, but I think the warmer colors show up more. 

I just finished FMQ another quilt today, so hopefully I'll get the binding on that this weekend, and have a second finish for this year. 

I had originally planned to start my decluttering in other areas of the house, and finish in the quilting areas, but I switched that around. I had two big bundles of fabric sitting on the floor, and it was driving me crazy. I needed to get those off the floor for my peace of mind. I knew I didn't have space on the fabric shelves right now, but if I went through all my quilting magazines, I could make some shelf space and get the fabric off the floor. 

I love quilting magazines! I don't have as many subscriptions as I used to, due to rising costs, but I really enjoy seeing what's popular, new color combinations, and being exposed to quilts that may not have been my style, but still peak my interest. I've made enough quilts over the years, that I have a pretty good idea what I enjoy doing, and what became not fun soon into the project. That knowledge is powerful, when going through quilting books and magazines. For example, I know how to foundation paper piece. Do I enjoy it? No, I do not. Can I do hand applique? Yes. Do I enjoy it? No. I prefer traditional piecing techniques. If I'm going to do applique I'm going to use a fusible and raw edge. I'm comfortable with all types of traditional piecing. I love triangles of all shapes and sizes, but making log cabin quilts is probably my very favorite. Rare is the year where I don't make at least one log cabin in some variation.

The thing about quilting magazines, or any magazines really, is they can really add up quickly. I had one and a half shelves on a wide bookcase dedicated to magazines. My goal is to get my magazines and books all on the same narrow bookcase. To accomplish that, I not only have to cull my magazines mercilessly, but I also need to cull my quilt books. I'm tackling the magazines first. 

I've already gone through over 100 quilting magazines, and so far I've only found three that have a large enough percentage of patterns that I would make to warrant saving the whole magazine. What about the other patterns I really love? 

I'm ripping the patterns I love out of the magazine, putting them in page protectors and making a curated quilt book of only patterns I can actually see myself making. I'm limiting myself to one binder for these, so I am really trying to be practical. There are lots of patterns I could make, but how many patterns will I realistically make? My quilting area is over capacity, it's time to start purging what isn't making my quilting journey better, and is only weighing me down. I'm recycling the rest of the magazines, no I'm not donating them, I'm recycling them, and I am OK with that. I do have a couple like Quiltmaker's 100 block issues, that I will bring to a used book store along with any quilt books I decide to cull. Whatever the used book store doesn't want I will donate. 

I'm not finished going through the magazines, but I am past the halfway point. You know what else has happened? I got those two fabric bundles off the floor! The fabric isn't where I actually want it to be, but it's off the floor, easy to get to, and out of my way! I'm calling that a win. 

It's a pretty ambitious January for me. Quilting is a pretty sedentary hobby, and I know I need to move more. I'm not going to go to the gym, it's too hot most of the year for me to keep up with an outdoor walking program, and I am not one to enjoy exercise. One thing I have had some luck with but got out of the habit of doing is the Body Groove program. I have a couple of the DVD's I bought a while back, and I really like the founders attitude. If something hurts to do, you are free to modify it to something that works for you. Right now I'm dealing with a knee injury, but I can still do the program will some modifications. 

Since we've been traveling a lot, DVD's aren't something that's going to work for me, so I bought a year subscription to the app. With the app, I can watch any of the many exercise sessions on my TV, phone, or tablet. Starting a new habit is always hard, so I'm utilizing habit pairing. I already have the habit of FMQ an hour each day I sew. Normally, I do some housework after that initial hour. Now, I am exercising right after that hour of FMQ, and doing housework after that. The Body Groove sessions have a lot of stretching, which I'm finding really nice after an hour of FMQ. It's a good time to stretch out your back and shoulders after a session of FMQ. I'm really liking the app, and it has a huge variety of activities on it. One of the things I can really appreciate, is that you aren't watching a bunch of pretty, young, super fit people. There are old people, overweight people, middle aged people, and sure, some young and fit people. It's a lot easier to get into exercising when you aren't being presented with some ideal you feel you'll never achieve. I know this sounds like a commercial, but believe me, no one could pay me to exercise. I paid for the program, and they have no idea who I am. This is not a solicited endorsement. I just know I'm not the only one out there who isn't moving around enough, so I thought I'd let you know what is working for me. I'm overweight, but I'm not doing it with a weight loss goal, I'm not doing it to drop sizes, I'm just trying to MOVE MORE. 

I don't FMQ every day, but I do FMQ more days per week than I don't. I'm hoping to get the habit established enough, so that by the time we take our first trip of the year, I'll still be able to get some exercise in even in a hotel. Stretching out and moving after long travel days would be a smart move. 

I've got a lot of goals for 2026, but I'm trying to keep them fairly simple. Move more, Finish More, and Simplify things. 

Happy New Year! 2025 Year End Reckoning and 2026 Goals

 2025 was quite the year for us! It was DH's first year of retirement. We travelled four months of the year, largely for his business since he only retired from one job. 

DH being retired actually gives me less time to sew than I had before he retired. I knew that would be the case, but wasn't really prepared for the change.  

Here are the goals I made for 2025, and I'll be honest about how I did. 

1) Finish all the quilts for my nieces and nephews. 

    Mostly done. I finished the four bed sized quilts, but the one throw I need to make is in progress.

2) Finish all the queen/king quilts that are started.

   Not finished. My goal was actually to use up all the king sized batting I had in stash. I finished four queen/king quilts in 2025. I have one that just needs binding, I have two more that are basted. I think I have two more king sized battings in stash, and one of the quilts for those just needs borders, and the other needs assembly. Of course, didn't DD#2 ask for a new quilt, so I'm actually adding a big quilt to the list, but that's the way it goes. Overall, I'm pretty happy with my progress on that front.

3) One scooter quilt and a quilt from DH's scrub tops.

   I actually made three scooter quilts this year, but did not get DH's scrub top quilt finished. In fact, I just finished cutting it out this past week. It should be a quick one to sew, and he's got a birthday coming up...

4) 100 pillowcases to donate. 

    I did make pillowcases for the grandkids, but nothing on the donation front. 

5) 200 scooter luggage tags. 

    Not only I I make 200, I made over twice that! I think I made right around 450. 

Of my five goals, I only knocked one out of the ballpark, one was a complete fail, and the others all had good progress made on them. 

Here's my empty spools of the year. Those spools held 17,422 yards, or 9.9 miles of thread.

I finished 15 quilts in 2025, nine of which were UFO's. 

After one year of DH's retirement down, and me having a better idea of what that means for my time, my goals are a lot less specific this year. 

1) Low buy year, unless I need fabric or other supplies for a specific project, I'm not going to be going crazy buying anything. I've been asked for several quilts with minky backing, and I'll have to buy the minky because I don't really have that in stash, but the tops and batting I should have in stash. If I'm traveling or go to a really cool quilt shop, I'm making individual fat quarters or remnants a legal buy. The only legal buys for yardage would be something like a perfect border fabric for a quilt I'm already working on, or replacing a bolt of a solid I keep in stash for backgrounds, IF I used up the bolt I currently have. An example of that is I try to always have a bolt of white, cream and black solid in stash. If I were to finish one of those bolts, I'd feel free to buy another. 

2) Keep multiple quilts basted so I can be consistent with my hour of FMQ per day. We do have travel planned for this year. One the hardest things I had to do when coming back from a trip was getting back into a normal routine. Normally, I FMQ the first hour of sewing on any given day, then I take a break from that and do some housework or whatever else needs to be done, before I go back to sewing other things. Most of the trips we went on this year, I had tried so hard to finish things up before we left, that I had no quilts basted for when we got back. So before I could get back to FMQ every day, I'd have to choose a quilt top, piece a backing, baste it, and then I could start quilting. This year, I'd like to always have more than one quilt basted and ready to quilt, so I can back to a routine ASAP. Currently, I have three quilts basted, and one that just needs binding. I'll bind that one before I start quilting another. 

3) Keep up with my progress on UFO's. I've been working through stacks of blocks I've squirreled away everywhere it seems. It's really easy to see that patchwork is my favorite part of quilting. I don't like assembling quilts during the summer, so with that in mind, I'd like to assemble as many quilts as I can before it gets hot again, then possibly work on some smaller projects during the summer. I'm also thinking summer will be a great time to concentrate on some piecing heavy projects, like crumb blocks. I've been making good progress getting UFO's moved along to the next stage, so this goal is more of a keep it up rather than something new. 

4) Make some pillowcases for donation. I'm not putting a number on it this year, I failed horribly when I did that last year. We'll just see if I can get any done. 

5) Work on deadline quilts. I've been asked to make several quilts with a goal of next Christmas. I'm not sure if I can get those all done by then, but it's a goal. 

I'm working on some non-quilt related goals right now as well, although some of those things will affect quilting. DH and are are doing a NO BUY January. We will, or course, pay our bills, and buy needed groceries, but discretionary spending is on hold. Lunch dates with my sister are allowed, as well as DH eating out when he's riding with his scooter club friends, but aside from those, we'll be eating at home, avoiding shopping as much as possible, and doing a big declutter as well.  My personal goal is to declutter 16 things per day in January. That puts me almost exactly at 500 things by the end of the month. I'll be going through my quilt books, quilting magazines, rulers, notions, etc... I've already started on kitchen items. Nothing makes me want to NOT shop like going through all the stuff I already have. 

Why do a NO BUY January, and or a big declutter? I find January to be a fantastic time to reset things. I've always believed the cheapest way to redecorate is to get rid of things. I do not have a goal of being a minimalist, but I do listen to a lot of minimalism podcasts. I like the idea of simplifying things, consuming less, and having space to breathe. The quilter in me looks at things and says, I can make a quilt from that shirt, tablecloth, sheet, whatever, and I could, and I have. I also know I would not be able to have the stash I do at today's prices. DH doesn't want me to get rid of any of my stash, and I may not be getting rid of any fabric right now, but I know I have quilting books that I've already made the pattern that interested me. I know I have books that I'm no longer interested in. The same with quilting magazines and notions. Some specialty rulers I use all the time, and others I've used once and never again. Should I keep things that are just taking up space? I don't think so. I also have had things like a stash of king sized batting, that I don't use often. Most quilts I make I can use a piece of batting cut off of a queen sized roll. I want to use up my king sized batting, and know that I can buy it as it I need it, I don't want it taking up space in my house for the "someday" when I'll need it.  

I'll be decluttering all over the house, but yes, I'll be doing some decluttering in the sewing/fabric rooms as well. My goal is to declutter 500 things in January, is that striking home with anyone else?

Merry Christmas!

It's a cool, rainy day here in Southern Arizona, and I'm loving it! Such a nice Christmas Eve! I've got a slow cooker filled with Chili Rellenos soup cooking for dinner. Perfect soup weather! I love soup, I love cool weather, I love rain, yes, it's a great day!

Tonight our visitors will be two of the granddogs, which we'll have for a week. Tomorrow I'm planning a small holiday meal with DH, my MIL, and my sister. Our big family Christmas won't be until January 3rd. 

I'm down to the last Christmas project, and I'm almost done that!

My last holiday project is some bibs made out of hand towels. This style bib is hands down my favorite. My mom made them for my kids, and I've made them for the grandkids. The only thing left to do is to sew the shapes down, they are already fused, and the ribbing on the collar is done. Adding the ribbing to the collar is the only fiddly bit to these, since I take the easy way out on applique and use fusible with a sewn zigzag stitch. I'll go back to sewing once I finish writing this post. 

I do have another finish for the year, it's number 15. This was made from leftover blocks from a larger quilt. I used the narrower border stripe in the border of this quilt, where I had used the wider border stripe on the other quilt. 

I am about 1/3 of the way done quilting another queen/king quilt. This one stays at my house, so it's kind of amazing it is actually being quilted! Stuff for us is usually the last done. There's a chance I could finish that quilt in 2025, but we've got a few things coming up, and I'm not sure how the dogs will handle me sewing, so we'll see. Even if I have to write 15 finishes as my total for 2025, it's more than I thought I'd get done, between so many of the quilts being huge, and traveling four months this year. 

I'm still working on my 2026 goals. I'm not certain how much traveling we'll be doing next year, we do have one long trip planned, but a couple others are possibilities. I know how much I get done is largely dependent on how much I'm actually home, and since that's a bit of an unknown, I'm going to try to be kind to myself and not overdo it on the goals. 

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas, and may your quilty dreams come true 😃

HUGE Project Off my To-Do List

Mid 2024 my SIL's house burned to the ground. The house went up quickly because the fire was being fed by a gas line. They thought their dogs got out of the house, but they hadn't. They did get all the people out, but they lost everything. I had already started quilts for a couple of them, and I decided after this trauma, I wanted to make sure all of them had a quilt for the new house. 

I needed to make five queen/king quilts, a toddler quilt and a baby quilt to make sure all of them had a quilt. I just finished the last quilt. I have showed the other quilts as I finished them, I just didn't mention who they were for. 

This quilt is 102" square. 

I think they will be moving into the new house in the next week or so, so I finished just in time!

Some of these quilts are replacements for ones that burned, not the same fabrics or patterns, but for people who already had a quilt from me. The others are quilts for the members of the family I hadn't gotten around to making a quilt for yet. Up until now I had been making my nieces and nephews quilts when they got married, but I decided this was a good time to just give them all a quilt. My only never been married nieces and nephews are in that family. 

I hope they like them, and really hope they understand that wrapping them in quilts is my way of showing them I love them. 

It feels really great to get such a huge project done. 

On the Christmas front, I'm down to the last two projects, so I think I'm good to go! We aren't doing family Christmas until January 3rd, so I have a few extra days anyway, but I think I can get everything done by Christmas Day. If I do, I can spend the last week of 2025 working on whatever I want!!!

Simplifying Christmas

 Once upon a time, when my kids were young, we did a lot of the Christmas things. I baked all kinds of Christmas cookies, we made gingerbread houses, there was Christmas decor all over the house. As our kids have grown and gone, things have changed, and I'm all for the changes. Sure, we have a few grandkids in town, but I figure most of the Christmas stuff should be done with their families. We had Christmas before we had children, and we'll have Christmas even if it's just the two of us at some future point in time.  Don't get me wrong, I have made gingerbread houses with the grandkids, I just don't consider it my job to do so. My grandkids are also growing up, so doing things like that is not as big of a factor anymore. 

I've been looking for ways to simplify Christmas. We do get together with the local family, but never on Christmas Day.  Families with young kids are busy, busy in December, and I don't want to add to their stress. This year, "family Christmas" will be in early January. The plus side of that for me is that I get a few extra days to get the presents sewn for the locals! 

Last year I did some brutal decluttering of Christmas decor. It's not a popular thing to admit, but I hate decorating the Christmas tree. I don't like having to rearrange the living room to fit a Christmas tree in the room, and why are most Christmas ornaments heavy, but the branches of either a live or fake tree can't handle the weight? 

OK, so I've admitted I don't like decorating the Christmas tree, but I have some Christmas ornaments that are really special to me. I debated making a quilted wallhanging, and attaching the best ornaments. I figured I could put the hanging loops over buttons or something, but then I started thinking about the weight of the ornaments again. While surfing the internet last year, I came across this post about a salvage wooden Christmas tree. I showed the post to DH, and told him I'd like him to make me something similar to that, but I'd still like to have Christmas lights, and a star on top, and I wanted to hang our ornaments from the knobs. The salvage tree was my inspiration, but I wanted it to be more us. 

Some people have designer Christmas trees, and if that's what you like, fantastic! I have always wanted my Christmas tree to be more meaningful than pretty, and very personal. For 41 years now, we've hung an "Our First Christmas Together 1984" ornament on our tree. If I purchased a new Christmas ornament, it had to have some kind of meaning to it, like the S'mores ornament I bought the year we started camping. I'm not sure quite how it started, but we started buying ornaments every time we took a trip. We took the kids to Disneyland, got an ornament. Went to a Broadway show, bought an ornament, went to Hawaii for our 25th anniversary, bought an ornament. DH went a medical mission trip to Ecuador, he came home with an ornament, DS the Elder travelled internationally quite a bit, and he brought us ornaments from Australia, Japan, and Egypt. We went to South Africa for DD#1's wedding, we bought an ornament. DD#2 did a mission trip in Peru, she got us an ornament. Our Christmas tree is not designer in the way that everything matches and is coordinated. It does, however, have a design, in that it tells the story of our lives. 

Several years ago, DS the Younger asked me why our tree looked like a homeless person's tree. I looked at the random stuff hanging on it, keychains from trips, handmade ornaments people had given us over the years, and I could see his point. It did look random, and even when I had the opportunity to buy fancy ornaments, I often opted for more meaningful ones. 

When we went to South Africa, I saw gorgeous ornaments, but what did I actually buy?

I bought this angel made out of a soda can! And it has such a great story, I've kept the tag on it all these years!

One of the stores we went into in South Africa had these amazing hand carved ornaments, but I came home with a soda can angel. Could I have bought both the fancy ornament and the soda can ornament? Sure I could have, but the soda can angel meant more to me. 

DH has been working on my Christmas tree for a few weeks now, but he finished it yesterday. 

Here it is with the lights and mismatched hardware. All the wood is from one pallet. Most of the knobs and other hardware I got at Hobby Lobby, but some we found at thrift stores and a couple thrift shops that sell leftover building supplies to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. We could have left it just like this, and it would still be fun, but I took our best ornaments, and hung them from the knobs and drawer pulls. 

Now it looks like this, and DH and I had fun decorating it, talking about all the trips we've taken, or the people who made the ornaments for us. 

I was never offended by the homeless people's tree comment. I knew our son was young and he didn't understand that the tree represented the course of our lives, the people we met, the places we went. Our tree is more mismatched and random than ever, and I love it! The only rearranging of the living room was to move the quilt rack over a couple feet, and this tree isn't an obstacle to take up massive amounts of space. 

I decorated the fireplace mantle, hung a wreath on the door, and put a couple decorations in the kitchen. It's simple, easy, and still feels like Christmas. It went up in just over an hour, and I could put it all away in less time than that. Instead of six totes and boxes of Christmas decor, I have two, plus the wooden tree. It's enough, it's simple, and it's us!