Good Start to the Year

 January has been a good start to my personal goals for the year. I've pretty much decluttered all the areas I wanted to declutter. I've always got a donation box going, so I'll toss things in there as I come across things I can pass on, but my major declutter is done. I was writing on the calendar how many things I got rid of each day, and my January total is 529 Items donated, 4 trash bags full and 2 boxes of things I didn't count individually. I really wanted to get to 500 items, and I passed that so it's a win! 

This was a no-buy month for me, and I did well on that too. Every time I thought of something I wanted, I put it on a list, and by the end of of the month, aside from a couple of grocery items, I only had one thing left on my list. What happened to the other things? I found stuff during my declutter that could be repurposed and made buying unnecessary. 

Here's a good example of that. I've been wanting a basket to store my onions in, to keep them away from the potatoes. My potatoes were sprouting too quickly near the onions. When I was decluttering the sewing room, I came across this basket which works fine for the onions.

I usually have far more onions in the house, the basket was full when I moved it to the kitchen. Onions are on my grocery list 😉

The one thing that stayed on my list, I broke no-buy for and picked it up at the thrift store I was dropping stuff off at. 

The plastic basket I used to keep my quilting tools in in my living room craft corner broke, and I needed something to put my tools and a couple small rulers into. The basket was probably 20 years old, so it wasn't really a surprise it broke. I had found something on Amazon that would work for just under $20, I wanted something that looked a little nicer than what I had. I looked around the thrift store for something that would work, and I found this.

Yes, I broke no-buy for it, but it was $8 instead of $20. The only other time I broke no-buy this month was when I suggested DH and I get to-go coffee on a daytrip to his sister's house. I, of course, paid all the bills, and took my turns paying for lunch when my sister and I go out each week, but that was a given. 

I reverse meal planned all month, starting my meal planning with stuff I already had. I managed to skip grocery shopping all together one week, and had two weeks of only spending $60, which with today's grocery prices I thought was great. I'm going to continue the pantry/freezer cleanout into February. DH won't complain a bit about that, he's been eating well, homemade pot pie, homemade soups (we love soup), Korean BBQ fried rice, gumbo, chili, spaghetti, etc...

In the evenings I've been tackling the backlog of fabric scraps. Since I just found all the quilt blocks I have made, I'm cutting whatever I need from the scraps to get those blocks into quilts.

I like the Dancing Nine Patch setting, so I've cut the scraps of several widebacks into the sashing for these quilts. I've also been cutting a lot of larger scraps into hourglass blocks for alternate blocks to go with the blocks I've already got. I'm sewing up the alternate blocks and sewing the sashings on the day after I cut them. I haven't been taking photos much, But I have assembled a lot of quilt tops this month, and my piles of quilt blocks are going down. Smaller scraps I'm cutting for the scrap user system. 

 I've cut some borders out of the scraps for quilts that need them. I found a group of scraps that work really well together, so I am going to cut one new quilt from those, but I will add some other scraps from my scrap user system to the new scraps, and the pattern I'm going to use need no background or borders, so it's a great scrap buster. 

I still have a lot more scraps to process.

This is the basket I keep for scraps at my cutting table, and yes, it's still full, a bit over-filled in fact. When I started processing scraps I could have filled this basket three times with all the scraps that were tossed all over the fabric room. I've got to have another basting spree, so I'm going to be making more scraps from making backings. I'm hoping to have an empty scrap basket by the end of March. Yes, it will fill up again, but if I can empty it, it won't be so overwhelming, and I am much better about using scraps when they are pre-cut. 

My other January goal was exercise, and I exercised 4-5 times per week which was my goal. 

So what's up for February? Now that my fabric room is cleaned up, I'm going to trash it by going through all the batting scraps and piecing Frankenbatting. I haven't tackled batting scraps in a couple years, so it's a huge undertaking. I'm going to be basting quilts too, so I'm not even sure I'll finish that in February. I'm almost done quilting another quilt, so most of my basting pins are free. I need to get another pile of quilts basted, and if I can use Frankenbatting for a bunch of those, it will help clear out space in my quilt closet. Piecing batting is not my favorite thing to do, but saving money on batting is something I do like, so it's worth it. It's also not that hard to do, I just procrastinate on doing it too long so I have a ridiculous amount of batting scraps to deal with. I don't mind piecing Warm and Natural, so I have pieced quite a bit of that for table runners and such, but the poly batting? Not much fun piecing that. I've debating switching to only using Warm and Natural batting, but with the number of quilts I tend to make, I can't afford to do that. Someday, if I find myself quilting less, I likely will make the switch. 

Since we didn't have any travel planned for the first quarter of the year, I really wanted to tackle the stuff I've been putting off, and set myself up for a successful year. If I can do as well in February, as I did in January, it will be great!

Too Many Plastic Containers and Finish #3

 I'm still in the decluttering, tidying up mode. Part of the reason my sewing areas got so out of hand is because of all the traveling we've done over the last few years. We've been gone a total of one year over the last four years, which is crazy! Every time we are getting ready to go away for an extended time, I try to tidy the house before we leave, so I don't come home to a mess. The thing is, a lot of those trips I had very little notice of, so it was more of a hide the mess situation, and pack for the trip. Several of those trips I had a sewing machine and projects with me. I haven't been brave enough to try actually quilting a quilt in hotel room, but I am great at piecing in a hotel room. 

When I'm not home, I'm not finishing any quilts, but I may be creating more quilt tops. When I get home, the projects I was working on in the hotel get set aside, and I often go straight to deadline quilts because someone is getting married, having a baby, or one of the grands asked for a quilt for their birthday. Can you see where I'm going with this? The projects I was working on before I left got set aside, the projects I was working on in the hotel got set aside, and then I start something new. Now if I know about a deadline quilt before we leave, it will likely be one of the projects I take to the hotel, so sometimes it works out OK-ish, but overall, the last few years have only added to my UFO list. 

The only way to evaluate what you have, is to dig it all out, which makes a massive mess. I showed a photo of my trashed fabric room in the last blog post. As I was digging down through the piles in my fabric room, I kept finding more and more plastic containers. Strings here, selvages there, sizes I pre-cut for my scrap user system that never got put away. LOTS of extra  units from projects I either overcut for, or changed the layout on so I needed a different number of pieces. I found leftover fabric scraps from projects that I finished, leftover backing fabric, that piece of fabric I lost and rebought because I couldn't find it. 

And I found projects, SOOOOOO many projects! I found projects I thought I had finished, projects I had forgotten about, projects that have been weighing on my mind because I wanted to finish them. I will give myself this much credit, most of the projects were in containers with my notes and usually with the fabric I needed to complete the project. 

So what have I been doing this week? Putting the pre-cut scraps away, putting the strings and selvages with the other strings and selvages. Stacking up the project boxes so I can see them and work through them. As I empty plastic containers, I'm getting rid of them. If I don't have as many containers, I'll have to deal with things before it gets this bad. 

DH hadn't wanted me to get rid of any fabric during my declutter, but I talked to him about it, and I got rid of any flannel scraps too small to make burp rags from. I got rid of any fleece scraps that weren't large enough for me to want to piece it into a backing. I also got rid of any nursery prints, because I really don't use them when making baby quilts. I like to make baby quilts a kid will like at least through age 5, so right there it eliminates using nursery stuff. I also got rid of any sports team fabrics that no one in our family routes for. The sports team fabric was leftover from the days I was making scrub tops on commision. I'm donating what I can, and tossing what I know the donation centers would toss. Yes, I try to keep things out of landfills, but keeping it in my house when I know deep down it's trash just makes my house a landfill. I don't know about you, but I don't want to live in a landfill.

My fabric room went from this

to this

Am I finished, no, but it feels better now. I'm working in my sewing room as well. I've been assembling quilt tops from all the quilt blocks I've found, and I'm cutting borders, sashing, and even alternate blocks from the scraps I've uncovered. 

I'm still FMQ an hour per day, and exercising right after too! I finished quilt #3 for this year!

I turned Bonnie Hunter's Rhododendron Trail Mystery Quilt into two quilts, and changed the setting. This quilt is a large full sized, or a smaller queen. 

I need to start basting some more quilts, since I'm almost out of basted quilts. For February my main project is going to be making Frankenbatting from all my batting scraps. I'll really need my cutting table downstairs free for basting and sorting batting scraps, so I brought all my scrap fabrics that need to be cut down to usable sizes up to my living room, and I'll work on that in the evenings while watching TV. 

This stack of plastic containers I found in my sewing room, went straight to recycling. The plastic shoebox type of containers I'll be donating as I empty them. I'll always have some project boxes around, but having too many just enables me to have too many projects going at once. The more I declutter, the more I learn about myself. I can't change things that trip me up until I identify them, so it's a good thing! 

Second Finish of 2026

 

The Greek Murder Mystery quilt from 2024 is finally finished! I did murder mystery quilts in both 2023 and 2024, and now both of those are finished. I used the colors the designer used, but I felt like the quilt wasn't cohesive. I had the border print in stash, and it had a lot of colors in the main quilt, so I added another border. I think it brings the quilt together fairly well. 

I'm almost halfway done quilting another large quilt. It would be nice to have another finish to show you soon, but we'll see. My decluttering has turned into doing some rearranging in both my fabric room and my sewing room, so they are both a hot mess right now. 

The disaster that is my fabric room. It gets worse before it gets better, right? One part of my fabric room that does look better is the bookcase. I still haven't dealt with the leftover fabrics from Christmas sewing. I didn't take a photo of my sewing room today, but at one point you couldn't walk through it because of rearranging things, but now I can get to all the sewing machines without a problem. There are still things to be dealt with, but the fabric room is the bigger disaster. 

My goal was to get the magazines, and quilt books all on this narrow corner shelf. I was OK with the FMQ books staying in the sewing room, but you know what? I got rid of enough that all my books are on this shelf, along with all the larger quilt patterns that don't fit in the drawer I use for those, plus I still have space!!! I was really glad I went through all the quilting magazines and books in about a week. It really made me realize how many patterns are just re-done with different fabrics and republished. One book I bought for a specific pattern, I realized I had the same pattern in the same fabrics in TWO quilting books, plus in a magazine! I kept enough books that I have plenty of eye candy, but what really helped me to let things go was looking through my quilt closet. Most of the quilts hanging in there were not made from a pattern at all. They were either based on something I saw online, or I designed it from scratch. 

There is still so much to do, but I think in the end I'll be happier with the changes. I've also been busy sewing up all the stacks of quilt blocks I keep finding into quilt tops. I haven't taken many photos of the design wall, but here is one of the latest.

Lest you think I am all work and no play, I did catch a beautiful sunset.

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?