Friday, January 2, 2026

JANUARY 2026 - Time (again!) for UFOs and Goals for the New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!


Here we go again! UFOs / WIPs / RSC 2026! 

I think I'd better start with the UFO's I did finish in 2025: 
You can see them all here

1) New York Beauty
2) Keep Believing / Tomten's Quilt
3) Dwellings / House quilt
4) Snowman wall quilt
5) No name purple quilt
6) Keep the Home Fires Burning
7) Sherri McConnell BOM 2024
8) Over the River and Through the Woods


My UFO/WIP/OGP list for 2025 is as long as a freight train and here is an updated list per January 1, 2026. It does not look much better compared to the 2025 list! YIKES!!!

1) PSQ 36-patches blocks
2) Wedding Ring quilt
3) Scrappy Christmas Stars
4) Christmas Card Holder
5) Basket quilt
6) Scrappy 4-inches blocks (Diamond in a square)
7) Crumb quilt
8) Got the Blues - Progress: Thread basted
9) Poppy Wall quilt
10) Granny Squares
11) Swirling Stars RSC
12) Star Streams / Progress: Thread basted 
13) Patchwork Potpourri
14) Star Quilt / Brown and Orange RSC
15) 182 Day Solstice RSC
16) 35 Scrap Jar blocks RSC - Work in progress (end Dec 2025) 
Update: 2 flimsies + pieced backings (first week Jan 2026)
17) 94 Zipper blocks RSC
18) 64 Split Nine blocks RSC
19) Kris Kringle Kit
20) Country Charm / Progress: Thread basted
21) Half Square Triangles (from RSC blocks) - WIP beginning Jan 2026
22) Christmas Table Topper
23) Tea cozies / Keep Believing
24) Small Wall quilt / Keep believing
25) House block (leftover from Dwellings)
26) Coffee with Dad RSC
27) Sherry McConnel BOM 2025 RSC
28) Eclipse RSC
29) Scrappy blocks RSC
30) Hollow Nine blocks RSC
31) Scrappy Flannel blocks



Knitting / Crocheting: 


Shawl - knitting
Open finger gloves - knitting
Santa - knitting
Gnome - knitting
Bed cover - knitting
Granny Squares blanket - crocheting

As you can see, there are way too many! It won't be possible to finish them all by end of 2026. My goal is to finish at least one per month. Let's see how that goes! 
What about you? Do you have any goals for 2026? 

HAPPY QUILTING! 


Thursday, January 1, 2026

Two Finishes! Tomten's Quilt and BOM 2024

How come I've forgotten to take photos of these two finished beauties?! 
 I think the distraction of my faulty Bernina (in June) is to blame. 

Now, for about two weeks, I've been waiting for nicer weather to take photos, but 'of course' the weather went worse. Today (Jan 1, 2026), the sun is shining from blue sky.

Tomten's Quilt (Keep Believing), #14 on my UFO list 2024 / #16 UFO list 2025


6 blocks were done in 2024 and the remaining 24 in 2025
My intention was to make it into a flimsy at that point, which didn't happen. 
 I ran out of the red fabric (Moda Marbles Brick Red) and had to order more. When I got it, I decided to finish it.

There are 9 duplicate mini panels. I wanted to make the blocks all unique, but that meant buying a coordinating panel and that was no-no! As many of you know, I purchase fabric from abroad. International shipping has become extremely expensive. Sometimes the shipping cost comes to more than the item price! From this year (2025), I'm on SFD (Strict-Fabric-Diet)! That doesn't mean I'm not going to buy anything at all, it means only buying what I really need to finish a project. So far, so good! 

How to quilt it, is always my question. Depending on the design, it doesn't always fit the quilt to do FMQ. For me, that is meandering or loopy swirls design. I decided to custom quilt the blocks. It takes time of course, but is well worth it for the final result. 


Aren't these guys too cute?! 



First, I quilted in-the-ditch (in the seamline) around the star spikes, then the snowflakes background. The four cornerstones got an X and I did another seam half an inch inside the HSTs. 


I needed to do something with the small panels (star centers). I did in-the-ditch around the star center panels and from spikes to spikes. Quite a lot of quilting, AND wrestling (arm exercise!), for not to forget those not so nice words! LOL


The backing has small gnomes on dark blue. 


First blocks made: 2022 (or maybe 2021?)
Flimsy: April 2025
Thread basted and quilted: May 2025
Finished: May 17, 2025


Sherri McConnel's BOM 2024

I was not going to do any BOM! 
...and see what happened! 

I couldn't resist Sherri's BOM 2024. 
I had sew much fun making these blocks in RSC (Rainbow Scrap Challenge) colors. 


I like how it turned out in RSC colors. 
You may notice there are two red blocks. I ran out of RSC colors and decided to make one more block in red.



Each block is custom quilted. 


The sashing has white dots on black and small corner stones in a variety of colors


The border is a batik I've had for years. You know the phrase; 'too beautiful to be cut'! lol 


I did a pieced backing for this quilt.


First block made: January 2024
Flimsy: Dec 2024
Finished: June 8, 2025



Saturday, December 20, 2025

Over the River and Through the Woods - It's a FINISH!

 FINALLY! ...after 16 years...!!!!
Over the River and Through the Woods is completed! 
My goal was to finish it by the end of this year (2025), and here it is: 

It took me some time deciding how to quilt it. I had a look at several quilts on Pinterest and it looks like many of them are longarm quilted, which is not an option for me. 


I decided on crosshatch design on the stitcheries. I was worried I'd mess it up if I tried something else! (I did not press it before taking photos).
Did you notice? I did fix the sides of the stitcheries. You can see 'before' here


The sashing is quilted in straight lines one quarter inch from the seam



Star blocks are quilted in a star design. 
To avoid bulk, all seams in the blocks are pressed open. 

The Flying Geese border;


I have outlined the 'geese' and the background is free-motion-quilted

Pieced backing
I decided on browns. 
Happy to say most of these fabrics are used up.


I've had that faux floral border piece for years. An old lady in Norway (known through a friend) got a box with lots of goodies at a quilt shop. Sadly the shop had to close down and there were lots of bargains. Oh what fun to open that box! I didn't know what to do with that piece of floral border, I don't know how many times it has been in and out of the shelf! I think it was waiting to be used on this quilt! 
The block contains 'Flying geese' blocks I found too dark (not enough contrast) and one too red, for the border. Several other brown pieces are used up. 


Size: Approximately 51.5 x 57.5 inches / 131 x 146 cm
Fabric used: Approximately 10 yards (all from my stash) 

Floss / thread used:

Floss: ThreadWorx #10351 Rustic Brown Cherry (overdyed floss)

- MasterPiece 180, 136, 167, 153
- King Tut: 997, 900, 983


****************

Pattern bought: June 2009
Fabric purchased: 2010 (Norway)
Stitchery preparation: January 2023
Completed: December 14, 2025