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

Update: Out of the box / debating fabrics - February 27, 2026

Update: Decided on block design - WIP - March 8, 2026

Update: All basket blocks and corner blocks done / working on border #2 - Week 11, 2026

Update: Assembling the blocks/borders - Week 16, 2026

Update: Flimsy and Pieced backing - April 20-22, 2026

6) Scrappy 4-inches blocks (Diamond in a square)

7) Crumb quilt

8) Got the Blues - Progress: Thread basted

Update: Quilting completed June 19, 2026 / Waiting for ordered binding fabric

9) Poppy Wall quilt

10) Granny Squares

11) Swirling Stars RSC - flimsy Jan 27, 2026

Update: Thread basted and started custom quilting (February 8, 2026)

Update: Waiting for ordered quilting thread (February 25, 2026)

FINISHED MARCH 27, 2026

12) Star Streams / Progress: Thread basted 2025

WIP: Quilting (week #4 - 2026) - FINISHED JAN 31, 2026

13) Patchwork Potpourri

14) Star Quilt / Brown and Orange RSC

 WIP: Making remining blocks (second week Jan 2026)

Flimsy (Jan 11, 2026)

Update: Thread basted February 5, 2026

Update: Started custom quilting the blocks April 8, 2026

FINISHED MAY 5, 2026

15) 182 Day Solstice RSC

Update: WIP: Last block (#8) / assembling blocks - April 13, 2026

Update: Flimsy April 16, 2026

16) 35 Scrap Jar blocks RSC - Work in progress (end Dec 2025) 

Update: 2 flimsies + pieced backings (first week Jan 2026)

Update: Thread basted - May 17, 2026

2x FINISHED MAY 27, 2026

17) 94 Zip It (Zipper) blocks RSC - WIP (Jan 28, 2026): First blocks sewn together

Update: Flimsy (Jan 31, 2026)

Update: Thread basted (beginning February 2026)

FINISHED MAY 13, 2026

18) 64 Split Nine blocks RSC

19) Kris Kringle Kit

20) Country Charm / Progress: Thread basted

Update: Quilting: End of May 2026

FINISHED JUNE 7, 2026

21) Ocean Waves (Half Square Triangles from RSC and other blocks) 

WIP -  beginning Jan 2026

   FINISHED MAY 7, 2026

22) Christmas Table Topper

FINISHED MAY 16, 2026

23) Tea cozy / Keep Believing - WIP (Jan 12, 2026) / FINISHED JAN 15, 2026

24) Small Wall quilt / Keep believing - Progress: Flimsy (Jan 11, 2026)

FINISHED JAN 24, 2026

25) Mini-Dwellings (leftover house block  from Dwellings)

Update: embroidery part drawn - March 15, 2026

Update: Embroidery done / Thread basted May 13, 2026

Update: Started quilting end of May 2026  

26) Coffee with Dad RSC

Update: WIP: Piecing together blocks (February 25, 2026)

Update: Flimsy - February 27, 2026

Update: Thread basted March 8, 2026

FINISHED MAY 8, 2026

27) Sherry McConnel BOM 2025 RSC - WIP

Update: Flimsy August 2026

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! 

January 2025 - Time (again!) for UFOs

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Here we go again! UFOs / WIPs 2025! 

I know I'm one week early, but I also know there's no chance I'll get any of these UFOs / WIPs finished before 2025! 

I've been a slug the last couple of years, finished only a few. 

The list does not differ much from January 2024, just added a few more! Haha! 

1) New York Beauty - Finished February 18, 2025

Progress 2024: blocks pieced together, thread basted, ready for quilting

2) PSQ 36-patches

Progress: more blocks added 

3) Wedding Ring quilt

Progress: Zero!

4) Scrappy Christmas Stars

Progress: Zero!

5) Advent Calendar Woodland - Finished 2023

6) Christmas Card Holder

Progress: Decided on fabric

7) Vegetable wall hanging/storage - Finished 2022

8) Basket Quilt

Progress: Zero!

9) Scrappy 4"

Progress: Zero!

10) Pineapple Quilt - Finished 2024

Take photos!

11) Crumb Quilt

Progress: Zero!

12) Irish Chain - Finished January 2024

Take Photos!

13) Got the Blues

Progress: All blocks done

14) Poppy Wall Quilt

Progress: Zero!

15) Scrappy Flannel Quilt

Progress: Zero!

16) Tomten's Quilt - Finished May 17, 2025

Progress: All blocks done, ready for sashing

17) Granny Squares

Progress: Zero!

18) House Quilt (Dwellings) Finished April 10, 2025

Progress: Zero

19) Snowman Wall Quilt

Progress: Thread basted, ready for quilting Finished April 30, 2025

20) Swirling Stars - RSC 2024

Progress: All blocks done

21) Star Streams

Progress: Flimsy + pieced backing, purchase batting

22-1) Bases Loaded, Purple - Finished May 13, 2024

Take Photos!

22-2) No name purple - Finished Jan 12, 2025

Progress: thread basted, ready for quilting

23) Patchwork Potpourri

24) Star Quilt / Brown Orange

Progress: Zero

25) Flag Table Runner - Finished Jan 9, 2024

26) Keep the Home Fires Burning - RSC 2024 - Finished March 12, 2025

Progress: Flimsy + pieced backing, purchase batting

27) A Quilting Life BOM 2024 - RSC 2024 Finished June 8, 2025

Flimsy + pieced backing + batting, ready to be quilted

28) 182 Day Solstice 

Progress: 13 out of 25 blocks made

29) 35 Scrap Jar blocks

Progress: Made blocks only

30) 94 Zipper blocks

Progress: Made blocks only

31) 64 Split 9 blocks

Progress: Made blocks only

32) Kris Kringle KIT

Progress: Zero! 

33) Country Charm

Progress: Blocks made for the center unit

Currently making blocks for this one. 

Knitting / Stitchery / Cross-Stitching

Shawl - (knitting)

Open Finger Gloves (knitting)

Santa (knitting)

Gnome (knitting)

Bed Cover (knitting)

Granny Square Blanket (crocheting)

Over the River and Through the Woods (stitchery)   -  Finished Dec 14, 2025

Progress: First section done. Started third section.

Bits of Blue (cross-stitching)  Sampler finished June 22, 2025

Progress: Zero

As you can see, there are way too many! I'm not saying I'm going to finish ALL by 2025. My goal; I'll be happy if I can finish one per month. 

What about you? Are UFOs top priority 2025? 

I think I'll start with a piece of Banana- Rum Bars I made yesterday! YUM! 

January 2024 - Time (again!) for UFOs

 HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! 

So, here we go again; UFO's 2024! 

I was a slug last year! Out of 18 UFO's (quilts), I finished only one! And that was an Advent Calendar. I also finished two small cross stitched wall hangings. 

Did I make more UFO's to add to the list in 2023? Of course I did! 

Thanks to the RSC (Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2023), I can add 4 UFO's to the list! Plus some scrappy blocks I started and a Patriotic Table Runner I had forgotten about. That makes it a total of 23 UFO's! YIKES! 

 My GOAL is to finish at least 12 UFO's this year. Will I manage? I have to do better than last year!!! LOL

1) New York Beauty Quilt

Progress: blocks pieced together, thread basted, ready for quilting

2) PSQ 36-patches

Progress: more blocks added

3) Wedding Ring Quilt

Progress: Zero! 

4) Scrappy Christmas Stars

Progress: Zero!

5) Christmas Card Holder

Progress: Decided on fabrics

6) Basket Quilt

Progress: Zero!

7) Scrappy 4" squares

Progress: Zero

8) Scrappy Pineapple Quilt

Progress: thread basted, ready for quilting

9) Crumb Quilt

Progress: Zero!

10) Irish Chain Quilt, blue & white

Progress: thread basted, ready for quilting

11) Got the Blues Quilt

Progress: all blocks done

12) Poppies Wall Hanging

Progress: Zero! 

13) Scrappy Flannel

Progress: Zero! 

14) Tomten's Quilt

Progress: Zero!

15) Granny Squares Quilt

Progress: Zero!

16) House Quilt

Progress: Purchased fabric for sashing

17) Snowman Wall Hanging

Progress: Thread basted, ready for quilting

UFO's added 2023:

18) Swirling Stars Quilt

Latest: all blocks done

19) Star Streams Quilt

Latest: Zero!

20) Bases Loaded, Purple Quilt

Latest: Purchased fabric for backing

21) Patchwork Potpourri Scrappy

Latest: Zero!

22) Orange/Brown Star Quilt  

Latest: Purchased a few orange FQ's / buy fabric for backing?

23) Patriotic Table Runner

Progress: Thread basted, ready for quilting

Knitting / Crocheting / Stitchery

24) Shawl (knitting)

25) Open Finger Gloves (knitting)

26) Santa (knitting)

27) Gnome (knitting)

28) Bed cover / Tablecloth (knitting)

29) Granny Squares Blanket (crocheting) 

30) Over the River and Through the Woods stitchery - here - Finished Dec 14, 2025

Progress: Nothing since the above photo was taken

WISH ME LUCK! 

It's that time of the year; to attack UFO's!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! 

 So, here we go again! UFO's! 

2022 was not a good year for me to finish UFO's. Out of 15 UFO's, I finished 2 only; an Advent Calendar (waited for thread) and a vegetable wall hanging. Actually I loved those fabrics so much that I used it all up! Click here to see the items I made. After I finished these, I totally lost interest and haven't touched the UFO's. I hope 2023 will be a better year to finish some at least. 

I'm joining APQ UFO CHALLENGE 2023

Update: APQ's January challenge is #3

...the second UFO I finished in 2022 is the Advent Calendar #13. It seems like there's always something with those calendars, because I have another one that is not done. For the already finished one, I ran out of fabric for backing, sleeve and binding. Easy-peasy to finish.

For this one, 1/4 left to quilt when I ran out of quilting thread. More on the way. 

Cross-stitching

Knitting/crocheting

I'm not really that bad?! I've added 3 new Quilt UFO's and 2 Cross-Stitching UFO's to the list last year (2022)! There may be others hiding, out of sight - out of mind! 

UFO's to finish 2023

1) Basket Quilt

2) Scrappy 4" 

3) Pineapple Quilt (top done) 

4) Crumb Quilt

5) Irish Chain blue & white (top done) 

6) Got the Blues

7) Poppies Wall Hanging black & white

8) Flannel Quilt Scrappy

9) New York Beauty (top done)

10) Postage Stamp blocks 2.5"

11) Wedding Ring Quilt

12) Scrappy Christmas Stars

13) Advent Calendar Woodland

14) Christmas Card Holder

15) Gnome Quilt

16) Granny Square Quilt Moda Marbles

17) House Quilt (Dwellings) Moda Marbles

18) Snowman WH

Cross-Stitching

19) Through the Woods LHN (cross stitch)

20) Winter Wonderland LHN (cross stitch)

Knitting / Crocheting

21) Shawl (knitting)

22) Open Finger Gloves (knitting)

23) Santa (knitting)

24) Gnome (knitting)

25) Bed Cover/Tablecloth (knitting) 

26) Granny Squares blanket (crochet)

WISH ME GOOD LUCK! lol

Bag, pillows and Granny Squares

How fit are you craft wise when having the flu? I caught that darn bug 1,5 weeks ago and still I'm not feeling well. Of course I'm up and kicking, but still on slow motion. I don't really feel for doing anything, but I can't just sit there doing nothing - that's not me! It's better to do something for so to take a long rest afterwards. Got a bottle of coughing mixture from the pharmacy, which really knocks me out... But I'm not going to blog about that flu bug...

We went to Port Louis (the capital) last Friday and I bought bag feet for the market bag I was working on. I struggled with the bag bottom, because I wanted it a bit stiff. The combination of 'bag-newbie' and 'not-getting-what-you-need' require your brain to work on high speed; how to solve the problem?!

The pattern required a piece of template plastic for the bottom, but still I thought that was not good enough... I set my brain into top gear and came up with the idea to glue Peltex/Pellon 71F to the template plastic. The pattern says 'glue template plastic to bag bottom using a glue gun'.... So I thought I was clever when I glued the F71 to each side of the template plastic - using the glue gun!

WRONG! Even if I put heavy things on it; mortar (made of stone!), heavy pans and pots etc the night over, no way it glued the layers together!!!

So I thought; next solution is shoe glue! Same procedure - same result! :(((( Do you believe I was happy?!

Then I decided to put it on hold, wait until the trip to Port Louis,  buy bag legs - as the last solution! In the meantime - while waiting for the bag legs - I came up with another solution; sew the 3 layers - peltex, template plastic and peltex - together, using the sewing machine - it did work! No idea why I didn't think of that before I tried all that darn glueing?!

It worked! Here's the market bag.

The closure on each side. I had wanted some more fancy, decorative buttons, but you know... I should not say it again.... :)

... and finally; the bottom and the legs! :)

I had to use black, plastic rectangular rings for the handles - only rings of that size available here...

The bag is quite big; 14,5 x 26,5 x 53 cm / 5,5 x 10,5 x 20 inch.

The pattern is from Australian Homespun, and I LOL  when I read the pattern heading; '....it's so oversized that your partner won't be aware of how many purchases you've bought home!' :))

I'm not sure what kind of fabric I've used, it is definitely not 100% cotton. It is quite stiff and thick, and not very easy to sew through thick layers. Even if I used size 14 and 16 sewing machine needles, it kind of slipped on the weaving and made some of the seams uneven... If you take a closer look at the last photo - bottom - you'll see what I mean...  Not very happy about that, but I'm not sure it was possible to do it different... Quite some struggles putting this bag together - PHEW! But,  I've learnt a little bit more on bag-making! :)

Well, that was the bag.... What do you do about all the tiny pieces of scraps after squaring blocks, pieces that are too small to be kept for scrap quilts, thread ends etc? I bet all of you throw it all in the bin, don't you?!

I don't! I have been collecting all this bits over the last four years. No, I'm not insane! I have collected it in mind for pillow filling, to be used for making big pillows for the couch (?) in the dining room.

Over a period of four years I had collected 4-5 big plastic bags - 14 kilos/30 pound! with scraps etc. that took up space on the floor in the studio/ex-sewing room.

I shouldn't write this, but it had collected a lot of dust. My advice is; if you are allergic or asthmatic, don't do this, I believe it will cause some problems to you!

Stuffing the pillow inserts. I had just enough to make four inserts, measuring 60 x 60 x 10cm / approx 21 inch square + 4 inch.

Here they are; the four pillow inserts. I've already bought fabric and zippers for the pillow cases, but don't know when I'll start working on it...

Some of you might recall I have mentioned my crocheted granny squares... I bought 100% wool yarn during my visit to Norway last year. Crocheting has never been 'my thing', I've only done one pair of pot holders... Oh, now I remember; I crocheted a turquoise sweater in my teens...! Loved it to pieces - literally! :) Except from those projects, I can't recall I have done other crocheting projects...

What is better than to snuggle up on the couch, wrapped in a quilt, drinking hot cocoa and crocheting granny squares when not feeling fit for doing anything else?! :)

I didn't know I miss working with wool yarn that much... I did a lot of knitting when I lived in Norway, using wool as well as cotton yarn...  

I have enough yarn - mix of wool and acrylic - I think it is, for a pair of socks. Yes, I'm wearing wool socks these 'winter' months. :) I have a knitting UFO as well; a pair of wrist warmers/fingerless gloves... I'm going to wear them during the 'winter' months too, because I'm always so cold on my wrists. 

Don't know when they will be finished... :)

I've finished an Easter table topper and have left to do a small piece of the binding on the Easter wall hanging UFO, but that will be another post...