A little progress....................

I made a little progress on my slow project.  I sewed the brown narrow strip on the right to its neighbor green strip. Then I sewed the 4 patches together and I'm pretty sure that will be the next border there.    It is a smidge too long so I will probably just trim it off after I sew it to the center.  The brown stripe strip across the bottom won't be sewn on until I decide if it needs a narrow strip on the left and another strip on the right.  I also need to decide if the top border will just be a strip of fabric, not a pieced border.  It is approximately 32" x 36" now.  I want it to end up at least 50" x 70".

I was in the basement yesterday morning while doing laundry.  I decided to check out this box.  It was on the floor under one of my tables and I knew it had pieces that are 2.5" wide.  There was a pile on top where I had just been dropping new pieces, mostly leftovers from binding strips there for a few years.  When I opened it I found that it was nearly full and when I added the pieces that had been on top of it, I couldn't get the lid on.

I peeled back the top layers on the left to see what was near the bottom.  Some strips are full width in the box too, leftovers from some cutting from many years ago.

Then I peeled back a layer on the right side.  I will probably start sorting through it some evening this month.  First I'll pull all of the full width strips and then sort by length for the rest of them.

I also got 2 pieces of batting cut, one for a large quilt and one for a baby quilt.  Now I need to sew the long seam in the backing for the large quilt.

Sample block...................

Another thing I want to do this year is make a test block for all of my dies and hopefully one a week.  I started yesterday with this Pine Burr die.  I remember a friend of mine made a quilt with this pattern back in the late 1990s and I liked the quilt.

I decided to use some small chunks of Cherrywood fabric for this one.  I didn't have the gold fabric lined up quite right for the cut so it is short on 2 of the outside edges.  I think I may be able to trim it  into a square in spite of that mis-cut and I could make a mug rug with it.  Mainly I want to see if the die is accurate and how long it takes to make a block.  This will help me decide how large of a project I would want to make with the die.  This one is a 10" finished block.  I might test all 10" blocks first and they could be used in a sampler type quilt if I stick with the same kind of fabric.

We're in the midst of a heat wave....it will get up to 44 today and in the 50s by Thursday.  No icy pavement on my walk into the PT building. They did mention snow later in the week but rain to follow it.  

Still searching......................

I'm still having fun looking for UFOs so I haven't sewn anything for several days.  The first few days of a new month are usually pretty low key for me.

The Farm Girl Vintage quilt was started in October 2015 and I think the last time I worked on it was in December of 2019.  This post was probably the last time I put the blocks up on the design wall and I made a few more after that, more little chicks and a sewing machine.

When I started making it I thought I would have plenty of the background fabric but now I'm not sure I do.  The white background matches Kona Snow pretty well so there may be a few blocks with it in them.  There are lots of different size blocks so there will be filler blocks to make it all fit together.  I think this is the year to finish this one.

When I took my empty spools to the basement to put them in the BIG bag, I thought maybe you would like to see how many spools I've emptied since mid-2002.  I went to a workshop in June 2002 and when I was talking to another student, we were talking about empty spools.  I was telling her I had a lot of them and she said her little girls would love to have them to play with.  I sent her all I had and this is the collection since then.  I was told this plastic wasn't one of the kinds that they recycle so they live in this bag. 

I have these batik strip pieced groups with little bulldog clips holding all of the ones the same width together.  Back in this post from close to 10 years ago, I was trimming them to widest width each had available.

I had these 3 crazy pieced blocks in the same drawer with the strips and I know I want to work them into whatever I make. I also want to use some plain batik strips in the project.  My problem here is this will be a project that takes quite a while on the design wall which means I can't put anything else up there for a length of time.  In the winter with shorter daylight I work more in my main floor studio and less time in the basement where the rest of the design walls are.

Since I'm doing these posts with UFOs all in one week, I will have an easy time going back to review the projects and decide which one I'll work on next.  I didn't get the batting cut yesterday so I want to get that done today.

Time to get busy.................

I really didn't do much yesterday other than look through things.  I found this stack of 8.5" squares, 87 of them.  They are flannel, corduroy, homespuns, and denim cut from old jeans.  In December 2011 I made 2 quilts with similar fabrics for 2 great-nephews who would graduate from high school soon.  This link takes you to one of them.  Scroll down in this post to see the other one.  I think most of the pieces in this pile were cut within a few months of making those 2 quilts.  If I cut one more square I could make a quilt 64" x 88".

I was looking for this stack of flannel 16 patches, and I thought there was over 40 of them.  I only counted 37 this time.  I wonder if I used some in another quilt or if the pile just got separated.  I might make some more blocks in blue and green for more variety of color and for a larger quilt.

Here are my empty spools from 2025.  The skinny ones with bases on them had 1200 yards each.  I made a lot of small projects last year compared to previous years.

I started 2 new dishcloths while I decided what to do next.  I need to get busy today and get something done.  I need to cut batting and piece a backing for a big quilt and batting for a baby quilt.

UFOs I may want to work on................................................

I'll start with the oldest UFO, from 1991.  It is an original design small piece I started in a workshop.  It only needs 2 side borders and it could be a baby quilt.  You will get to see the whole thing when I finish it, which will be soon.

This is the second oldest one.  I started it in 2013.  Here is the latest photo of the layout which I will need to refer back to.  I thought I had all of the blocks sewn and that photo confirms it.  It looks like I will have a border to piece after I get the main part pieced.  I'm so close to done on this one that I think this is the year to do it.

I have another from a few years ago and I haven't found it yet.  I moved it when the plumber had to put in a new pipe at the basement ceiling.  You know where it is, then you move it and it is a mystery where it ended up.  Well, back to this photo, these blocks are from the end of 2024.  I had determined a layout so they are pinned in columns ready for me to decide if I'm going to fight with matching all of the points when sewing blocks together, or if I'm going to put a very narrow sashing between blocks.  Here is the post where I was deciding on a layout.

When I was in the basement looking around, I found this box with 2 triangle squares from all of the same fabrics as the stars.  Maybe they could be used in a border.  I need to make a decision and get this one done too.

This has been on a design wall in the basement for about 6 months, nothing sewn here, just a layout.  I need to cut more of the half square triangles if I'm going to really make this one.

I have lots of other pieces cut for it and for another quilt, cutting for two at the same time.  I started the layout for the other one but then took the pieces off the wall because I want to work on a larger design wall.

Also started last year was this medallion quilt.  I intended for it to be a slow process quilt to be made over a long period of time.  Last night I put the 4 patches up on the right side to see if they are a contender for one of the borders.  I need to sew on those 2 strips first and find a strip for the top and then I can  make more decisions on it.

I looked out at just the right time to take a photo of the super moon.  There is a little echo moon to the left of it and that is probably because I took the photo through a window.  It was 16 degrees outside and I didn't want to go out.

2025 Yearly recap................

I had 32 finishes in 2025.  Eight of them were designated to be baby quilts and 2 are wall hangings.  I quilted 12 of them on my Pfaff 7570.  The large ones were longarm quilted by Robin Diaz.  (If you want more details on any of them, just click on the label 'monthly recap' on my right sidebar.  That will show you what month it was finished if you want to search back farther.)

I made 24 new quilt tops.  18 of them are now finished quilts and one was sold.  The best news is that I'm going into the new year with less than 20 tops (19 to be exact) waiting to be quilted.  It has been a l.o.n.g time since that has happened.  Some years I had as many as 40 waiting to be quilted and most often numbered in the 30s.

I'm unhappy with the collage maker in Picasa3, that it divided the tops into 2 sections with small on one side and large on the other.  I clicked on the 'shuffle photos' button many times but this is the only layout it would do.  I haven't found another collage maker that I like so I guess I need to just chill out.

2025 was a big year of making small items, table pieces is what I call them.  They incorporated orphan blocks or pieces of patchwork made many years ago.  I still have some of them: 4 table runners, 4 square table mats, and 11 mug rug size pieces.  All of the rest were gifted.  Some are pictured twice being both in a collage and in a separate photo.  I counted 39 individual pieces. I'm not going to redo the collage.

I don't take photos of all of the dishcloths I knit because there are usually 2 from each ball of yarn and sometimes I knit from 2 balls alike so there are 4 alike.  This collage shows some of the colors I knitted, my evening relaxing therapy during the nightly news on TV.

All day yesterday I searched for UFOs that need attention.  I had 3 that I remembered without even looking for them.  I'll show some on tomorrow's post and hopefully they will get finished in 2026. 

Monthly recap for December 2025......................

December had 8 finishes.  I really wanted a lot of the baby quilts finished in 2025.  Top left Game Board, 39" square made with Kaffe collective fabrics, next, flannel tumblers baby quilt, 39" square.  Next is flannel Bullseye pattern baby quilt, 30" x 39.25" (gifted to my 2 year old great-grandson).  Last in the top row, Pinwheels baby quilt, 33.5" square.  Bottom row: Blue batik Interweave, 54.25" x 74.25", next Rectangles and Squares, made with Kaffe collective fabrics, 52.5" x 74".  Next in line is yarn dyed woven plaids and stripes in a 16 Patch baby quilt, 39" x 47", and last, the Medallion made of Kaffe collective fabrics is 59.5" x 80".  The 3 larger ones were quilted by Robin Diaz, the 5 small ones I quilted on my Pfaff 7570.

I completed only one quilt top, made of flannel fabric, and it is 32" x 40".  It will probably be my first finish in 2026.

I was hoping to finish another table runner, but ended the month with just one finish.  It is Christmas fabrics and is 14.75" x 34.5".

Now for my own records I need to post the stats on this last finish of 2025.  A stack of 13 pinwheel blocks made several years ago were the starting point for this top.  I decided on point would make the quilt larger and also use all 13 blocks.  It is 33.5" square, a nice small baby quilt.

I chose the black background zebra fabric for the back and a white with black irregular stripe for the binding.  The batting is white Quilter's Dream.