Year-End Wrap Up

I almost didn’t do this. I was disappointed about how many things got finished in 2024, but I thought about it for a few days and realized my blog is a record for me of what I’ve done and when I did it. 

I sometimes refer back to posts I’ve made when I am trying to remember when something happened or to find a picture of a quilt or whatever. 

I went through my 2024 camera roll and made a few collages of finished projects. They aren’t all quilts. In fact, they are mostly not quilts. I didn’t include quilts I quilted for customers. 

This one includes three quilts. The one with the gray border was donated to Day One Project, and the one in the lower right corner was donated to The Gabriel Project. The farm animal placemats and table runner were donated to a local church fundraiser.

Two quilts in this one plus potholders, crocheted dish cloths, and scissor cases. The quilt in the middle right spot is on my bed as we speak.

No quilts in this one. Mostly tea towels, scissor cases, potholders, dish cloths.

Last one. This includes a large quilt I made for a church raffle. The pumpkins were donated to a church fund raiser, there is a whole stack of crocheted dish cloths, a pin cushion, and a quilted jacket. 

All in all, not many large projects. That’s okay. I did a lot of traveling, and I was sick twice last year. I had Covid in late February/early March, and that set me back for a good three weeks, then the bronchitis and upper respiratory infection I had in December was another three weeks lost. I am going to do my best to stay healthy this year, and I only have two cruises scheduled for the year. If I get a chance to do a local quilting retreat, I wouldn’t say no, but I have turned down several trips friends are doing. One was a trip to Portugal, but it was 11 days, and that’s too long to leave my dogs. 

Last year was the first year American Patchwork and Quilting didn’t do their monthly UFO challenge, and I think that affected my productivity. I am an easily distracted person, and I need some accountability tools to keep me on track. There were some chats on the APQ Facebook group about how people are disappointed they don’t draw the monthly numbers any more. One of the members has volunteered to draw numbers each month, and there are still some blank templates available through the group. I have printed out three templates which I plan to fill out and get myself back on track. I’m feeling pretty optimistic about it. 

Happy 2025

Happy New Year blog friends. I hope it is a good one for all of us. I got together Monday with some friends for an “end of the year” lunch, and I was surprised how many said they were glad to put 2024 in the rear-view mirror. 

Sherry, Kim S., Jeanette, Natha, Tricia, and me. 

Yesterday I went to Corpus to get the car serviced. Betty went with me and we shopped a little. I’m still not 100% recovered from being sick, and I get tired pretty early in the day. We went to JoAnn fabrics, and I got some neutral colors (on sale!) that I can use with some of my scrap pieces. We’ll see how it goes. 

I was determined to finish my 2024 BOM while it was still 2024, but I had gotten distracted. I stayed up last night and got the borders put on. 

I’m happy to have it done, and it can now move to the “to be quilted “ list. I think Ryder likes it. 

Speaking of Ryder, I found a picture the other day that was taken the day I adopted him.

He hadn’t had a very good life, and he was super nervous. Now he is a gray haired old man,

But, he is happy and no longer terrified of his own shadow. He has a good life here. 

Monday Already?

 

I’m afraid I have totally lost track of what day it is. I need to get myself back on a semi-normal routine ASAP. Between being sick and the holidays, I’ve been living in some kind of alternative universe. 

I went to church yesterday, and since it was the fifth Sunday of the month, we had a potluck. I made two pans of meatloaf and some cookies.

No pictures of the meatloaf. It all got eaten. 

I spent the afternoon cutting up a bag of scraps I needed to deal with, and I found some random four patches in my 2-1/2” box. 

There are probably 30-40 of them; most likely left overs from some other project. I think I will make some more and see what I can come up with to get them used up. 

I also cut some more 2-1/2” x 4-1/2” pieces and sat down and worked on some potato chip blocks. 

There were several good fabric sales after Christmas, but I chose not to go to any of the quilt shops. I need to use up some of what I have before I add more. Although, I could probably use some neutrals to add to all these scraps. 

I’m honestly content to sew scraps for the foreseeable future. I was thinking about the 2025 UFO challenge, and I think I will fill out a sheet listing some tops that need to be quilts and bound, and then make a separate sheet for some things I have been planning to do for a long time that never seem to happen. For instance, I saved some large feed bags that I wanted to make totes with, and I never have time to do it. I will need to give this list some thought, as I have probably forgotten a lot of things that inspired me at one point. I need to go through my photos and see what inspiration pictures I have saved.

2024 Block of the Month

Happy day. I totally took the day off yesterday to sew. I didn’t go downtown and pay my property taxes, I didn’t go to the grocery store, I didn’t go to my shop to work on customer quilts. I did go to exercise class at 7am—after the holidays, I need it! I worked a little on year-end paperwork, and then I started sewing. 

I wanted to get my December block of the month done while it was still December. 

It’s from “A Quilting Life” blog. The finishing instructions were included with the December instructions. You can see Sherri’s finished quilt on her blog here.

As of yesterday, all of my monthly blocks are done.

I’ve had issues in the past with blocks of the month. Namely, getting them finished. I can keep up each month, but then December comes and you have everything to put together at the busiest time of the year. I’m not sure how many UFO’s I have in the house that are BOM’s or Saturday Samplers. 

Anyway, I took a break from the Houston shop hop quilt and started putting my BOM together. Dave and Alan gave me a fat quarter bundle last year for Christmas (Franny’s Flowers from Maywood Studio) that I used for the blocks, and early in the year, I ordered a couple of yards of coordinating fabric for borders/sashing. 

I was planning to use the coral color for the sashing, but it didn’t quite work, so I’ll save it for the binding. I have two yards of the multi color print, so it will be the sashing and the outer border. I’m happy to say I got all the blocks put together. 

I turned the sewing machine off last night at 9pm. I’ll take the top to my shop today so I can measure it and get the inner and outer borders cut. I’ll be happy to have it finished by the end of the year.

Houston Shop Hop Blocks

Well, Christmas is a wrap for another year. I spent yesterday putting all the decorations away and cleaning up the house. It was trash day, so I did a good clean out of the refrigerator too. I think I’m ready to move into the new year. Out with the old and in with the new.

I was looking for something fun to work on during the holiday break, and I dug out the blocks I bought at the Houston International Quilt Festival this year. There are a total of twelve blocks, and each month also had extra fabric for sashing, binding, etc. so you can do the whole quilt with the twelve kits. I took a picture of the shop sample. 

I have been taking my time with the blocks, but they are going pretty fast. 

These are twelve inch blocks, but once the roofs and foundations are added, they will be 20” tall. I’m kind of anxious to get this one done. The fabrics are so pretty, even to someone like me, who doesn’t love blue. I can’t remember the final size; it seems like it was 72” x 84”…….maybe. 

Today I need to go downtown and pay property taxes and renew my car registration. I have a cruise in two weeks, and I will also need to make boarding reservations for the dogs. 

Merry Christmas

 

Merry Christmas friends! I hope your holidays are everything you could hope for, and I pray we will all be blessed with happiness and good health in the new year. 

I have been sick for a couple of weeks, but I’m finally getting back to normal. Thank goodness I had my shopping done early; unfortunately, my usual baking didn’t get done. I just haven’t felt well enough to do much of anything. 

I’ve done a little hand sewing. I finished Gloria’s hearts.

And, I finished the binding on my quilted jacket. 

Now, if it would just cool off enough for me to wear it. 

I was feeling well enough to go to church last night for candlelight services. It’s always my favorite service of the year.

Today will be dinner with family and opening gifts. I have plans to do a little sewing this morning. Maybe I can reacquainted with my sewing machine. 

Under the Weather

I have managed to catch a head cold…..something has been going around, but I don’t get sick very often, so this one still caught me by surprise. I was running around on Thursday getting some errands done, and by the end of the day, I was dragging. I was also coughing and congested, so I just hope I didn’t spread this to anyone else. 

I dropped off thirteen quilts with pillowcases and mesh bags at Mid-Coast Family Services. 

The back of my car was full. 

Penny had brought me one on Wednesday that she had just finished.

She used the Oklahoma pattern from Villa Rosa that we both like so much. It uses 10 fat quarters and finishes at 44” x 55”, but if you add a 2” inner border and 5” outer border, it ends up 58” x 69”. The small size works for a small child, but we like the bigger size for an older kid. I think we have both made this pattern for Day One Bag donations. Here’s one I donated to Day One Bags last year.

I didn’t use an inner border, but I did a wider border to get it to the required size. They want them to be 50” x 70”. Day One Bags is an organization that gives a piece of luggage (duffel bag and/or backpack) and a quilt to graduating seniors who have been in foster care. Apparently, once they graduate from high school, they age out of the foster care system, and are on their own. My quilt guild pledges so many quilts per year to this group. Our commitment for 2025 is 25 quilts, and I think we already have twenty of them made.

If I feel better today, I am going to try and do some sewing and a load or two of laundry.