One of my goals this month was to close up the seams on the yellow hexagons and complete the neutral round. Mission accomplished. Now I need to pull out my design and see what color is next. I think it’s green. After I stitch a hoop full of redwork and make one star, I’ll need to prep the green hexagons.
Tomorrow I’ll work on the alternate blocks to Eclipse. Or maybe I’ll take that nap I’ve been trying to take all week.
It’s the first of the month and time to set some goals.
Up first is Eclipse. I would like to get this quilt bounds by the end of the month. This is on my 2026 Brandon Quilters UFO list.
For my 4th Saturday BOM, I would like to get at least the top hole filled in. Bonus if I get some of the other blocks in this section done.
For Handwork Tuesday, I’ll rotate between projects, depending on what my cats will let me do. For the hexi project, I would like to get the seams closed on the bottom of the picture and maybe complete the next round of neutral hexies.
Just one hoop full of redwork on my Winterwonderland.
At least one star on my Star-A-Day project.
This is the month I’ll find out the parameters for the Quilters By Hearts Desire President’s Challenge. My only goal with that is to figure out what I’m making.
If I get through all of this, I’ll start assembling Rivanna and/or make those Red, White and Blue napkins and jelly roll rug/placemats.
It looked like I was going to be able to finish Eclipse in January, but car issues took up most of Thursday and ALL day Friday. As a result, I cannot include Eclipse on my stash report. This month I’ve been to the quilt shop 4 times, but only purchased thread – twice. So the report looks good so far. As is my custom, I start with zero and add what I purchase or otherwise receive and subtract what I use or otherwise leaves the premises. But first for the record the December report.
2025
I’d like to use more in 2026 – or at least not increase my stash as much. I’m not sure how much more I can get into my cabinet and the FQ boxes are full.
I’ve also pulled out the Color Theory Swap blocks I’m using as my leader and enders. I’m just over halfway through the pink squares.
I’ve been contemplating a new car for a number of months. I like not having a car payment, but my little Cube is 14 years old. Meanwhile, my sister’s car has twice the miles on it than the Cube does, so she’s getting my Cube and I bought a new Rogue. It is a huge upgrade in terms of comfort and ride. And most importantly, a roll of king size batt will fit in the back without having to pull the seats up. Yes, we took the roll of batting with us to be certain.
This should have been a Handwork Tuesday update, but Gracie had other ideas. I think I stitch half of one side of a single hexi, then gave up.
Earlier in the day I finished Windmill Weave.
This is on my 2026 Brandon Quilters UFO List.
Now to what is going on today in the quilt studio.
My sister is working on the longarm. The quilt is a BOM from a LQS in Overbrook, Kansas. I’m not sure what year. She made three of them. This one is hers. There are 2 more she plans on quilting over the next couple of days.
Up on the wall is Eclipse – this is 5 yard quilt, which I plan on making larger. I’m going to make all these pink and lavender blocks, then do the other block. Off to the side is my Just Takes Two. I just have the next section on the wall to remind me to work on it.
I stayed up way to late Sunday night/Monday morning to finish my Windmill Weave top. I’ve even cleaned up the scraps – not that there was much left of the floral after I prepped my binding.
Monday afternoon my sister didn’t have anything loaded on the longarm, so I dug through my backings. I thought I was going to have a multi fabric piece backing, but found this one in the box. I bought it this past October without a quilt in mind. While digging through the box, I added labels for anything I bought for a specific quilt and measured all the scrap pieces. Given the weight of the box I’ll have my sister pull it out again and we’ll separate the known backings from the unknown and pieces. It should make it easier to find the right backing.
Anyway, I finished the quilting, trimmed it, and attached the binding. I have 3 more sides to go and stitching down the label. I’m not sure what I’ll work on next – Eclipse, Rivanna, or the RWB napkins. As it is Tuesday, this evening I’ll work on my handwork projects.
I pulled out my Just Takes Two Block of the Month from 2011 to work on this 1st 4th Saturday of 2026. My goal is progress, and I accomplished that. The lower left quadrant was easily turned 90 degrees. Then I had to decide what block to do next. Although applique is NOT my favorite, I opted for block # 35. It’s the bottom left block of the top right section. If I continue to do them in order Block # 38 is up next — a Hawaiian applique – which I will also do by machine. But that’s next month’s decision.
I can’t sit too long, can’t stand too long, can’t lift over 10 pounds, can’t drive, sweep, mop, or vacuum. I’m finding it hard to take it easy, but I did take a 2 hour nap this morning after I got up at my usual time. I’m staying off the long arm – my sister is using it. So far she’s quilted a very large quilt and 2 table runners in between running me around and dealing with her car and bank.
Windmill Weave is progressing. I need to make 6 more blocks. The strips and squares are cut and I have just enough of the print for a 4 1/2″ (cut) border and binding. But those blocks will be for next week, as January 24th is Block of the Month Saturday.
Of the 3 quilts I plan on working on this year, the one that is easiest to get around my restrictions is Just Takes 2. It’s in 2 small project boxes. The other 2 require me to dig in my FQ Boxes and those are way over 10 pounds.
Tonight I pulled out what I have done to see where I need to start. I sewed a few loose blocks together and stuck it up on the design wall.
Then I started marking blocks off on the assembly sheet.
Then I started marking blocks off on the assembly sheet.
The first thing I’m going to do is turn that lower left section around correctly. Then I guess I’ll work the applique block in the top right section. Have I mentioned I’m not a big fan of applique? I suspect that is all I’ll get done tomorrow.
As for the winter weather we are expecting, we’ve charged all of our power banks, and have found candles, matches, flashlights and have a plan on building a fire in the fireplace if needed. Although it is a wood burning fireplace, I’ve been planning on getting a gas insert and haven’t gotten around to it yet. I love the smell of a wood fire, but don’t want to deal with cleaning ash with the chimney in the Quilt Studio. I have however had it cleaned and otherwise repaired. I’m hopeful we won’t need any of these preparations.
Yesterday I was feeling good enough after my surgery the previous day to sew a bit. While working on the block on the bottom right I realized it was “Handwork Tuesday”, but decided to finish the block since my shows didn’t come on until 8 PM that’s when I discovered I sewed the block turning the wrong way. As for the handwork, I picked up the red work, looked at it and put it back down. I’ll try again next week.
It’s time for a nap, but afterwards, I’ll be ripping out the block to make it rotate the other way.
Yesterday a couple of friends came over to see my quilts and hear their stories as even if it is winter, my sister doesn’t need that many quilts on the bed. I told stories, we folded the quilts and stacked them in the other bedroom. If I had a matching pillowcase, it went into it. I didn’t think to get a picture before I dropped the sheet over them. This stack also includes most of my vintage quilts. One day I’ll have a proper way to store and showcase them, but for now, this will do. Now to the finish.
This is the 2nd Chain of Blossom quilt. I used purple binding with an orange flange simply because that’s all the matching fabric I had left. This is quilt is on my Brandon Quilters UFO list.
Chain of Blossom 2
Up next is Windmill Weave.
Although I should have been folding laundry, I chose to work on my 2nd Chain of Blossom quilt. I added a narrow white stop border before the outer border. Finding fabric was a challenge. I though I had enough but came up about 20″ short, so found another FQ with a similar background and low volume print. The outer border used up the rest of that piece of fabric.
I dug in my box of backing scraps – the ones that are too big to chop up — then I loaded the backing backwards. At this point the rest of the backing will go into the strip bins. I still need to cut those, but I ran out of time.
The batting is even pieced together from 3 pieces I measured and prepped earlier this week.
The binding is cut, tonight I hope to get the binding on. It will be purple with an orange flange — the same fabrics in the quilt. I only have a strip of each left.
Meanwhile, my Quilt Studio is still clean – of course it’s only been a day. After the binding is attached to the quilt I’ll process that little pile of fabric next to the cutting mat.
