Design Wall Monday - Dec 29

The final Monday of 2025!  Wow this year flew by!  And it's the long anticipated day for our family Christmas.  Actually 4 of the 5 grandkids arrived yesterday, and everyone else will come today.  Let the fun begin, right?  I'll probably not do a blog post again until Wednesday or Thursday. 

The color BLUE has been announced for January in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and that fits right into my plans perfectly.  I have this kit already planned for the next NEW project.  It's a small runner or banner.  I plan to do it vertically, and it can hang in my office.  It has paper pieced snowflakes.  And there is a lot of blue.  

The January mini quilt in the Year of Spools series is finished.  Each of these has been quick finishes as they are only 12-14" square.  I added some little silver metal star embellishments to add just a little somethin' somethin'.  This snowman will look so cute on my fireplace hearth for winter.  

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

RSC25 - Week #52 Reflection

I keep a spreadsheet of quilting projects every year, with status tracked from beginning to the finish with the type of project  identified too.  That makes it really easy to get a clear idea of how much I've accomplished at the end of the year - and during the year.

There were 9 Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts totally finished this year, out of 19 quilts ranging in size from baby quilts to queen size.  Even the Quilts of Valor were scrappy this year.

• Kitty
• Night Vision
• Pyramid
• Buckeye Beauty
• Baby Churn Dash
• Scrappy QOV Indigo Way
• Scrappy QOV Buckeye Beauty
• Scrappy QOV Rails & Stars
• Scrappy QOV Spools

Dozens of small projects were also finished.  Bags, pillows, pillowcases, wall hangings, table runners, mug rugs, mini quilts, etc. - all add up quickly.  Some were not scrappy but a lot of them were.  For example, 38 placemats used orphan blocks or scraps. Scrappy makes me happy, but so does using up fat quarters and other fabrics from the stash.  Either way I'm reducing the quantity, right?    

Obviously I've been sewing lots of other scrappy projects that are NOT completely finished.  There are 21 flimsies hanging in the closet that were made from RSC blocks.  Some of those scrappy flimsies are actually carry overs from 2024 unfortunately.  One more was donated as a flimsy, and has already been finished and donated.  But that means there are still a BIG bunch that need to be quilted and bound.

As always, I'm excited about what 2026 will bring for quilting projects.  I have several block sets that are continuing into the new year, like Hollow 9, Entwined Star, and Give It a Whirl.  And I have some new ones I'm excited to make - Snail's Trail, Vintage Spools, and Friendship Stars - and others to be determined yet.  The photo above is just a glimpse of what I'll be working on for 2026.  

Let's go see what everyone else is reflecting on for 2025 . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/ 

Cleaning up a few things

I was up early on Christmas Eve, and spent the whole morning in my sewing room - sewing, cutting, and some cleaning.

There is a small ugly chair in my sewing room, and it has been a very convenient place to just drop things I don't want to deal with right away.  I'm happy to say that chair is now cleared off and all the "stuff" has been either used or put away where it belonged.  Bonus - the ugly chair has been moved into the storage room so I can't reload it. 

There were several orphan blocks in that stack, and they are now in the bin with other orphan blocks.  Leftovers from several past projects have now become doll quilt tops.  They are folded neatly with a sticky note pinned on with the size - averaging about 24" square. 

The purple one used nearly all of the lavender squares in the box that Nann sent me last week.  I added a purple solid from my stash for borders.  The red/white/yellow top used a nautical print - also in Nann's box of treasures.  I just added some solids - again from my stash. The NASA prints leftover from Jack's pillowcase are now in a doll quilt top, and I only needed a little of that red solid from the stash.  The light blue and striped one on the bottom was from a previous box that Nann had sent me last summer.  Last year I made 12 doll quilts and paired them up with stuffed animals or dolls.  They were donated to the local safe house.  I have a similar donation goal for 2026.  These 4 tops are a good beginning - once they are quilted and bound of course. 

One additional project got some attention too.  All of the pieces for the January spools mini quilt are all cut and identified with alphabet clips.  My plan for today is to at least get the top sewn.  It's also "clue day" for #6 of the Bonnie Hunter mystery.  

Merry Christmas

Christmas is here, but it will be very quiet. It will be just the 2 of us today and tomorrow, so I suspect we'll do what we do other days.  I'll sew and Dave will probably golf (in his golf simulator).  A Christmas movie or two may be watched of course.  I do have steak planned for a nice supper tonight, and a ham for Christmas Day.  At some point tomorrow we'll Facetime with the grandkids.  They'll all be here for our delayed family Christmas on Monday, so we just have to be patient.

The final Christmas gift sewing is nearly done.  Hand stitching the binding, and adding some embellishments will be the last steps.  

The snowman 3-yard quilt is a completed flimsy finally.  It's the perfect size to be a cuddly couch quilt.  Yesterday I posted about needing to clean, but the only thing cleaned off is my ironing board.  The borders and leftovers of this project were cluttering one end of the ironing board.  And now it's all cleaned off - scraps sorted to the appropriate bins. 

And the binding on this little UFO (28" square) was finished in the car while traveling to and from sporting events this weekend.  The background was a kit called Feel the Churn that I bought on a shop hop a few years ago.  After sewing that little wall hanging together right away, I felt it was kind of boring so it has hung in the closet ever since.  It really needed something appliqued onto it for color.  And this fall that is exactly what happened.  The orange and green batiks all were scraps leftover from a big quilt (Cactus in the Cabin). 

Merry Christmas to everyone!  

A need to clean

 

What does your creative space look like?  Mine needs a good cleaning and reorganizing before the New Year.  Enter at Your Own Risk - that door hanger has become reality.

My sewing room/studio is a large basement bedroom so I have plenty of space for sewing.  And way too much space to fill up with supplies, UFOs, PIGs, and WIPs.  It has a huge long closet that actually looks somewhat organized in this photo. Don't be fooled by that glimpse of organization.  The closet are is actually reaching the chaos stage again lately. 

And I'm ashamed to show you what I've stacked on the floor and on a chair just because I'm not sure where I want to put things or I'm too caught up stitching to put things away.   

Next to my cutting station is a low bookcase with baskets on top that hold some kits and patterns that I want to keep on the radar.  I've gotten into the bad habit of hanging block sets that I'm working on from the front edges of those baskets.  Three on-going Quilt of Valor block sets are currently hanging there, instead of in the closet. 

This whole room needs a big deep cleaning.  But I'll even settle for some surface organization at this point. 

Design Wall Monday - Dec. 22

We were basically NOT home all weekend, so there isn't much of anything to report.  At least not on the sewing front.  I've fallen way behind in reading blogs and commenting.  But we did get to see both daughters' families over the past couple days.  I'll spare you any photos of deer hunting grandsons or wrestling granddaughters. 

On Friday, the 5th clue for Bonnie Hunter's mystery was posted.

It was an easy clue - directing us to use the Clue #1 units in basically an Ohio Star block.  Added to the Clue #1 units were 4 matching purple squares, and a neutral center square.  These are 6" finished blocks and I'm guessing the rest of the units will make alternate blocks and maybe sashing or borders.  Or there could be more units.  It's a mystery after all.

A week ago I showed a kit that I wanted to make as a reward if I got some things done on the list that were priorities.  Well, I totally forgot about the January mini quilt in that Spools series. I believe this one will move to the head of the line of new projects - but only if I get some other things done this week.  We are not doing our family Christmas until the 29th, so I'll have this week to finish up a couple of Christmas gifts.  Hope I get them done in time.  

The other project that is close to a finish is the snowman 3-yard quilt.  All of the rows are assembled now, so I just have 2 narrow borders to add.  

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog

RSC25 - Week #51

Only 1 more week and 2025 will be in the rear view mirror!  I'm hoping that my scrap bins yield lots more quilts in 2026.  I'm also hoping those scrap bins are more empty by this time next year instead of overflowing. 

I have extra scraps to play with this week after receiving a box of FUN from blogging friend Nann.  She had sorted out a few bags of scraps in colors that she knows I love to play with, like red, white, and blue.  Naturally I had to dig right in.

The red, white, and blue bag didn't just contain scraps - it also contained some small blocks.  I'm guessing these were left over from some of Nann's projects or maybe even came from one of the estate sales she has been to. The 2 blocks similar to Snails Trail are already paired up with some batting and backing to make mug rugs as they are the perfect size.  That darling churn dash block inspired me to make more using one of those strips of red star fabric. The flying geese are tucked in with other QOV bits and pieces that will probably end up part of a sampler quilt. 

It didn't take long to cut pieces from her scraps for 4 more churn dash blocks that will finish at 6".  These are now sewn and in the stack of blocks for future Quilts of Valor.  

A real treasure was tucked into the bag - most of a jelly roll with a RWB nautical theme.  So many possibilities for these strips!!  The prints include crab, lobster, octopus, compass - such a neat jelly roll.  I'm giving some thought about what to make with these.

I've "webbed this first section of the String Stars quilt.  My original plan had been to just use the cool colors, but now I'm thinking if I use all colors then it can be much bigger.  That means this will definitely continue into 2026 because I don't have any warm color blocks made yet.

Let's go see what else is happening with scraps this week . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/