on occasion, i have done a end-of-year recap post, but i find myself more in the mood to look ahead this year. perhaps i'll do a little of both. for starters: what happened to december? when i left off blogging in november, i was deep into finishing fall quilts. but as december opened, it was time to pull out the christmas quilts. i resumed handquilting on my liberty christmas log cabin quilt and got out "bright forest" to see about finishing up.
i had a few trees to complete, but it looked promising for a finish. until the morning i sat down to join the blocks and decided i wanted to add sashing and cornerstones. it just felt like it needed a little something extra. so i gave up on the finish idea and started working on the long game. i cut some strips and did indeed like the look of the sashing and cornerstones. long game it is, then.
i delegated the colors i was already using to specific spaces: i chose a consistent cornerstone color of red for some continuity, 6 colors for the horizontal sashing, 7 for the vertical. knowing what was going where helped me mix randomly but with a small amount of order.
but as i began to add the new pieces i realized my block widths were not consistent. shoot. i forgot that those varied by up to an inch, which wasn't a problem when there was no sashing. originally, the idea was it would keep things a little loose and less structured so i didn't have to match up seams. now i have to find a consistent width and trim to that. ugh. been doing it, which has reduced the quilt width a little and added to the long game's length.
for several days the first week of december i worked away at this. i have 2.5 rows complete. our family took an early holiday trip together to new york city dec 15 - 20th, so my sewing stopped and i haven't resumed since. we have everyone but the married daughter at home - that's 6 kids - for the holidays and they have been full, full, full. the married daughter with her little family, a fiancé, and a girlfriend have also been here constantly. it's been fantastic and i am enjoying it so much. just not quilting. not even the handbinding i have left to do on 3 liberty quilts that are in the opening photo up top: liberty courthouse steps, farmer oak's flocks, and liberty christmas log cabin (which i put the binding on and took with me to new york, finishing the handquilting on the flight there). more than one morning i've gotten up before everyone else and considered sewing, but just haven't picked it up. meh.
it's a lovely courthouse steps quilt in colors that work for the current holiday but aren't strictly christmas fabrics. it's perfect. i don't eve mind for once that it's square, which usually bothers me. that - and a whole lot of fabric we won't mention yet - was my quilty christmas present to myself.
one more item of note - i bought myself a quilt from my friend, jennifer, of penelope handmade, during her black friday sample sale. i love this one so much. it's beautiful, cozy, and so squishy.
it's a lovely courthouse steps quilt in colors that work for the current holiday but aren't strictly christmas fabrics. it's perfect. i don't eve mind for once that it's square, which usually bothers me. that - and a whole lot of fabric we won't mention yet - was my quilty christmas present to myself.
so that was december.
here's the quick recap of the year by way of my instagram "top nine" collages.
i blogged a whole lot more than i insta-posted this year and interactions with my posts were low. that's fine. i'm actually thinking of going blog-only this new year and see how i like it. but i'm getting ahead of myself. this collage is my top nine insta posts by likes. it covers some of my favorite projects for the year: bathsheba, my make for the free wheeling single girl sewalong, lemonade at sixes, wenselydale, the controversial "grellow garden geese," and sunny crossroads making it to the flimsy stage.
what's not represented here is our time in california this spring while our son underwent medical treatments that saved his life, nor some other prime moments and projects for me. 2025 really was a great quilting year for me.
usually i make my own "top nine" of my favorite photos of the year, but this time i went a little less aesthetic and picked my favorite memories that weren't already represented in the "top nine" likes. aaaannd i just realized i didn't include a single photo of my grandson sewing with me, which we did a lot and was definitely a highlight of the year! well, darn it. nine squares just wasn't enough for 2025. what did make it in?
1. groovy liberty, a pinwheel quilt incorporating a lot of the groovy-er liberty prints from my stash and a funky grunge crossweave sashing
2. farmer oak's flocks - the companion quilt to "bathsheba"
3. liberty courthouse steps quilt for my dear friend, tamsen, that i worked on handquilting this spring by the ocean
4. some finish photoshoots in the california agricultural fields close to us, a great outing with d5
5. living and sewing on the PCH represented by a sunset photo shoot with my husband for "fall paint lake"
6. our quiet little stretch of beach and the coordinating location fabric selvage
7. doing a lot of quilting with d5 as she stepped up into partnership with me on quilt this year
8. the nine patch blocks for "pinky stinky" edn d5 is working on
9. meeting denyse schmidt at quiltcon and then getting to interact with her throughout the year through instagram and over online meetups for the sewalong and her patchwork panel club. she's a lovely person and i thoroughly enjoyed getting to know her a bit.
well, that's a long enough post already and i haven't even gotten around to what my upcoming plans are. here's the quick version:
1. i want to focus on finishing wips this year. i have 25 listed on my page here and i'd like to clean the slate a little as well as enjoy these projects as finishes. i'm not fully committing to anything or forcing myself to stick to a plan, but at the moment i'm fully wanting to finish these projects and not start any new ones.
2. blog and not insta this year? i'm considering it. we'll see what happens.
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