Progress and Dreams

 I made some good progress on my Everyday Embroidery last week and plan to continue that daily.

And I figured out how to put together the rescued Card Trick blocks to make a baby quilt flimsy which I will donate.

I didn't get to the My Cozy Kitchen wall hanging at all, so that will be a goal for this week. I want to lightly hand-quilt it and hang it in my cozy kitchen.

Another goal for this week is to go through my flannel fabrics and get back to making receiving blankets, bibs, and burp cloths for our local baby pantry. I enjoy crocheting a nice border around flannel receiving blankets. February is our church's month to "love your neighbor" through various donation drives, one of which is the community baby pantry. So I'll be buying some diapers, too, to donate.

I've also started a new project, of course. 😏 It's going to be a gift for my long-time friend's birthday in March - a cross-stitched piece. Being technology-challenged, I have to do my designing with graph paper, scissors, and washi tape. 😁 It works. Tricia and I have walked some very hard roads together {still are} and I so appreciate her friendship and encouragement and her letting me try to encourage her back. Though she lives about 2.5 hours away, we try to get together monthly, sometimes here, sometimes at her place, sometimes somewhere in the middle, sometimes quite out of the way for a big adventure.

I'll also work on my RSC blocks and will get at my month's UFO. The Chookshed Stitchers say that February's UFO number is 8, so I'll excitedly be working on my experimental strip quilt. I've been wanting to do it, but felt like I needed to finish other stuff first. But now I have permission from on high 😄 to go at it.

Of course I have to share some of our great amounts of snow. That blue thing in the middle of the picture is a regular-sized metal chair {as reference for how deep the snow is}. This is not an unusual amount for us over the course of the winter; it just seems to have all come early and within a short amount of time.

One of the perks of waking up at 4:00 a.m. {not intentionally, but trying to see the silver lining}, is getting to enjoy the super-bright moonlight on the snow.

Pastor has been encouraging us with the concept of Sabbath rest, or Shalom, of living in the presence and power of God. We can rest in the knowledge of Him - His person, power, and characteristics {attributes} such as love, goodness, justice, peace, and constant presence with those who have acknowledged Him as Savior and Master. Since we're just frail humans, that peace seems to come and go as we don't always sense His presence, but He's there and so ready to envelope us again with that peace. Look in faith to Him and His Word.

May your week be a blessing to you and to those around you.

Fun Finishes and New Goals

 I'm so tickled with my recent finishes! I'm super determined this year to get neglected projects finished and starting off with some smaller ones is encouraging and fueling my determination. So, here they are:

First up is the My Sewing Room sew-along from Jennifer Reynolds which just needed to be assembled and lightly hand-quilted.

I added a few quilting-related pins and hung it above my sewing machine. I'm loving it, even if my photography wasn't so great. 😐

This next project has been in the works for quite some time, is also based on free patterns from Jennifer, and really brings me a lot of joy. It's a fabric book, built on thrift store placemats with a table runner for a cover.

The peach teacup was part of a silk scarf that my daughter dyed in a community art class.

More of said scarf.

The pieced teacups were made by another daughter in a project with friends.

I really am pleased with this book and hope that someday it will become an heirloom for my oldest granddaughter {who is too young to truly appreciate it yet}.

I've also made good progress on my Everyday Embroidery.

And last, but not least for today, I got my blue blocks made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and hung them up to "purty up" my wall {and not lose them}.

So, despite having the winter blues {or more accurately, the grays & whites}, I'm happy to be getting these projects done and am eager to set new goals for this week.

At the machine:

* Figure out something creative to do with these recently found blocks in order to made a donation baby quilt

* Turn these six thrift-store-rescued blocks into a flimsy. There was a seventh block that was already machine-quilted that I turned into a little wall hanging for my sewing room.

In the Embroidery & Handquilting Chair:

* Finish at least five rectangles on the Everyday Embroidery

* Finalize plans for the next fabric book

* Begin handquilting the My Cozy Kitchen wall hanging that I finally got sewn together to my liking after several rearrangements

On the Homestead:

* Keep the newly hatched {and constantly in motion so not photogenic} quails alive 😊

OMG and Winter Wonders

Well, I looked at my goals list for 2025 this morning and sadly discovered that I'd not finished nearly as much as I would have like. In my defense, however, I did have a lot of fun exploring new art genres like making an altered book junk journal in which I took notes at our art conference and in which I'm continuing to make notes on the book Culture Care by Makoto Fujimura:

And I had a super nice day trying air-dry clay projects with my friend, Trish:

 So, I revised said list & printed it for easy reference and to be able to add to it:

I plan to hang it above my sewing machine in my newly organized and beautified craft room so hopefully it will help me stay on track better. 😄

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So, here are my monthly and weekly goals:

Monthly quilt - Mug Guest Room Skinny Twin Size

I want to finish the borders on this and get it to a long-arm quilter. It's for a skinny Jenny Lind antique bed, so I don't have to make it very wide.

Monthly Hand-work - Everyday Embroidery and December Xstitch

I'm not going to have the goal of finishing the Everyday Embroidery this month, but I want to average 10 blocks a week for this month.

I'm very close to done with the December cross-stitch which I'll use as part of my monthly decor change-up, so I want to get it done this month for next year's use.

Week's Goals

Mug quilt - Get 'er done!

Everyday Embroidery - 8 blocks this week since I'm getting a late start

December Cross-stitch - Finish and put away

Crocheted headscarves - List on Etsy & wait to see what happens

Decision-making - How do I want to finish these two landscape fabric pictures made on another fun craft day with Tricia? 

            And what do I actually want to do with these Christmas blocks?

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I'll send you off into a hopefully delightful rest of your week by giving you a little taste of our winter visitors. They love the seed droppings from my birdfeeders.