A long post about my January stitching

I have been rather quiet on my blog this month but I've been busy and so I'll show you what I have been working on. 

 

I added a couple of borders on the Gold Bird quilt.  I think it needs another darker border around the outside and then I want to circle it with Wagon Wheel blocks.  I need to figure out how big the WW blocks are so I know how wide of a border to sew on and make it the right dimension.

This is the quilt that I got my inspiration for the Gold Bird quilt.  It is from an Eagle Folk Art Quilt from Berskhire County Pennsylvania 1840.

The block I took it from is pictured (sideways) in the lower left corner.

I put my big Thimbleberries quilt on the frames and have two of the eleven rows quilted already.  I'm using "Big Stitch" with DMC 8 neutrals.  I had three partially used spools of different numbers that I'm trying to use up.  They are so light against these saturated blocks that you can't tell I've changed shades.  I'll use Ecru after I use them up.

I appliqued 2 more birds on my red and white house quilt.  I have hung it in my living room for two years and each time I looked at it I thought, "Why did I only put five birds on there.  I should hae appliqued two more to represent my 7 children."  And so I did!

I finished quilting this quilt.  I wanted to show the whole quilt but I realized I didn't get permission to use this quote so I thought it would be better if I didn't show the whole quilt.

Here it is before I put the letters on it.  It's not a very vibrant or pretty quilt but with the lettering and the stitching it catches the light and is quite handsome now.

I finished the collar for the Boro embellished denim jacket.  It has floundered a little because the collar was so hard to embroider.  I picked out two or three Xs as much as I stitched (no exaggeration) and so it was a slow slog and I lost my momentum.  This is the yoke.  I love how the worn cuff of the jeans looks framing the little rabbit staring at the moon.  I haven't finished all the embellishment on the right.  And then on to the back and cuffs.

I have mostly been busy working on the 127 stars that go into my Madder quilt.  I have 97 done (whew!).

Which only leaves 30 more to do.  These stacks each have cut pieces for 2 stars.  I need to cut some more backgrounds and continue along.

Here is a picture of what I am making.  I don't really want a white quilt so I went through my whole stash to see what else I could do.  The example below is the only fabric I could find that is even a possibility.  The neutral on the right would be the same Kona Snow as the backgrounds of the stars.  I just used this piece to give me a feel for what it would look like.  The bird of paradise piece is an old Kaye England fabric.

Gotta come up with something.  I wondered about doing a string blocks for the side triangles.  Or I could also do applique but that sounds like more time than I really want to invest in this quilt.

 

That's all my stitching for the month.  I've been watching this glorious Amaryllis grow.  It was such a beauty.  There is only one blossom left.  There is new growth but I think it will turn out to be leaves.

I gathered all the empty spools I used in 2025 and took a picture.  I like to save the spools each year and compare them to previous years before I throw them away. 

And a little whimsy to close.  I reached into the burlap sack that has our potato harvest from last fall and pulled out Mickey Mouse.  Too Funny!!!!

Robin

Oh!  I neglected to include the little Christmas mini quilt I made after Christmas.  I started quilting it but I don't like the look of stitching with the regular quilting thread that I have done.  So, I'm going to pull it out and use some pearl cotton instead.  Then I'll put on a pink border on it and have a gift already made for next Christmas.

The search began

 because I was bringing all my magazines upstairs I decided to go through them and flag the quilts that I'm interested in making someday.  Fun project.

Then I decided I wanted to make plans for the new year.  So instead of showing all my finishes from last year I thought I'd share some of the ideas I have for next year.  There is nothing set in stone here but it was a big surprise how many star quilts I picked out.

I started out with my Tilda fat quarters.  I have 20 from the Old Rose Collection and 6 from the Jubilee Collection.  I decided it was time to make something out of them and not just admire them every six months and then put them away.  I was having a hard time because Tilda kinda has to go with Tilda.  It doesn't look as pretty with other fabrics.

I couldn't find anything that warmed my heart so I went on to the other fabrics.

Next we come to Star Attraction.  I have wanted to make this quilt since I first saw it in American Patchwork & Quilting October 2006.  My daughter has become quite interested in dying fabric so we've talked about it a lot and she has experimented with a number of leaves and roots.  I decided I would make this quilt out of all my madders.  Do you remember when Barbara Brackman did this a few years ago? 

Well, I collected my madder fabric and realized how saturated with color they are.  One of the reasons I wanted to make this Star Attraction quilt was because of the many soft colors and the print background.

So I decided to put this quilt on hold and I would look for another pattern.

This is what I came up with from Edyta Sitar's book A Patch of Blue.   The stars will finish at 4 inches.

This isn't one of the stars (not a madder), it's just a trial block.

Here are some of the fabrics I have picked out.

I need 127 stars and I found enough madders (I'm adding a few blues for interest) so I can make 2 stars out of each fabric.  I haven't decided whether the background will be Kona Snow or muslin.

While I was cutting out the fabrics I came across this piece and something I've never seen before.  This is a picture of the front and back of the fabric.  Did the manufacturer use a previously printed fabric to make the brown print?  Curious.

Some of the other pieces in my stash that I was considering were pieces of older fabrics I've had for a long long time.

This is the Say it Flowers line by Bannock & Patek.

And this one is a Laurel Burch horse line that comes with a panel.

I couldn't find anything that warmed my heart with either of these lines.  But, they're great fabrics.

I did find another star pattern (of course) that I want to make with a curated collection of Art Gallery fabrics.

Aren't those fabric beautiful?  This pattern is from American Patchwork & Quilting  October 2015.  I saw it on LaLaDees (Laura) podcast on youtube and was able to find a back issue of AP&Q on Etsy.  It's a beautiful quilt.

I've also got a 1930's quilt on my "To Do" list for 2026 along with a "Gone to Texas quilt" pattern from Betsy Chutchian and finishing my "Birds in a Row quilt.  But the birds quilt is one of those projects I work on as the idea for the next border strikes my fancy so it may not get done for years.  (I'm running out of time -ha!)

The only one of these quilts that will be made for sure is the Madder quilt.  I've got 20 of the 127 stars cut out and the enthusiasm is there.

I hope the new year finds you with new enthusiasm for your projects too.

Robin

Be sure to look for the Wolf Supermoon tonight.  This was last night before the clouds completely obscured it.  

Last finish of the year

 This has been quite a year.  It's amazing that it doesn't matter how old we are. . . we're still learning.  There are new experiences to teach us and expose us to things we never imagined.

I was able to finish my whale quilt with a day to spare.

I love the blues and beiges of these Janet Clare lines of fabric.  But it needed a little "Oomph" so I added  the coral.  

I'll close with this quote that expresses my learning curve this last year and goes along with the ocean theme.

"A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor."

Franklin D. Rooselveldt

I welcome the New Year with all it's possibilities.                                                                                         Robin

Working on the whale quilt

 

I started quilting on this at the first of November.  It's hard to quilt on a regular basis with Christmas emerging upon us.  I'm quilting using six different threads.  It's makes it more interesting for me.  If I had to pick the thread again I would leave out the lightest (far left) and the darkest.  I just think it would look better.  But, the top of the quilt frames shows the last row so I'm going to continue on since I'm close to being finished.

I finished embellishing the right front of my denim jacket.  Here are both fronts together.  This isn't a hard project but the embroidery is time consuming.  I picked out a design for the collar below and I love the way it looks but I keep making mistakes and have almost done as much unpicking as sewing.  I worked on it for an hour yesterday and later realized I'll have to pick all of that out.  I'm learning a lot as I go.  I'm a beginner at this Sashiko Embroidery so I have sore fingers and that makes it hard to do much hand quilting too.  I finally ordered a palm thimble so I'm hoping that using it will make things go forward a little better.

This is the pieced denim and  I've cut out the back of the jacket and yoke.  It is awaiting embellishment.

We had our Christmas Quilt group potluck on Monday.  I wish I had taken pictures of all the show and tell.  This quilt was just made out of random scrap blocks.  It turned out really well.

When you're with other quilters even the stack of coats is coordinated - ha!

We went and got my Christmas present yesterday.  Two weeks before Christmas is not a good time for an oven to quit working.  I never had a black and stainless steel stove before.  I already miss my white one.  The white brightened up the kitchen so this is going to take some getting used to.

This is my husband's Christmas present.  It was delivered in a big wooden crate and so he, with very little help from me, managed to get it on a piano dolly to push to the back yard for uncrating.  He is so pleased.

My other Christmas present was an unexpected root canal I had to have last week.  It's been an expensive month.

  Christmas sure is a different holiday as we get older.  I'm at the point where I give my six children and their families money because I don't know what anybody wants.  They have started their own family traditions (which is good) so we don't do as much together as we used to.  I'm not complaining.  I'm usually too tired to go do anything in the evenings and their days are full.  But, I love them all and they love each other (a big blessing) and I look forward to the times when we're all together.

Minimal decorations but maximum quilty goodness.

I'll just close with this (really bad) picture of a headstone.  I do a lot of family history and when I came across this headstone I just had to share.  What a sweet thing to say about someone.  

I hope you're finding joy in the season,

Robin

Button Wreath

 I have an upcoming block exchange in my quilt group.  We decided rather that having a gift exchange this year we would exchange a block 12" square or less.

I got out all my orphan blocks and picked out the one I thought would make the best little wall hanging or table topper.  

I neglected to get a picture of it after I sewed all the buttons on . . . before I wrapped it. 

 But, it turned out kind of sweet.

Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving,

Robin

Up and down the stairs each season

 Well, it's transition time again.  I'm slowly taking my fall decor down and putting it away for another year.  

It makes me a little sad this year because I love fall and always look forward to it and it's rich colors.  

I put the fall things out much earlier than I usually do this year and then I interspersed Halloween with them when it was time.

But now, the cooler weather and gray days are telling me to make the change to winter.  So, each time I have to go downstairs for some reason I take pumpkins or crows, or fall leaf items down with me to put away.  Only a few Christmas things have surfaced - like a Cardinal snow globe and one of my Christmas colored wall hangings.  

We aren't celebrating Thanksgiving at my house this year so no one will notice the difference.

I'm making slow progress on my denim jacket.  I've decided to call it a denim jacket instead of a "Boro" jacket because of some things Katherine of K3N Cloth Works said on one of her lastest youtube videos. 

 She made me think that to honor the people that had nothing else to wear except these much mended old pieces of clothing (Boro means rags) perhaps I should  just mention that I was doing Boro-type mending embellishments to a homemade denim jacket.  I'm also using Sashiko embroidery and applique.

I found these Japanese Rabbit squares when we went to Santa Fe (of all places) and I could buy them by the square or buy the whole piece.  I bought the whole piece but I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with them  I just know they are lovely. 

Right half

They look yellowish but are deep indigo and bright white.

Left half

They are adorable.  I wondered what the writing was because I wouldn't want to use it on something and have it say something negative.  I found someone who spoke Japanese and they are the symbols for Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.  

It looks better in real life.

I think this little guy will look great appliqued to the left front I finished piecing and embellishing yesterday.  This sure isn't coming together very fast.  There are so many decisions to be made not the least of which is the actual construction of the jacket.

I kind of lost a week in thought because the left front wasn't turning out like I had envisioned.

I've decided to sew the pieces I want together to make the parts and then actually construct the jacket. Then I will work on the embellishment as a ongoing project.  

Yesterday was my youngest son's 35th birthday.  I remember when I thought 35 was old.

Robin 

Joy and gladness shall be found therein,

thanksgiving

and the voice of melody.