2026 Finishes (Thus far)

 Winter is always a productive season for me. All that beautiful snow really inspires me. 

My first actual finish was this sweet little doll quilt for Linda Collin's (Quilts in the Barn) annual swap. Since it has been received by her new owner I can tell you that it traveled all the way to the UK. I was delighted to be a part of this fun swap again this year. You can go to @QuiltsintheBarn on Instagram and check out all the very sweet and oh so creative little treasures. 

 

 

 

Next up was made in an effort to use up some of my strips. Once again, instead of depleting the basket of scraps, they seemed to multiply! It was a quick effort though and those center crazy blocks were really fun to play with. And once again, because I made it in the potholder method, the back was as much fun as the front. 

 

 

 

I had intended to donate it to the Infusion Center, but I got carried away and it is really too large for the chairs so I will just have to keep it. 😉  

My neighbor's grandson is expecting a baby next month so I whipped up this little cutie. It is very similar to the one I made for him as a baby over 20 years ago! They both love animals so I had to use the Pokey Little Puppy in the center. 

 

 

I joined in the fun of the "Round Robin" at my local "Kaleidoscope" group. This is my first one. I just received the second one so hopefully I will post that next month. 

 

Block number one. And here is my border. 

 

I have a few other irons in the fire, but as usual I'm behind on my photography. Hope you all enjoyed the Winter Olympics. Stay warm and healthy my friends!

Welcome New Year - Let's Spread Some JOY!

 My first finish of the year is my "Liberty Bird" sew-a-long 2025 with Barbara Brackman on her Civil War blog. Although it is done in the potholder method, this one is a bit different in that I chose the same fabrics for the back of each block. It was due to pure laziness on my part. At the time I quilted my first block, I just didn't have the gumption to pick different fabrics for each one. I plan to donate this to the auction at the American Quilts Study Group (AQSG) at the end of the summer. Barbara and I are both long term members of  AQSG so the combination of her design and my assembly usually brings a good amount for the coffers. Thanks Barbara for another great sew-a-long! Since it is my first finish for 2026, I've decided to call it "Love Thy Neighbor". This quote has meant more to me in the past year than any other. 

 

 

I also finished this top last week. A few year ago I bought a table cover at my favorite junk store with 4 of these fabulous fruit bouquets on it. The label on the back said "made in Czechoslovakia" and I'm guessing it is from around 1890. 

I auditioned a few fabrics for the setting fabric and decided on the neutral. 

I decided to keep the quilt simple. The inner border was from a fabric that my friend Karen had given me. Then I just pulled colors from the bouquet and made a simple "squares" border. I liked it more than I thought so it is now in the "hand quilting" queue. It will likely be my first finish of 2027! 😏

 

 Last weekend our Kaleidoscope Quilt group had a quiltathon dedicated to making quilts for veterans. I finished this little top but decided it might be too small so I'm going to dd a border of this Cadet blue. I rarely get much done at our quiltathons. Too much yacking and eating, but I was determined to finish this one and get it out to one of our quilting angels. 

 

In this time of global unrest I am determined to "live, love and give locally". 

I will continue to spread joy and happiness to all that I can. 

I hope you have something delightful to work on in these wintery months too!