January

Here's hoping everyone had enjoyable holidays, and Happy New Year to all. My granddaughter was sick on Christmas Day, so we didn't get to see her until after New Year's. With blended families to contend with, catching up with everyone has become difficult, but we try to make it work. 

We've had plenty of winter weather this past month, but mostly it's been bitter cold. Cold enough in fact to break some records around the state for the month of December. We had about three inches of snow last night, on top of what's already on the ground, which isn't vey much; and we're expecting another three inches tonight, followed by sleet and freezing rain in the morning. Delightful. We'll miss the second quilt chapter meeting in as many months. 

This little mini Courthouse Steps, which measures 14 x 17, was my last finish for 2025, making a total of 9 finishes for the year. Not my best year, but a nice balance of large and small, scrappy quilts and planned projects, and new and old projects. 

I have a friend who has been more than generous with her scraps, so this little quilt is for her. I had hoped to have it to her before Christmas, but I couldn't get it finished in time. Since our meeting tomorrow will likely be cancelled, it'll have to wait until mid January. 

The little blocks finish at 3", so it's paper pieced using mostly civil war reproduction fabrics. 

  
 

There were a few tiny quilt blocks and a strip set that was probably supposed to get cut apart in one of the scrap buckets I got from my friend. I didn't have a project in mind for them but didn't want to throw them out, so they went into the backing. 

My husband was quite taken with this little quilt and wasn't too happy to hear that I was giving it away, so I started a second one. Most of the fabrics are the same as the first, but I did have to switch some out because I ran out of some of the fabrics. He particularly liked the inner and outer border fabrics, and luckily I have enough of those to finish it the same way. 

These little blocks are fun to make, and they don't take hours to sew. I think there may be a few more of these in my future.  

After foundation paper piecing for 30+ years, I was pretty sure I knew everything there was to know about the subject; but nope, someone is always coming up with something new. This was something I just learned, but I forget where I saw it. 

I usually prefold the lines on my paper pattern to make it easier to trim seams after stitching. Instead of prefolding, someone thought to use one of those rotary cutter blades with the perforated edge to go over the lines in the paper beforehand. I was amazed how well this worked. Not only was it faster than folding by hand, but it saved some wear and tear on my fingernails.

A very light touch is required so the pattern doesn't fall apart before you finish stitching. Perforation worked well on paper you normally use for printing, but not as well on a lighter weight paper like Carol Doak's foundation paper. Still, a dandy tip indeed. 

And here is an ornament called Pirouette that I made a few weeks ago. I love it, but I say that about most of them, lol.