Snow!

 Well, there’s no snow as I am writing this, but we are expected to get socked with 10-14 inches starting on Sunday. There is also a chance for freezing rain and/or sleet. We are as ready as we will ever be. Just hoping the power stays on. We have someone who comes to do the shoveling/snow blowing. 

If the power stays on I will probably be at my sewing machine in the basement. I cut out all the necessary fabric for my younger granddaughter’s I-Spy quilt. Here is the layout. It will be about 42 inches square before a border is added.

I’ve sewn all the rows that have the nine patch blocks. I am working on the rows with the 4 patch novelty fabric blocks. 

This quilt will soon be a flimsy and ready to sandwich and machine quilt. I wonder if I have any batting for it? Hmm...

There are only 2 “blocks” left to hand quilt on Having a Ball. I’m not looking forward to quilting the small navy block. I’m going to work on it next so that the last block to quilt is the easy pink one. 

My first sock attempt is going well. I was so proud of myself when I knit the heel flap and turned the gusset. Even more proud when I picked up stitches and connected them to the main part of the sock. 

I did watch a few videos to help me understand the written instructions. 

I made my first recipe from the America's Test Kitchen cookbook I received as a Christmas gift. It was just a basic roasted chicken thigh recipe and it was delicious. I must admit that, although I love to bake, I really don't like to cook. This was an easy recipe, but drama ensued. Since the bone-in skin-on thighs were cooked on a preheated sheet pan in a fairly hot oven, they gave off a whole lot of grease. When I opened the oven to turn them over as directed there was a lot of smoke that set off the smoke alarm in the hallway next to the kitchen. That was easily dealt with by waving a towel under it and then opening a window. At least we confirmed that our smoke alarm system is working. Of course, said smoke alarm decided it would start chirping at 11:30 that night. Hubby got up and changed the battery without much drama thankfully. The next day saw me putting the oven racks in cleaning solution overnight and setting the oven to self-clean. Although the recipe was delicious, I am not sure I will be making it again any time soon. 

I finished reading The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness.

 It was fantastic! As interesting and fast moving as the first book of the series. Supposedly there is a 6th book on the way. I am so looking forward to reading it. I'm not sure what book I will read next. 

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I hope you take some time to relax with some tea, coffee or hot chocolate and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

PS: If you comment on my post and are "no reply", I usually try to reply on my actual post. For some reason, Blogger is no longer allowing me to do so. If your comment appears at the end of a post after moderation, please know that I did read it and greatly appreciate your kind words. I will try to determine what is wrong and remedy the problem. 

First Stitch Along update of 2026

It has been 6 weeks since our last update in 2025 and I must admit that I only worked on Three Boats just this past week. That's okay, since I finished the full coverage cross-stitch Christmas stocking for my youngest granddaughter, I have much more time to devote to stitching this project in the future. This is how Three Boats on a Tropical Beach looked in December.

 I have finally started adding some color this week. Here is how it looks now.

You can now see that this is palm tree emerging.

This Stitch Along is hosted every three weeks by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea who kindly sends us the needed posting reminders.

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. There is a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world, so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post.  

Avis, Claire, Kathy, Margaret,

 Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Thanks for stopping by!

Progress and a finish

January crafting is well on its way. Having A Ball has a mere 6 more blocks to be quilted. I finished the two I was working on for my last update (red and orange) and have started the next two. The centers of the blue and rose blocks are quilted as is some of the rest of the rose colored block.

I finished the hat that I was knitting for myself. It goes well with my navy winter coat.

Needing another yarn craft to work on, I started knitting a pair of socks, or at least the first sock. I bought this yarn on clearance years ago with the plan of using cheap yarn to attempt to make socks. So far things are going well, but I feel like I’m knitting with toothpicks. 

I bought the white on white fabric needed for my latest I-Spy quilt for my younger granddaughter. I spent Friday sewing 1 1/2” strips and squares into the parts needed for 30 9 patch blocks. 

I’m almost there. I still have to finish sewing the center row for each block which will be two white squares with a color in between. 

Hubby bought me this cookbook for Christmas though it just arrived this week.

 We were both surprised by the weight of this massive tome. There are over 1000 pages! We watch America’s Test Kitchen most evenings. I had been hinting for quite a while that I would like the cookbook for Christmas. Now I have to try some of these recipes!

I finished reading Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher. Though I found the beginning a little slow, I’m glad I stuck with it, because it was soon a book that I didn’t want to put down.

 I’m currently reading The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness. I love a good witch/vampire book. So far it is living up to my high expectations.This is the 5th book of what started as a trilogy. I reread the other 4 books to refresh my memory of the intricate family interactions and now I am looking forward to losing myself in this book.

I woke up very, very early one morning this past week and saw a pretty sunrise from our front windows. You can also see the sliver of the moon near the top of the tree. Such pretty colors.

This photo definitely gives the cold winter day vibe.

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I hope you take some time to relax with some tea, coffee or hot chocolate and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Looking Ahead

I’m still recovering and cleaning up after having 4 adults, 3 toddlers and one canine as houseguests for 8 days. I have almost finished putting away our Christmas decorations. I finished another donation hat, but forgot to take a photo before giving all the hats to a friend to donate. I started another hat. This one is for me.

I donated the previous blue hat that I had considered keeping for myself. 

Since there has been very little crafting happening this past week, I decided to make a list of the crafts I hope to work on/complete in 2026. 

Let me start with what WIPs I would like to finish. 

Having a Ball is well on its way to completion. There should be plenty of time for hand quilting over the next couple of months.

The Royal Squares quilt needs to be sandwiched, pinned and machine quilted. I’m not sure when that will happen, but it is on the list to be completed this year. 

Cinnamon House has become my travel craft. I would like to work on it more once Having a Ball is done. 

Finishing the Summer Oak Embroidery is long, long overdue. That is on the list also. 

Three Boats will be a continuous WIP. I have no illusions that it will be completed this year. 

So what projects do I want to start. I want to make my youngest granddaughter an I-Spy quilt. This is sort of a WIP as I have cut out the squares of novelty fabrics, but nothing else is cut and fabric may need to be bought. 

In July I will start making Christmas ornaments for my grandchildren. I think I will make them from this kit. 

I also want to make myself the last Mill Hill Santa face kit that I have. 

I’m debating starting to knit a pair of socks for myself once I finish my hat. I have yarn all ready to go. I’ve never made socks before. 

Other possible crafts this year are this Hankerchief quilt. 

I have several handkerchiefs from my mom and from when I was a kid. 

This Snow Globe cross stitch that is all kitted up ready to make. 

This Candy Cane Santa kit the my son gifted me several years ago. 

I would also like to try my hand at making either a macrame style or machine sewn rope basket. 

I have so many crafts, quilts, cross stitch patterns as well as knit and crochet patterns that I am itching to work on. Sometimes I find it overwhelming to think about. I also need to go through my extensive collection of old craft magazines and pamphlets and purge what I doubt I will ever work on. 

I didn’t receive any crafts as gifts for Christmas this year. That is probably a good thing, but my daughter did buy me this wonderful wine glass. 

It says Sip by Sip, Stitch by Stitch. It is just perfect for me. 

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I hope you take some time to relax with some tea, coffee or hot chocolate and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

2025 in Review

The year has almost come to an end and it is time to look back and see what I accomplished in the last 12 months. 

January 

At the very end of this month I finished knitting a hat for my Hubby.

I also assembled a pillow from the small whole cloth that I had quilted in 2024.

February 

This month I finished a hat for no one in particular. It used up some yarn that I really didn't like to work with at all.

March

Royal Squares finally became a flimsy. It still needs to be quilted.

April 

My newest granddaughter’s birth announcement was finished this month. It is so adorable! 

May

May saw Windows Into My World, now called Having a Ball, become a flimsy. It is still in the process of being hand quilted.

July

I finished two Christmas ornaments this month. The first was for my younger granddaughter. 

The second was for my older granddaughter.

August

One more Christmas ornament was finished in August. This one for my grandson.

October

The Harvesttime pillow with the scarecrow of this trio was completed quickly at the beginning of the month. 

Another hat for donation was also completed. I like the hat, but the pompom needs some help.

November

This month saw three finishes. First I made a quick pillow out of a small printed panel.

Second I finished a polar bear hat for my older granddaughter.

I also finished the scrappy baby blanket that will eventually be donated.

December

I finished a hat that was supposed to be for donation, but ended up in my wardrobe.

Then, of course I had to make another hat for donation.

Hubby requested a hat.

So did my mother in law.

I also finished my granddaughter's stocking.

Two Prairie Schooler Santas were made into small pillows. One has braiding around the edge, the other is still waiting to get its braid.

All in all there were 20 needlework items finished this year with 3 of them still needing final finishing touches...quilting or adding the braid to the pillow.

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I hope you take some time to relax with some tea, coffee or hot chocolate and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year! Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2026!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Around town and at home

 Although today is a miserably rainy, windy, stormy day, recently we have had some warmer clear weather that was great for driving around our neighborhood at night and viewing the pretty decorated houses. 

The house below is just down the street from our house. We will bring the grandkids to see it for sure.

This is known on social media as the "Big Santa" house.

 It is a few blocks away from our house. Yes, the Santa is taller than the two story house. 

We had about 6 inches of snow at the beginning of the week.

The view out our front window was a winter wonderland.

 I love baking on snowy days, so I made chocolate thins (a new recipe for me that is just okay) and Raspberry Walnut Thumbprint cookies. The latter are a Christmas time staple that I make every year. You can find the recipe under the Baking tab.

You can see some more recipes scattered around these cookies. I will be working on them this weekend. I like to make the clams and cream puffs early and put them in the freezer until needed. I have also put half of every cookie dough in the freezer to use later or to have my grandchildren help with when they are here.

You can see in the photo above a Prairie Schooler Santa that has been made into a pillow. It still needs some braid around the outside, but at least it can be on display.

I finished another Prairie Schooler Santa into a pillow also. This one has its braid completed. 

 I worked on the braid while baking the chocolate cookies.

Another hat has been almost completed. The seam needs to be sewn. This one is for Hubby. 

I have started a green one also for donation. My mother in law has requested another hat as she has lost/misplaced the last one that I made for her. I will be knitting a whole lot of hats over the next few weeks. 

I quilted the centers of two more blocks on Having a Ball and have marked one of the blocks for the rest of its quilting. 

As I listen to the wind whip around our home, I think I will head to the kitchen and start on my Christmas Butter Cookies. The butter should be softened by now. 

Merry Christmas!

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I hope you take some time to relax with some tea or coffee and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!