Summed-Up 2025

 The year 2025 is completed and "in the books", and before I shelve mine completely away on the very long bookshelf that is this blog, it's time for another yearly summing up. Fair Warning: this is quite a long post.

The 1SE video for 2025, all six minutes or so of it, shows a lot about how I spent my time all year. One second per day. Looking back on last year, it's pretty representative, showing the daily studio work, all the family/pets, gardening, and so very very much traveling. Not that I'm complaining about getting to travel of course! It's just been a year of being out and about and away from my workroom, more than is usual.

I published 17 Wandering Wednesday posts about all these travels. Non-local travel locations included  Tahoe, Chemainus Canada, San Juan Bautista, San Francisco 2x, Spokane 5x,Copenhagen, London England, Ashland, Portland.

I'm going to use the same format as I did last year to look at what all got accomplished in my studio.

Finishes

Sky Structure for the Sister Artists exhibit.

Our Mistake for the Stretching Art & Tradition 25 exhibit.

Spring Speaking to Summer for the BAMQG exhibit at the SMCF.

Slopes

Metro Twist

Running Out of Raincloud

Trinket

Another year of participating in Index Card A Day

Made napkins out of toweling fabric.

Big Steps Completed

Pieced the blocks and assembled the top of the Old Town Mystery Quilt

City Sampler Backing and binding done and the quilt is at the long-armer being quilted.

Almost to the center of my Kawandii

Finally found the right background so I can start my Circle Sampler

Made the Bohemian Wife Backing and binding.

Pieced many more blocks for the Y.E.S. coat.

Made 11 more Stamp Quilt blocks and cut out 11 more.

Made several parts of the paper-pieced Candy quilt.

Made blocks for the new BAMQG BOM 

Actually started working on the Oxbow Tote!

Pieced the blocks and sashing for Patchwork Palooza

Pieced the first clue for the new mystery quilt Lupine & Laughter.

Community Giving

7 Blocks

Made and added the binding.

Made and added the binding.

Made the Postage Stamp and HST blocks from the pre-packs and sewed into a top.

Sew Day group project blocks

Seven Postage Stamp blocks

Oh my goodness, that's quite a lot really! I was feeling a little poky and a bit down about my production for the year given all that went on in my non-creative life this year. As per usual my productivity continues to come on in fits and starts throughout the whole twelve months. Not a surprise as a lot of this is still very dependent on how I'm physically doing which changes a lot from month to month (and day to day!). And with all of that traveling, and helping my mom through her move it feels like it's been a decade in a year. Thus, this has been a very good exercise for me to go through every year here on ye olde blougue as I also discovered over the last two years. I think I'll continue this going forward.

January To-Do

Here's how my design wall is looking at the very beginning of the month (and year). The only real change is that most of the mini "trunk show" is now down and the Patchwork Palooza sashing is now taking up a lot of space.

Note: the use of 🥏👽  by a project name indicates that it's on the 2026 UFO Finishes challenge list of six projects that I committed to finishing at the beginning of the year (more on that list later).

QUILTS

Design & Begin

Design and make a quilt for SAT 26, no it won't be based on this picture, but it will Definitely involve spirals.

Pantone Project - work on an overall design, either in EQ8 or up on the design wall.

Lupine & Laughter Mystery Quilt - keep making units as the mystery clues are revealed.

BAMQ BOM - make monthly blocks of varying sizes through the year.

Continue Assembly

Patchwork Palooza - add sashing/cornerstones and assemble top

Keep working on Sour Grass Grace from Jane Sassaman class.

Old Town Mystery Quilt - make a backing & binding, decide on whether to have it quilted

AG Stamp Quilt - continue to make more blocks using the final group of fussy-cut stamp block centers from Tula Pink fabrics.

Continue the piecing of Selvedge Candy (maybe the name) quilt originally designed for the 2025 MQG challenge.

🥏👽 Sew the last 6 columns and sashing together of the 2023 Temperature Quilt together to make the quilt top.

🥏👽 Bohemian Wife -  Sandwich this and start quilting it

                                      

Quilting

leaving this category right here so I don't forget to use it next time

Final Steps 

🥏👽City Sampler- the long-armer is still working on it!

HANDWORK/BAG/CLOTHING PROJECTS 

Make a Cotton Candy pouch for myself.

Make a Charlie's Aunt wool purse for myself, first felt the wool from Pendleton Mill.

Oxbow Tote - Continue the assembly. 

Toned-Down Circle Sampler - now that I have the appropriately sized grey background felt, arrange and appliqué the circles, start embroidering.

Y.E.S. Coat - continue making pieces/blocks. assemble on foundation, cut out lining pieces from the fabric that I dyed

Snake In The Garden - Finish hand stitching

Kawandii - Finish hand stitching/assembly

Hey! This Is All Finished!

I'm still leaving this category here so I don't forget to use it next time I finish something

Once again, no actual finishing happened during this past month. But, I noticed that I got to change out the pictures for five out of eighteen of these to-do. I'm counting it as good to keep progressing on many fronts all at once. Continuing to keeping on keeping on....

That Was December

 

Whoosh,...so...that was certainly a December! It sure went by quickly didn't it? We enjoyed our Super Lucky 2026 Black-Eyed Peas for dinner last night. Seen here topped with salsa, avocado, cheese and blue corn tortilla chips.

Here's my One Second Every Day video for December

Monthly I-Did List for December

1. I worked and worked on the first clue of the Lupine Mystery Quilt until I got them all done.
2. The Oxbow Tote got much further along to finished.
3. Patchwork Palooza sashing was worked on and finished.
4. I repaired the seat cushion for my studio chair.
5. More stitching on the Snake in the Garden quilt.
6. I started arranging the blocks and finished sashing for Patchwork Palooza.
7. Did a post about replacing my Steady Betty tools.
8. I began cutting for the second clue of the Lupine Mystery Quilt.

December was again a month with traveling happening, up and back to Spokane once again for the medical study, and then a trip to Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo to visit friends and family with my mom. There was also a long power outage over Christmas that affected the time I got in the studio. The upshot of all that time away and recovery time when I return, is that I didn't get my two last UFO's done, or anything else really finished. But I got to go to an extended Sew Day for BAMQ. I was still very active on social media, posted here 28 times,on BlueSky 35 times, on Flashes 6 times, on Instagram 1 time. Will January be any calmer? I doubt it, but I'll again try to get some sewing in there.

New Year, New Month, New Day

 

Well well well...another year has arrived, and it's time for a new monthly marker. For this year, I've gone back to combining two of my photos, one from my quilt/art making and one from elsewhere in the app, SnapSeed.

I combined the picture of the gate that my DH made for us last year. (oh my goodness, last year).

It's combined with this photo of four of the Hourglass blocks from the Lupine Mystery quilt. I really liked how the lines on the gate line up with the lines on the block, and the lines on the fabric.

My chosen word of the year is: Alignment. I will be doing my best to work on making sure my inner world is matching up with my outer expression. There's a lot going on inside of everyone (including me), sometimes some or all of it gets stuck inside, pushed down, pushed away, ignored, de-prioritized, etc. The occasional successful expression of my own interior world shines so much more brightly to me among all the other less personal work that I've made OR am in the process of making OR am meaning to make at some point. All of it is useful and necessary as it adds up to skill-acquiring, facility (but not yet mastery) of processes and materials, training the hands and the brain to work together and so forth. But I'm finding I need to put more of my focus on making sure I'm prioritizing or working on my own projects that I've come up with all on my own.

I'm starting off the year doing a month of Drawing Every Day This is my illustrated More/Less list for the year. It relates to what I was talking about Alignment.

Here's to a year where all  your More actually happens and as much of your Less gets lost or worked out.