Cumulative Finish

After trimming the finished quilt to size, it was time for adding on the binding to the piece I've made for the Stretching Art & Tradition exhibit.

And then I decided to go over the couched-on spiral of cotton Baker's Twine as I'd missed too many places. That took a while! But it was worth it, now it won't get caught on anything.

There it is...Cumulative Spiral. One of my first quilt finishes for 2026, hurrah!

A close-up of the binding (I used the same Navy blue as I did for the background of Patchwork Palooza) and the now-secured spiral.  Now it's time to sew on the sleeve and label and send it off to the show organizer tomorrow!


 

Off The Couch(ing)

Well, I lost at "bobbin chicken" and had to stop my couching efforts to wind myself a new one.

It's going pretty well now that I've gotten the hang of it. Very different than free-motion quilting. Also, I'm using a small zig-zag stitch as well.

Getting closer to the top.

And...done! Now to trim to the exact size, 24" w x 36"h and add some binding. 

 

Returning to May You Ever Return

 

The BAMQ UFO challenge has started in January, and the number chosen for us to work on this month was #12 on our lists. For my list, this was my very hardest one, which is finishing this quilt, May You Ever Return. This was started in the excellent class/workshop, Word for Word, that I took with Rosalie Dace along with friend Jaye when we made the pilgrimage up to Sisters, Oregon for Quilter's Affair in 2018. 

It took me a while to even get my hands on the box it was stashed in, and I have as yet been able to find the class notes. (shoot!) So...as you can see this "almost a quilt" is in quite the state at the moment, a little smashed up and un-ironed. It's in an in-between place, I know I was making moves, there were decisions being made about it, placement of pieces, additions and subtractions, etc. That's what I need the notes for.  Seeing it pinned up on the design wall is definitely helping it come back into focus.

Or maybe I just need to listen to the song that it's based on a bunch of times to get me back in the headspace to access my ideas about it all. This quilt has the lyrics to a verse of a Neko Case song, Pitch or Honey, sprinkled around the piece, in an unexpected order. Not at all intended to be easily legible. Just like the song I guess.

Clean & Crazy

Oldest and newest seen together on my workroom chair before heading to the BAMQ meeting today. The assignment was to bring one of our oldest quilts, what fun that was seeing everyone's beginning. Mine is called Crazy Baskets, made in 1999 out of P&B Textiles fabric, with a small border of some of my first SetaColor painted fabric. On top is the most recent finish, Clean Cloud.
 

Still Couching.

 

I'm still working on the "Cumulative Spiral" couching effort for my Stretching Art & Tradition quilt. It's fiddly and kind of close-up. I decided not to mark or pin or glue, but I still am working to a sort of plan/design. The thread vs. the baker's twine that I'm using is playing well together visually. But the baker's twine is sometimes getting stuck on the needle, and on the thread above the needle. So that's a little annoying, but I'm sticking with it and trying to go slow enough to notice when there's a problem developing.

I

Every now and then I have to stand up and see what it is that I've couched. I'd say "So far, so good", I'm almost up to the top, which means I'm almost done. Noticing how much I truly love stitching on my hand-dyed fabrics, it's somehow still quite a thrill. That means I really do need to keep on dyeing. (note the e in the word)

Black and White Couching Spirals

 

After all that quilting, it was time for some quilt trimming.

I have a design drawn out that needs to be added to this quilt, so I decided to try some couching.

I'm using a black and white  two-ply twisted cotton baker's twine. This first part in the lower right hand corner is the most fiddly part.

I'm using a black and white twisted 2-ply rayon thread (Wonderful D-Twist) to do the couching. Last seen being used last year, on my Stretching Art & Tradition 25 quilt

This is working out pretty well so far. It shows up just enough, like a sketch.

Thread Spiral

Choosing threads for all the colors of the background of my SAT 26 quilt, Cumulative Spiral.

Looking for not exactly matching, but pretty close.

It's always fun to go through my quilting threads and search for the right colors to use.

 I think it turned out pretty well. Now that the background is all done, it's time to do the rest of the work on the reminder of the quilt design.

Thread Usage

 

I regularly use Bottom Line thread in my bobbin, especially when piecing, and I bought this cone of "Silver" and started using it, September 2022. I only know that because I marked it on the inside of the cone when I first unwrapped it. This thread is extremely thin and works really well in my machine, very smooth, winds on the bobbins easily, etc. 

I was taking this cone off my machine when my DH came in, and I told him this information, he quickly in his head calculated an estimated usage rate. I did the math and he was very close: 3,000 yards, 1228 days which is 2.44 yards per day. Not terribly useful information, I know, especially because this is not the Only Thread I ever use in the bobbin. I use different thread when I'm quilting, and free-motion quilting. But I will do the same thing again and then I'll have at least one comparison point. Will I make a spreadsheet? Nope, not enough data to make it worth the time.

I also had to write on the top of the cone what type of thread it was so that I'd remember to use it when it was time to wind a new set of bobbins. Guess it's time for me to get some more!

SAT 26 - Begin Again

 

Working on my quilt, Cumulative Spiral for the SAT 26 exhibit (Stretching Art and Tradition). This is the un-ironed, non-sewn together background. Yes, those are all of my dyed fabrics. A lot are the results of trying to match colors for the Temperature Quilt.

Project Quilting 17.1 - Clean Cloud

 Just like Project Runway, Project Quilting gives you a challenge and you get a set time (One Week) to produce something that fits the rules. I skipped last year, but I'm back to participating this year. I loved this first challenge: Clean Slate, inspired by Cloud Dancer, the Color of the Year according to Pantone. Not a super exciting color, but it's Not Just White as a lot of people instantly responded. 

I was one of those naysayers, but then I looked a little closer at Cloud Dancer, all because of this challenge. I'd copy/pasted in the directions into the word processing program on my Mac and I looked at the screen. Well how about that, it's really not just plain white. And look at all three greys on the screen versus the white "page". 

Something all super light grey or white would be kind of boring, so I wanted structure and texture. I started with a simple 4-square of two light grey fabrics, each one flipped to have the back as the front. It's subtle but I thought it worked to reflect what I'd noticed on my computer screen.

I dug around in my "FabMo fabrics to be dyed" box and found some interesting pieces of fabric to use to surround the four patch.

Here's my piece, named: "Clean Cloud" it's 13"w x 14"h.

Here's a closeup of it. I'm pretty happy with how it looks.

More Words for the Year, Books, Movies Tracked

Even though my intention word for the year is: Alignment, here's a fun one that came up on the Merriam-Webster Dictionary account on Bluesky to predict what's in store in 2026 for me. Of course I had to go look that one up even though I kind of knew what it meant, something to do with electricity...

gal·​van·​ic gal-ˈva-nik 

Synonyms of galvanic

1

a

: of, relating to, or producing a direct current of electricity

a galvanic cell

b

: caused by galvanism  

—used especially of the corrosion of metallic objects as a result of electrolytic action

2

a

: having an electric effect : intensely exciting

a galvanic performance

b

: produced as if by an electric shock

had a galvanic effect on the audience

Just a fun prediction for the year ahead. I don't know if I really want to have an intensely exciting year, or maybe just one where the electricity actually stays on! 

Okay moving on to books, as I talked about last year, I decided to switch over to The StoryGraph for tracking my book reading. I quite like it, much quieter and less ad focused than GoodReads. 

That's a pretty good number of books read for me in a year. Next is a long graphic of all of the covers of those books pretty much in order of how I read them through the year.

It's a visually fun scroll to see all those covers together in one image. I'm again reminded of the Granny Squares quilt idea I had last year.

Also on TheStoryGraph, they have an easy way for various challenges to be tracked, so I did the 52 Book Challenge. And yes, I got 100%, some of them were a little hard to figure out which book to read, or how to fit it into a prompt, but just a fun diversion, made me pick some books I might not have read which was a good thing to get me out of my reading ruts.

Then there's the movie tracking website, Letterboxd, where I keep track, sometimes review and enjoy reading what other viewers have to say about movies. That's an even longer list, 154 movies watched, so I'll spare you the year's graphics on that one and that's just the last part of the year.

Why is tracking so fun? 

Final Advent Update

 Time to catch up on the Advent FQ "calendar" goodies from Global Fiber Shop. I haven't posted about them since the middle of last month. I love all the great patterns in these fabrics. But I especially love the red/purple woven with the great texture.

The orange one in the right bottom corner is just a lovely shade and the pattern is terrific.

I like this little notepad, it's so pretty, and it makes me want to make that block. Also, "Let It Sew" is super clever and I haven't seen that.

I really love these two, especially together. Soft and peaceful but still interesting.

Oooh two FQs on the 25th! I love that twelve days of Christmas print, so cute.

There they are all stacked up together. I think these would all work together well in a scrappy sort of looking quilt. There are only a couple that might need to be removed to really work. Would I have picked out all  100% of these fabrics? No, definitely not. There are many that I would have chosen, but I do like that they feel cohesive overall which is pretty tough to achieve with this variation in patterns and colors. The main thing was to give myself (and friend Jaye too) a little surprise present to open up every day. 

So, adding all 34 of these FQs into my fabric tracker for 2025 I ended up with these totals: 

• 103.3 yards bought/brought in 
• 71.3 yards used in projects/quilts 
• for a net of 32 yards

As I haven't tracked my fabric before I don't know if that's a lot or a little for me, so I'll keep tracking this year and find out.

Waiting Snake

 

Yesterday was a traveling back from Spokane day, with an almost three-hour flight delay. At least I got this beautiful picture in the morning on Tuesday in San Francisco. Those glowing red squares are so interesting, especially with the offset squares and additionally offset circles inside them That plus all the lines on the pavement. A great start to a possible quilt design.

In the extra time I had to sit around and wait for our plane to even decide to show up, I got a whole lot of the sky stitched on the Snake in the Garden quilt. Just one more section of green left to go on this!

Wandering Wednesday- Coyote Hills

 As our traditional New Year's Day hike was not happening due to the weather and other scheduling issues, we put it off just one day and got to go to Fremont's great park, Coyote Hills on the southeast edge of the San Francisco Bay. We managed to get there in between rainstorms, so that was very good.

We (DH and I) took an almost four mile hike with DS (seen above with Bella, DD's dog), DD, her boyfriend. Bella has her Christmas sweatshirt on.We had just started walking when DS, said "wow, what, oh no!" turned out he almost had stepped on this wriggler. A park worker happened to drive up in his electric work truck and he ID'd it for us as a Tiger Centipede. 

Also saw a big flock of wild turkeys. They look a little different from the ones we have in our neighborhood.

Up the hill we went. The Bay was such a different color than last time when it was so bright we could barely look at it from the sun glare.

The water was filled with floating American Coots.

A large white bird way up on the hill really was eye catching, either a heron or a crane.

It got tough going up Red Hill as it's pretty steep (500' elevation gain), but we were happy at the top.

A nice log under the trees to sit on with a heck of a view.

We could see back towards home that it was likely raining there.

The red rocks of Red Hill with the Bay in the background.

We were so happy to make it outside together, and to miss getting rained on.