January 2026

HAPPY NEW YEAR 

And it’s January ….

So here are my thoughts for the New Year.  This will be the year I clear a lot of projects, use as much as possible the resources that I have (ie fabrics, yarns, threads) potentially. I have bought or acquired a lot of crafting stuff that at times have threatened to overwhelm me and it’s time to put a stop to it.  I have a lot of finished items too that I have no room for and a need to clear space.  To that end I may do a table top sale or two locally or sell through Facebook Marketplace.

Another thing I’m doing and that’s shown in the pic above is to show the mini quilts that I made back in 2016 (yep, 10 years ago) as monthly markers and other small quilts here and on Instagram as a bit of a mini exhibition. This quilt above, I called Blue Monday and a quilt I made as part of the Contemporary Quilters Group monthly journal quilt challenge.  It’s 10” x 8” and raw edged strip piecing of blue fabrics onto wadding and with extra decorative machine stitching.  I made a larger wall hanging quilt in a workshop held the year before tutored by Kathryn Chambers (K3N) at Pauline’s Patchwork, when the shop was in Dorchester.  It is the only piece that has a label, none of the other quilts have and some just have the date. Fortunately I can refer back to my blog posts of 2016 and update with labels for them.

In my clearing out I found a quilt top which started out life as a Bonny Hunter mystery quilt from 2015, called the Grand Illusion quilt. I did have a go at that top last year and add some blocks around each side of this medallion style quilt, but I now want to add some length. I’ve gone a bit ‘off piste’ but using the colours already in the quilt to added top and bottom which will have larger and smaller squares, which will pick out the patched square in the middle.

You will have noticed in my last post that I’m using my stash yarn to make a shawl rather than buying new. I have a lot of Stylecraft Special DK yarns from making crochet blankets in the past, but whether that makes a dent in it remains to be seen.  This is how it looked on Monday 29 December. The rows are bigger and it’s taking a lot longer to get each one done. The Wild Wood Shawl is an Advent project by the Bakery Bears, of which I am subscribed to.

Another find in clearing out has been a cardigan for David which I left for ages in a plastic bag and not sure why. I haven’t got the pattern and everything looks ok with it but it needs the button bands knitted. That’s simple enough so I hope to crack on and get that done. I’ll get a better photo when it’s completed. 

So there is plenty to keep me busy and get finished.