Quilting

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I'm joining Jandi Dean on Instagram for her 2026 UFO Challenge. She's asked us to identify six UFO projects (so hard to narrow the vast list down to six!) with a goal of completing one per quarter. So here goes!

I actually made a list of six last year and finished zero. I've replaced one of those and here's my new list.

Overall I have chosen the low hanging fruit, as you'll see...

All About Angles in Blue Lagoon is a quilt top. However, I need to rip out a section to replace a piece of fabric that I found a flaw on after finishing the quilt top. No idea how I'll quilt it. I'm open to ideas!

Trinket is a finished quilt top. I think I'll do an all over free motion motif on the background of the blocks and in each 4-inch block I'll do some fancier FMQ. First step will be deciding what color thread to use.

Tic Tac Toe is a finished quilt top of bee blocks (from a bee I was in years ago). I think this is the next thing I'll put on the longarm. I think the repeated geometric design will give me an opportunity to make a plan for what FMQ designs to use and I imagine I'll see improvement in my longarm quilting by the time I finish the quilt.

Rainbow Chain is another set of old bee blocks. I set the layout when I was at quilt retreat in November and started piecing the blocks together. (This is the one that got added in for this year.)

Improv Houses is nearly a quilt top. It will require some partial seams and filling in sections to square it up.

Not sure why I listed the Wholecloth FMQ quilt last, because it'll be the first one finished as it is currently on the longarm. I even worked on it a bit this weekend. Then I ran out of bobbin thread so I took a break.

Do you have any UFOs you're working on finishing up?

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In August, Emily pointed us to Bow Bridge in Central Park at spring sunny day by Helen Denisevich for our color inspiration. She asked us to choose two color groupings inspired by the vibrant colors in the watercolor and ink painting. She wanted a 12" x 12" block with a small section of one color group surrounded by the second color group. Any improv we'd like!

I loved the greens in the painting, ranging from yellow-greens into blue-greens, so I pulled fabric for that to be one of my groupings. Then I focused on the pinks in the tree and chose a variety of pinks, light to dark.

My finished block is approximately 12" x 12". The pink section in the center was informed by the shape of my scraps, starting with the largest triangle in the center.

The green section to the left of my center section was informed by scraps that were wedge shaped.

I pieced green strips for the top section, but when that was too boring for me I made a couple vertical slices to insert additional pieced sections.

I love having beautiful, saturated bold colors in a prompt. And the freedom to do any improv pieced we'd like meant that I could just play with the fabric. It was such a joy to create.

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Where did 2025 go?

Anyone feel like the year just flew by? Feeling a little overwhelmed by... it all?

I've had occasion recently to scroll through the photos I took this year (approximately 8,000 of them!) which is a reminder that we did what we intended at the beginning of the year. We spent time with people. Friends and family, and in my case, students and guild mates and quilty friends. We believe at this difficult time community and in-person connections with people are more important than ever.

My business intentions for the year were to teach a bunch. I certainly did that with 15 lectures and 10 workshops for guilds. It was so nice to connect with folks both in-person and on Zoom. Thank you to the many guilds that invited me to join them in 2025!

I had the best of intentions of finishing those 6 UFOs with @jandidean's 2025 UFO Challenge. A big nope on finishing those, so I'll try again this year. While I intended to spend more time in my studio, for a variety of life related reasons, that did not happen. I did participate in Project QUILTING at the start of the year, completing projects for 5 of the 6 challenges. I completed monthly bee blocks. (I haven't shared them all on the blog yet.) And I made a kickin' Halloween costume for my daughter. In November, I brought a few of my WIPs to work on at a guild retreat. It felt great to sew with people and make progress on some older projects.

Looking forward to 2026

So, what will 2026 hold? Here's some of what's on my mind.

Cleanup: I've already started chipping away at cleaning up my studio space so I can be in here creating more regularly.

Design walls: I want to make rolling frames for my design wall panels. I have two 4-foot by 8-foot insulation boards covered in batting. This was perfect in my old studio where I didn't have the wall space to permanently mount them, so they leaned in front of the window or the cabinets or the closet doors. Despite my larger square footage in my new studio, I still don't have dedicated wall space to mount them. And there are less ideal places for them to lean for regular use. Rolling frames will mean I can double my design wall space by mounting boards on both sides, and I'll be able to more easily position them for Zoom teaching and lectures.

UFOs: I should finish some. I've updated my UFO list of 6 projects, not because I finished any, but because I brought one on retreat that wasn't on the 2025 list and I'm more excited about finishing it. So hard to narrow down to 6 when there are so many to choose from. More on that list later.

Teaching: I'll be at Road to California in January to teach 4 workshops. There is still room in two of my classes, including Building an Improv Toolbox, my most popular and personal favorite! If you're already signed up to join me I look forward to seeing you there! The schedule for the first half of my year is pretty full, but I'm still scheduling with guilds for the second half of 2026 and into 2027. I also plan to self-host at least a couple workshops for open enrollment. Be sure you're on my newsletter list to be the first to hear when those get scheduled.

Wishing you a happy, healthy, and creative 2026!

No new planning party this year, but I'm linking up with Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl for her #2025QuiltingCheckIn. Thank you, Yvonne! I've enjoyed linking up every year with my wrap up and new goals.