Monday Monday -

I've finished the first binding of 2026!

I think we are off to a good start, don't you?

I pretty much rage quilted through December.

It's as if the chaos of the world matched the chaos of my heart and things that came to pass over the past year in my own life all came together in the chaos of the scrap bins and making this quilt was somehow tying up all of those loose ends and finding a way to a calmer place in my life.

Crackers & Jam has driven out the dark and dreariness o winter, and I'm counting the days until Spring. I need to see life returning to the trees.  I need things to start turning green.

And I know we've got months ahead yet, but we are closer this month than we were last month and I'll be ready when it happens!

I love how the backing turned out!

There will be more of this "use it up!" in the future.

Be watching for Crackers & Jam to release in May as we already have other things in the line up ahead!

This month is set aside for Stardust - the blue/neutral string star.  Blue & white is kind of a January theme for me. It's the same month we released Winter Blues a few years back.

February is when our Lupine & Laughter is rewritten in non-mystery format and becomes a PDF pattern booklet for purchase.

March is set aside for Brookgreen.  Remember that one finished last fall?  It looks like St. Patrick's Day to me so we're doing that in March.

The last post I wrote about this one was HERE. I don't even think I wrote about finishing the binding. The last photo I took is dated October 20th - Jason was having his brain surgery the next day. We know where my mind was at that time.

Some of you asked when the Open Windows string quilt made from recycled fabrics shown with Casden in Saturday's Post was coming out. 

April is set for Open Window and May will be great for Crackers & Jam, giving me time to do the photography when its not still winter - and then get the pattern writing for all of the above done and dusted.  Sound good?

Yesterday:

Casden and Stark were back to visit Bonana in the Studio though he was much more involved in the game he got for Christmas than anything.

I still like that he will choose which quilt he wants to snuggle under in Bonana's big fat comfy chair. This time it was Flame Azalea!

But sometimes things are better on the floor with the dog, this time watching TV.

Just a cozy Sunday!

They only stayed until 1pm or so and headed home after Jeff had pulled another set of banister spindles and coated them with the stripping gunk to let it do its thing for 48 hours or so.

We loaded up the van along with friends rounding up our number to five and headed out to Dobson to The Depot for Sunday dinner.

Jason heads home to Vancouver on Wednesday and we are soaking in every minute of his time here. It's passed all too quickly.

Look what arrived in Saturday's mail!

I'm leaving for my Craftours trip to Morocco on the 20th!!

That means this week I'll also be making the kits for our stitching project for my traveling group.

The next trip coming up after this one is Romania in June.  I'd love to have you join us! 

Click the All My Tours tab at the top of the blog, pick a trip and come along!

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Life isn't perfect.

Just like our quilt blocks, points don't always meet up the way they should.

Some days we may have to look a little bit harder to find the beauty, but it's there amidst all the chaos.

Happy Monday, everyone -