2025 Annual Goals Recap

With regard to meeting all my quilting goals, 2025 was somewhat hit or miss. Mostly hit, so I'm not beating myself up over a couple of misses. All in all, it was a very successful year. Let's look how I did with each goal: 

1. Work with PCQ's Community Service committee as needed.
    Q1: Developed a new Irish Chain Variation pattern per their request and made two test samples. 
    Q2: Enlarged Irish Chain pattern per their request and made another test sample. 
    Q3: Stepped back from formally working with the Community Service Committee for the rest of the year. 

Irish Chain Top

2. Continue making donation quilts for PCQ's charities. 
    Q1: 2 versions of 42" Irish Chain for pattern test. Also created original pattern for PCQ. 
    Q2: Urban Jungle stacked Slabs, April. Top only, 50" x 66" larger version of PCQ's Irish Chain plus pattern revisions, May. 2 versions of Scrappy Serendipity, Dancing Plus baby quilt (teaching sample), June. 
    Q3: Story Stacked Slabs quilted by Cherie, and Black-White-Bright Lozenges (a' la Tula Pink) quilted by Cherie, August. Wanda's Squares UFO baby quilt, August. Pink Scrappy Serendipity, September. Pinwheel Baby Quilt, September.
    Q4: Red and Black Churn Dash, October. Almost Postage Stamp, November. The Scrappy Pinterest Project quilt, December. 

    In total, including Kevin's two tops that I quilted, I donated 13 finished quilts and two tops in 2025. 

Scrappy Serendipity

3. Teach color class to PCQ members. 
    Taught Group 4, six lessons, January-March 2025
    Also taught Dancing Plus class

4. Completely finish at least one UFO.
    Finished baby quilt of squares gifted by Wanda years ago. Such a small finish and it was already kitted up it should hardly count! 

Wanda's Squares baby quilt

5. Continue using PCQ's long arm to improve skills. Also practice ruler work on my Bernina. 
    Q1: Long arm not available. Completed certification on PCQ's new Innova in March.
    Q2: Quilted Urban Jungle Stacked Slabs in April. Quilted two Scrappy Serendipity quilts in May. 
    Q3: Quilted Cherry Jubilee, Pink Scrappy Serendipity and Red and Black Churn Dash. Helped with Edna's quilt.
    Q4: Quilted Almost Postage Stamp and the Scrappy Pinterest quilt. Attempted to quilt the teal quilt but had major problems. 
    Did not practice ruler work on my Bernina. 

Cherry Jubilee

6. Go on retreat at Ritter Ranch in April and July. 
    April: Completed the navy & pink LCT variation top and the Kaffe Flying Geese top, both gifted to friends. Finished piecing all the blocks for the Almost Postage Stamp quilt. 
    July: Worked on a confidential collaborative project with Cherie; got more done than anticipated, almost to the corners. 

LCT Variation top, given to Edna

7. Plan/create/develop a new long term complicated project to work on over time. 
    Planned Crossroads Wheel, but it took over and became a quicker project than anticipated. 

Crossroads Wheel blocks

8. End the year with more stash used than acquired - net stash reduction. 
    Net stash reduction of 52-1/8 yards for the year. 

9. Finish Kaffe Gradient project.
    No, not touched. 

10. Blog if topics arise but no pressure to post frequently; post monthly recap for my own reference. 
    Q1: 16 posts.
    Q2: 11 posts
    Q3: 15 posts
    Q4: 18 posts

For 2026, my goals will remain the same except for #1 and #3 which are no longer applicable. 

December Stash Report and Goals Update

 Due to unforeseen difficulties, I didn't meet all my goals for December, but I have plans for working around the problems. I did finish my one-year-in-making Scrappy Pinterest Project. With this, and my Positively Scrappy top, my stash usage was good. 

The Scrappy Pinterest Project

December Stash Report: 

IN this month: 1-3/4 yards (1-3/4 yards from 35th Ave.)
IN YTD: 81-1/2 yards

OUT this month: 12-1/4 yards (Est. 5 yards of my fabric (includes leftovers given away) for Scrappy Pinterest top and binding. 7-1/4 yards for Positively Scrappy, includes binding)
OUT YTD:133-5/8 yards

YTD NET CHANGE: 52-1/8 yards OUT

Yardage counted out represents only my own fabrics. I don't count any of PCQ's fabrics that I use in my stash reports. But since I have access to them for PCQ charity quilts and I use them, my actual yardage used is much higher. 

Positively Scrappy top

Goals Update: 

December Recap: 

1. Piece grandson's b-day quilt top. Done. 

2. Shop for fleece backing and lightweight batting for it. Shopped two Hobby Lobby stores; did not find fleece in a suitable color but both stores stock minky so I'll probably use that. 

3. Shop for sashing and cornerstone fabric for Crossroads Wheel. Shopped locally, searched online, ordered swatches from Spoonflower. Still looking.

4. Shop for teal thread of the approved brand and size to quilt the teal quilt. Yes, I bought thread in the approved type but subsequently had problems using it. 

5. Quilt, bind, and finish the teal quilt. No, had a major problem with the quilting. Two passes had to be ripped out. 

6. Bind and finish the scrappy Pinterest-inspired quilt. Done and donated. 

January Goals: 

1. Get Minky and quilt grandson's video game quilt. Bind and finish. Must be shipped by January 31. 

2. Talk to Spoonflower about printing sashing fabric for my Crossroads Wheel project. 

3. Pull fabrics and cut pieces for an X and Plus quilt. 

4, Start planning a long-term piecing project to work on at social sewing. 

5. Go through my UFOs and figure out a plan for them. 

The biggest priority is getting my Grandson's birthday quilt quilted, finished and sent out. His b-day is Feb. 7 so the quilt has to be at his dad's in Missouri by the 6th. I've never quilted with minky backing before. I have a time slot on the long arm on January 8. My last attempt at quilting was a disaster, so wish me luck with this! 

More about Quilting the Teal Quilt

 Since my last post (scroll down) about the problems quilting my teal quilt, there have been some developments. I have unpicked all the bad quilting so the top, back, and batting are ready to start over.

Regarding quilting my quilt, my Pennsylvania friend Cherie has offered to quilt it for me on her long arm. Also, my local friend Carla has offered to let me quilt it on her long arm in her home. I'll talk to Carla in January, and Cherie will be visiting me here in AZ in February, so I'm sure one of these options will work out.

PCQ's Long Arm Committee , aware of my difficulties and that I partially blame the thread, is planning to do some thread testing and they've asked me to bring the problem teal thread and participate in their tests. This is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. I'm anxious to see what and how they test and learn the results. 

Also because of my difficulties, they have refined the materials and procedures for troubleshooting. They have added laminated pages to the long arm user guide with detailed instructions for all the things that should be checked to see what's causing the problem. They've also instituted a test swatch, a FQ size sandwich of fabric and batting, for testing the stitch quality before starting to quilt. 

I'm confident my quilt will get quilted sooner or later, and I'm gratified that the Committee took my issues seriously and is doing something to help prevent future occurrences. 

Teal Quilt Update

Remember my teal quilt? The top has been pieced for a while, and since I'm keeping this one, I had to get backing, batting, and thread for it. So it was on hold for a while for other priorities, until its turn on the long arm came up. Here it is before I fixed the upside-down bottom border. It's fixed now. 

Finally everything came together: top, backing, batting, thread, and long arm time slot. I got everything loaded and stitched the first pass of freehand meandering. Advanced the quilt and stitched another pass. 

Then I checked out the back where I could see it around the roller. Oh, no. Disaster. 

Eyelashes everywhere. 

Some background: 

 - This machine was new in March 2025 and was professionally installed. 

 - It's shared by 78+ PebbleCreek Quilters who have been trained and certified by our Long Arm Committee to use it. 

 - Only the approved thread can be used, in order to not have to adjust the tension. 

 - We used to use Superior 50 wt. So Fine thread but due to numerous thread breaks, the Committee recently switched to 40 wt. Omni.

 - Due to the change in thread type, the Committee has only stocked basic colors. If they don't have the color you need, you have to buy it yourself. I bought a 6000 yard cone of the approved 40 wt. Omni in a teal color. 

 - Very strict rule for all users using the long arm: NEVER TOUCH THE TENSION.

There is an instruction book for all long arm users to refer to, which includes trouble shooting. 

 - I made sure the machine was loaded correctly. It was. 

 - I checked that the machine was threaded correctly. It was. 

 - I checked the bobbin tension and found it to be good. 

 - Made sure the machine, including the bobbin case area, was free of lint. In addition to being a heavier weight, the Omni thread is much hairier and fuzzier than So Fine. I brushed it out before starting and after each pass. 

When these steps fail, the procedure is to send a group text to the 5 members of the Long Arm Committee. Whoever can respond will text Got It to all and then reply to the user. 

Okay, I was already frustrated, and I'm old, I'm not much of a phone person. I've never started a group text before. I could have cried. It took me a while to figure out that I need to put all the names and numbers into my contacts first, then start the text. Finally I was able to send a photo and a request for help to the Committee. 

One of them got right back to me and half an hour later she arrived at the Fiber Arts Room to help. Together we spent about an hour trouble shooting. She found that the tension, although it looked like the correct setting, was actually one whole revolution too tight. That only partially fixed the problem. We fiddled and tested, fiddled and tested, again and again and again, for about an hour and could not get a satisfactory result. Still getting eyelashes on the back, but not quite as bad. 

Finally we tried another cone of thread, white. Perfect stitching. We tried black and the stitching was acceptable, not perfect but much better than the teal thread. Since the machine was stitching beautifully with white thread, there was nothing more we could do, but I couldn't use the teal thread to quilt my quilt. 

So here's where I'm at today: 

 - I have a top I spent 9 months designing and piecing, that I love. 

 - I have the perfect backing for it, 

 - I bought batting. 

 - I bought expensive thread that now I can't use.

 - I have to rip out two passes of very bad quilting plus numerous test patches in the margins. I don't have and cannot get any more of this backing fabric, so I have to rip out every stitch. 

 - I must use only Omni thread on the club's machine; Omni thread in my color didn't work, so now I don't know how I'll get this quilt quilted. It's too big for me to quilt on my domestic machine. 

 - I don't want to pay to send it out for quilting because this quilt is just a vanity project for me. It doesn't have a purpose and doesn't coordinate with any rooms in my house, so it will probably just sit in a closet. 

I'm beyond frustrated. 

PCQ has a Long Arm Users group that meets once a month under the direction of the Committee. Tomorrow is the December meeting. I plan to take this project and the teal thread to the meeting. Maybe one of the other Committee members will have a suggestion. If nothing else, I can start ripping out the bad quilting. 

Sigh. 

Link Ups: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts 12/15;  Alycia Quilts 12/19

Positively Scrappy

 A few months ago I was working on another scrappy Pinterest-inspired project, but I put it on hold to work on my Crossroads Wheel blocks instead. Here's the original inspiration photo, credit StitchMischief Dec. 2020. 

When last visited, I had all the blocks made and sewn into columns. I took them to Social Sewing this week and got them sewn together. Now it's a finished top:

Easy-peasy Plus blocks, black or charcoal prints against colorful low volumes. Sometimes these kinds of light prints can be hard to use so this was a good use for them, light but colorful, contrasted with the black. I like that the half drop layout prevents the blocks from looking like a big grid. 

The blocks finish at 8" so the quilt will measure 56 by 72", a good throw size. Since the colors and fabrics are gender neutral, this quilt can go to whichever of PCQ's charities needs it. 

Linking up with Alycia Quilts 12/12

The Scrappy Pinterest Project

 A little over a year ago, I saw something inspiring on Pinterest (no attribution that I could find) and thought it would make a good charity quilt project for several reasons. 
 - I could cut and partially assemble it in strips to make it easier.
 - It would use up a lot of random scraps that might not go together so well in a curated palette. 
 - I could work on it at social sewing by kitting it up and having all the parts ready to go in a project box. 

I printed out the Pinterest image and added pattern notes. If anyone knows the source of the original Pinterest image please leave a comment. I would like to credit the source if possible. 
Update: I'm told the pattern is called Three Patch. It's in a Kim Brackett book called Scrap-Basket Knockouts. Please refer to the book if you want to make this pattern, rather than my notes, in order to give credit to the original designer. 

At the time I started it, one of PCQ's charities needed twin bed size quilts, but now that organization has enough for several months at least, so we're focusing on throw size quilts now. I had planned to add additional rows of blocks to make the top longer, then add borders to bring it up to twin size. Not needed, so I just made it the size shown, 54 x 66". 

Now, 13 months later, it's a finished quilt. 

I cut a lot of strips with my 2" die cutter. I joined light and dark strips and sub cut them into twosies, and packed them up in my project box. That way, I could just pull random pieces and lay out four blocks at a time at social sewing. I have to admit, I got pieces turned the wrong direction many times so my seam ripper got a workout with this project. I attribute that to the social distractions....

After starting this project it occurred to me that it would look good with a red and cream color palette, a little less chaotic. So I dropped this multi-color version and jumped into what became Cherry Jubilee. 

Anyway, back to the scrappy version - It's finished and donated. Being gender-neutral and suitable for anyone, it can go to whichever agency our charity committee leaders want to give it to. 

I like how the little bits of extra-bright turquoise pop; it keeps it from looking dull and boring. I have no idea how many different fabrics are in there. Most came from scraps from both my own stash and PCQ's. Some were cut from FQs and from backing off-cuts. When the top was finished, there were still enough twosies in the project box for another top. One of the other girls on the charity committee expressed an interest, so I gave them to her along with the pattern. 

I showed Kevin the Quilter my red version, and he wanted the instructions also. Scrappy piecing is so his thing, so it wouldn't surprise me if in a few months he sends me a photo of his version. 

Linking up with Alycia Quilts 12/5,  Small Quilts and Doll Quilts 12/8

November Stash Report and Goals Update

It seems like all I worked on this month was making Crossroads Wheel blocks. At least, that's pretty much all I blogged about. I did post about my Almost Postage Stamp quilt, which was finished and donated this month. The fabrics used were counted in my October stash report. 

My stash report took a hit this month. 8 yards of it is two 4-yard cuts for future charity quilt backings, from the PCQ Trash-to-Treasures sale. The rest was quarter yard and half yard pieces for Crossroads Wheel. It's so disappointing when you order fabric online and when it comes in it doesn't look right. I should have learned this lesson by now, don't order fabrics online. 

November Stash Report: 

IN this month: 19 yards (9 yards from PCQ sale.  2-1/4 yards from Ritter. 2-1/2 yards from Connecting Threads. 3-3/4 yards from Mulqueen's. 1-1/2 yards from 35th Ave.)
OUT this month: 0

IN YTD: 79-3/4 yards

OUT YTD: 121-3/8 yards
YTD Net Change: 41-5/8 yards out

Still down for the year, and I have all those fresh new fabrics and scraps leftover from making Crossroads Wheel blocks to do something with next year. 

Goals Update: 

November Goals: 

1. Bind the postage stamp quilt. Done and donated. 

2. Prep batting and quilt the teal quilt. No; quilted something else instead. 

3. Continue piecing Crossroads Wheel blocks. YES! All 36 blocks are done. 

4. Make a mug rug for the PCQ Holiday Luncheon exchange. Done.

5. Design and cut out Cannon's new video game-inspired quilt. Done. 

Mug Rug 7 x 10" 
Mini Scrappy Serendipity Blocks

December Goals: 

1. Piece Cannon's birthday quilt top. 

2. Shop for fleece backing and lightweight batting for it. 

3. Shop for sashing and cornerstone fabric for Crossroads Wheel. 

4. Shop for teal thread of the approved brand and size to quilt the teal quilt. 

5. Quilt, bind, and finish the teal quilt. 

6. Bind and finish the scrappy Pinterest-inspired quilt. 

That looks like more shopping than sewing for December's goals, but the next steps in all these projects can't proceed until I have the materials needed. The birthday quilt must be shipped out before the end of January; my January time slot on the long arm is the 8th, so everything must be ready to quilt by then. 

I had hoped to quilt the teal quilt in November. However, due to issues with thread breakage, the Long Arm Committee changed the type of thread exclusively being used on our new Innova machine from 50 wt. So Fine to 40 wt. Omni. By keeping the thread type consistent for all users, the machine tension should never need to be changed, and we have 80+ users. Only a few basic colors have been stocked in the Omni thread, no teal or turquoise, so I will have to buy my own thread. I have a time slot on the long arm on December 11, so I need the thread by then. 

The scrappy Pinterest inspired quilt has been in work for over a year. It was my social sewing project, only worked on a few times a month. Since I couldn't quilt the teal quilt, I quilted this one in my November time slot. I'll post about it separately when it's finished. 

Aside from quilting projects, December has a lot of events on the calendar, so I'm keeping the goal list minimal and manageable this month. If I can squeeze in something extra, it may be adding the sashing to the Crossroads Wheel project. We'll see how much I can get done.