Closing Up 2025

Just a quick wrap up on December projects.

I finished the second stocking for my friend's newest family member, a son-in-law, Brae.

Fly Fishing Santa, a Bucilla stocking kit from 2024, so still pretty easy to find online.

This a pretty simple kit...not a lot of elaborate embroidery work.

The name hides behind the fish dandling from the stocking hangar.

I had a great aqua snow flake print in my stash that was perfect for the lining.

The most challenging section was the face but pretty simple.

Santa has a fish on his line. I love a little 3D effect.

Brae's name...a nice short one to stitch!

I had a little procedure that kept me taking it easy the last 12 days of December. Nothing serious...just an ongoing issue that hopefully will be resolved in the new year! So I've spent most of my time sitting on the couch cross stitching.

I focused on an ornament series I started this year, Santa Gathering from Heartstrings, designed by Pat Thode. These designs were released in 1999....a vintage set I bought on eBay a very long time ago. I have finished three more to add to the three I finished earlier.

Santa Gathering Number 4

Stitched on the the called for fabric, 28 count Blue Ridge Linen 

Santa Gathering Number 5

Stitched on the called for fabric, 28 count Antique Tan

and Santa Gathering Number 6

Stitched in the called for fabric, 28 count Bonnie Blue

All stitched with DMC floss.

We had a great Christmas. 

I did feel pretty good for our celebration with our family on Christmas Eve but was ready for everyone to leave after a couple of hours. Thank goodness the kids needed to get home and get to bed so Santa could come to their house!

I only managed a few photos but thought it was great the two, three-year-old's were totally up for a selfie with Gigi.

Hope everyone had a great holiday season. I have so many plans for 2026...I can't wait!

December Happenings

 I...like everyone else...cannot believe Christmas is almost here! I still have some decorating to finish...and hopefully I will get some pictures of it all shared on my blog. I am always tweaking my displays.

I just finished a three-day retreat at my local quit shop. The quilt shop has a separate class room space a few doors away from the actual quilt shop which can be rented out by groups. This is my, "Sisters," retreat group that was started by three sisters. We meet four times a year. 

I went with a kit I had completely cut and was ready to stitch...and I finished it! 

I am calling it, "Aurora Bear." It is a panel from Northcott that was released at least two years ago. So perfect for Alaska. The pattern is, "North Star," by Laureen Smith of Tourmaline and Thyme Designs. The pattern was excellent...no issues putting it all together. Finished size is 57 x 69 1/2- inches.

I also finished quilting, "On the Go," another panel quilt. I still need to get the binding sewn but it is not a present for Christmas so I have lots of time to get that done. 

This was a kit. The fabric line is from In the Beginning and I'm pretty sure it was a free pattern. I did make one change, I made mitered corners. This will go to my grandson. He turns three in a few days.

I made a little ornament for my retreat sisters, a triangle tree. I was determined to make something from my plentiful stash of fabric and crafting supplies. 

I think I have had those beautiful jingle bells for 20-plus years. You are seeing the front side and the backside...reversible! I spent a day looking at ornament YouTube videos and found one that sparked my interest, Denim Tree Ornaments. 

I finished two cross stitch pieces, Priscilla Pilgrim...

and John Pilgrim.

I got stalled out on finishing them when I had to visit three different Michaels to find enough skeins of matching DMC floss to make cording. There are two Michaels in Anchorage and one in Wasilla. By the time I found all the skeins it was past Thanksgiving. I also signed up for a stand-up finishing class that was held this Saturday and figured I might learn something that would help me with these stand-ups. I haven't viewed the class yet...East coast times for the class didn't jive well with Alaska's time zone...but it will be available for the next 30 days.

There are several buttons from Just Another Button Company that enhance each pilgrim. 

They are going to be really cute...some day!

Granddaughter Hannah needed a stocking at her other Grandma's house. I picked one of my most precious vintage kits with tons of details. 

"Christmas Cookies," from Bucilla, 2008. 

Santa's apron is so sweet...he even has a candy cane in his pocket...always prepared!

Santa's elf is busy too!

One of the most challenging steps was making the paint brushes.

And soooo much satin stitching. The top row of cookies had lots of satin stitching.

We are in the darkest days of winter so no critter photos...I've only spied a squirrel running around my snow covered flower beds. We had several days last week of warm temps and rain which is so painful when it is dark. A lot of our snow melted but with frozen ground temperatures we were cursed with lots of ice. Now we are into single digits...about 5-degrees when I went for my dogs walk today. We did get a couple of inches of snow so everything is beautiful and snow covered again...such a relief!

We also had a 6.0 earthquake on Thanksgiving morning...a pretty good shaker but no major damage. Just knocked a few things over on my shelves. There have been two other earthquakes in Alaska since then...bigger ones but both were pretty far away and I didn't feel them. Earthquake forecasters say there is a 95-percent risk of  a 7.5 between 12/9 to 12/10 in our part of Alaska.

I will be praying this doesn't happen. The 7.0 from 2018 was beyond scary.

Searching for More Time

 Yipes! I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week.

I'm having a really tough time keeping up with social media...just not enough hours in the day. 

Let me start with quilting. I had a three-day quilt retreat in October. We had a special theme, Four Patch Posie with a panel. I found an amazing panel for the project, "Sunny in the Sunflowers."

I was determined to finish this project in the three days and I did...

but..I think the left bottom corner could use a little rearranging. 

We didn't have a design wall at the quilt retreat and not much floor space. 

One other participant finished her top.

This was really a fun retreat. Can't wait to see the other gals with their finishes. 

Our next retreat is the first week of December.

My quilting frame is being used as a stand for my next project. I made several stuffed critters for my grandchildren. These are free patterns from Tilda available online. I don't know why it took me so long to finish them. A cat, two dogs and a rabbit. Tilda has so many free patterns of other great animals. 

Next up...lots of Halloween projects.

I made this Happy Halloween cross stitch project in a matter of two weeks...amazing for me. 

I bought this bat frame at least a year ago at the Target Dollar Spot. 

It was a dark green metallic finish which I painted black. 

While browsing Etsy, I saw this cross stitch patten in this frame and instantly downloaded it. 

I challenged myself to dye my own fabric and it was so easy and turned out great!!!

The cross stitch pattern is, "Happy Halloween," designed by Lucky Star Stitches on Etsy. 

I did an non-traditional finish to put the cross stitch fabric in the frame...there just wasn't any wiggle room. I trimmed the piece to size and zig zagged the edge.

I used double-sided tape for cross stitch project to attach the cross stitch fabric to the frame's backing piece. 

Another Halloween craft that got tackled were a set of  spool ornaments from Just Another Button Company that were in the stash for over 10 years. My granddaughter was spending the day with me one Saturday and we finished three of the six Halloween kit.s

First was a mummy which involved tearing some strips of white fabric...no problem...I have lots of white fabric perfect for tearing into strips.

The official name of this kit is, "Mumford Mummy," and it is a Spoolkeep project. 

Next was the black cat. A little tricky to stitch the ears in place but everything else was pretty easy. All the supplies, plus the decorative pin, were included in each kit. The ribbons to go around the spool base came from my stash and were picked by Kate. The spools were also not included but I bought a package of those when I bought the kits.

Baskin Kitty Spoolkeep.

The last kit we had time to complete during Kate's visit was the bat. Lots of detail stitching by hand to make the bat wings. 

Barney Bat Spoolkeep.

I 'm pretty sure I bought these kits at the Houston Quilt Show...it used to be a huge shopping trip for me. Sadly, the number of vendors has drastically dropped and I don't make it there every year any more. I'm hoping to attend Quilt Con in Raleigh next February. It's interesting that Quilt Con isn't in the same city every year...I like that idea...new place to explore.

Yes...there was yet another Bucilla Halloween ornament kit I had to make. These little spooks came together quickly and were a delightful addition to my Halloween tree. The kit is, "Boo Buddies," and is from 2024...should be easy to find. 

A quick look at my spooky tree...

I had some witchy helpers.

I have already packed away my Halloween decorations and I forgot to get pictures of another Halloween finish...an addition to the Halloween Mantel Series from Merry Stockings, Halloween Party Bus. My set looks just like the package cover photo. I love making these Mantel Series pieces.

And one last Halloween project...I finished stitching it the first week of November when we were in Las Vegas for a few days.

This was a freebie pattern from Pine Mountain Designs for the month of October 2021 and was a Stitch Along. I stitched it on the called for fabric, 25 count Stormy Night Lugana. The pattern is available  as Halloween Blocks on the Pine Mountain website. 

Kate finished her first stitchy project. This was a kit she purchased at a school store. Everything was included in the kit. I placed the needle, she pulled it thru and pulled the needle back up for the next stitch. She could have done it by herself halfway through the project...but she was still timid in her stitching. I did the French knots. We worked on this together for several visits.

Maybe some of you were able to catch the amazing light show from the Aurora Borealis last week. I managed to catch the end of the show on the first night. I have seen lights like this with the naked eye in Alaska...but only three times in the 25 years I have lived here. The red color is a treat to see. This was captured with my iPhone. I did not see this brilliant color with my eyes.

The next night was a different light show...fast moving colored lights...all over the sky...also enhanced with my phone.

It was really a treat and we were so lucky to have clear skies the first night.

 You can see some clouds were around on the second night.

Enough!

 I know more frequent...

shorter posts would be better...

maybe next week I'll visit with you again.

It's Quilt Retreat Season

 There is a big advantage to summer ending...quilting retreats start up again. 

I had two retreats in September.

At the first retreat I kept on track with my last retreat focus, the Alaska Shop Hop quilt from 2010. It was time to make the borders. I created all the clipped corners and stitched the strips together. At home I went through the process of measuring to get accurate inner and outer borders in the background color and attached all the borders...that took several days and a few sessions with Jack the Ripper.

The Shop Hop quilt measures 77 x 89-inches.

Three retreats dedicated to the 2010 Shop Hop patterns was enough! Yes...there is one more Shop Hop quilt still in progress. It needs borders.

Since the next retreat followed National Jelly Roll Day, I decided to start a new Jelly Roll project. I shared my prepped kit in last month's posting. It was a great set of blocks to work on while visiting with everyone. We had a full house at the retreat so not much room to spread out...working on simple blocks was perfect. 

I finished all the blocks at the retreat and put it together at home. The pattern is, "Harvest Junction," by Scott Flanagan in the Quilter's World Autumn 2025 magazine.

Oh...and I almost forgot to mention...I added two more rows of blocks to make this quilt bigger. I know I will use this as a throw quilt on our bed it needed to be sized up a bit. 

The finished size is 70 x 72-inches.

The last day of retreat I had time to tackle two Halloween projects.

 The, "BOO," runner was a little kit one of our retreat attendees made for everyone. I had to add a background fabric which only required a fat quarter. Very Fun

The witch is part of a kit called, "Oops," that features batiks designed by Scott Flanagan. It is a pattern designed by Sandy Gervais. I was surprised how quickly this came together. It just needs borders to finish this fun wall quilt which are ready but I thought about adding something to it...more fun Halloween blocks or some words on the cauldron?

We had fun projects to make at the second retreat. One day we made these awesome snap bags. The tops have metal strips from tape measures that make a cool snapping sound when you open them. They were a big hit and several ladies made many more the next day to get a great start on Christmas presents.

We also made a Christmas ornament...a halibut ornament. Absolutely perfect for most of my family and friends as all are enthusiastic fishermen and halibut is the primo catch to get every summer. 

The only critter picture I have to share today is a rare sighting of my kitty. He's so funny...he doesn't know we have all figured out he is hiding behind the quilt hanging on the stairway railing. 

Pretty hard for a 26-pound Maine Coon to hide anywhere. 

Eli is named after the second tallest mountain in the United States and Canada, Mount Saint Elias. He gets a monthly shot for his joints which has greatly improved his mobility and mood. The vet techs love to see Eli every month. Everyone makes sure to get a photo holding him. Maine Coons are known as gentle giants and he fits that description perfectly. He has the tiniest meow...he sounds like a tiny kitten.