Monday Meanderings 1 - 4 - 2026

 I've been having fun playing in my studio this week.  You'll see what I've been working on including goals and other things.  Let's start with the goals. 

12/29/2025

√Finish Dec. clue from Magnificent Mystery — 20 of 60 done. 

✅Put away stuff on the back of the long arm table — most put away.

✅Quilt and ✅bind another top — finished last quilt of 2025.

✅Work on cross stitch zippered bag — making progress. 

✅Work on Snowman  appliqué — started but not much done yet. 

Oops, no pics of the final quilt of the 2026. It's Soho by Fabric Cafe.  I'll try to remember to take pictures for my next post. Um, I have no pictures from any of my previous goals.  (Note to self, remember to take some pictures of what I put on my goals list in the future!) 

So, moving right along, here's what I hope to work on this week. 

1/5/2026

Finish Dec. clue from Magnificent Mystery

Work on Snowman block

Make plan for spool blocks from 2017 (UFO Challenge) 

Quilt more on at home round robin 

Knit on hat 

Work on cross stitch zippered bag

These blocks were received at a retreat swap in 2017. I haven't made any decisions about them yet.  The blue tape on some have the name of the person who made it. One or two are mine but I don't remember which ones.  I need to make some more blocks but first I need to decide how big I want it. I have one hanger in the studio where I could hang it.  I could add a sewing machine and/or other sewing implements. What do you think?  Sashed or not? Any other ideas? 

I did work on several off-list items.  I'm making blocks for Cynthia, of Oh Scrap, for her organization Many Hands and Many Hearts. Here are the ones I've already made. All these 4 patches were in my parts box.  Below are 4 patches ready to be sewn together.  You can find out how to make these blocks here and how to send them to Cynthia.  

I finished these ornaments just before Christmas.  I make ornaments for each of my grandkids every year. This year I decided as my grands reach 18 I'll quit making ornaments for them.  I figure 18 ornaments will be a great start when they decorate their own Christmas trees. Except, none are that old so I'll still be making 4 of them for a while. These were made with corks.  

Here's my end of year report on 15 Minutes of Stitching. I'll be continuing this in 2026. 

W/ending 12/31/25. 365 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/December 31/31
• 15 minute days/2025 = 363/365 days
• Success rate = 99.5%

2026 15 Minutes of Stitching 

15 minute days/January 3/3

I generally have a friend over on Wednesday mornings to sew together. She's going to be out of town for about 3 weeks so I decided I would put a puzzle together on my second sewing table. I didn't have a whole lot of choice on puzzles - I figured I might be able to do a 750-piece puzzle in the 3 weeks I have. OMG.  I've been doing too many online puzzles with 100 or less pieces because it took me forever to just turn over all the pieces and find the border pieces.  Here's a pic of the one I'm working on. (This pic is much brighter than the actual picture and pieces.) 

So, I've worked on it about an hour or so each of two days.  Here's what I've gotten together so far. Yep it's a challenge. It turns out that the pieces might fit whether it's right or wrong. (what?) And, then notice the snow pieces on the sides -- they could actually be on either side... same with the dark pieces at the top.  I haven't even tried to do those yet. I've put a bunch of the dark pieces back in the box with right sides up. Most of the snow pieces are out of picture on the right. Something tells me it's going to take more than 3 weeks to make this one.  Because these pieces don't lock in well, I'm betting I could do the 1,000 piece puzzle faster. Sigh. 

I'll let you know if I succeed with this puzzle.  But it is definitely going to take more than an hour or two every day! 

I'm linking up with my normal parties. Come join the fun! 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique

Design Wall Monday 

Monday Musing 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

January 2026 Mysteries and Sew Alongs

Farmer’s Daughter sponsored by Riley Blake Designs starts on Jan 6th and ends May 26. This year 16 blocks will  finish at 10”. The blocks will release every Tuesday except the last Tuesday of the month.  For more info check out https://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/assets/images/sewalongs/RBDBlockChallenge/2026/Invite.pdf 

Gail's Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR), Starts 1/17/26 and ends  Feb. 25. Need to pick a block to start your round robin.  Check out all the info at https://quiltinggail.com/2025/12/18/announcing-the-2026-sahrr/ 

This is a follow along for sewers presented by Laura Ann Coia. Here’s the You Tube link to the first video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW3RZWxsm3Q  It is an unusual quilt. So far 3 videos have been posted with two more to come.  I’m looking forward to what the finished piece will look like. 

Erica Arndt is sponsoring a Sew With Me and a Stitch With Me for 2026.  Here’s a link to her You Tube video talking about the upcoming video tutorials that will be released each month. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFhCOyQxPzo

Murder Mystery and Mystery Quilt — Read the mystery story every month to get clues to who done it and clues to the mystery quilt will be given.   $$ https://murdermysteryquilt.com

Charisma Horton is sponsoring the “Popple Mystery 2026” starting in January.  I believe this has been announced over Instagram but I don’t use that social media so I have gathered what I can from her other social media accounts. There will be video tutorials on You Tube weekly. Fabric requirements will be listed in her 12/31 newsletter. You must sign up on her web site to receive the printable handouts via her newsletter. Here’s the link to sign up for her newsletter:  https://charismascorner.com/subscribe-by-email/

Monday Meandering 12 -- 29 -- 2025

Have things calmed down at your house? Once Christmas was over we've enjoyed hanging around the house with one exception. Saturday I went to a stitch-in while hubby helped move the Spotsylvanians' choral music, instruments and various other items to a new location.  Our county facility is being turned back into a school and needs renovations.  I had spent time prepping a snowman block for hand appliquéing at the stitch-in.  I'll share a picture soon. I just want to get a little farther on the stitching first. I did well on my goal list this week -- or I was careful how much I planned to do this week!

12/22/25

✅Wrap presents and send cards — all done!

✅Make final Cali-Co block and start on setting them — finished block but still deciding on setting.

✅Work on Magnificent Mystery clue — 30+ HSTs are done, 90 more needed. EEK!

✅Prep snowman block for hand stitching — done and the pile of snow is appliqued on. 

Here's the Cali-Co blocks laid out on the design wall. The 12th block is on the bottom row, far left.  The finishing information was also released this month.  It calls for 3 1.5" strips between the blocks. I'm leaning to either one color or white as sashing or maybe different colored sashing but only 1 strip which I've shown some in this photo. The light blue on the right side is the border.  I'm putting this on my UFO Challenge list so it gets finished, at least to a top, this year. 

No pictures of the Magnificent Mystery HSTs.  You all know what they look like. These are beige with a light gold. Even after making all the HSTs several other squares are added to make some sort of flower.  I'm pretty far behind. 

Here's the next set of goals -- taking me into 2026. 

12/29/2025

Finish Dec. clue from Magnificent Mystery

Put away stuff on the back of the long arm table

Quilt and bind another top

Work on cross stitch zippered bag

Work on Snowman applique. 

Surprisingly enough I have kept up my daily stitching this week, including Christmas Day. 

W/ending 12/28/25. 362days of 2025

• 15 minute days/December 28/28
• 15 minute days/2025 = 360/362 days
• Success rate = 99.4%

As I was copying the info above to update it I realized last week my info was not accurate. UGH.  It wasn't the first time I posted info wrong.  I am going to find a different way to present this information.  Maybe I won't make so many mistakes then. 

We had a lovely Christmas Day with our immediate family. Luckily we were able to get a family picture with Brian's mom being our photographer.  

Here's the info on who is who! Standing: son-in-law, daughter, son, daughter-in-law. Sitting youngest grand of our daughter, oldest grand of our son, me, hubby, oldest grand of our daughter, youngest grand of our son, and Sunny trying to get away! I think this is the first whole-family pic since we were zip lining in Costa Rica nearly 2 years ago. 

Pat made me a cute present after I showed him one similar. The one I showed him looked like a retriever or lab.  I asked for one that looked like Sunny. Voila! I haven't decided if I'm going to sand it a bit or just leave it.  I was tickled with it. I like how it looks in my studio! 

I'm trying to decide what 12 UFOs I should put on my yearly UFO challenge that my friend Sharon and I work on.  This past year I skipped 3 of the items when they came up. Oops. On the other hand I did get 9 items either finished or what I listed done.  Not too bad.  I might put the untouched items on this year's list...maybe. 

Look for the Jan. 2026 Mysteries and Sew Alongs soon.

I'm linking up with the following parties: 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing 

Hoping you have a wonderful start to the new year. I'll probably post before it happens, but just in case I don't Happy New Year! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 12 - 22 - 2025

Merry Christmas 

It's hard to believe that Christmas, Hanukah, and other December holidays are here.  Doesn't it seem that it was just last week when we were complaining about the heat in July?  And, I know I have complained about how cold it was at the beginning of December.  But now the temperature is cool not freezing-your-nose-off-cold like it was earlier in the month.  It was a chilly but pleasant walk with Sunny tonight.  She has a very nice fur coat and doesn't seem to want anything else when she's outside.  I bundle up though. 

My goals were over ambitious this past week.  

12/15/25

✅Baste Tall Trees and start quilting it — Basted and quilting is started but there’s a lot more to do. 

✅Quilt customer quilt— done and returned. 

Finish December clue for Magnificent Mystery —not even close. 

Make last block for Cali-co mystery — not started. 

At the beginning of the week I pin basted the Tall Tree.  You can see the sections of the tree well here.  I am stitching in the ditch around each section. Which also means tying off the threads and burying them. It's very time consuming.  So far I've finished all the green sections of the tree. I'm about half done with the white sections.  I haven't done anything on the tree skirt section though.  

My other issue with this is how big some of the pieces are, especially the whites. I used a light polyester batting to cut down on weight. But it needs quilting every 4 inches.   I've spent a bit of time trying to figure out what to do in the bigger spaces. I made a couple of sample sandwiches and tried out different thread and different designs.  

Here's the first one I did. I was thinking of sewing snowflakes on to the white section.  And below is sample 2. Hum, these didn't photograph well so I hope you can see what I'm thinking of doing, 

I'm going to use the serpentine stitch shown in sample 2 for the whites. I plan to do it with a light blue probably wider spaced than these two rows are. Then I'll add some snowflakes (or stars depending on what you think they are) scattered in between the serpentine stitches. Oh, and I'm going to do the serpentine stitch parallel to the sides of the quilt. I chose a light poly for the batting as I assume it will hang better from the quilt rack. (As in not fall off due to the weight!) I'm pretty sure this won't be done by Christmas but it may be done by the end of the year. If it is, I plan to hang it in the great room for a few weeks.  

I had a lot of fun quilting this top for my friend Nancy.  It is an Elizabeth Hartman pattern called "Look Out."  She did a wonderful job on it. And, picked a great quilting design for it.  Here's a pic right after the quilting was done. There is another row of trees on the top. 

Nancy chose Quick and Easy Swirls (by My Creative Stitches) to give the appearance of wind blowing through the trees.  I think it looks fabulous.  She was delighted when I finished it in time to return it in less than a week. 

Now let's look at what I hope to do this week. 

12/22/25

Wrap presents and send cards

Make final Cali-Co block and start on setting them

Work on Magnificent Mystery clue

Prep snowman block for hand stitching

I have succeeded again in stitching every day.  

W/ending 12/21/25. 355 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/December 14/14
• 15 minute days/2025 = 353/355 days
• Success rate = 99.4%

I have been very motivated to get my 15 minutes of stitching every day this year. (Or at least most days!)  I probably will sign up for it again in 2026.  It's easy to do and keep track of so it's a win-win deal.

I'll be linking up with these blogs this week. Take some time to check out some of the bloggers who are listed on them.

Life in Pieces

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork and Applique

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

I finally posted the December Mysteries and Sew Alongs this week.  Check it out here. 

Here's hoping all of you have an enjoyable holiday week.  We'll be going up to our daughter's family in Maryland along with our son and his family.  It will be great fun to get together again. Luckily, Sunny is invited too. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

 

December Mysteries and Sew Alongs 2025

 Very late but maybe some of these will be of interest. 

Sew Along Strength in Every Stitch by Riley Blake Designs and their designers started 11/7.  Check out all the info about this sew along at https://www.rbdblog.com/2025/10/29/strength-in-every-stitch-a-new-sew-along-coming-soon/. All blocks and fabric requirements can be found at https://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/strength-in-every-stitch. Even if you don't want to make the blocks as they are released, consider saving the block instructions to your computer so you have a variety of block instructions available when you need something new. 

Stitchin’ Heaven is sponsoring another Mystery Sew Along on 1/1/2026.  For more info check out: https://stitchinheaven.com/collections/2026-mystery-quilt-along

Are you looking for something a little different?  Check out Fish Ring Quilts’ Tea Time Quilt-Along starting January 2026.  Foundation paper piecing, appliqué, reverse appliqué and curved piecing are some of the techniques to be explored.  Finished quilt is 38” x 50” made of interlocking blocks.  Fish Ring Quilts is located in the Netherlands and this quilt along is offered in Dutch and English. The price for patterns delivered to your inbox is $29. https://fishringquilts.com/quilt-along/ $29 US.

Alex Anderson gives info on the Quilt Show Block of the Month Experience 2026. View the video announcement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU53re4JZuw  You must have a membership to TheQuiltShow.com A year membership is $50.00. 

Info on Sherri McConnell’s 2026 Block of the Month is available on this blog post. This year's blocks will be 12"finished. https://www.aquiltinglife.com/a-quilting-life-2026-block-of-the-month/.

Take a look at Riley Blake Designs RBD Block Challenge 2026.  The Challenge includes 16 - 10” blocks and starts on January 6th and ends May 26th. Check out the schedule at https://www.rbdblog.com/2025/10/14/announcing-the-2026-rbd-block-challenge/. 

Monday Meanderings 12 - 15 - 2025

Phew! What a week! And, now the weather has turned super cold. When we walked Sunny around 6:30 pm tonight the 'feels like' temperature was 0º. It was actually 19º but the wind was really blowing. Luckily she did her business really fast. We aren't used to this much cold weather and certainly not in December.  I'm looking forward to the forecasted 58º coming (hopefully) Wednesday. 

Now it's time to see how I did on my goals this busy concert week. 

12/8/25

✅✅✅Sing three concerts, ✅✅2 rehearsals and ✅enjoy one party — a great week of music and friends. 

✅✅Finish binding framed 9 patch quilts — both done! 

✅Make November’s Cali-Co block — done just one more to do.

✅Make another R,W,B block for Equilter — done.

No pictures from our concerts. We had great audiences for all the concerts. It was a real challenge for the Spotsylvanians concerts as our director was sick and couldn't come. Luckily our assistant conductor took over and did a really great job. No rehearsals for about a month.  Hum, what will I do instead of those rehearsals?  Probably work on cleaning up the studio and sewing. 

Here's the November Cali-Co block. Only one more block before I can start to put the blocks together. 

 Last week I shared a paper pieced block that I couldn't sew together because one piece was too small.  I thought it was a problem with the pattern but a friend suggested I check to see if all the papers were printed at the same percentage.  I looked at one of the middle sections and realized the printing on the back was substantially smaller than the other three. I reprinted it at 100% and 97% (the computer came up with that number.) I believe all of the other papers were printed at 97%. There wasn't much visible difference. Here's the final result. The only draw back is the block measures 12" rather than 12.5".  I told my friend and she was willing to work with it. I am going to send her 1.5" strips of the same white in case she wants to frame it up to the right size. 

Here are all the blocks I've made so far.  She asked us not to send them to her until January as she was going to see her kids over Christmas.  So, who knows whether I'll keep making blocks for her.  I've enjoyed the ones I've made so far. 

Here's what I'm planning to do this week.  I still have some Christmas shopping to do so I haven't listed a whole lot of goals. 

12/15/25

Baste Tall Trees and start quilting it

Quilt customer quilt

Finish December clue for Magnificent Mystery 

Make last block for Cali-co mystery. 

I may not actually finish the Magnificent Mystery clue this week but I'm going to give it a try.  The first part is to make 120 half square triangles.  Um, that may take a while. I've got the first 60 HSTs cut by my Accuquilt. Once I get them made I'll cut and sew the rest. After they are made, they will be used to make another unit. Here's what the cut pieces look like ready to sew. It's going to require a lot of time to get all of these done. Sixty HSTs in stacks of ten ready to put under the needle. 

I was successful with my 15 minutes of stitching every day. It helped to think ahead during the concert days. 

W/ending 12/14/25. 348 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/December 7/7
• 15 minute days/2025 = 346/348 days
• Success rate = 99.4%

Not a bad number -- I should be able to continue this through the end of the year. Yikes -- I just realized there are only 16 days until the beginning of the New Year. Wow! Time has been flying by.  It's time to start listing UFOs to finish next year and quilts I want to make.  Do you set year long goals? 

Please take a look at these Linky Parties to see what quilters are working on across the Internet. 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap!

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

Happy Quilting! Bonnie