Projects to Start the New Year

Hello Friends and Happy New Year

I’ve seen other bloggers post their goals for 2026.  I tend to work on what I’m in the mood for at the time.  Right now I’m working on Christmas projects that I’ve started over the years and never finished.  I usually get them out each year, look at them, and after Christmas is over they go back into hiding until the next year.  I have 4 that I’ve started.  I’d like to finish at least 2 of them before I move on to something else.  

If you’ve followed me for awhile, you know that I love anything with hexagons.  The center of this one was the start of a Millefiori block if I remember right.  Then I had Christmas fabric that I could fussy cut, so I started making hexagons.  

I even freshened my Christmas fabric stash this fall with more fabric I could fussy cut and a nice striped binding.  I'm not sure where I'm going with this project which is probably why it keeps going back in the bag and stored away every year.  Any ideas? 

I started this Granny Stripe Afghan several years ago.  I’ve decided this is the year to finish it.  The first photo is where it was when I found it in the closet where all my yarn projects live.  

This photo is where I’m at now.  I’m really enjoying yarn projects so I expect a finish on this one.  

I started Merry Mistletoe earlier this year.  I was sure I’d have it done by Christmas. 

 I think my mistake was doing the hexagon part first because that’s my favorite part.  I should have saved those as my reward for finishing the embroidery.

I don’t think I’ve touched the embroidery since my original post about the project.

All I know about this Santa is that he’s from a McCall’s magazine.  At least that’s what I wrote when I posted a photo of him in a post in 2014.  So he’s been around for a long time.  I started hand quilting him.  I think this one falls on the What Was I Thinking list.  I don’t know if you can see how much is hand quilted, but I’ve been tempted to pick it out and just do some machine quilting on him so he will be finished.  

I spent a lot of time making different Christmas cookies the week before Christmas.  I think I made 5 different types, and my daughter came and made 2 other different recipes.  Plus I always make  of spiced pecans for my husband and son.  You can find the recipe on my Recipe Page under my blog header.  

Even though we had munched on cookies all Christmas Day, my grandsons like it when dessert time happens.  I made this toffee brownie trifle.  It was something I found on line, and was a hit.  

My Grandsons also came over the weekend before Christmas to bake cookies and decorate them.  Here’s some of their handy work.  

I  hope your holidays were happy ones.  We had a great time as usual with lots of family time which we really love.  I love Christmas decorating.  I put up 4 full sized trees plus other decorations, and it felt like it took forever to pack it all away.  I can do most of what I used to do, but I feel like it takes me twice as long to accomplish things  I don’t know if it’s the knee replacement or my age……or maybe both.  Can you relate?

                                                   

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today!!!

 

Christmas Decorating, Knitting and Crochet

I’m not sure where the time has gone, but December is half over already.  My favorite thing about the holidays is spending time with family and friends.  My second favorite thing is decorating the house for Christmas.  I love pulling out all my old favorite decorations to enjoy for the month (or maybe more).  I’ve made quilts, cross stitch and crocheted things that I love to unpack and display.  I wish I could show you everything, but for now I’ll start with the guest room.  Here is the quilt I made a few years ago.  This was a mystery quilt from Kevin the Quilter.  

This is the tree in the corner of the guest room.  I crocheted the tree skirt a few years ago.  The pattern is really easy.  I can share it with you if you’d like.  

I like to decorate our back porch.  It’s enclosed, but at these temperatures it’s too cold to sit out there.  Still, I enjoy looking at the decorations.  

The pillow on the couch is from my Charming Hexagon pillow pattern.  The pillows that look like giant peppermint candies came from the Target dollar spot last year.  I made the tree skirt under this tree, too.  It’s the same pattern as the one in the guest room.  It just looks different because I used different yarn. 

On the coffee table is a mix of pine cones from the farm where my husband grew up.  I touched up the pine cone edges with white paint.  Some even have glitter.  The vintage ornaments were on my mother-in -laws tree.  And the big light bulbs were on our house when we were first married and bought our first house.  

I haven’t done much sewing lately to show.  I’ve been enjoying knitting hats and scarves to donate.  

I was looking at my yarn UFOs, and I found this Christmas afghan that I started to crochet.  I checked on my crochet blog, and this picture was in a post there in September 2015.  This is a 10 year old UFO.  I really love this Granny Stripe pattern.  The pattern is on my crochet blog, too.  

I’ve put a few more rows on.  I’d love to finish this by Christmas, but I know that I’m a seasonal crafter.  Once Christmas is over this afghan will probably go back in the drawer until next year. I'm going to keep working on it so hopefully I'll finish in time. 

We had a nice Thanksgiving with only a few mishaps.  The top half of my double oven decided to be stuck on broil.  That was not helpful for trying to bake Thanksgiving dinner.  I know before I moved here I managed to get everything on the table at the same time with my oven, but I’ve gotten used to having two ovens to get all of the dishes baked and warm at the same time.  The oven was just repaired a couple days ago, so I’m ready for Christmas baking and cooking. 

The ice maker in our refrigerator door decided to stop working right after Thanksgiving, too.  My answer for everything that stops working is to throw the circuit breaker.  Well it worked.  So that was one repair we avoided.  Our garage door opener wouldn’t work over the summer, and throwing the circuit breaker fixed that, too.  It doesn’t work with everything, but I look at it like when I’m doing something on the computer and I click too many things too fast, and the computer hangs up.  Sometimes just a simple reboot helps.  The important thing is that we were all together and had a wonderful Thanksgiving day.  

There’s still lot to do.  Hope your Christmas plans are coming together.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.

Tissue Holder Pattern- Easy Stocking Stuffer

If you’re looking for an easy stocking stuffer or a small table gift for a retreat, these tissue holders are quick to sew.   I found the tissue packs at the grocery.   There were 8 of them bundled together.  These are great to carry in your purse or to put in a retreat bag along with your stitching.  

Tissue Holder Pattern

                              (1)      Cut 2 pieces:    

                                1 piece at 5 ½” X 6 ½” (outside of                                                                   tissue holder)

                                1 piece at 5 ½” X 7 ½” (inside and trim strip)

(2)      Put right sides together and sew along both 5 ½” sides (short sides).   (You can see “the hill” in    

  the photo because one piece is an inch longer than the other.) 

(3)    Turn right side out and press so that your trim strips are even.

 

 (4)     Fold the edges into the center as shown in the photo.  Sew across short ends.

                                

(5)     Turn right side out and push the corners out so that they are square.  

What I usually do is cut a bunch of inside and outside fabric.  Then I chain them through first on one side and then on the other side.  I turn them all at once so I can press them all at once.   I do the same when sewing the short sides – first sew all of one side and then all of the other side.   Then you can turn them and push all the corners out at once.  

Until next time......

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.