CHRISTMAS AFGHAN FINISH

I’ve had this Christmas afghan in the works since 2012 as near as I can figure by looking at my crochet blog here.  It’s finally finished and ready for next Christmas.  

I talked about this afghan in process here.  I really do like to crochet, so I don’t know why it’s taken me this long to finish it.  I find that if I’m working on a holiday project and the holiday passes, I put the project away thinking that I’ll get it out before the holiday rolls around again and finish it.  It took me 13 years, but it’s finished.

If you would like to try this afghan, I've written the pattern along with a tutorial on my crochet blog here.  

This is where the afghan was before Christmas.  

I added a simple granny stitch border with a shell stitch finish.  

 I had this basket of scraps left from the afghan, and I knew that if I put them away I’d never do anything with them.  I’ve seen several tutorials on line where granny squares are joined together with one continuous yarn.   I wanted to try it, so I crocheted 9 squares.    

I’ve made granny square afghans before but have never blocked my squares.   I thought it was time I tried to block mine, so I ordered a crochet blocking  board here.  (This post may contain affiliate links.)  It worked out really well, and I'll sure be able to use it in the future. 

I crocheted the squares together and used up all the yarn in the basket adding borders.  This is pretty small but will make a nice table topper next Christmas.  

Here’s my afghan stack from this Christmas before they were packed away.  

                                                                     

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

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

 

First Finish of 2026

Hello friends and happy Tuesday

 If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, or if you follow me on Instagram, you know just how much I love English Paper Piecing.  This quilt is called 1797 Revisited and is my first finish for 2026.  It was a quilt along that went around the internet in 2019 (I think).  This quilt is based on a quilt in the V & A Museum and is made up of 60 degree diamonds that are “snipped” on each end.  

I just finished binding this quilt a few days ago. I had Back Door Quilts do the machine quilting, and they finished it before I had my knee replacement surgery in July of last year.  I just finished trimming and hand sewing the binding on this year.  I really enjoy the process of sewing the binding down to the back of the quilt by hand – especially in winter.  I just had to add some fussy cutting to my quilt.  

I like fussy cutting English paper piecing and glue basting as much as I like the sewing.  I’ve always got some EPP all prepped and ready to sew.  Yes, I even put some in the corners.

Over the weekend we had 12" of snow or maybe a bit more.  We don't normally see that much snow at one time here.  It's really cold outside and with the wind chill it feels like it’s way below zero.  OK.   I don’t really know that for a fact, because I’m not going out there.  I just know what all the internet meteorologists are saying.  Either way, we’re under a travel watch so you’re only supposed to be out on the roads for work or if you’re an essential employee.  This is the drift outside our front door.  

Here in the Midwest, we call this a French Toast storm.  When they predict a big snow most people head to the grocery and buy bread, milk and eggs so they’ve got French toast ingredients.  

While we were snowed in, I decided I was going to find a recipe for French toast casserole on the internet and try it.  It was just ok.  The problem was that I think there was a typo on the instructions because they said to use a 9” X 9” pan.  When the casserole was about 10 minutes from being done, I began to think my eyes were going.  Everything looked cloudy.  OOOpppps.  The 9” X 9” should have been a 9” X 13” pan.  So there was a big burned mess on the bottom of the oven.  I’m surprised the smoke alarm didn’t go off.  I cleaned up the spillage and ran the oven cleaner and then cleaned the grates.  That was something I hadn’t planned to do, but I’m glad it’s done. 

I fixed bacon and sausage to go along with the casserole.  We don’t normally eat this kind of breakfast, but with the weather it just seemed like the thing to do. 

 

More on what I’ve been working on in my next post. 

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you're finding some time to stitch today.  

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!!!