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.