I picked up another UFO (Unfinished Object) to work on.  It's been hanging out for about a year, and it's time to move forward with it.  I had the top row finished last year, and I got the bottom row started this month.  The quail are just ironed on, I need to sew them down now, but the hardest part of this project is getting to this point.  Deciding which colors, ironing on the interfacing (which I messed up this time around, adding more time to the project) cutting out all the pieces, and ironing them down. (This step is crucial around here - I don't know how many beaks I've lost from James "helping" me while I was busy somewhere else.) The actual sewing is the easy part.

The bulb I gifted myself at Christmas is in full bloom. 

 

Sarah M made me a couple of afghans using that really thick, plushy yarn.  So sweet and so soft and warm!  

Whew!  It's fixed! Much better now, with all the points going the correct direction.

 I also got the next block done for the 2026 RBD quilt, so I'm caught up on that as well.

 

I finished the January block for the Liberty quilt BOM, except.....when I put it up on the design wall, I noticed one little problem. 

Not quite the correct alignment for the corner piece. 

And I just can't resist cute kitten pictures.  They look so sweet! 

Here's the start of my 2026 Riley Blake Designs Block of the Month quilt (RBD BOM for short).  The blocks are pretty detailed, so it's fun one to try. 

You know you have a problem when you make the bed around the sleeping cats.  Jessie was sleeping on the pillow on the floor so I just scooped her up in the pillow and put her on the bed, and left the corner unmade where James was sleeping.  

I took advantage of the long weekend and nice weather to clean up the yard.  It's been a mild (temperature-wise) winter, and some of my flowers have blooms on the still. 

With the mild temps and the amount of rain we got this year, I went through about 5 gallons of round-up spraying the emerging weeds. With AJ's help, I also raked out the rest of the leaves, trimmed the rose bushes, and trimmed up the crepe myrtle trees.  I also pulled out the remnants of the garden, fertilized it,and turned all the soil.  Hopefully I'm set for spring!  (Probably not, but I have a head start now.)

And the mystery table runner is finished! 

 

All this time, I've been blaming Jessie for getting into the yarn.  Then, I walked in to this: 

 Busted!!!

The local quilt shop - Sew Simple - has started their annual Block a Month quilt/club - Liberty Island Sampler.  (Yes, I’m a sucker for Block a Month quilts -how hard can it be to just make 1 block, right?)

 

Another week, another Mystery Quilt!  This was a mini-mystery (Lucky Break), and was for a table runner.  I used fabric I already had, and have all the pieces made, now I just need to put it together!  

 

Here is Candy Cane Lane completed! This was a quilt kit that Margene and Jordan gifted to me for my birthday.   

I had the Candy Cane Lane quilt ready to quilt, all set up on the quilting frame, but got distracted and didn't get it started.  Probably a good thing, as when I did get ready, I had a large obstacle in my way. 

Since the dryer has been replaced, I finally had the opportunity to wash the Cock-a-doodle quilt.  I love how this one turned out! 

The Casa Grande quilt hit a roadblock.  I had it draped over the ironing board and "the cat that shall not be named" (aka James) tried to jump up on my lap, missed, and hit my wine glass, splashing red wine on the quilt (yes, I was eating dinner in my sewing room, no judging!)  I rinsed the wine out, and am hoping the small stains left will come out in the wash.   

When I rinsed the quilt, the red fabric bled into the background.  This is common for red fabric, and I'm also hoping it comes out in the wash.  I had been planning to do some "fancy quilting" on this one, since the blocks are large, but I just can't see putting a lot of time in on it, just in case everything doesn't wash out.

Here's the whole quilt top.  I like the pattern, but I'm not happy with some of my fabric choices, so if I have to re-make it, it won't break my heart.  It's ready to quilt now, so we'll see what the final result is.

AJ did his annual swim on his birthday (he's 33!!!) with a cold.  The temps warmed up yesterday, but we had a low near freezing the night before, so I know the water hadn't warmed up.  Brrrrr!

 

Woohoo!  The new dryer is up and running, finally!  In the meantime, I was drying laundry in front of the fire.  I put a load up yesterday morning, and when I walked by later, I noticed a piece had fallen off.  When I reached down to grab it, it was warm and fuzzy, and NOT a piece of laundry.  Jessie didn't appreciate being grabbed like a dropped sweater is all I can say.

I opened a box and left it unattended for a moment…

Alli and I walked into this explosion of yarn yesterday - good thing it wasn't an actual project, just a ball of yarn! 

Once again, I was overly optimistic about replacing the dryer.  Since I have solar panels, I decided to replace my gas dryer with an electric dryer, with the assumption that I would generate as least some of the needed power myself.  Turns out that electrical outlet for my dryer is non-operational.  Who knew?  I think we replaced the electric dryer in 2000, not long after moving into the house, and it looks like "someone" cut the power line in the attic above the laundry area.  Bless my "on-call handyman".  Mike came out yesterday (yes, on a Sunday!) crawled around in the attic and found the issue.  He's planning on picking up more wire (the original connection was cut too short to wire back up) and drop by between other jobs to fix it for me.  Hopefully I'll have a working dryer tonight.  In the meantime, I have jeans drying on a rack in front of the fire.

I started another quilt project - I know, a surprise, right?  I got one quilt completed - the Cockadoodle quilt - but since I have no dryer, it hasn't been washed yet.  I have the Candy Cane Lane quilt on the quilting frame, ready to quilt, but I need a different color thread before I can start it.  I have two "block a month" quilts starting this week, though one is a block a week, along with the local quilt shop's "block a month" starting on Saturday.  That should be enough, right???  Still, I started a quick quilt called Casa Grande, and it is just that, large houses.  I got all of the house blocks completed on Sunday, so now it's just adding the boarded to it.

 

I missed posting the last week - Happy New Year!  No big reason for not posting except my routine was off.  Alli came down with a GI bug, so was home from her Day Program most of last week, which shifted my routine.  Luckily she's doing much better, but it wasn't a fun week.  Adding to the fun of that, my dryer died - on New Year's Day no less.  The new dryer is being delivered and installed today between 10:00 and 1:00, so laundry is on my afternoon to-do list today.  

On a side note, I bought myself a bulb from Trader Joe's during the holiday (I got one for Pixie for Christmas, and just happened to pick up two...don't judge!) and it's blooming!