Happy New Year 2025

It’s been an unusual and eventful year. As may be evidenced by the fact that I’m in Italy at the time of this posting and I scheduled it’s arrival back in mid-December! Technology is amazing (she said as she was hoping this all actually did happen in an orderly way 🤣).

The year began in a warm and wonderful way because I was invited (for the second year in a row) to teach for a quilt guild in Ft. Myers, Florida in January. And the best part was staying with my friend Linda who made it all possible (click here to read that post)!

When I returned home we began the remodel of our kitchen and refinishing of almost all the floors on the main level of our home – yes in winter!

After 4 months it was done. It is beautiful ~ but what a mess it was! And very little quilting took place during that time 😞.

In April I made my 34th pilgrimage to the AQS quilt show in Paducah, and was blessed to teach along with my friend Lori. What a wonderful time we had!

Shortly after we returned home my life changed quite a bit because of my Mom’s deteriorating health. She and Dad moved into a Senior Living Facility and 2 days later Mom went on hospice. As many of you know she’s been put on “end of life care” three times, and she’s rallied each time. No one would have believed she’d still be with us at Christmas, but praise the Lord ~ she was! During this time I didn’t get much time to sew, but I did manage to make a quilt about the cookbook Mom gifted me. Click here to read that story (in case you don’t remember it 😊).

When Mom first went on hospice they said she had “hours to days” to live. Since then she has seen her 91st birthday, Dad’s 94th birthday (he’s doing quite well), and their 71st anniversary. What a gift God has given us to spend this extra sweet time with her.

I’ve posted about our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations over the past few months. My big Christmas sewing project this year was a jacket for Hanna. I started working on it in November and if you don’t remember the details, you can read about the beginnings of that sewing adventure by clicking here!

After quilting all the fabric and cutting out the pattern pieces at our retreat, I realized I needed to do something about the poofy edges of each piece.

My friend Susan invited me to serge them at her house. It worked great! In no time at all I had all the edges finished, and I think I need a serger (but that’s for a future post). Thanks Susan!

Piecing a garment with pre-quilted fabric was a new adventure for me, and I enjoyed it.

Once all the seems were stitched all the outer edges needed to be bound. I used the outer jacket fabric and made a lot of binding. I sewed it to the inside, turned it to the outside, and top-stitched it in place with a serpentine stitch.

Next it needed buttons and loops. I went through my button collection and found some vintage ones (probably from a grandmother). I sent Hanna a photo for approval, and she loved them. They are made of fabric covered with metal. Once the fabric loops and buttons were in place all that was left was to add a “label”.

The good news is I did get it finished in time to ship it to her in Washington ~ and she loves it! I’ll send a photo of her in it when I return from my trip.

There have been many retreats, travels, teaching adventures and quilt projects stitched on throughout the year. Thanks for traveling along with me through 2025. I’m looking forward to more sewing adventures in 2026! Who knows ~ next week’s blog may contain some fiber fun from Europe! I don’t know what lies ahead for William and me in Italy, but I sure hope I find something of interest for quilters while I’m there.