Week 4: Welcome 2026, A Year of Letting Go and Change.

I'm a bit late but I hope you wall had

a wonderful Christmas and New Years.

With the kiddos home for the holidays, the sewing room was

quiet for most of December and even into the new year.

Finally, I forced myself to get back at it.  With the upcoming

move and some sadness (I'll share in a bit), I'm still

struggling to find my groove but I do have a fun new

project--with good progress!--to share today.

I made a small start on this one before everyone

made it home for the holidays and it's now loaded

on Lucey, awaiting quilting.

(photo credit)

The pattern is "Backcountry Cabins" by Jen Daly.  Note that I

replaced the gray-blue doors & squares with warmer golds.

The instructions include some pretty inefficient piecing so I've

made notes to use strip-piecing for the chain sections and to do

the math for the tree strips to construct them with fewer pieces.

I could simplify the rooftops but piecing them uses small scraps.

(If interested in this pattern, you might note these tips.)

Latest on the upcoming move:

The short of it is that we'll stay in our current home a couple

 months longer but we're breaking ground in just 2 weeks!

This means I get a little more time with my long arm and

we'll have less time to be stuck in a rental.  Woot!  As long as

we break ground in time to see us moved in by Thanksgiving

next year, I'm happy to roll with about anything else.

I have not rolled well with having to put my beloved little constant

 companion down--my sewing buddy and my comfort through a

whole lotta life events (some really tough ones!).  Chloe began

having health issues last fall and I finally just had to love her

enough to let her go, as a friend's vet put it.  

Putting my 18yr-old Tasha down a few years ago was incredibly

rough but I still had Chloe.  Then our nest emptied but there was

still Chloe.  Now the house is now still and quiet, and don't even

get me going about the sewing room.

The last morning greeting from my 16yr-old Chloe.

She loved early mornings in the sewing room!

So I started packing because now I just want out of our house

and all of its memories.  Perhaps an up-side from losing her:

I'm so very ready to move on!

Looking ahead:

I don't want to end on that sad note so let's look

at what I have planned for the next few weeks.

1) Finish the cabin quilt, pic and list

I plan on adding borders, btw.

2) Start patriotic quilt #1

3) Patriotic quilt #2

4) Finish knitting UFOs, starting with socks;

also continue with the small gifts I'm working on.

I've been doing knitting a little every evening since it turned colder.

I even finished two projects but it is time to get back to those UFO's.

 It's a little slow due to lots of nerve damage in my hands/wrists.

 (From years of totally overdoing things as a gardener) 

I'm eyeing the hand-massagers I keep seeing on Amazon...

5) Work out my plans for 2026

This is usually my favorite activity for the days after Christmas

but somehow I haven't been as motivated.  Maybe it's the unique

year ahead (building/moving) that is throwing me off a bit.

Hoping to have this post ready for next week.

Golf:

On the golf front, I've been out in all kinds of weather.  As long as

there is no frost, we can play.  Though overall we're unseasonably

warm right now, we've still had some days of wind chills in the

teens but I still get my rounds (and therefore my steps!) in.

But boy the KS winds can be brutal.

One day we started off here (above) but walked off after 9 when

the temp was dropping to the teens and wind gusts up to 55mph.

I and one of the guys absolutely hate playing with gloves on both

hands but on that day, out came the dreaded second gloves.

(I do have multiple rechargeable hand warmers!)

The All-Weather Golf Warriors

We knew it was going to happen but we felt playing

9 was at least better than sitting at home all day.

(I love being in my sewing room but my back can't

do it all day, every day)

Golf has pulled me through many things and this time

it's helping me get over the loss of Chloe.  I pushed myself

to get out the very next day and sure enough, the fresh

air and sunshine kicked in the healing.

I'm getting there.

So this week, I'll be back in the sewing room to finish up

another quilt.  

Happy quilting!

Linking to:

Monday Musings

Sew & Tell
Tuesday To Do