This and that…

Hello!

I blogged last on January 1, 2026 and now it’s August 1, 2026. 8 months.

I’ve been working on a variety of things so I thought I’d do a wrap up of the year so far.

January 2026 saw me try to make my sister a knitting needle case. It was hard and I had to put it aside. The snap hardware just gave me the fits and I didn’t like how it looked. I learned my lesson not to use a component that you haven’t used before and expect it to turn out well. I know this but did it anyway.
The other item I made that I took a picture of was this cute cell phone purse called the Whisperlight Mini Carry. I used fabrics from Tula Pink, pink hardware, and pink waxed canvas. Unfortunately, this is still sitting without a strap.

In February I took on the challenge of hand beading a crow for a Valentine’s Day swap I was in. The person I was making for likes crows and nontraditional Valentine’s. My idea was to bead the body of the crow. I feel like crow’s wings look different colors when they catch the light. They could be black, purple, green, blue. This was a huge endeavor but I got it done, framed it, and sent it on its way to the east coast. First picture is in process and then the final piece.

March 1, 2026 was huge. I finally put the facing on my hand dyed Circle of Love wall hanging. I used a tutorial someone told me about by Krista Moser. The tutorial is on her blog and it’s how to make a mitered facing. It worked out so well! I sewed the facing on the quilt in the morning and by lunch I had it all stitched down at hand sewing group.
In mid March I attended a National Quilting Day event held by a local quilt guild. As part of the activities I made a kit with fabric and a tutorial on how to make Scandinavian Star purse charms. As a tester I made the pink, green, and orange star in February but made the final one in March for the event.

April 2026 was a bit of a slow month for me creatively. We did go on a yak farm tour and were able to brush the shedding yak fibers off the yaks. It was an experience and even though the yaks were in the chute, they have really big horns that can stick out. The yak fibers are sold to a fellow farmer who then spins it with merino wool and makes it into yarn.
I dug out some hand dyed fabrics that I had cut out to make quilt blocks and then changed my mind. It was a fun experiment to figure out what I could do with 6-1/2″ squares. I ended up making these flex frame or squeeze pouches. You squeeze the sides of the metal frame and it pops open. It was a lot of fun trying to utilize most of the fabric in a way that wasn’t making too much waste.

My heart talk bubble quilt was completed in May 2026. I am so happy it’s done and it’s cute. My mom quilted it in April and when I got it back, I put the binding on.
I finished a project started in March. I decided to make my son’s teacher a pillow for Teacher Appreciation Day on May 5th. I chose this colored pencil pattern by Montana Quilts and got it done in a couple days. I neglected to take a picture of the finished pillow.
For Mother’s Day, I asked my son if he’d do a photo shoot for me so I could have some additional photos of him. He agreed as long as it was a Star Wars photo shoot. We negotiated and I agreed to it as long as he wasn’t wearing a mask.
My son also caught his first fish at an outdoor community event. He was so excited!