Art, Craft and Needlework, January, 2026

[Harriet]

Thanks to everyone who made this thread so interesting in 2025!

Does anyone have end-of-year compliments to report?
Gifts you were able to give
or decor in your home that received compliments?
Did you have insights into your creative pursuits
or have you decided to make 2026 changes in priorities or plans?
Do tell !

In December,

Nancy finished dish cloth sets and hot pad, is planning her sock-making project, including some of her own wool yarn
Twins' Mom continued to add lovely handmade cards to her sending in December - wonder how many she counted?
blessed made paper snowflakes with her dmother for their windows
Kittykatt inspired with ideas on collage and tag-making with greeting cards, pinking shears, sugar paper, glitter!
Harriet embroidered further on the last bit of a quilt top and went way over-the-top in gift wrapping!

[Kittykatt]

Thank you for starting this thread, Harriet. I had a "free" day today, and as it was cold and grey, it turned into a free indoor day. And, as the cats were all asleep , I finally tackled a sewing project that had been waiting for nearly 2 years for me to complete. Back in early January 2024, I bought some curtains in the sale to cover the kitchen windows. I knew they were too long and would need shortening, and as they were nice and thick and lined (to help keep the heat in during winter and the cold drafts out!) it was going to be quite a big job, so I put it off. And then the weather warmed up as spring came, so the urgency of the task faded, and being without curtains in the kitchen was no longer a priority. Rinse and repeat!

So, today, I finally unpacked the curtains, did a lot of measuring and pinning and sewing (I decided to just do it by hand as it wasn't worth getting the machine out and set up!) and I've now hung them in the kitchen windows. They do seem to be keeping the cold drafts out, but I have a sneaking suspicion that now I've finally got round to shortening them, the weather will warm up!

Below, Matilda is inspecting the curtains!

Kitchen Curtains -Finally!

[Nancy]

I played yarn chicken and I lost.
Had to get two more balls of cotton to finish up two hot pads with.
One more hot pad is now done just in time yea. Jan bdays.
One more to complete hopefully in the next few days & I'll be done with them!
Then I can celebrate!

I had my first sock knitting failure; one yesterday I tried was too big.
Sigh - not giving up had to do some math and well try again.
Got more yarn in hopes I'll figure it out at some point.

1-5-26 C.I.
I have one dish cloth to the halfway point.
One more to start when it's done.

KitK. I luv the curtains!

[Twins' Mom]

KittyKat curtains look great! And WTG about getting that off your to do list!

[Twins' Mom]

KittyKat curtains look great! And WTG about getting that off your to do list!

[Harriet]

Kittykatt, those curtains look so fresh and kitchen-y. Adorable cat inspection by Matilda. You did a good job. I like red and white textiles in my kitchen, too, at window, towels, dishcloth, because my countertop is solid cherry red, original to the '50s house. Mine are all checks, though, and none are by hand, so, wow!

Nancy, I imagine it will be like a lot of other projects, once you figure the math and the method, you'll feel confident with it.

Halfway done with my embroidery project. Getting better at it now, lol.

The plan to complete the next UFO:
* finish this last part of the quilt top
* finish the blocks that are on design wall now - photograph, set aside
* put the thirds of the quilt top on the design wall and piece the last part
* buy batting, backing, and cut each into thirds, too, to quilt
* start basting for machine quilting (and then plenty more steps!)

No idea how long this will take. Depends on how much interruption if and when life happens. I think it's reasonable to say I'd like to give 30 minutes a day through the winter months at least. That will at least give me a point of reference for how I'm doing.

When I need small projects to take a break, I can finish some of the funny bookmarks.

[Nancy]

CI /
Knitting on socks had to rip out 1st & 2nd attempts.
On my third attempt seems to be working better I'm closer on the size now.
54 sts. on the one one foot / ankle is a bit bigger due to child hood injury.

I'm getting used to this smaller yarn.
Listened to the a podcast on writing.
Got an inch or so done and it's not the right tension and I"m struggling with the smaller needles
and it hurts my hand to have too much tension. [Might not be a go.]
But I can do a diff type of project with the tread if I knit two at once.

I did finish up a med. blue dish cloth this week as well. Not sure if I'll be able to get one more of this color.
Then one more of yellow to work on it's been started and has 4 star points on it now. Up to the half way point now
7 of the 14 points are done.

I could be sewing on the Christmas fabric bags that I did not get to this past year instead of but alas that
has waited.

[Harriet]

Nancy, good job learning and working on a new kind of project. No matter how the sessions go, you are getting in some experience with different thread and different ideas.

I've continued with embroidery and now have only a few inches left to go. Hand embroidery is probably not my favorite thing, overall, but it does let me have a nice finish on this project. I'm glad I did it. Looks better than any other alternative would have, plus it will go with the rest of the quilt better.

The sewing machine area with new smaller, closer ironing space and cutting space is all set up, and I'm hopeful. Oops, realized I still had all black thread in the machine and bobbin from bookmarks, etc.

Watched a YT on how Cathedral Window is done. I remember my first dmil's sisters making these into pillow covers in the '80s. This tutorial suggested just sewing one as the center of a quilt block that was otherwise simple, and it turned out pretty.

[Twins' Mom]

I remember the cathedral window quilt pattern, Harriet! Saw it many times. As I remember it's a lot of work - just looked for instructions and yes, it is!