Margie's 2026 Aspirations

Okay, you've done it, so I will too.

First, I will sum up where things stand with current projects.  

Middle left this morning to return to Chicago.  Her father once again stepped up and took the 4 am airport run.  I don't know if I mentioned the post-Thanksgiving airport run for The Boy at a similar hour that he took also.  Much appreciated.  I finished the Hoodola at 12:30 this morning (although I sewed in two ends at 3:50 this morning while waiting for departure).  I have pictures from the dark of my room.  I am hoping that Middle will send a picture once it has been blocked and it's being worn.

I haven't worked on anything else for the last couple of days in the push to get that done, so the socks and vest remain as they were.  I still am planning to finish them this month.  Hopefully in the next week or two.

I did take the bus to work M-W this week, I drove today because I have a meeting after work and I don't want to have to deal with the buses after that, but on the whole it's been very pleasant and I'll probably do it more going forward.  I like having the knitting time.

I didn't work on the quilt at all over the break, and I do need to finish that also!  I forgot about that.

I will probably go to Dallas this weekend to see our Aunt.  I need to coordinate that with Carroll.  

So... for 2026, what to do?  I have several cross stitch projects that are languishing that would be good to work into the rotation of projects.  Many of them are well underway and wouldn't take too long to finish.  I also have been given some sashiko kits that would be fun to complete.  Perhaps I need to survey the projects and then make a realistic list for the year.  

Will your hedgehog be a pin cushion?

I'll see if I can get a picture of the projects to be completed.  More after the weekend!

Margie

Catherine's 2026 aspirations

I cannot believe our blog is so old! Poor 2016, with only one post all year. I love your hood and socks and the silly! It is easy to imagine how much fun you're all having with the kiddos around. Yay!

I have been trying to make a plan for my 2026 sewing projects, but I think I'm overthinking it. Basically, the plan I need comes back to the reason we started this blog in the first place: I want to stop starting new things until I have finished the projects underway. Hopefully the fact that there are many things underway (and the generic "Clothes mending/making" covers a lot of ground, though still focusing on what's already in the closet) will give me the variety I need to not get bored! I have updated the list of my projects accordingly.

I did also start one new thing yesterday that is technically an old thing, so there is the fun for now. When Mom ditched her sewing closet supplies on me, there was this crazy lion needlepoint thing that was partway done. See? 

It has been sitting in a drawer now for ~4 years, and I think it will be a nice soothing thing to work on. Not great for taking on planes, but that's what hedgehog is for! I also don't have all of the colors - I'll have to do a deep dive and see if I have any yarn that's the same weight/appropriate colors, or go order some. Hopefully straightforward!

Watch out, 2026!

- Catherine

Sweet Sixteen!

Our Blog is old enough to drive!  Can you believe it?

Your bags were well received here.  I am very impressed with them.  Smallest loved the plant bag!  I am so glad you didn't give her the dancer.  She was showing me a necklace that her boyfriend gave her.  It is a bow charm-type thing.  I said, "Oh, it's so nice that he didn't get you a ballet shoe!" and she told me that he told her that was his original plan, but they were sold out.  She was really glad not to get the shoe.  In other news, she's probably going to break up with him soon, because he has professed his undying love and desire to be with her forever.  She doesn't want that - he's her first boyfriend! - so womp womp for him.

I have been busy trying to finish off my present knitting.  I am up to the armhole shaping on the vest, but I stopped work on that to start the second pair of yellow socks for Middle, but then I stopped those also to work on the hood, which is the most needed in the cold of Chicago!  I'm five rows from starting the neck ribbing portion of the hood, so maybe halfway?  I will include pictures of me modeling.  Middle likes the sock and the hood so far.   The edge of the hood curls in, so it definitely needs to be blocked.

Middle is here for a week, yay!  We are playing cards and eating tasty food and chilling out.  Tomorrow we're going to go buy shoes and find a quilt store that's open.  None of the close ones are open on Sunday.  I think that they will have dinner with their dad, and then on Monday have dinner with Dad and his wife and their kiddo.  (I have gossip - will send in an email) Tuesday they'll be with us, Wednesday they'll see a HS friend, and then Thursday they head back to Chicago early early in the morning.  It's so great to have them here.

So, I have those three projects to finish and then it's Sweater time!  The Boy is here until Jan 25th, so I think I'm going to try to take the bus to work as much as I can, because that's over an hour of knitting every day!  We'll see how it goes.  I'm going to work short hours this coming week because Middle is still here, but there's still plenty of time in January.  I can take the bus that is a little farther from us too, so I'll still get my walking in!  And I don't have to change buses if I take that one...  plotting and planning!

I love my owl and pussycat!  And the little tin of treasures.  Very fun, thank you!

Okay, adding pictures and then off to bed.  I haven't worked on the quilt over the break at all, and Baby #2 was supposed to arrive today.  My friend was induced today, as she was developing preeclampsia and has a host of other pregnancy related issues.  She's at 37 weeks (out of 40) so that's good enough!

Margie

Plus a silly:

All sewed up

I finished the bags! I was able to get three of them mailed out on Christmas eve, seven will be hand-delivered this weekend, and the last one is waiting for a companion present that is not my responsibility. Here are photos as evidence - the backs and inside fabrics are shown in the second photos, in the same arrangement as the fronts.

I had to go back late in the process to get a different zipper for one of the plant bags (bottom left in top photo) - for some reason the final zipper I had on hand was light orange, which didn't match at all. I think the blue is a huge improvement! I also ended up shifting around the plan for the recipients of the bags - I was going to send the dancer to Dancypants, for example, but I ended up thinking there was a different one that was a better match for her, and four others shifted around at the same time. I'm very pleased with the final assignments - hope everyone likes theirs!

I'm so pleased with the new interfacing - it is sturdy but not stiff, and easy to work with. Two of the bags actually make use of mistakes from my last round of making bags, where I ironed the previous interfacing to the inside fabrics, and they are not as great as the new ones (you can see the yellow one in the bottom photos is more wrinkled than the others, even after much ironing). But, I think it'll be ok.

I'm also annoyed with myself because I didn't do a great job with the zipper tabs - I should have left more space between then end of the zipper and the end of the tab so they would flip out better. If I hadn't done such an assembly line, I could have caught that in the later bags, but since fixing that would require taking apart every seam, I decided I needed to move on. Hopefully I can fix that in the next ones!

When I get home, I'll finish the two bags for my other team members, and try to stay motivated to finish the three for me. Two of those will be straightforward, but one is a bit more complicated as I had picked out many fabrics with some goal of making an extra fancy bag. However, I don't remember what my grand plan was, so I have to come back to that (and strangely, one of the fabrics that was in my prep photo has gone missing, so I either have to find that or decide not to use it). Will be good to get those finished and all the bits & pieces put away, and then I can start to think about projects for 2026! 

Related, I have started working on a cute little hedgehog - I don't know what fate this little guy will have, but it's a nice project to take on the plane. After I stitch the front (see photo, I've done the outside so far), then I sew it to the back and stuff it up to make a little 3D creature. 

Looking forward to arts & crafts fun in the new year!

- Catherine

Zipping things up

I could have sworn that I already posted about this last week, but I guess not! I have finished my first bag of the season! It was extra exciting because the middle where the zipper and front and back fabric collide was too thick for me to have the foot down, so I had to pivot a bit. I ended up hand stitching on top of the few stitches the machine was able to make with some nylon thread, so I feel pretty good that it will hold. Also, the interfacing is the perfect weight! Yay. Of course, I forgot to take a photo, but it was one of several similar bags for Team Cats, so I will have others to show you what it looks like. I actually finished that on Sunday (Dec 7). I was hoping to finish three bags that day, but just ran out of time. 

In the meantime, I have washed and dried the cross-stitch; here's an in progress shot with all the supplies for most of the pencil cases laid out together.

I sewed those together with the other fabric that will make that side of the pencil case (and sewed together some interior fabric that wasn't quite the right shape), cut the rest of the interfacing (in fact, I wasn't paying attention and cut too much; now I have to buy some more for the last larger bag), ironed it all on, and have been sewing up a storm. I had hoped to finish the three bags that I need to mail out soonest (to your house!) last Wednesday, but instead our power went out for 2.5 days and everything got messed up, so now I am just in full assembly line mode, trying to power through all 11 Christmas present bags. Here's the latest - you can see that there are: 1) three bags where the zipper assembly is done, top stitching is complete, and I just need to sew the outer seams together/close up the final opening (top left); 2) five bags that need to be ironed so I can do the top stitching (bottom left), and 3) three bags where I'm still inserting the zipper (right). 

After Christmas, I will need to come back to the other two Team Cats bags before I see my team members in early January, and I have three bags to make for myself that I'll get to at some point. Oof!

I realized that I forgot to show you the final bicycle man, so here he is:

And, we have left one piece of fabric down in the living room, as Nairo seems to think it's his new bed. See? He's so cute.

I've got three days to get these wrapped up. Fingers crossed!!

- Catherine

Whew!

Your little pieces are so cute! I think that the gardener sitting under the flower is perhaps a fairy with a white sleeve?  And their hat might be a flower?  Perhaps that would be less problematic?

Nairo is such a good helper.

I did not get much knitting time over the holiday weekend, but I have finished the front of the vest for Smallest, and I've started on the back.  In the second picture, the back is laying on top of the front.  I did talk with Middle while they were here about the Hoodola, and we've selected some yarn.  I think that will be a quick project.  We will see!

I wasn't able to work on the quilt because of table usage, but hopefully I can get some done between now and Christmas.  

We went on several outings.  We went to the Renaissance Festival, and this is from a shop we went into.  Who knew Christmas Mice were a thing?  We also went to a place called the George Ranch.  They have saved things from the owners across many generations, and this is one woman's house dress.  I think Gaga used to wear a dress like this, so it was fun to think of her on her birthday weekend.

Lauren and Sarah wanted to put up Christmas decorations while they were here, so we are decorated now.  Lauren liked the pillow I cross-stitched many years ago, so perhaps I can make her one sometime in the future.

I don't know much more.  I did ride the bus on Monday and Tuesday.  I gave my bus card to a homeless guy on Monday night, so I need to get a new one.  I don't like using the app on my phone.  The scanners for the tickets on the buses don't work so well.

Oh! Jeff finished the fireplace before everyone arrived.  It looks very nice.  He did a good job.

That's all I know!  Here is a silly for you!

Margie

Christmas is a' coming

I finished the final cross-stitching for the pencil cases - see? Here is the gardener for my sister-in-law and girl-on-scooter for the youngest niece. 

I changed my mind about this last pattern (below) because when I looked closer at the second gardener scene that I had in mind, I realized that the person didn't seem to have a middle part of their body? See also below. Very strange! Also, this book is from 1962 and upon further assessment, I started to worry that the "gardeners" are racial stereotypes (I think the one gardener in isolation (above) doesn't give the same impression, hopefully). So I went back to the potted plants from a previous pattern book; I had already made the other two of four, so here is the second installment! 

I also bought many zippers and some interfacing (have yet to test if it is the right weight), and have washed/ironed all of the fabrics that I had picked. Nairo is helping me keep some of them flat. :P

Next step: Testing the interfacing and starting to make bags! I will see three of my bag recipients in person next week, so will prioritize finishing those first. I'll also use an assembly line approach to get all of the fabric cut (allowing us to reclaim the living room). I also need to figure out a new pattern for some of the other presents I had in mind, due to some behind the scenes complications. 

Hope your crafting is going well! :D

- Catherine