Dreaming of Possibilities in 2025

I might see these in my dreams but I'm not promising myself progress on any or all of them.  Since what these need is so clear cut (except for Bramble Blooms), it makes sense I should be able to do something to move them forward to become finish tops or quilts.  But then there is life....

These are quilts I might possibly work on/play with in 2025, in no particular order.

Blue (+ brown) and lights blocks

My idea with these blocks was centers with a square set straight or on point surrounded by a square set the other way, etc.  But no stars.  I chose blues and lights but when Lizzy of Gone to the Beach sent an antique brown block, I decided to incorporate several more brown blocks.  The blocks will finish at 12" and I intend to use fabric in the pink/coral range for sashing and border.  Four across will make a quilt about 65-67 inches wide.  The challenge will be the length.  Five blocks down will finish between 81-83 inches.  Add one more block to the length and it will finish at about 93 inches which is perhaps a little too long.  I intend to make square-in-square cornerstones. The patterns for all of these blocks came from Judy Hopkins's book, 501 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks.from where I learned that the same pattern may have different names depending on the color arrangement.  Anyway, I need to make either three or seven more blocks.

Bramble Blooms

Dear, dear Bramble Blooms.  What a failure I made of my first effort.  I unstitched all but the center and a narrow border I'd added.  My fabrics are still in stacks and I hope to get back to this soon.

rose fabric squares

I've cut about half the number of squares I need for the quilt.  My intention was a one-patch but other ideas keep popping into my head.  What about a few subtle stars?  What about applique?  What about a border around each block?  What about . . . ?  I have a length of toile with children in old-fashioned clothing, playing old-fashioned games, also with beautiful bouquets of roses which might work for the back. 

Everyday Patchwork

The quilting is in progress.  I just need to make progress--stitch and get it done.

scrappy stars in mostly the red range

I'm using this as a leader under, except when I'm not.  Cutting takes time....  Still debating layout and size.  Rows with sashing?  Alternate plain squares?  On point or straight set?

little 9-patch in autumn colors

This is also a leader/ender and, again, cutting takes time.  I have plenty of scraps to cut.  Layout and size yet to be determined.

100 Day Stitch Book
I don't have a photo for this because I haven't decided whether to participate or not. Ann Wood Homemade hosts the 100 Day Stitch Book sew-along in which we cut fabric pages, stitch on them for 15 minutes every day for a week (or five days), then move to the next page.  Most of the finished books are not just stitches but have layers of fabric stitched in place. The appealing things about this are the aspect of play and that turned fabric edges are not necessary.

Will I have time? (It begins on Friday, January 17 and ends in April.)  Will I have the energy or the focus or the concentration?  I certainly have plenty of fabric for this.

I was looking online about vertigo and someone asked why he or she was so tired.  The responder said the brain is working harder than usual to try to keep the person balanced.  I translate that as, I wouldn't be so tired if I stayed in bed all day.  However, that would absolutely not be good for me or my muscles, and I think both the doctor and physical therapist would agree.  But it's sure tempting some days....

Another possible time limitation will be trying to sort and clear out some of the things in our home.  Changes will be coming but I'm not sure when.  We have too much stuff!

Yesterday it snowed.  It was cold and beautiful.

Today, well, this afternoon, it's much colder even though we have clear skies and sun.  I sometimes think how bored I would be if every day were the same, always summer or always winter.  I love living in a temperate climate.  How about you?  Do you love the climate where you live?


Wishing you a good day!
--Nancy.

Slow Stitching Little Plaid Baskets

I wish I were a better photo-taker.  It's probably me and not the camera, though it could be my phone's camera that's not up to snuff.  Anyway....

I finished stitching the outside of this basket probably in October before vertigo arrived.  Now I'm auditioning flowers and their placement along with the stems and leaves.  Everything except the basket itself may be moved or changed before being stitched in place.

This is the basket I've been trying to stitch for a few weeks.  After it's finished, I'll audition flowers, stems and leaves.

The stitching on this basket is of somewhat lesser quality that my usual.  Thank goodness no one will see the back after it's been quilted, and hopefully won't look too closely at the front, either.

These baskets will finish at 10" x 12". 

I'm linking this post to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.  Thanks for hosting, Kathy.

I hope you're having a good Sabbath!
--Nancy.

P.S.  This is just to say there are a total of four more baskets to finish, including these, lest anyone is getting as tired of seeing these baskets as I am.

Trying for Normal and Baptist Fan Templates for Everyday Patchwork

One of the quilts I've been thinking about while I've been trying to get past vertigo is this Everyday Patchwork.  I was hand quilting it and had finished about a fourth to a third of it, then lost interest.  I wondered why.  I normally enjoy hand quilting but this quilt stalled—maybe for a year—so I've been hoping to get going on it again.  Maybe not right away, though, because hand stitching and vertigo aren't exactly friends.

I had been marking each arc with pins before quilting and wondered if that was the problem.  I decided to make templates so I could mark several fans at a time, or even a whole row. 

I know I can buy ready-made plastic templates but I wanted one with the arcs 1 1/4" apart.  I finally settled on using cardboard (maybe from a cereal or cracker box), using a protractor to make partial circles, each a 1 1/4" larger than the previous. 

You can see the results here.  They aren't evenly spaced!  The outer and inner circles are just the right size but the middle one is a little small.  I decided to either shift its template toward the larger arc or quilt on the outside of the line to even the distance between all three arcs.  I used Prismacolor pencils to draw the lines on the fabric.  It has washed out on other quilts so I think it will be fine.  In fact, it may be too fine because part of several lines disappeared before I finished tracing several arcs.  I also have some washable Crayola markers to try if the Prismacolors don't work.

Trying to do what I normally do while living with vertigo is no small challenge.  I feel like my body is being held hostage, limiting me in so many ways.  And the constant headache doesn't help, either.  I went for an MRI yesterday and to a physical therapist today.  After some tests, the PT confirmed that it's not positional vertigo and is likely vestibular neuritis just as the ENT doctor thought, though the PT also said that it could be caused by something else but wouldn't know until we see whether the exercises he prescribed help or not. 

He suggested that if some particular actions (lying down, looking up) make me dizzy or feel like I'm spinning, I should repeat the movements at least several times, waiting for the dizziness/spinning to stop before repeating.  The idea is that this will retrain my brain.  Crazy!

This beautiful frozen kale greeted me on my way into physical therapy today.  Flowers in the snow!

We had a beautiful snow, though it happened at night so I didn't get to see it falling.  It was only about 4" but because it's so cold, it's lingering.  I love it!

I hope you have a good weekend.
--Nancy.

Happy New Year, 2025!

Happy New Year to you and yours.  I hope this year brings a bounty of good things to each of you (and to my family and me, too). 

Are you anticipating 2025 with enthusiasm or dread?  Personally, I'm glad to see the backside of 2024 (good riddance, I say), though I'm not sure I have as much enthusiasm and anticipation for 2025 as the little girl in this postcard seems to express.

I forgot about the annual accomplishment/finishes/year in review posts so many publish around this time of year.  I'd participate but I had zero quilt finishes in 2024.  I had the bright idea to post the number of blocks I made but decided I didn't have the energy to count them--not that there were so many but that they were scattered around and I would have had to dig them out.  I sewed scrappy stars, 1" scrappy nine-patches, zinnias in little plaid baskets, Bramble Blooms I center block, and, at the beginning of the year, quilted part of Everyday Patchwork.

I'm hopeful that 2025 will be better than 2024.

Again, Happy New Year!

--Nancy.

Book List 2024

This the first time in many years that I've read such few books.  I think it's because I started and stopped reading more books than I finished.  For the last dozen years or so I've decided I don't want to give my time to books that don't resonate with me, have foul language, whose characters I wouldn't want to spend time with in real life, or for a variety of other reasons.

People have asked in the past about why I read children's books.  Usually I've seen them recommended somewhere.  Plus, often I think the illustrations are beautiful, the stories are short and concise, and there's a truth in a very simple format.  And I recommend the best ones to my grandchildren or their mother.

| indicates a children's book

January

• The Comfort of Crows.  A Backyard Year.  Margaret Renkl.  Illustrated by Billy Renkl    
• |Sophie’s Squash.   Pat Zietlow Miller.  Illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf

February

• The Frozen River.  Ariel Lawhon    
• Recipe for a Charmed Life.  Rachel Linden    
• |Orion and the Dark.  Emma Yarlett
• |Big.  Vashti Harrison

March

• The World of All Creatures Great & Small.  Welcome to Skeldale House.  James Steen    
• Excellent Advice for Living.  Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier.  Kevin Kelly
• The Beekeeper’s Promise.  Fiona Valpy

April

• Real Clothes, Real Lives.  200 Years of What Women Wore. The Smith College Historic Clothing Collection.  Kiki Smith
• Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame.  Olivia Ford

May

• |Home.  Isabelle Simler.  Translated by Vineet Lal    
• The Last Bookshop in London.  A Novel of World War II.  Madeline Martin
• Why We Read.  On Bookworms, Libraries and Just One More Page Before Lights Out.  Shannon Reed    
  

June

• Why Did I Get a B? And Other Mysteries We’re Discussing in the Faculty Lounge.  Shannon Reed
• The Comfort of Ghosts.  Jacqueline Winspear

July

• The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club.  Helen Simonson   

August

• |Tiny Jenny.  Little Fairy, Big Trouble.  Briony May Smith
• The Shop on Royal Street.  Karen White
• The House on Prytania.  Karen White
• Flight Patterns.  Karen White

September

• Barbara Isn’t Dying.  Alina Bronsky
• |Quill the Forest Keeper.  Marije Tolman    
• |Making Space.  Paola Quintavalle, Miguel Tanco    
  

October

• Weyward.  Emilia Hart
• |A Bear Called Paddington.  Michael Bond

November

• The Lions of Fifth Avenue.  Fiona Davis
• A Certain Kind of Starlight.  Heather Webber
• The Home-Maker.  Dorothy Canfield

December

• A Bakery in Paris.  Aimie K. Runyan
• |There’s a Ghost in the Garden.  Kyo Maclear, illustrated by Katty Maurey
• Christmas at Thompson Hall.  Anthony Trollope
• How to Winter.  Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days.  Kari Leibowitz

Have you read any great books lately?

--Nancy.

Christmas Can't Be Over Yet!

Even though Christmas at our house was small this year—almost nonexistent as far as celebrations—I'm not quite ready for it to be over.  Most years I'm not.  I complain that on December 26, radio stations quit playing Christmas music and by December 27, all hint of Christmas is gone from most stores.  With that in mind, I'm sharing these two short videos to help prolong the holiday a little longer.

Happy birds, then the man with the saw!  Oh no!  I liked the surprise.  In my opinion, kindness is never out of season. 



And this video....   I'm not a huge fan of Sesame Street or of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," either, but I think Count von Count is the perfect "singer."  The organ adds an almost magical touch with its musical variety.  (Be gone the rote repetition!)  I heard this before I saw it and wondered if they had dancers on the stage.  Seeing the organist, I realized that dancers weren't needed.


I hope you enjoy either or both of these videos!
--Nancy.

Merry Christmas, Dear Readers!

with love,
--Nancy.

Vertigo, Searching for Christmas Cheer, and Other Miscellanea

It's hard to believe it's been such a long time since I last posted  What a time I've had.  Vertigo set in  in early November, a little over two weeks after my second knee replacement surgery.  It's been a bit of a rough go getting around.  I should be done with the walker but am not.  I need it for balance.  I went to an ENT doctor who diagnosed the problem as benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) and prescribed the Epley Maneuver twice a day two times each.  It hasn't seemed to help yet.  Friday will be a week since I started.

Being physically off balance or feeling like I might fall when I'm standing or walking, or in other various positions, has certainly colored my Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons.  Hence, my need to look for Christmas Cheer.  I don't usually have any problem in that area but it's hard to get beyond one's self when feeling so crummy.  But, onward.  (Yes, I know this is a small thing and plenty of people are dealing with much larger and more complicated challenges.  This just happens to be mine right now.)

I am sometimes able to get out to the grocery store and other short jaunts later in the day (mornings are the worst) if I hang onto the walker or sit in a riding cart.  Christmas shopping has been a challenge.

I've done no quilting, or even sewing, other than to repair tiny holes in two pieces of clothing.

Does anyone else remember Dick Van Dyke of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Mary Poppins" fame?  I discovered this endearing video the other day.  Van Dyke is now 99 and he hasn't lost one bit of his sense of humor.



It's time for TubaChristmas.  Some cities had theirs earlier in December but others are in coming weeks.  If you're interested in seeing if there's one local to you, check the interactive map here.  It's one of the highlights of our Christmas season and I highly recommend going at least once.  It's a fairly long walk from the parking lot to the theater where ours is held and I don't know if I'll be able to make it this year.  If you go, please enjoy it for me!

This past Friday my computer ground to a near-halt.  On Saturday and Sunday it was still barely moving.  On Monday, I had the idea to clean the inside of the case.  I was appalled at how dusty it was.  After removing the dust it was a little less slow, but on Tuesday, it was back to it's Friday night speed.  I'm not tech savvy and the idea of having to buy a new computer right now and have my programs and data transferred was completely daunting.  I don't usually worry but I actually worried about the situation, trying to figure out what to do and make a plan.  Today the computer seems to be back to normal.  But who knows for how long.  I'll need to do some research and buy a new computer soon. 

If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you're having a merry time!  No matter whether you celebrate or not, I hope you're having merry days.

--Nancy.

P.S.  I'm sorry not to be getting to your blogs to read and comment.  I hope I can do that soon.  I miss it!