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RSC2026-January blues are over

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Rocky Road to Grayson is a blue WIP January finish! First goal accomplished. I started in January 2022, so it’s been around the studio for an age. It took much longer than I anticipated to finish, so I did not get any blue houses made for the Quilter’s Cove QAL.

I got seven full & one half block made for Starlets by Modernly Morgan & 14 string blocks for Stardust. The previously posted Nine-Patch & Snowball blocks round out my goals for the month. So I feel pretty dang good about things, even without the houses.

I got blue binding made & attached to County Fair from last year’s RSC & evening binding has begun.

Since it’s blue this month, I thought I’d report on my orange peels. I’m appliqueing these by hand each Monday morning in my handwork group. I got them all out this month to check on progress. I’m about 2/3 of the way through, so I should finish these up this year!

These charity baby quilts got bound this week & are ready to be donated. The left was made from orphan pieces leftover from the quilt I just finished, & the right was made from a friend’s unwanted charm pack.

2026 What’s in a Name?

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I’ve done this reading challenge for several years & was sad that it seemed to have disappeared, but hooray! It’s back on!

-The challenge runs from January 1 to December 31, 2026. You can sign up any time, but only count books that you read between those dates.
-Read a book in any format (hard copy, ebook, audio) with a title that fits into each category.
-Don’t use the same book for more than one category.
-Creativity for matching the categories is not only allowed, it’s encouraged!
-You can choose your books as you go or make a list ahead of time.
-In 2026, choose 6 books that have titles that contain:
Six/6: Titles for this category need to include the word “six” or number “6” somewhere in the title, even if they are part of another word or number.
Cold weather: Your title for this category should include a word that describes cold weather such as “snow,” “ice,” blizzard,” “frozen,” etc.
Peace: Titles for this category need to include a word that describes peace: “peace,” “serenity,” “still,” “calm,” etc, even if it doesn’t directly mean “peace.”
Pathways: Titles for this category need to include words that are types of paths: “trail,” “road,” “avenue,” “sidewalk,” etc.
Terrain: Titles for this category need to include a word for a type of topographic terrain or the name of a particular part of terrain. Types of terrain: Mountains, Hills, Plains, Plateaus, Valleys, Deserts, Forests/Jungles, Wetlands, Coastal, Glacial/Polar
Flower: Titles for this category need to include a type of flower or the word “flower.”

RSC2026-week 3 of January blues

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Progress on my blue WIP for my monthly goal. Can I finish this week?? Rocky Road to Grayson is a Bonnie Hunter pattern so the sashing is a ton of sewing: 3 strips with all 4 corners snowballed, then 1.5″ 9-patches for the cornerstones. So lots of time sending stuff under the needle. But the first two rows are together, the third is ready to have its top sashing attached, leaving two more rows for this week. Bonnie loves borders & I do not, so my lap-size version of her pattern is looking big enough for me. (Peeking out on the right are the first of the 4.5″ string blocks for Bonnie’s Stardust. Lots more are started on my table but these made it to the finish line.)

Cozy evening binding got this quilt group project all bound up. It’s a Brightly pattern, made after we did our Christmas version. This uses up all the leftover Songbook kit fabrics, with some stash thrown in, for a fully scrappy stash quilt. The night after I finished it, my son & daughter-in-law were over & I showed it to her. She loved it & asked if she could inherit it. I said, no, she could just have it now. So she chose the name, “Autumn Bloom”, I wrote on the tag, sewed it down & she left with a new quilt.

In other blue news, our current quilt group project is a flag quilt, each in our own fabrics. We’ve been working on these sawtooth stars since November. There are 60 total so lots of tiny flying geese. For Christmas, one of the group gave us each a Wing Clipper I, by Studio 180 Design, so the last set went much faster. They got sewed together with sashing this week & the blocks are now done. Next week we start sewing red & white stripe blocks.

I still need to sew my blue Starlets blocks, which are cut out. I’ve chosen my pattern for the Quilter’s Cove QAL, but no fabrics have been cut or sewn. It’s the My Town Quilt by Material Girl Quilts. I feel like blue may bleed into February!

RSC2026-blue January week 2

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First, this Christmas present from the hubby got hung up in my studio. Yay! 2008 is the year I first started quilting so that’s the date on the sign.

I cut little “kits” for the blue Starlets blocks. A necessary step before they can be sewed, so still in the blue mode & I hope to get the stitched up before January ends.

All blocks completed for Rocky Road to Grayson! During some 2025 months, I made string blocks to save up for future donation quilts, so 2 got made this week as L&E’s.

Cutting sashing for RR has begun & will continue next week. These will be strip sewn sets of blue-white-blue with scrappy 9-patch cornerstones. So still lots of scrap cutting & sewing to get this one to the finish line. But I’m happy about the current progress & there’s still lots of month left.

With the release of Bonnie Hunter’s new pattern, Stardust, & the strings all over the sewing table, I may have started a new quilt. Yikes! I know, you’re saying to yourself that it’s January & she’s already fallen off the wagon. But this is an entirely string quilt so it will take FOREVER, & I’m just going to stitch on it when I need relaxing sewing & want to have piles of strings all over the place. No deadline for this one, but it’s blue & white so what better month to begin???

RSC2026 January blues

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I am making progress on Rocky Road to Grayson by Bonnie Hunter, begun in January 2022. It’s my blue WIP for the month. 10 of the blocks were in my box, so only 3 are new this week. They were made with pieces already in the project box. There was lots of unpicking & re-sewing before I remembered the tricks I learned the first time around. So now I’m on a roll.

I pulled out the string bins & made all the string triangles to do the 7 additional blocks I need for the size I’m making. They need the blue sides, then I need to cut & sew sashing. I have light blue Sparkler fabric for the sashing to match the darker blue Sparkler for the side triangles. I’m excited to move this along.

And this got the binding hand-sewed down. It’s my RSC2024 Split 9-Patch top & was made completely with scraps & stash, except for the backing. And the backing cut-offs provided the sashing for the County Fair quilt from last year that I just picked up from the quilter today! Round & round we go. I started binding my Brightly #2 last night, so County Fair will be next in the evening sewing queue. Squee!

And I found out my inspiration for the Nine Patch & Snowball project! Nancy @ Grace and Peace Quilting posted her finish here.