Layer Cake Crêpe Quilt, a free pattern from Fat Quarter Shop, made with "A Very Sweet Christmas" fabric collection designed by Bunny Hill Designs.

The Projects of 2025

December 31, 2025December 30, 2025Leave a comment

‘Tis the season for a wrap-up post! Let’s take a lookie-loo at what I was up to in 2025, shall we?

King David’s Crown Quilt for Fat Quarter Shop

First up in 2025 was a new pattern for Fat Quarter Shop’s “Classic and Vintage” series of patterns: King David’s Crown. I sewed it up in Corey Yoder’s “Cali & Co.” after falling in love with her choices for background fabrics in the collection. Which is odd, but whatever, the heart wants what the heart wants. I love this quilt so much! It’s so pretty!

King David’s Crown quilt pattern in Cali & Co. fabric, made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for Fat Quarter Shop

Fish Friendship Bracelet for Rachel

I’m not sure I ever posted about this, but it happened. Rachel was helping me declutter my craft room and she came across my tattered collection of friendship bracelet instructions from my middle school days. As she flipped through them she saw the fish pattern and commented that it’d be cool to have, so I made one for her for her birthday. Not a big deal, project-wise, but it was fun to dust off that very, very old skillset.

Fish Friendship Bracelet made with orange and blue embroidery floss

Star Climber Scrap Quilt

This is still a project-in-progress, but I’m loving it. Star Climber is another free pattern from Fat Quarter Shop, created especially for scrap-busting.

Stripey Christmas Socks

Started in 2024, but not finished in time for last year’s Christmas, so I got them done in February. I loved wearing these fabulous Christmas socks this Christmas season! I’m on the hunt for all the different Christmas colorways of this West Yorkshire Spinners’ Signature 4-ply yarn so I can own the entire holiday rainbow!

Handknit Christmas socks made with red, green, and white self-striping yarn.

Layer Cake Crêpe Quilt for Fat Quarter Shop

You never saw this, and neither did the rest of the quilting world because I shut down my blog in from May through September of this year, with the full intention of never coming back. I had a stalker in the last part of 2024 and was granted a restraining order that forbade him from making any contact with me for an entire year. However, in the spring I started seeing some activity in my analytics that suggested he might be checking up on me via the blog and it spooked me, so I made the decision to stop feeding the monster and walk away.

But it turns out that I really love blogging and sharing my creative endeavors on social media, and I resented that I had been forced out of the things I loved by that dude. After some serious therapeutic work, I made the decision to come back online in September because I don’t think it’s fair that I be expected to abandon what I love because of someone else’s poor behavior. It’s definitely a personal, multi-faceted choice, and I do worry that it might be a foolish one, but I don’t want to spend my life hiding my talents under a bush just because someone got weird about it all. How do you continue going on if, every time you get good at something, someone behaves dumb about it and you’re expected to quit your hobby because of their choices? It’s crazy. Nope, no thanks.

So, here it is for the first time ever, my Layer Cake Crêpe quilt:

I used the “A Very Sweet Christmas” collection by Bunny Hill Designs, along with Moda Bella Solids in Baby Pink (#9900-30). It’s a super fast pattern to put together because the blocks are HUGE. It’s available for free over on Fat Quarter Shop’s website. Thank you, Fat Quarter Shop, for our ten years (!) of working together on projects like this. I’ve really enjoyed it all.

Hemming Rachel’s Prom Dress

I know that hemming isn’t an interesting “project,” but I have to include it on my list of projects because SO MUCH OF MY CRAFTING TIME is taken up with hemming formal dresses for Rachel, and I forget that I did the hemming and then wonder what was up with my time management skills because I don’t seem to get any projects done these days. Except I do; it’s just that it’s tailoring and hemming ballgowns for my daughter.

Teenaged girl in her Cinderella-blue strapless prom dress in 2025.

Marching Band Uniform Repair

I just want an excuse to share this picture with you because I absolutely love it:

Band Mom mends a pair of drum major pants in the back of a truck en route to a parade

One of the drum majors’ pants split right before a parade, so they were tossed to me in the back of the band trailer truck bed and I sewed as fast as I could as we travelled down the back streets of whatever town we were in to get to our starting location for the parade. Ha ha ha, another mom snapped this photo and I was very quick to ask them to share it with me because I knew I’d love it. (Pants were completed just in-time!)

Patriotic Graduation Lei

I made a bunch of music-themed graduation leis in 2024 for my daughter and her band friends, and one of the parents reached out to me this year and asked if I could make one for her graduating daughter, but with American Flag ribbon. I was pleased with how it turned out.

Graduation RIbbon Lei made with maroon, gold, and American Flag-print ribbons

Smitten Quilt

All the individual blocks are pieced! I think I started this during 2020 Lockdown, so it’s been a slow and steady work. I started attaching the blocks into rows this summer, but it will probably take a long while before this quilt is actually done. I tend to only work on it in the summer.

"Smitten" English paper-pieced half hexagon quilt blocks, made with bright quilting fabric scraps

Fourth of July Pennant Banner

I’m realizing, between the patriotic graduation lei, my husband’s Christmas socks, and now this little banner, that I’ve done a lot of Americana-themed stuff this year. I threw this together one day in June because I was decorating for the upcoming holiday and wanted my mantel to be a little cuter, so it happened.

Fourth of July patriotic American fabric bunting made with red, white, and blue fabric scraps and red and white striped ribbon

Reading Nook Cottage Quilt

I briefly mentioned this as a possible crafty goal in 2024. I ordered the fabric while I was completing my Master’s degree back in…2023(?), promising myself that I’d make something nice for myself with it once I graduated. Well, I was busy when I graduated and then everything went crazy, so I didn’t get to actually working on it until the summer of 2025. It’s a pattern of my own design, but nothing special; anyone could reverse-engineer it pretty fast. It’s still a work-in-progress; I decided to set it aside so I could resume working on Ren’s Penguin quilt.

Cottage Quilt in progress, made with "Reading Nook" fabric collection in teal, orange, and purple fabrics

Penguin Parade Quilt

This is the quilt that never ends. I really thought 2025 was going to be the year, but alas, it was not. Fingers crossed for 2026!

Penguin Party quilt made with pastel plaid flannels

Hemming Rachel’s Homecoming Dress

Such a pretty dress, but I was sick while I hemmed it and when she went off to the dance, so I don’t really have any photos of it.

Hemming Rachel’s Daffodil Princess Selection Dress

Oh my gosh, I am sick of hemming formal dresses. I would so much rather make the entire dress than hem a store-bought one. Hemming the dress is the worst part, and Rachel does not enjoy the process of being fitted for a handmade dress, so I no longer get to experience the exciting parts of dressmaking, just the worst parts. Boo. (She did look so pretty in this dress at the Daffodil Princess Selection Ceremony, though! Still proud of her!)

Rachel Brooke, wearing a light pink formal gown, and her family at the Daffodil Princess selection ceremony

Christmas Alphabet Embroidery Sampler

I really enjoyed working on this. It is FINISHED, but awaiting framing. The frame has even been purchased, but between the Thanksgiving bout of COVID, the Montana funeral chaos and all the schedule upsets that accompanied the Epic Washington State Flooding in December, I haven’t yet gotten to framing it.

Peppermint Blossoms EPP

I think I’m going to scale down this project. I’m tired of it. It’s cute-ish, but I’m just not seeing a vision for it anymore.

Red, Green, and White Peppermint Blossoms English Paper Piecing Quilt units

Hubby’s Christmas Gift Socks: American Flag Socks

They turned out pretty amazing. He loves them! Such a fun yarn colorway, and I’m really enjoying throwing contrasting heels and toes onto self-striping yarn socks. If only I could remember to also do the cuff/ribbing in the contrasting color as well! It makes my heart happy to see another set of socks in his growing pile of gifted Christmas socks.

Handknit socks made with self-striping American Flag yarn from The Painted Tiger.

Knitted Christmas Ornaments

I started both the Wee Woolly Sheep and an Arne & Carlos Christmas Ball, but neither are complete due to the craziness of December. Hopefully I’ll pick them up again and finish them by Christmas 2026.

Wee Woolly Sheep knitted Ornament in-progress, made with gray and white yarn.

Arne & Carlos knit Christmas Ball in-progress, made with blue and white yarn.

Looking Ahead to 2026

I am really hoping to do more creating in 2026. 2025 was a tough year that was spent in a quasi-paralysis as I recovered from the complications of my 2024 surgery, the trauma of the stalker, and adjusting to some big life changes. I have high hopes for 2026 because, really, things should definitely trend upwards after all the weird upsets we’ve experienced recently. The law of averages works that way, right?

So, hopefully, part of the reason that 2026 will be better than 2025 is that I’ll do more creating in the craft room. Fingers crossed!

#craftygoals: December 2025

December 4, 2025December 4, 20251 Comment

Debrief: November 2025 #craftygoals:

Daffodil Princess Dress: The dress was altered and hemmed in time. Rachel looked so beautiful! Nathaniel was her escort and I was so proud of the two of them working together. Rachel wasn’t selected as Daffodil Princess, but she says she learned a lot about public speaking and the like, and she really enjoyed “princess lessons,” so the net sum of the experience is positive overall.
Penguin Party Quilt: I attached the bottoms sashing to two rows before deciding that I really do need to take some growth/width out of the penguin block rows to get them to fit the sashing strips better. Life has been an absolute carnival with Daffodil Princess prep, the school district K-12 musical, battling COVID for the second time this year, and Thanksgiving, so I’ve not got back to working on this since then.
Rachel’s Gingerbread Christmas Quilt: No progress
Woolly Wee Sheep Ornament(s): I started one! It’s a finicky pattern, but I’d say I’m about 2/3 done with it.
Christmas Alphabet Embroidery Sampler: Haven’t done anything with it since finishing the stitching. I have the frame for it in possession and just need to do all the things you do to frame an embroidery piece.

December 2025 #craftygoals:

Time-Sensitive Things That Need Working on ASAP:

Christmas Alphabet Embroidery Sampler: I blasted through finishing up the stitching for this so I could display it this year, so I better get it framed!

Wee Woolly Sheep Ornament(s): They’re meant to go on the tree so I need to finish them.

Fair Isle Christmas Balls: I was on a bit of a kick with planning the Wee Woolly Sheep Ornaments and decided to go all in on knitted ornaments, so I bought the books and yarn to make some Fair Isle ornaments, too. Hopefully I can get at least one done!

Things to Work on After the ASAP Projects:

Machine Stitching:

Penguin Party Quilt: Fixing the width of the rows and hopefully finishing this top!
Say-It Sew Along: Lori Holt has designed the cutest seasonal banners to go along with the release of her newest fabric collection, “TYPE/ography,” and I want to sew along! She released the instructions for the “Merry Christmas” and “Let It Snow” banners at the end of November and I’d really like to make them.
Rachel’s Gingerbread Christmas Quilt: I’d be lucky to get to work on this in December, but I’ll put it on the list anyway.

Hand Stitching:

English Paper Piecing: No plans for anything this month.

Knitting: The above-mentioned Christmas ornaments.

Embroidery: No plans for anything this month.

There’s so much going on in our lives in December, so I’m not optimistic about how much progress I can make on crafty things, but it’s better to have a plan just in case, rather than finding myself with some free time and no idea what to make when I finally disturb the cobwebs in the craft room!

Happy December to you all, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, and hopefully I’ll be able to report back with some beautiful progress on some feel-good projects that elicit those wonderful Christmas-y heartwarmings that we’re all in search of in the darkest month of the year! Drink your cocoa and play your happy music!

That Crafty Cara's Crafty Goals for the month

#craftygoals: November 2025

November 14, 2025Leave a comment

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that we’re halfway through the month, but it’s better to do the thing late than to not do the thing at all. And I really do love to read through my #craftygoals posts years later, so here we go.

Debrief: October 2025 #craftygoals:

Penguin Party Quilt: Coming along well. Really thought I’d have the top done by now, but life keeps interrupting. Life be like that.
Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt: Ha ha ha. I think I’m getting too old to have multiple projects in-progress anymore. I don’t think I even literally touched this quilt once.
Peppermint Blossoms EPP quilt: Some progress made, but I need to be honest with myself and admit that I’m just not feeling this anymore, so I should probably set it aside or figure out a way to make something from what I’ve already got prepared, like a pillow or table runner or something like that.
Christmas Alphabet Embroidery Sampler: This was not done at the end of October, but it’s done now!

November 2025 #craftygoals:

Time-Sensitive Things That Need Working on ASAP:

Daffodil Princess Dress: Rachel is running for Daffodil Princess this year, and the selection ceremony is coming up. As such, she needs a dress for it, which we have secured and, SHOCKING, it needs hemming. All I do is hem formal dresses for this kid! Ugh. It’s a very pretty dress, though, so at least I’m working on pretty things. It’d be torture if they were ugly dresses. And this dress doesn’t have five skirts like that one prom dress at one point. That was pretty torturous, that one. So, hemming…STAT.

Things to Work on After the ASAP Projects:

Machine Stitching:

Penguin Party Quilt: So close. Really, really hoping the top is done and I’ve got this bad boy in the mail to the quilter by the end of the month.
Rachel’s Gingerbread Christmas Quilt: Prewash the fabric, maybe get some of the cutting done? I don’t know if I’m going to make it to working on this quilt in November.

Hand Stitching:

English Paper Piecing: I don’t know what I want to do here. I might take a break and focus on knitting instead.

Knitting: I want to knit some Christmas tree ornaments. I cast on a Churchmouse Woolly Wee Sheep today, so I think I’ll focus on making those for the next couple of weeks.

Embroidery: Get the Christmas Alphabet Embroidery Sampler framed.

There’s not a lot of November left, and Christmas prep is surging forward, so we’ll see how much we get done on these goals! Wish me luck!

Nathaniel Brooke of White River High School smiles with his parents after completing a cross country meet in 2025

The Beautiful Side of the Storm: Learning to Slow Down and Stitch Through the Chaos

November 9, 2025November 9, 20254 Comments

Following that wild storm that knocked out the power for a bit, these past couple of weeks have continued in the same vein. More storms, more (tiny) power outages, more craziness of getting kids to their activities, more, more, more, more. As the rain pelted me whenever I stepped outside, as the rain drums on the minivan’s roof, as the rain turns every cross-country course into mud soup, as the rain and wind tease my hair into a Halloween-worthy work of art befitting the season. Wind, rain, driving, rushing, tensing at every time the lights flicker. More, more, more, more. The urge to get ready for a fight-or-flight situation has been my constant companion as we steel ourselves against the weather and flurry of events.

And it’s completely the wrong waiting phase for these kinds of moments. Being on edge doesn’t protect against the storms. Hyper-vigilance doesn’t make my kids finish their races faster or score higher games. Stress doesn’t equal success.

Something I figured out when the kids were younger, that still applies today, is this: Slow is fast, and fast is slow. Which I’ve expanded in recent years to: Peaceful is winning, stressful is losing. Which sounds harsh but hear me out: I have always known that I can achieve anything. Doesn’t matter what it is or how impossible it may seem, I can figure it out. When I was considering getting my master’s degree a few years ago, I wasn’t worried about succeeding because I knew I could do it. Full stop. Make a plan and work the plan. It’s not rocket science.

However, as I’ve been getting older, I’ve started to realize that living in a constantly fearful state of hyperarousal isn’t enjoyable. I used to be proud of being super busy and getting lots of stuff done, but the other side of that productivity was that things were almost always stressful in my personal life. Cooking dinner at the end of the day while being overstimulated from doing too much is torturous. Orchestrating a carpool schedule that only has five-minute leniency windows seems impressive until you’re actually living it in real life and get stuck behind a tractor on the highway. Go, go, go, more, more, more, not enough, not enough, not enough.

Which almost always leads to a shortened temper. Snapping at the kids. Rolling my eyes towards the heavens at yet another inconvenience. Numbing out on the couch after dinner because my brain cannot handle computing another thought after feeling like I’ve been doing all the thinking for five people’s welfare, and logistics for various organizations, all day long. Too much, too much, too much. The choices that led to that sort of stress are choices to lose at the experience of life. No one wants those outcomes. Why am I making the choices that regularly result in these stressful moments?

Enter: The Beautiful Side of the Autumn Storm Season.

Enter: Being forced to cancel plans, sit in the darkness, exist without the hum of the millions of appliances in your house (for a little while…), and to exercise patience. That moment when you know there is nothing you can do to change the outcome of the inconvenience in front of you, and you surrender to the moment.

And it’s really nice.

And you wonder why you don’t approach life like this all the time.

The invitation to pause. To wait. To trust the process. The invitation to believe that it’s all going to work out fine in the end and knowing that it’s true because you’ve done this a few times before already.

So, I’ve decided to carry that feeling in my heart a little more consciously, and it has really helped calm that always anxious feeling that is synonymous with what it feels like to be inside my head most days. Maybe it’s a season for patience. You’re doing enough. Sink into what’s already going on and don’t worry about adding more.

With that in mind, I’ve spent some quality time with my holiday hand embroidery project, the Christmas Alphabet Embroidery Sampler, and I’m pleased to report that the stitching is complete! I’m now waiting for the frame to be delivered to my house so I can frame it up. The fate of the timing of this project’s total completion is happily surrendered into the hands of the delivery people who will bring it to my door someday. No amount of worrying and fretting will make that go any faster. Get cozy with this “almost done but not quite yet” feeling, it’s going to be our best friend for the next while.

Penguin Party Christmas quilt in progress, made with plaid flannels in a cool-toned color palette with aqua snowflake background

I’ve also spent time working on my daughter’s Christmas quilt, the Penguin Party quilt, and it’s also getting near completion. The blocks are all completely done and the vertical sashing between them has been attached. I’ve cut all the horizontal sashing and have attached one of them to one row. I have run into more issues with the flannel stretching and it is very frustrating. I think I may have to accept that there will be some gathers in the vertical sashing pieces to get them to fit on the horizontal sashing pieces. Or let the gathers happen on the penguin tummies to give the illusion of fuller bellies? I don’t know, but it’s definitely an issue.

A thought just occurred to me that I could unpick a vertical sashing or two and just turn the penguin parades into less of a grid by eliminating the excess through removal of vertical sashing pieces. I don’t want to do that, but I think it’ll be way better than gathering/pleats in the top. We’ll just call it a design feature. That might be my solution going forward unless some of you have some other ideas. I’m all ears. There is no extra fabric to cut longer horizontal sashing, or I’d just do that.

Regardless of which way I go forward, in the end it will be fine. No need for anxiety.

I talked with Renaissance about whether I should quilt it or if I should send it out and we’ve decided to send it out for quilting. Which means it won’t be finished for this year’s Christmas, but when you zoom out for some perspective, then it isn’t a big concern. By sending it out it will end up with prettier quilting, and I can start working on Rachel’s Christmas quilt this year, too, which will be appreciated. These quilts won’t be done in time for this year, but they’ll be done for the rest of the Christmases. No need for anxiety. It’s enough.

I’m not running a race or trying to win at some game. I’m enjoying my hobby and using my free time to create beautiful things for my children. The timing is fine.

Speaking of timing, I also went to my first quilt guild meeting since the beginning of the pandemic. I was entrenched in grad school craziness when they started meeting again, and then I was busy with the kids being teenagers, so I haven’t had space for that until now. Some of the women even remembered me, so that was nice. It felt good to be in a room with like-minded folks, and I’m looking forward to future meetings. I’m trying to remember patience and actively resist the urge to sign up or volunteer to help with anything until I’ve been going for a few months, or even a year. It’s not a race and there’s no game to win. It all waited for me to be ready to return, and it will keep being available regardless of my role/non-role.

So, I’m just going to hunker down and keep stitching. The quilts will get finished and the embroidery will be framed, and we’ll enjoy them for decades afterwards. It’s all enough. The pace is enough. No need for anxiety. Sit down with that cup of cocoa and listen to the rain and enjoy it. It’s a beautiful season of life if you allow it to be. Storms pass, seeds germinate, beauty blooms…all in their own time.

Let’s decide to enjoy this stormy part for its storms and learn from the lessons that those storms offer. Less is more. Pursue the peaceful options when you can.

Linking Up with:

Slow Sunday Stitching @ Kathy’s Quilts

Smitten English-paper-pieced quilt illuminated by the glow of a fire during a power outage during a windstorm in Washington State

Windstorm Aftermath

October 27, 2025October 27, 20252 Comments

I mentioned, in Friday’s post, that we were experiencing some rain and that I was hoping for more rain that wouldn’t knock out the power so I could have more time to sew on the Penguin Party quilt.

I got half of my wish.

Saturday was a really big sports day for the kids with Nathaniel running in the League Cross Country meet and Rachel participating in the Unified Bowling Tournament. We left the house at 6:30 am and didn’t get back until after 3:00pm, all while battling pouring rain and gusts of wind that had us literally leaning forward over our toes to stay upright. I tried to talk our family out of going to the church Halloween party that night on account of the weather, but everyone thought I was being overly anxious and pooh-poohed my concerns.

The Brookelets in their costumes for the 2025 church Halloween party: Two witches and a pink party boy — *Nathaniel asked Rachel to help him come up with a costume fifteen minutes before we left, so she outfitted him with odds-and-ends from her camp counselor costume trunk!*

Our power went out around 5:00pm. The power was still on at the church, and teaser photos on social media showed the promise of a banger of a party, so the fam insisted we head out to enjoy it. The road into town was a warzone of leaves and downed tree limbs that elicited quite a few gasps from us as we drove by, and the drive home treated us to a traffic backup on the highway as the police diverted us around an accident that was in the midst of towing a car out of the ditch. The rain continued on, the wind gusts picked up and our entire area lost power around 10:00pm.

Black light photo of teenage boy from church Halloween party

Power still wasn’t on in the morning, so Michael went into Super Generator Man mode and had us set up by 5:30am with all the extension cords our hearts could desire. Each year he invests in another piece of “Power Outage Kit” to make our lives a little easier during power outages and this year’s investment was a very nice, very long extension cord that he snaked through my second floor craft room window so that I could still sew and iron to my heart’s content AND supplies power to the internet router. True love, right there. All the bases covered with one simple extension cord!

Extension cord running into a craft room during a power outage in order to power sewing machines and irons

Unfortunately, I didn’t do any sewing because I was simply too tired from all the running around the day before, the stress of the power outage, and the lack of sleep from how loud the rain and wind were throughout the night. So, yes, I got half of my wish and I really could have gotten my full wish had I not been exhausted. I guess, in the future, I also need to hope for the energy to sew…silly me!

We Brookes decided to power through the last bit of our goal to watch all the Harry Potter movies before Halloween, and so we did that once we found out that the church didn’t have power and services were cancelled. It was a very chill day. I got out my Christmas Alphabet embroidery sampler at one point, but the mental load of trying to work on it was also too much so I just put it away and rested.

Power came on around 4:30pm for us, while our friends were without power until late this morning. I’ve been running around attempting to catch chores and the like back up to pre-storm conditions and restocking our groceries. So, no sewing over the weekend AT ALL. Oh well.

Looking ahead for the week:

I’m hoping to make A LOT of progress on the Penguin quilt. Maybe even to the point of ignoring all my other projects-in-progress. Ride the wave of motivation, right?

I’ve made a lot of progress on the Christmas Alphabet Embroidery Sampler in recent weeks, but might set it aside in favor of working on the Penguin quilt. If I can stand, I’ll work on the Penguin quilt. If standing is difficult/my back is hurting, I’ll work on the embroidery sampler.

I am tiring of my Peppermint Blossoms EPP quilt, mostly because I’m wishing I’d worked on an autumn/Halloween project over the last couple of months. I’m wondering if having different, seasonal, EPP projects in-progress might work best for my interest cycles in the future? Or maybe I’m not as in love with Peppermint Blossoms as I thought I’d be and it should be scaled back to a smaller finished project? Or maybe I’ve been working on it for two years with very little progress and I’m just fed up with it? Thinking on those ideas at the moment.

It is so weird that this is the last week of October. Next week is the doorway to the Christmas season, y’all! (I’m a Christmas junkie; it starts on November 2nd for me.) It doesn’t even really feel like it’s time for Halloween yet, how can we already be nearly at Thanksgiving and Christmas, too?!?!

In-progress Penguin Party quilt blocks made from pastel plaid flannel fabrics

The Penguins March on in October

October 24, 2025October 27, 20253 Comments

It is a stormy, stormy afternoon here in Western Washington; our first big storm of the season is moving in and it is drenching everything thoroughly. The leaves are being dumped to the ground by the torrents of rain, and the deafening drumming on the roof is drowning out all else.

In other words, it’s lovely!

Such beautiful, get-cozy-with-some-knitting weather.

Raindrops dripping from green fern leaves in an autumn rainstorm

Unfortunately, I don’t have any knitting in sight because the bug hasn’t bitten until now, so I might spend some time in the next few days figuring out my next yarn-related move. I am eyeing my Fair Isle technique books with the hope that maybe I can start working on my Better Days Ahead Sweater once again.

I have been working feverishly on Renaissance’s Christmas quilt this week and am so very pleased to announce that the penguin bodies are all complete! Yay!

Penguin Party quilt made with cool color palette of flannel fabrics

I still wish I hadn’t decided to make this in flannel because the material is not fun to work with due to its super-unravelling properties and unexpected amount of stretch in the fabric. Those two attributes make for difficulties in all the piecing involved in these blocks. But oh…this quilt is going to be EPIC COZY.

I’ve added another row to the pattern so it can be twin-sized instead of lap-sized. Ren and I are both wishing I’d gone with a more “Christmas”-leaning color palette, but then we both shrug our shoulders because we thought we were being incredibly clever with the icy arctic color palette, and you couldn’t have talked us out of it if you tried. I mean, if it really bothers me I can maybe just possibly make another more-Christmas-color-palette quilt for her in the future.

No work on other quilts this week because I’ve just got a bee in my bonnet about getting this one done so I can get Rachel’s done as well for this year’s Christmas. Fingers crossed for more stormy weather (that doesn’t knock the power out!) that will avail me of more cozy afternoons piecing penguins together in my warm, wonderful craft room.

It’s such a great time of year. I hope the weather is allowing each of you your best crafty life as well!

Linking up with:

Homemaking Goals for the Week: Prepping for Homecoming and Halloween, and other Autumn Vibes

September 29, 2025October 19, 2025

Good morning! It’s such a good feeling to start my Monday morning off with a planning session for the week! I’ve missed this part of my routine—there’s something about having a deadline to post about my plans that makes me far more likely to make the planning happen.

Conditioning

I’ve added two new categories to my homemaking planning routine: Conditioning & Currency. Conditioning encompasses the various categories of self-care that keep me healthy: Physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, social, etc.

Physical Goals this week: 3 swimming sessions, 15 minutes of sunshine/outdoor time each day
Spiritual: Pray once a day, read one article a day on LDS Circles (I’ve backslid a bit in this category over the summer and am slowly rebuilding my spiritual health habits. Slow and steady wins the race.)
Emotional: Go through my Morning Manna ritual each day
Intellectual: I am trying to transition to reading actual ink and paper books at night, rather than e-books and/or scrolling on my phone in bed. This is proving harder to do than I would have thought. So, for this week’s goal I’m going to shoot for loading my nightstand with three books to choose from in the evening when I’m tired and don’t want to think anymore: 1 fiction, 1 serious non-fiction/informational, 1 creative/beautiful. I also need to figure out where my phone is going to live while I’m sleeping.

Currency

Update my money book/register twice this week. The ultimate goal is to do this daily, but I fell out of practice over the summer, so we’re rebuilding. Everything else is pretty much automized, so yay.

Cooking

This week’s meal plan: It looks like we’re heading into some seriously autumn-feeling weather this week! Cooler temperatures and some rain means it might be time to start dipping into some soups and comfort food! Woo hoo! Yay for autumn!

Monday: Corn Soup with Bacon & Sage, green salad with Italian vinaigrette
Tuesday: Quesadillas
Wednesday: Baked Chicken Parm, Caesar Salad
Thursday: Waffles, Bacon, fruit
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Chicken Pad Thai
Sunday: Chickpea & Quinoa Chili, cornbread

Clothing

The regular upkeep plus getting Rachel ready for Homecoming. It’s that time of year! I’ll need to do the autumn wardrobe rotation soon, but Homecoming prep takes precedence this week. Also need to check with the kiddos to see if they need anything for their Halloween costumes. (Are they even planning on trick or treating?)

Cleaning

I’m still slogging along with the house decluttering. We did a phenomenal job of getting the kids’ rooms done over the summer, so I’m still very proud of that. I’m currently in the process of moving my home office out of my bedroom and into my craft room, which will require decluttering both of those worlds so they can fit into one room together. It is not a fun task whatsoever. But I’d like my bedroom to be less “business” and more “sanctuary,” so I’m making this long overdue move. I’ve been hit with all the back-to-school sicknesses in the past couple of weeks, so I don’t know if I’ll make any novel gains this week because I’m just trying to get caught up on the regular cleaning tasks around the house.

Caring

Getting Rachel ready for Homecoming.
General Conference is this weekend, so it’d be nice if I could do something special for that. It’s a busy, busy week leading into it, so I don’t know what I’ll actually be capable of doing.
It’s Week #13 in my 12 Week Year goal cycle, so I’m also deciding and planning my goals for the upcoming Autumn Cycle. I’d like to revisit my Life Vision plan and rework it, as the last time I updated it was in 2020 and things have changed A LOT since that time.
Nathaniel Driver’s Ed drives and tests scheduling
Make optometrist appointments

Creativity

Rotation Project: I am currently working on Renaissance’s Christmas quilt. All the penguins have fully formed heads! Next up is the wings and bodies. It’d be great if I could complete all of those this week.
Scrap Project: Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt. Why am I still working on this?!?! It’s gathering dust somewhere; the goal for this week is to unearth it and put in some work on the last bits of quilting it needs before it’s done. The resistance I am feeling towards this, guys…yeesh.
Crafting-in-the-Van Project: I am currently working on a Christmas EPP quilt that will look a lot like, if not identical, to the Tales of Cloth “Bonnie” quilt. I should probably count how many “blossoms” I’ve completed and extrapolate how many more I have to go. It’d be good to cut up the charm pack of Christmas fabric I bought a few months ago to add to this project and make sure I have enough fabric cut for the remainder of the quilt. I’ll get an hour’s worth of work done on it while I’m waiting for the kids at Mutual this week, and I’ll also get some work done on it during a kid’s dentist appointment as well. I also need a name for this project…Peppermint Blossoms EPP quilt.
TV Handwork Project: Uhhh, *checks notes*…huh, I’ve decided to unearth another long overdue project that I think I started working on back in 2005? Decluttering the craft room will have you finding all sorts of stuff! The embroidery floss has long since been lost or allocated to other projects because I thought I lost the instructions to this project, but I FOUND THEM while decluttering, so I really want to finish this up and be proud of myself for finishing a thing. I need to go shopping and purchase replacement embroidery floss this week, hoop the embroidery back up, and hopefully get some actual stitching done whenever I’m watching television/movies. This also needs a name…Christmas Alphabet Embroidery Sampler.

Gardening

Yeah, work should be done out there. We’ll see. Michael went through the yard this past weekend and burned away all the weeds and it looks so nice and neat. There’s a FAT SQUIRREL that is snapping off the heads of all my sunflowers and stealing them away to his nest, so I’m leaving them up while he does his harvesting. All the herbs have bolted so I probably won’t try to save them.

Oooh, I’d also like to start up my countertop AeroGarden, probably with herbs or lettuces, because The Big Dark is creeping in and I like the extra “sunlight” that the countertop garden shines on us during breakfast and dinner time.

Celebrating

Put out the last of the September apple decorations that I still haven’t gotten to. (Oops.)
October starts on Wednesday?!?! *sighs* Alright, put out the Halloween decorations, too.
I’ll have to tell you more about my newest obsession when I get a chance: Whimsical Days, where I just spend a day getting ready for the next holiday/celebration. I generally have been doing them on Wednesdays, so with October starting on Wednesday this week, I’ll be focusing on Halloween this week.
Beginning of October means I need to send out some birthday cards to Canadian family.

Community

I’m not involved with a lot of stuff this year. I’m focusing on getting Rachel and Nathaniel to their various activities.
I am still in charge of music at church and we’ve been taking a little break after a jam-packed summer of music. I should do a debriefing on that because I’d like to do things differently next year. I need to get the Christmas Sacrament Program written up and submitted for approval. I also need to get October and November’s special musical numbers planned and organized. And get October’s sacrament hymns chosen and posted.

Top priorities this week:

Homecoming Prep
Driver’s Ed schedulings
Swimming & sunshine
Aerogarden
Halloween decorating
Church music stuff
Consistent time for creativity so I don’t go insane

As I look over this week’s plans, I’m reminded that homemaking is less about checking every single box and more about creating an environment where peace and progress can flourish. The lists keep me moving forward, yes, but the ultimate reward I’m aiming for is the good feeling that comes from making my home a place of care, order, and creativity. Here’s to a week of steady steps, small victories, and the joy that comes when we pause at the end of the day and see the good we’ve accomplished. Let’s get to it—one task at a time! And Happy October!

Busy with Harvesting

October 23, 2024October 30, 2024Leave a comment

Last week’s decision to have little goals to work towards each day was a great success! I felt like I was going to be physically ill at the end of Monday and Tuesday from the effort, but by Wednesday I could do each thing each day with relative ease. Unfortunately, I caught a cold from one of the kids and the symptoms began manifesting on Thursday evening, so I didn’t get much more done after that point. I felt much better by this last Monday and have been slowly ramping up efforts yet again. It’s nice to actually do stuff again!

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:

Monday: Pizza (Michael)
Tuesday: Corn & Zucchini Soup, Whole Wheat Rolls
Wednesday: Beef & Pumpkin Stew that turned out terrible, so I converted it into a Beef & Pumpkin Curry that was more than decent
Thursday: Pork & Tomatillo Stew
Friday: TBD
Saturday: Marry Me Pasta, Salad
Sunday: TBD

Clothing

Just trying to get strong enough to handle doing laundry again. The goal is one load a day and I’ve met that goal once thus far this week.

Cleaning

Cleaning is still a little strenuous for me, so I’m doing light tidying. The kids don’t like that I’m noticing messes now and I’m coherent enough to keep on top of them to clean up after themselves. They’re good kids, but geez, if they aren’t going to be nagged to clean, they are not going to do it. I could worry unnecessarily about this, but I was the same way when I was their ages, and I got my act together at some point. I’ll just keep nagging and hope they sort themselves out in the future.

Caring

When I was cutting up garden vegetables for freezing, I took the time to dice up some of the green peppers, and added some onion and garlic to the bag so Michael could have a ready-to-go bag of diced veggies for when he makes roasted potatoes for breakfast on the weekends. It’s a little thing, but I hope it makes him feel loved. He hates chopping things because his hands are better suited for brute strength activities and not so much for fine motor things like dicing vegetables.

Creativity

I did not finish a penguin block last week because I got sick. I also realized that I’ve been having a hard time with this quilt because I’m making it out of flannel, which I’m not enjoying piecing with at all. I’d like to sit down and calculate whether or not it’s feasible to finish this quilt before Christmas decorating season this year—if it’s not feasible I might move onto something else for the time being.

Oh…I will need to move onto something else for a little while. The decorations for the band’s big fundraiser are looking more than tired and we’ve decided to replace the table runners this year, which I’ll be sewing up. I ordered the fabric today, so I don’t know when it will get here, but I’ll start working on those once the fabric arrives.

I also need to keep going on the secret Christmas knitting. I was supposed to be 50% done with one project last weekend, but I’m only at the 25% mark. Eek. I do have a fabulous excuse, but still…I like to finish my projects no matter what.

Gardening

There was a Freeze Warning issued yesterday and I made the decision to just harvest everything in the garden, ripe or not, seeing that it’s the end of October and true freezes can legitimately start happening now. I had hoped to focus on getting caught up on office type things this week, but Mother Nature forced my hand and I’ve been processing produce for storage. Mostly chopping and freezing things because canning feels like it would be too much at the moment. I think I will try to can up some Green Tomato Mincemeat tomorrow, though. I’ve read good things about the recipe, and there’s a lot of green tomatoes sitting on my counter. I’m absolutely chuffed over the garden’s output this year. It’s easily my best year of gardening ever; I just wish I had been strong enough to can a lot of the veggies because that’s one of my goals in life. I aspire to have the pantry full of jewel-toned jars of homemade yumminess lining the walls. It’s always such a beautiful sight.

See that huge zucchini in the box? It yielded twenty-two cups of shredded zucchini! That’s a lot of future zucchini bread!

Celebrating

The girls are helping with the church Halloween party and Renaissance cut down my corn stalks after we harvested the corn and she’s planning to tie them up nice so they can be placed on the front porch as decorations. Rachel ordered herself a costume from Amazon and Nathaniel has come up with the laziest costume that will still work for him, so we’re covered on costumes. Yay, Halloween. Should probably buy some candy to hand out.

Community

Ward Choir: We’re changing our meeting time and I’m meeting with my pianist this week to discuss Christmas music. I was not able to attend our last/first rehearsal because I wasn’t feeling well, so a friend ran the rehearsal, for which I’m very thankful. I am really hoping to be done with feeling poorly and get these Christmas rehearsals going!

Band Boosters: We had another fundraiser planning meeting this week and made a lot of decisions. So much work to do! Music programs in our schools do not happen on their own, folks! I am thisclose to creating vinyl lettering for my van’s rear window that has a Venmo QR code for people to donate to for the band. People donate to bachelorette parties, why not music in our schools? I truly wonder if that would work…?

Top priorities this week:

Processing the garden harvest. Ren and I have ploughed through a lot of it already, but still need to figure out what to do with the tomatoes that are over-ripe, under-ripe, and green. We also need to puree a pumpkin, and I want to oven-roast the green cherry tomatoes to have on-hand for adding a handful to soups for extra flavor, etc.
Ward Choir logistics.
Band Booster everythings.
Walks. They stopped happening while I was feeling unwell, so I need to get back in the habit.
Secret Christmas knitting, because I’m behind on it, but also because it forces me to take a break during the day and I can feel that I’m sometimes a little more tired than I should be due to the harvest processing.

I wish you all a happy and productive week! It’s so nice how good you feel when you’re able to dig in and just get some work done! Ren and I worked hard this morning in the kitchen and while we were eating lunch she sighed and said, “It’s just a good day. I did work that matters and that I like doing, and I’m eating a lunch that tastes good. That’s a good day.” I just looked at her and felt so proud. She gets it. Life is a lot of work, but a lot of the work is really enjoyable if you let it be enjoyable. Hopefully this beautiful time of year brings you numerous opportunities to enjoy the work that’s being asked of you!

The Big Pie-in-the-Sky List of Projects for 2024

February 2, 20243 Comments

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It is mind boggling to me that I managed to abstain from most creative endeavors for eighteen months! Of course, one way that I dealt with the inevitable withdrawal pangs was to promise myself that I’d be allowed to work on crafty things to my heart’s content once I was done with school, which has resulted in a HUGE “Want to Make” list. Unfortunately, now that we’re to the point of being able to grapple with all the beautiful projects I earmarked, I’m overwhelmed by all of my choices! What a fantastic problem to have! Hee hee. I work through decisions better with writing and visuals, so here’s what’s on my mind:

Quilts:

Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt: (ASAP) I am finally quilting this! It’s horrible quilting because 1) I’m very out of practice, and 2) I wasn’t that great a quilter to begin with, but it’s in-progress! I’ve realized that the quilting step is the huge bottleneck for my quilts; there was a time when I could just send them out to a long-arm quilter and wash my hands of the task, but prices and shipping have gotten so expensive in recent years that I can’t justify the cost anymore. I invested in another sewing machine with a much larger throat space so I can quilt my own quilts, but they’re definitely not as pretty as the long-arm pantos that I love. Sigh. Done is better than perfect here. And hey, maybe I’ll actually develop my quilting skills to a level that pleases me. The Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt will not reflect that sort of level, but I’m telling myself it’s ok because it’s a scrap quilt that will get the snot kicked out of it anyway, so wonky quilting won’t be a tragedy.

Far Far Away Quilt: (ASAP) I started this one back in 2022 and even worked on it a little during a school break. It’s sewn into its rows and is awaiting the rest of the top assembly, which will then require me to pull out all the foundation papers, which is causing me some task paralysis because papers removal just plain isn’t fun! But, oh…it’s a pretty quilt! Cara! Just slog through the unpleasant part and get this finished so you can have this awesome quilt! Geez!

Chatsworth Block of the Month: (January-December) This is a sew along hosted by Fat Quarter Shop this year and I really want to participate because I’ve been collecting some fabrics for a couple of years now that will work really, really well for it! The first installment of blocks were due by the end of last month, but I haven’t started yet.

Piece & Quilt Sampler Sew Along: (March 2024-February 2025) Another sew along with the Fat Quarter Shop. I bought the pattern book a while back because it looked awesome, and then I saw there was a sew along this year and I got really excited about it. I’ve even stash-dived and decided on some great fabric to use. The question is whether or not I have time for it? You can look at the general info and fabric requirements here if you’re also interested. It’s going to be a pretty quilt!

Birthday quilt for Nathaniel: (April) He at least has his own Christmas quilt, but alas, still no everyday quilt, and he rarely resists the opportunity to bring it up in conversation that I’ve deeply neglected him in failing to provide this necessity of life. He’s given up on the Rocket Age quilt, and has been asking for a pig quilt for a couple of years.

Reading Nook Quilt: (May) For the most part, I avoided even looking at fabric while I was working on my master’s degree; but, during a particularly stressful couple of weeks of student teaching, I indulged in a lot of online window shopping as I grappled with the challenges I was facing. As luck would have it, Ruby Star Society’s “Reading Nook” collection was released that week and I was completely smitten with its adorableness and ordered a fat quarter bundle of it with the promise that I could make myself a reading quilt once student teaching was completed. I’ve mocked up a pattern for it, it’s super simple and satisfying, but I’ve lacked time to start working on it. I’d really like to finish this as a birthday gift to myself this year.

Fig Tree Strawberry Garden Block of the Month: (May 2024-April 2025) Another FQS sew along; I absolutely love it and hope I can make it happen! I’ve placed a reservation order for the book and I’ve definitely got enough stashed Fig Tree fabrics to work with, so it wouldn’t even require purchasing fabrics.

Renaissance Graduation/College Quilt: (June/August) ‘Cuz I gotta. No idea what I’m going to make or what fabric/color palette I’ll use. I figure that will get worked out once we get her through the college application/acceptance process.

Penguin Christmas quilt for Renaissance: (November) Because she’s a senior in high school this year and she still doesn’t have her own Christmas quilt! She’s been making do with the Hipster Christmas Tree quilt, but I’d really like to get her very own, made-specifically-for-her quilt done before Thanksgiving this year. I have no idea where she’s heading after high school; she’s vacillating between studying music out of state or staying close to home and earning a technical certificate in pastry arts, so the quilt could be a “welcome home for the holidays” thing or it might not be. It is nerve-wracking to watch your barely-adult children make these huge decisions.

Gingerbread Christmas quilt for Rachel: (November) Rachel also doesn’t have her very own made-for-her Christmas quilt. She’s been making do with the Double-Nine Patch quilt I made for Fat Quarter Shop back in 2018, but has been wishing and wishing for a gingerbread quilt for years and years. Due in large part to the euphoria of having submitted my last ever final paper right before Black Friday, I bought an embarrassing amount of fabric at various quilt shops’ Black Friday sales, and the majority of it was various precuts and yardages of the Holiday Cheer collection by My Mind’s Eye, solely for the purpose of finally sewing up a “just for Rachel” Christmas quilt.

English Paper Piecing quilts: I have four in-progress and it would be nice to finish up some of them. There’s the Star Spangled Diamonds quilt from forever ago that needs borders, the Smitten quilt that needs a few more filler pieces to assemble the top, a Christmas-themed jewel quilt I started this last Christmas because I wanted a Christmas project to work on in the car, and the Roses Hexagon quilt that I’ve slowly been working on for years whenever I need a break from current projects.

Knitting:

I don’t think I have any definitive knitting projects in mind, which makes me sad. It’s just not that cold here in Washington, when compared to winter weather in Utah, so the need just isn’t that high anymore. However, I just like the *feel* of knitting needles in my hands, so I’d like to do more knitting…I just don’t know what to work on. I wonder if I equate knitting with babies and children for the most part, and because there’s really no little people in our families anymore, there’s not a lot of pressure to knit right now?

However, I do have a lot of stash. Some things I’m inspired to make when I think about my stash are:

Lace shawls: I have a lot of laceweight yarn in really beautiful colors. Unfortunately, I don’t really lead a life that uses lace shawls, so creating them to then just let them sit is silly. I could try to become a shawl-wearing person, though…or just enjoy the creative process and not worry so much about the end product.

Socks: I also have a lot of fingering-weight yarn that would make good socks. I think I just need to grant myself permission in this vein. Socks are awesome mindless knitting that are oh-so-portable. I should pause my EPP in the car and concentrate on knitting instead until the weather warms up.

School mascot hat/beret: I was exploring yarn shops in the area and bought some yarn in my kids’ high school colors because I had a vision of a cool beret knit in fair isle technique of the school mascot. Should probably move along on this idea.

Brooklyn Tweed Shelter project: I’ve been collecting random colorways for years, and decided, on a whim, to cast on a Baa-ble Hat last week. I’m enjoying knitting it up!

Clothing

I have so much apparel fabric and I literally have no plans to use any of it. It’d be nice to get back into clothing sewing, but my focus may just be on quilts this year. I don’t know even know where I’d start with clothes. There is a lovely feeling of satisfaction when you sew your own clothes, though…I miss it.

Embroidery

Weird things happen when you put things on your Amazon wish list—sometimes your husband will actually buy you the things! Michael generously gifted me an embroidery machine for this Christmas, and it’s on my radar to learn how to use the thing…at some point. I didn’t think I’d ever receive it as a gift, so I have no plans in effect. I put it on my wishlist while I was really leaning into tablescaping for the holidays and I think I’d enjoy creating specially embroidered table linens. And monogrammed bridal handkerchiefs. And I’ve always wanted embroidered pillowcases with matching embroidered flat sheets, and, and, and…hee hee hee. It might take A WHILE to circle around to this, though; I really do have a lot of quilty plans to plough through first!

So that’s what I’ve got on my mind for 2024. I guess I should print out this list and hang it up somewhere to remind me that I’ve got some serious sewing to get to this year! I really got out of the habit of daily creativity during grad school, but I missed it dearly and am going to make an earnest effort to reintegrate creativity back into my daily life. Wish me luck! And I wish YOU luck with your project goals for 2024!