Before the year was out, I took a couple sessions in the studio to do a little work on the second be quilt. First, I needed to get all the dizzy daisy blocks done. I always say dizzy daisies are easy. And they are. But I’ve always done them in small numbers. I needed more than 30 for this one – and to be honest, it was a little tedious. But I pushed through…

Burton thinks they look quite nice with all those nine-patches, if a little busy. I agreed, so the next time we hit the studio, I set to work on sashing and corner stones.

Now I don’t do sashing the “normal way” where you do long strips and sew everything in rows to your blocks. I have a really hard time getting things to line up that way. Years ago, Mom showed me an easier way where you attach it directly to each block

This can mean more seams if you aren’t doing cornerstones – but in this case, it works out just the same.

When all the blocks have their bit of sashing attached, you just sew them all together.

Of course, I didn’t actually get that far. It took all afternoon to attach the sashing. Sew the sewing of the top will happen another day. Perhaps even today!

Regular readers will know that January and February are the hardest months for me. They are cold and grey and there’s no hope of seeing/doing anything in the garden. I get through it by paging endlessly through seed catalogues and…

having plants that bloom indoors! This, of course, is my passionflower. Isn’t it amazing. The flowers only last one day by boy are they stunners!

Sadly, I lost a few of my African Violets over the summer, but a couple survived, and one has just started to bloom.

You can see it’s also covered in cat hair, because it’s in the front window and the boys love to sit there too.

This next one is a new one, and there aren’t many flowers left, as such, I got it on clearance, which pleased me to no end.

It’s a Stephanotis – also known as Madagascar Jasmine. I had one years ago, and bought it because not only are those flowers beautiful – they smell AMAZING!!!! Personally, I think it’s even better smelling than Star Jasmine. I lost the original one by overwatering and was so sad when it died. I was thrilled to find this one because it’s the only time I’ve seen it since that first one. At it’s peak, there will be flowers all over ever inch of its wire support. And like that pot? We found that little fellow at the thrift store a few weeks back, and it turns out he was just the perfect size!

And last.. I bought some Paperwhites, and an Amaryllis bulb a week or so before Christmas. Obviously, they didn’t bloom in time for the holiday, but now the Paperwhites are just staring to open up

There are dozens of them in the pot, and each stem has multiple flowers, so when they all start to bloom it will be an amazing sight. Also and amazing smell. They are part of the narcissus family (daffodils) and have a lovely scent – especially on mass.

I’ll have more pics when that happens – probably about the time the amaryllis opens up too!

She’s baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!

Or at least she was. Freyja’s Dad and his girlfriend came and spent New Year’s Eve with us, and they left the little miss behind for a few days.

This time around it didn’t take long for Lemmy to warm up to her. The pair were playing chase well before her parents left for the evening.

And the next morning she managed to sneak in on Burton’s territory (ie my lap while we enjoy a shared breakfast)

And of course, she charmed the pants off us the whole time.

It was only three weeks since the first time she was here, but we could already see she had grown.

Word is she’ll be back here sometime next week, and I bet she’ll have grown more!

We were out thrifting again (big surprise) and I came across an untouched paint-by-number kit. I already had an untouched one at home, but this one was a hummingbird, and it was my livingroom colours, so I thought what the hell.

On the weekend, I decided I needed to start at least ones of them or they would sit there forever. So I opened the hummingbird box and got to work.

Its been decades since I did a paint by number. The ones I remember were on a solid piece – like a hardboard – nice and smooth. This is on piece of primed canvas. It was rolled up in the box, so I had to tape it to the table.

I worked on it for several hours and managed to get most of the background and larger areas done. It’s much slower than I expect, but I find these paints need a second coat. That or I have to get better about putting it on thicker in the first coat.

I’m thinking I might see if I can dig out my easel, and tape the canvas to a piece of wood and work on it that way. It might be a little easier on my back than working hunch over the table.

Of course… I have to remember where I stashed my darn easel first! I haven’t seen it since we moved! And I have a sneaking suspicion I might have given it away.

2024 is now officially behind us…

So what can I expect from 2025? I’m hoping the pace moves a little bit slower than 2024.

I hope it brings with it a chance to really make a dent in our debt, and tuck away a few dollars for the future.

I don’t think I’ll make any predictions for house projects. The furnace install in December was part of a package deal that included a heat pump and a tankless water heater. They will be installed at the end of this month. Dave is certainly looking forward to not having to haul and install window a/c units this year. And I’m looking forward to (hopefully) lower energy bills.

For the gardens, I plan to widen a couple of the borders along the fence, but otherwise keep things at status quo. I still have a pile of seeds left and more plants in the gardens than I can shake a stick at, so I’m challenging myself not to buy any new plants (other than annuals for planters) this year! Wish me luck.

When it comes to crafting, I plant to both knit and quilt exclusively from the stash. That shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I have so much yarn and fabric I’m literally tripping over it in the studio. I’d also like to spend some more time with my water colours if I can manage it.

Above all, I hope to have a happy, healthy 2025. And I hope you do too!

As the year comes to a close, what can be said? It wasn’t a bad year, but it also wasn’t a spectacularly great year. What it was, was a FAST year! 2024 just flew by and I feel like I just didn’t have enough time to do anything I really wanted to.

You saw my knitting and quilting tally – but how did the rest of the year stack up? House-project-wise – not great. We’d hoped to renovate a couple rooms, and replace the garage doors. Neither things happened. Early on in the year, I decided I really wanted to throw some money on our debt before spending much money on the house.

Then I needed a new vehicle, then we went halfsies with our new back neighbour (Loki/Freyja’s dad) on cutting down trees and putting up a proper fence between our yards. Then the furnace went! So there wasn’t much of a dent put in the debt AND we didn’t do any renovations.

I did get the sun porch painted at least.

And it was so nice finally get rid of the last of the ugly red oxide colour that the previous owners loved!

The gardens, of course, expanded – with the biggest expansion in the area of edibles.

The food garden was wonderfully productive.

And while I feel like I didn’t spend much time in the yard, my pictures say otherwise…

I also had many wonderful highlights

Including finally capturing the hummingbirds, hatching monarchs, and making friends with an army of tree frogs!

We didn’t travel much, but there were dozens of thrifting adventures, and a trip to a petting zoo/plant nursery…

And I got a wonderful chance to experience and capture the Northern light, virtually in my backyard!

So while the year flew by a the speed of light, and I didn’t accomplish all that I’d hoped, it was still a year with many wonderful small moments. And I wouldn’t trade that for anything!

2024 saw me complete 14 quilts. It’s my lowest quilt output yet, but it was a really busy year in the other aspects of my life, so I’m not too upset.

Most of the quilts were lap-size or larger, which also accounts for the lower count. I can whip out a baby quilt in a weekend – but lap quilts tend to take a few weekends to complete.

Four of the quilts were gifts (one wedding, two get well, and one pet gift). One of the quilts (and the largest) was for me. And one was for Burton’s chaise. And the rest went into the shop.

Before the year is out, I’m hoping to complete one more top… but it won’t get quilted until the new year, so it will get counted for 2025.

After a dismal showing of knits in 2023, I made a pledge to knit at least one project a month in 2024. And I’m happy to say I did it! +1!

I made 10 pairs of socks (five of which were for me), a hat, a bolero for a birthday girl and one awesome, if a little menacing handspun chicken!

None of them are huge projects, but with all I have on my plate these days, I’m thrilled to have finished them. And simple knits are the perfect way to unwind after a long day! I’m hoping to continue this trend into 2025.

Spring:

Summer:

Fall:

It was a good year in the garden, but I definitely feel like I didn’t get to spend much time in it.

Really, I actually spent a lot of time in it but it was time spent WORKING in it. Now that’s nobodies fault but my own, because I’m the one who decided I needed ALL The plants and kept bringing more home.

Maybe 2025 will bring a chance stop and smell the flowers just a little more.

“Hey, is that leftover turkey you’re snacking on?????”