Scrap Happy Day - January 2026

I prepared this post ready for the 15th of December - and then forgot to post it!  So here it is for January.  And running late for that as well.  

The double bed top sheet on my father's king single bed was too wide, so I cut a 30cm or so strip from one side to stop it dragging on the floor when not tucked in.  That strip came in handy for lengthening the top sheet on our king size bed.  I like a generous fold with the top sheet over the blankets so adding the beige strip to the bottom of the green top sheet was an easy fix.  Now the turnover is a decent size, and we won't see the mis-match in the sheet.  This solution also saved me having to store the cut-off strip.  

Now to do something similar on the other top sheets for our king size bed.  

ScrapHappy is open to anyone using up scraps of anything – no new materials. It can be a quilt block, pincushion, bag or hat, socks or a sculpture. Anything made of genuine scraps is eligible (including food). If your scrap collection is out of control and you’d like to turn them into something beautiful or useful instead of leaving them to collect dust in the cupboard, why not join us on the 15th of each month? Contact Kate on katechiconi@gmail.com and she'll add you to the list.  We welcome new members. You don’t have to worry about making a long term commitment or even join in every month. Regular contributors will receive an email reminder three days before the event.

Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at).

Kate, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin,  Alissa,
Hannah and Maggie

2026 - creative aspirations

2026 has started well, sewing wise.  And I'll report on what I've been working on at the end of January.  

Last year, I participated in the Chookshed Challenge and was happy with my work towards the goals I set myself.  However, I won't be doing the formal challenge this year.  I still have some goals, or creative aspirations, for the year but will work on those as I want.  I was away so much in 2025, I didn't have heaps of time for sewing.  I plan to do a lot more sewing this year.  

Realising that I've not made a quilt for my husband, a quilt for him will be my main goal this year.  He has quite a few Tshirts so I would like to make a Tshirt quilt for him.  I haven't ever made a Tshirt quilt so that will be a new challenge.  

We have a US friend visiting us this year, from St Louis, and I would like to make her a cardinal block, probably as a cushion, to celebrate her baseball team.  Once I started searching for patterns, there were so many!

Early in 2025, a friend gifted me the Quilt Recipes book by Jen Kingwell, and sets of templates for two quilts from the book.  I've become enamoured of the Wensleydale Quilt so bought foundation papers for the blocks recently and have started a project box for it.  I'm not sure what colour/s to make it with - I'm leaning towards shades of blue and beige/brown - but have not made a firm decision yet.  There are so many possibilities!  

Sue Daley's Quatro quilt is still my evening EPP work but is taking so long.  I am hopeful that I will finish the hand piecing this year - only two rounds to go! - and I will definitely NOT be hand quilting it.  This has been claimed by a friend.  

On my "Quilting to do" list are a number of projects yet to be started - they are just aspirations, after all. 

One aspiration for a number of years has been to have a few smaller baby quilts ready to give as a gift when the baby is born. This has never happened!  Instead I've been starting a quilt after the baby is born; I do usually add their names to the quilt so can't finish them until after the birth anyway, but I have had trouble keeping up with births in the last couple of years.  

Young friends of ours recently married and I offered to make them a quilt.  They have given me the wedding dress to include in this quilt, so I am now mulling over possibilities for this quilt, likely to be a wall-hanging which includes embroidery from the dress.

I also want to do more dressmaking, so that's another sewing  aspiration this year.  

Another aspiration is to complete one or more scrap quilts, made from the copious amount of scraps I am accumulating.  

So this year will be interesting, and I wonder how many aspirations will be achieved?  Knowing me, not many.  Those squirrels keep on appearing!

December 2025 - what did I get up to?

Two quilts - for a great-niece and a great-nephew - were finished in December.  Hopefully there is a bit of a lull in the procreation stakes and I can work on other than baby quilts in 2026.  I've never made a quilt for hubby so that is a goal for 2026.  

Lainey's quilt - I'm finally gifting a quilt before the baby turns one!  Miracles can happen.  I saw the quilt design on Pinterest and thought that would make a nice change for a baby quilt.  I've worked out that there is about 110m of quilting on this quilt, in addition to the piecing and adding the binding.  That's a lot of thread - Bottom Line Rainbows and .  All fabrics came from my stash, which is good.  Finished top:  79" x 55".  Finished quilt (after quilting): 77" x 53" 

Finlee's quilt - another Happy Block finish.  All fabrics from my stash.  The backing is a doona cover from the op shop.  So nice not having to piece the back.  The quilting is walking foot diagonal lines over the blocks, swirls around the letters in the name block, loop the loop in the grey border, and several wavy lines along the length of the striped border.  Finished top:  61" x  77".  Finished quilt (after quilting):  60.5" x 76".

Yes, I've used the same border fabric for each quilt.  

December 2025 fabric tally

Finishes in the month:  Fin's quilt = 8.4 m; Lainey's quilt = 7 m  

Purchases in the month:  0

Fabric used:  - 15.4 m         Fabric acquired:  + 0 m

Grand fabric totals for 2025

Fabric used: 54.4m

Fabric acquired: 50m

Woohoo!  My stash decreased by a whole 4.4m!  

The fabric tallies will return to zero for 2026!