Githerments - First Flimsy of 2026

Githerments, one of the Macnas bonus quilts, is a flimsy - the first one of 2026.

(Githerments is an old Yorkshire word that refers to a random assortment or mix of items)

Approximately 52" x 72" and made from the excess cut pieces and leftovers after piecing the top for Fandango, Macnas No. 7.

On the right side of the flimsy in this photo you can see a strip pieced using blocks left after piecing Githerments.  

Waste not. Want not. 

Onward to the backing for Githerments . . . 

After I pieced Trouvaille (which is currently on the pool noodles ready to be pin basted/quilted before month end), I cobbled together this scrappy backing.  

Originally I had a panel in the center but removed it and replaced it with more of the one pink fabric already in the back.

I like pink, a lot, but this back was overwhelming so I never sewed it together aside from the left and right columns.

I tucked the pieces into a project box, hoping that another quilt would come along where I might be able to salvage all or part of that fabric.

In that same box I also added a long insert strip pieced with half-rectangles from Pretty in Pink and another long insert strip pieced with more leftovers from Blossom and Fandango.

When I started work on Githerments, I knew I had found the elusive project for all that pink.

But this time, I added more scrappy goodness, creating vertical columns to take advantage of all three leftovers insert strips and two different leftover binding strips.  

I like this and will get it sewn together in the next few days so Githerments will be ready to quilt right after I finish Trouvaille and Fandango (similar color palettes and likely the same quilting thread).

* * *

One of my primary goals in the studio this year is to move the remaining Macnas quilts along so that all 12, and maybe even the four bonus quilts (Holus Bolus, Rastro, Motley, and Githerments), are finished by year-end.  I've set the studio squirrels a challenge to keep me on task as the year progresses - we'll see if they can keep their end of the agreement.

Quiltdivajulie

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Githerments, Fluffy, and Flowers

I spent a couple of hours in the studio (!) and was able to finish pressing the blocks for Githerments, sort them onto 12 plates (one for each of the rows), and sew the first rows together.

(Githerments is an old Yorkshire word that refers to a random assortment or mix of items)

Notice the squirrel keeping tabs on me as I sewed . . . 

Introducing Fluffy, studio squirrel number eight.  A Christmas gift from younger son, Fluffy (an American gray squirrel) definitely lives up to his name.  

Before the evening was over, I had four rows sewn.  

And look what has happened to my amaryllis gifted by Cherie.

These blossoms are huge and absolutely beautiful.

There are four flowers now with two more buds not quite ready to explode.

AND there's another bud stem that is roughly half the height of this one that's growing steadily, so there will be another blossom(s) in the not-too-distant future.

* * *

No school for Young Man today - he's spending his final day of winter break with us since both parents have to go back to work.  He's already told us he's bringing his latest Lego race car to work on (here's a link to a representative model - not the one he's working on right now but very similar is scale and complexity).

Quiltdivajulie

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"Motivation often comes after starting, not before.  Action produces momentum."

James Clear

One Thing at a Time

I sewed!  

All of the 4-part blocks for Githerments are sewn together and roughly 80% of them are pressed.

I grabbed this small group at random and put them on the design wall to reassure myself that the plan really would work.

The amaryllis that Cherie sent has grown so much!

And since the waxed bulb amaryllis blooms are beginning to fade, while we were at Costco on our quest to update our phones / change carriers, I nabbed this planter from the same company (Bloomaker).  These flowers will be white in not very many days.

The khaki accordion album contains a random array of Christmas postage from the early 1960s until now, arranged in more-or-less chronological order.  The two red volumes underneath it contain annual entries from our first married Christmas until now.  Starting next year I'll need the waiting-in-the-wings third volume.

The planter on our kitchen table is also growing well.  Having a sunny day after multiple deeply dreary ones was a definite happy.  

And after several weeks of colder air, our temps will be in the upper 60s-low 70s for Christmas weekend.  SO odd given that we all grew up/remember living in PA, MI, and IN where Christmas was almost always cold and more years than not, snowy.

This is the one new nutcracker that joined our collection this year.

We had early Christmas with Young Man and his family last weekend.  He was SO happy and proud to gift me the clay angel he made in art class.  The detail he managed to include was wonderful including, as he pointed out, the ruffled edges on the angel's wings.

The lighthouse was part of my mother's Christmas village.  We've started using her pieces in various spots instead of all in one place. Some are under our table top trees and others like this one are displayed on their own.  Honestly, it is much easier without burned out light bulbs, extension cords, and all the tiny trees, people, and animals she had gathered.

Speaking of Young Man, this is 2025's photo with Santa.  We have one of him with this very same Santa every year beginning with his second Christmas (during the pandemic he stood in front of the plexiglass shield that protected Santa).  Oh, how time flies!

* * *

Along with lots of life-activities, there's been a lot of thinking and pondering going on in the background.  Much of that will appear in the projects I've settled on for 2026.  

The quilts to make/finish list was already pretty well established with only one new addition (a gift quilt for autumn).  The journal side was much messier.  

There's so much inspiration out there that it is too easy to get distracted and scattered.  I don't mind long term projects but I don't like ending up with a bunch of abandoned projects I've lost interest in.   I'm hopeful that my efforts now will help prevent that scenario, even when the studio squirrels get noisy. 

To that end, I'm virtually off Instagram (checking in once a week for no more than 30 minutes) since it had become an unsatisfying rabbit hole that consumed too much time and mental energy. And instead of too much doom scrolling, I'm reading again (how I lost that habit I'm not sure but it feels good to get back to my books).  

Wishing each of you a safe, happy, and healthy rest of 2025.  I hope to post again before year-end, but we shall see how the time frame for creative playtime works out.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Creativity itself doesn't care at all about the results.  The only thing it craves is the process."

Elizabeth Gilbert

Githerments and Trouvaille Make Progress

I decided that since Fandango (Macnas series no. 7 of 12) will be quilted early next year, I'd like to have Githerments (a bonus quilt made with leftover rectangles from Fandango and Blossoms) ready to be quilted as well.  With the same color palette I should be able to use the same quilting threads.  

To that end, I went ahead and spent part of an afternoon power sewing the remaining sets of color rectangles with black and white squares. 

The half-block strips are much neater since being pressed.

Next step was to sort the half-block strips based on the rectangle's color (41 unique fabrics in the mix).

This photo was taken after I'd started pairing pinks with purples (that's the taller stack at the far end of the dining room table).

I came up a few pinks short so I'll cut 24 additional rectangles, pair them with the leftover black and white squares and then pair the new half-block strips with the leftover purples.

I need a total of 156 4" x 6" (finished) blocks to lay out the quilt top (along the lines of Caim and Comfortable).

The nutcrackers on our dining room buffet kept a close eye on my work.

I've also gotten the back pieced and pressed for Trouvaille.  The back (left), batting (center) and top (right) are rolled onto pool noodles ready for me to pin baste the quilt sandwich early next week.  Trouvaille will be the 12th quilt for my annual quilt calendar so I need to get it done soon - the calendar itself is laid out and ready to order as soon as I have photos of this last 2025 finished quilt.

(the wrinkled batting on the far right is the last 62" from the giant roll - it has plenty of time to relax before I use it with one of the smaller quilts in the waiting-to-be-finished queue).

Quiltdivajulie

Bits of Progress

The first few rows of Fandango (Macnas series no. 7) are sewn with row six pinned to row 5.

I'm building the top one row at a time using the previously sorted-onto-plates blocks, and the narrow table behind my machine's table is there for extra support as the quilt top grows towards row 18.

I also discovered that by angling my portable cutting mat off the end of the machine's table, I can lay the top out full width as I determine placement for the 4" blocks in each additional row.  

I am working on a how-I-do-it post with my progression of steps for these quilts.  Hopefully sometime next week I'll have it ready to share.

Next - in the lower left you can see Fandango's first few rows. 

In the project box are the 300+ leftover/extra rectangles for Githerments (a Macnas series bonus quilt) with end-squares pinned in place, ready for leader ender action when the time comes.

All 300+ 2.5" squares were harvested from leftover Macnas quilt black/white rectangles and/or trimmings from previous projects.  No yardage was needed - it is truly remarkable the possibilities that lurk within those leftover bits and pieces.

Next - these are the sewn/pressed blocks for Hanabi (Macnas series no. 10).  They were leader-ender sewn while I created the top for Vellichor.

Next - these are the sewn/pressed blocks for Morning Fog (Macnas series no. 11).  They were leader-ender sewn while I pieced the top for Wallaroo (Macnas series no. 6).

And finally - these are the first batch of sewn/finger pressed blocks for Paint Party (Macnas series no. 12).  I'm sewing these pairs as leader-enders while I assemble the top for Fandango.

(I realize leader-enders aren't for everyone but for a series of quilts like these, the method works amazingly well with my own process) 

* * *

To see more on my Macnas series of quilts, click HERE.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul."

Alice Walker

Those Darn Squirrels

After I pin basted Esperance's quilt sandwich (click here for a quick recap), I had quite a bit of usable scrappy backing leftover.  I also had one column for the back that wasn't included (too short).  

Hmmmm - I know, make a long runner - and so I did.

Here is a front view of the 70” x 10” finished runner and below it a scrappy slab pieced from the leftover scrappy backing.

Here's a detail shot of the front.

And this is a view of the finished runner's back - pieced with remaining fabrics from the original quilt top.

(I'm saving that scrappy slab until I see how much usable fabric is available after Esperance is quilted)  

Here's a detail view of the runner's reverse side.

And this is where the new runner resides.  

I guess I should thank the squirrels for heckling me because I really do love how this looks.

The squirrels struck once again as I was tidying up the studio.

First I made the remaining blocks for Holus Bolus using leftover rectangles from the planned series of twelve Macnas quilts. 

(you can see the larger group of completed blocks HERE)

Before I closed that box of rectangles, I realized there were way too many to make a single bonus quilt or even two bonus quilts.

And so I pulled out the rectangles leftover from Fandango (No. 7) and mixed them with the pink rectangles leftover from making Blossoms.

Introducing GITHERMENTS (a random assortment of unmatching things).  The design will be akin to Comfortable and Caim once I decide what to use for the 2.5" squares.

By creating Githerments, I also have a fun new way to use the set aside scrappy pink backing from Trouvaille.

I'll also include the scrappy pink HRTs from Pretty in Pink, more pinks from PinP and Blossoms along with the pieced Cherrywoods from Fandango to create a seriously scrappy stash-busting back.

(this one will not happen until the other Macnas series quilts are done - unless the squirrels get in the way again)

And this is what's left in the box of leftover rectangles now.  

Definitely enough to make Rastro (design change under development) with some leftover.

The plan is to add whatever is left from Rastro's design to these scrappy end cuts and other recent scrappy leftovers to make scrappy slabs for whatever other idea(s) the squirrels come up with. 

In closing - Nancy S. sent this to me a while ago - it totally sums up what's been happening in my head and studio for the past few days.

Time to get a grip and get back to piecing Wallaroo (No. 6).

 

Quiltdivajulie