Limited Progress on the To-Do List

The last three months of 2025 have flown by just as quickly as the first nine—probably because we’ve been busy with a variety of fun activities. In October, we took an enjoyable bus trip to Washington, DC, where we were able to see quite a few sites in spite of the government shutdown. I also enjoyed a couple of Broadway shows—The Wiz and The Notebook—at the Orpheum with Melissa, Kevin, and his family.

In November, we spent a great weekend with my college friend and his wife, who were in Lincoln to present a couple of sessions at the Nebraska Music Educators Conference. December started with a fun girls’ weekend in Pella, Iowa, for their Christmas Market with Sara, Melissa, Lindsay, and Ruby. We celebrated my dad’s 90th birthday on December 12, and Tom and I got into the Christmas spirit at the Mannheim Steamroller concert at the Lied Center.

In addition, I had a totally new experience when I taught a longarm quilting class at Nebraska Quilt Company in Fremont. I had eight attentive students who were new to long-arming, having purchased their machines within the last year. I shared tips and tricks I’ve learned since buying my first machine ten years ago, showed them my favorite tools—including rulers, thread, and marking pencils—and demonstrated my favorite designs and how I use them in a quilt. Since I love talking about all things quilty, it was a very fun morning!

So, was I able to check anything off my to-do list? Unfortunately, no. But I did make progress on a couple of projects. First, I completed four more purple flower stamped cross-stitch blocks, bringing my total to 12 of the 30 blocks finished. This was the perfect project to take along on our bus trip in October.

Secondly, I finished all of the blocks for the dinosaur quilt I’m making for my grandson, Hank. It has been such a fun pattern to construct, in spite of all the little pieces involved. Now I’m excited for the next step—putting all of those blocks together into a full-size quilt top. I took some of the blocks to share during show-and-tell at the last Panama Quilt Guild meeting and was excited to see that another member had been working on the same pattern. Her quilt was smaller and it was so fun to see the colors she used in her version.

The reason I didn’t check anything off my to-do list is most likely because I added two more projects. One was a counted cross-stitch Christmas ornament kit that I had hoped to finish in time for Christmas. It looked like an easy project when I ordered it from Herrschners, but I soon discovered it was quite labor-intensive. I did finish one of the eight, so the rest will go back on my to-do list for next year.

The second project is a challenge from the Panama Quilt Guild. Since our theme this past year involved all things scrappy, our leader challenged us to make something scrappy by our next meeting in March. It could be a table runner, a wall hanging, or a large quilt. Since I’ve been wanting to make a string quilt ever since our group did one at an early meeting, I decided this was the motivation I needed to finally make one. Because it needs to be finished by March, that project has moved to the top of my priority list—and I already have half of the blocks done!

In addition, I long-armed eleven customer quilts and eleven Quilts of Valor over the last three months. So as the year comes to a close, I’m grateful for the experiences and creative opportunities that filled these final months of 2025. Even though my to-do list didn’t get any shorter, the time spent traveling, quilting, stitching, teaching, and celebrating with family and friends made it a season well spent. With several projects already underway and a few snowy days hopefully ahead, I’m looking forward to settling in, making steady progress, and seeing what 2026 has in store.