Seasonal Goal Update: Winter 2026

Hello Friends and Welcome Winter!

After several weeks of snow, the Winter season has finally arrived!

Despite the snow, it's been a pretty warm start to the season so far! Meara and I have continued to enjoy beautiful Wintery walks without needing to wade through deep snow or encountering too many slippy spots!

Unfortunately for my husband's family, the warmer temperatures mean that the lake hasn't frozen yet, so the ice fishing season hasn't begun. But I'm sure they'll have plenty of time for that as the Winter season continues!

On the house selling front, we haven't made any further progress. We knew when we listed it that we were selling during a slow season, so it's not that surprising the house hasn't sold yet, but we are optimistic that things will pick up in the new year!

Of course, with the Winter season upon us and the new year fast approaching, I'm excited to take a look back at last season's goals and to setting new ones for the months ahead! I can't wait to see how I've been doing!

Autumn Goals

With the house up for sale, I wasn't entirely sure how much sewing time I would get during the Autumn season, so I did my best to set goals that I thought would be manageable!

More specifically, a lot of my goals focused on maintaining enthusiasm and momentum on projects that were already in progress, while adhering to some limitations that I hoped would help to keep things fairly tidy for open houses and showings!

I started off with the usual goals of posting weekly updates on the Fibre Arts blog, with special focus on posting Midnight Circus instructions as scheduled, and sharing more frequent updates on social media.

These are goals that I'm always working towards as I feel it's important to share the things you're passionate about, and this season, I was successful in doing both!

Admittedly, there is always room for improvement, especially when it comes to social media updates, but the only way to make that happen is to keep trying! So I'm looking forward to continuing these goals into the new season!

Now, back to stitching!

With the house on the market, I wanted to limit the number of projects in my sewing room. This would help to keep the shelves neater for staging, and with fewer fun options to distract me, I hoped to make good progress on the projects I kept!

The first project was my Midnight Circus sample quilt!

For this quilt, I had hoped to continue making progress on both quilting and assembly of blocks. Now that I have a new row added, I can call this goal a success!

Of course, the quilt is still pretty far from finished, so I have some more stitching ahead of me in the Winter season. That said, I'm excited to see how it will progress in the coming months!

Midnight Circus is an original design by Valerie Anne of the Fibre Arts blog.

Next up is Potato Chip! For this quilt, I was hoping to finish piecing the top and show it at a guild meeting before the end of 2025.

I actually made a lot more progress on this quilt than I had planned, going beyond piecing the quilt top, all the way through quilting, and completely finished the quilt at the beginning of December!

And while it was finished in time for the December guild meeting, I wasn't able to show it since that meeting was cancelled for poor weather.

With all that in mind, I'll call this goal a success! The part that wasn't quite completed was due to factors that were out of my control, but making so much more progress than I'd planned makes up for that!

My Potato Chip quilt is based on a design by Brenda Logan of Conquering Mount Scrapmore.

The next project I wanted to work on is the collaborative Generations Quilt!

My goal for this project was to work on planning block layouts with Mom and Grandma, which we worked on together back in October!

We decided to keep the Dresden Plate and Six Pointed Star blocks separate, rather than combining them. And after some discussion, the smaller sized checker board layout was the most popular!

I still haven't assembled a quilt top yet since I haven't had time to look for fabric to use in the triangles around the edges. For pictures, I used the back side of other blocks, but I might have some dark solids in storage at my Mom's house. If not, I'll have to check out some quilt stores when they reopen in the new year!

My Generations Quilt is based on the traditional Dresden Plate and Six Pointed Star blocks, using templates drafted from extant blocks by Valerie Anne.

Finally, the last quilt I had planned to work on this Autumn was Ice Cream Soda, which I hoped to continue stitching!

Since this was my only hand piecing project, it was the only one I could take with me to work on when I had to leave the house for showings, which meant I had a lot of chances to make progress!

In fact, I had so much time to work on it that I ended up finishing the piecing of my quilt top! This is a second project that progressed much further than my original goal, and I can't wait to see it through to completion!

My Ice Cream Soda quilt is based on a design by Jodi Godfrey of Tales of Cloth.

After looking at individual projects, I also set a few goals to limit what I was working on while the house was up for sale. And since it hasn't been sold yet, these will carry on into the Winter season!

The first limitation was that I wouldn't start a new project, or bring one out of storage until I had finished piecing or quilting one of the four projects listed above.

I was successful in maintaining this since I didn't bring Old Town out until I had finished piecing Ice Cream Soda! And now that Potato Chip is pieced and quilted, I'm down to three quilts in progress, and can reassess what projects I'd like to work on this Winter!

The other limitation I set was to not start a new project by a designer who's pattern I'm already piecing.

Specifically, this applies to Jodi Godfrey's Cherish pattern, which I couldn't start until Ice Cream Soda was pieced, and to Bonnie Hunter's Lupine and Laughter quilt along, which I can't start until Old Town is pieced.

Once again, I was successful in maintaining this limitation!

My Lupine and Laughter and Old Town quilts are based on designs by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.

Overall, I managed to successfully complete all of my goals for the Autumn season, which I don't think I've ever done before!

I'd like to believe this means that I've developed a better understanding of what I'm capable of completing within the length of one season! Of course, I was trying not to commit to too much while the house is up for sale since I have no idea of how long it will be before I move, or how long it will take us to find a new home once ours has sold!

That said, I'm still really excited to have completed all of my goals and can't wait to see what progress I can make this Winter!

Winter Goals

Moving into a new season, I can only hope I'll be as successful in completing my new goals! I suppose the best I can do is continue to consider my circumstances, and do my best to be kind and accommodating to myself as I embrace whatever the new year brings!

On the virtual side of things, I'll be carrying on with the same two goals I worked on last season:

• Continue posting weekly to the Fibre Arts blog, ensuring the Midnight Circus instructions are posted the first week of each new month, and giving advance notice of posting breaks when possible

• Post more frequently on social media, with at least one fun progress post for every blog post announcement

Moving along to my stitching goals, there are a few specific projects I plan to work on, as well as a few limitations I want to maintain:

• For Midnight Circus, I would like to continue making progress on the quilting and assembly of my sample quilt

• For the Generations Quilt, I would like to assemble at least one quilt top

• For Old Town, I would like to finish piecing the quilt top

• For Lupine and Laughter, I would like to start piecing the quilt

• Limit myself to four or fewer active projects

• Not start any new projects by a designer who's pattern I am already working on (for example, not start piecing Bonnie Hunter's Lupine and Laughter until I'm finished piecing Old Town)

Finally, I have one goal that I'd like to complete that isn't geared towards a specific project:

• Completely finish at least one quilt

I've been so excited about finishing Potato Chip, and would love to have some more projects completed in 2026!

All together, that gives me eight goals to work towards this Winter! Some of them will be easier to complete than others, but I'll do my best to stick to these projects and see what I accomlish!

Friends, I'm thrilled to be able to share the progress I've made on this Autumn's goals! It's so exciting to see all the vast strides I've made on my quilting projects and to look ahead at what I might be able to accomplish in the months to come!

As you've been working on your own creative goals, I hope you've been just as excited about your own progress! Please let me know what goals you've completed this Autumn, and what you're looking forward to working on in the new year!

And, in accordance with one of my own ongoing goals, I wanted to let you all know that I won't be sharing a post next week since I'm going to see a play with my family! We will be going to see We Will Rock You at the Mirvish theatre in Toronto, and though I'm not super familiar with most of Queen's music, I think I know a fair number of the songs featured in the show!

I'll let you know what I think when I'm back again in 2026!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

~VA