Prepping for two 2026 art journaling adventures

What better way to start the new year than being surrounded by paper, paint, scissors, paste, and a marathon of artsy inspiration! I’m starting off 2026 by plunging into two art journaling adventures: the and Junk Journal January 2026 and 2025/2026 Artsy Marathon. These are the two junk journals I’ve made specifically for the occasion. 

New junk journals to ring in the new year.

My 4th Junk Journal January

As in the past three years, I’m joining the Junk Journal January Challenge. It’s becoming a bit of an annual tradition since I ventured into art journals with my first Junk Journal January in 2023. After doing JJ January and JJ July the past few years, this will be the 6th junk journal for me. I’m looking forward to responding to the prompts and getting creative and messy with my art supplies. 

Junk journals from January 2023, January 2024, and January 2025.

To get excited about making junk journal art again, I’ve pulled out my previous five journals from my JJ endeavors. It’s becoming quite a library! 

Five junk journals from previous Challenges.

Checking out a new virtual meet-up: the 2025-26 Artsy Marathon

This year, I’m also trying a new art journaling experience with an online event I recently discovered—the 2025-26 Artsy Marathon. 

The 2025-26 Artsy Marathon.

From the morning of December 31 to the morning of January 1, I’ll be binge watching the 2025-26 Artsy Marathon hosted by Kiala Givehand of Life Alchemy for 20+ hours of “art journaling bliss,” as the program description indicates. A perfect way to ring in the new year, don’t ya think? 

Whether I actively participate in real time, or just watch the artsy goodness unfold, I hope to get a plethora of fresh inspiration from artists I haven’t been exposed to before. I also want to pick up some cool techniques to use for Junk Journal January that starts on January 1. 

Junk Journal 2026 prompts.

With these two upcoming art journaling activities, it should be a quite the creative workout from which to launch into a new year—responding to prompts, experimenting, playing with succulent art supplies, and creating one messy, joyful journal page after another—for the next 31 days.

It’s not too late to join either or both of these! Start the new year with something “magically delicious.”

Breathe Light

In the stillness of the season, 

the world exhales. 

Candlelight, starlight, 

remind the earth 

gentleness is possible. 

Hope moves quietly— 
not in grand gestures 

        but in thoughtful pauses,

             calm choices,

                  kindness offered. 

Forth from winter’s hush 

let hope grow, 

the world soften, 

conflict and crisis cease, 

          and peace rise 

          with each new dawn.

Winter solstice begins the Winter of Care and Repair

Today, on the winter solstice—the longest night and shortest day of the year—I’m taking the Winter of Care and Repair Challenge again. It feels right to start this Challenge at this time of the year—the quiet hinge between the seasons—when the night has stretched as far as it can and the slow return of longer days begins. 

Winter of Care and Repair 2025.

From December 21, 2025 to March 20, 2026, the Winter of Care and Repair Challenge carries us through winter’s dormancy to arrive at the spring equinox, when balance returns and the days and nights meet again. The Challenge was created by Jeanna Wigger, @thepeoplesmending, and co-author of the book, “Stitch it Don’t Ditch it.” It’s an invitation to slow down during the three months of winter to focus on tending to what we already have—belongings, relationships, self, or community. 

Winter of Care and Repair, IG post @thepeoplesmending.

This is the third time I’m participating in the annual Challenge. I like that it doesn’t have a strict set of rules. Participants choose their own pace and projects—mending clothes and linens, repairing household items, finishing neglected works-in-progress, prepping a garden for Spring planting, or simply caring for the tools and materials that support us in our everyday lives. 

Basically, the heart of the challenge is “care instead of consumption, and mindfulness instead of haste and waste.” Some people document their work on social media [#winterofcareandrepair2025], others keep it private. If you’d like a WoCaR [Winter of Care and Repair] tracker, visit Check Your Thread @checkyourthread, for a downloadable tracker. 

Mending a frayed binding on a quilt.

My hands are already busy with this challenge as my current mend is repairing a frayed binding on this well-loved quilt. 

Repairing worn areas with new 4-patches.

I’ve repaired the center section with appliquéd patches over worn areas, darning a few holes, and lastly, working on the binding. It’s been slow, mindful work, honoring the warmth through the years it has already given. Each stitch is a small promise to keep this special quilt useful and in good condition.

New pillowcases.

Alongside mending, there’s making. New pillowcases came together today as a Christmas gift for a special friend—a simple, practical gift made with love and care. The fabric was chosen with her in mind: chickadees and dogwood blossoms. This is a reminder that repair isn’t only about fixing what’s worn, but also about creating comfort and maintaining connections with special people. It’s perfect that this Challenge coincides with the Christmas season. 

As we settle in for winter, I’m inviting the rhythm of “care and repair” to be a guide. Mend what’s frayed, make what’s needed, and move gently through the season until Spring returns.

 

Make Nine 2025 photo recap

Although I completed Make Nine 2025 in October, I like to do a recap blog post of the year’s projects—to see photos of them all in one place and “compare and contrast,” the projects, so to speak.

Make Nine 2025 projects, fulfilling these prompts:
Top row: UFO, Mend/Upcycle, UFO
Middle: Make it Again, Simple and Stress-free, Online Challenge
Bottom: Wild Card, Yarn, Wild Card

Above is a photo grid of my completed projects. The grid corresponds to my Make Nine tracker (below). 

Make Nine 2025 tracker at the beginning of the year.

Make Nine 2025 summary

The prompts I chose for Make Nine 2025 were similar to past years. Interestingly, 2025 generated a lot of “books”—five in total—constructed with paper, fabric, or both. The remaining four finishes consisted of two wearables, a mended vintage quilt, and charity quilts—with a glorious batch of kitty quilts that get donated to local veterinarians. Below is how each prompt was fulfilled (left to right, from top left), with links to their stories.

• UFO 1: was a fabric book. I compiled the stitched compositions from my 2023 100 Day Project into a fabric book using a binding technique I learned this year. (finish #6, book #3)

• Mend/Upcycle: This prompt addresses sustainability, minimizing waste, and taking care of and using what we have. I again participated in the Winter Care and Repair Challenge and one of my mending projects was a vintage quilt. (finish #3)

• UFO 2: was the completion of an artist’s book with a kantha stitched cover that I started in a workshop in 2017. The book’s signatures were paper and the cover was fabric with kantha hand stitching. (finish #7, book #5)

• Make it Again: I used a favorite Siena Shirt pattern and a fabric collection called, Perfect Points for this shirt. Blog posts about other versions of the Siena Shirt and various garment makes can be found here. (finish #4)

• Simple and Stress-free: I continue to make scrappy, improv, charity quilts for the cats and dogs at the local vets. I donated 16 in March, and completed 3 additional during the remainder of the year. I also finished 3 cuddle quilts for charity in December. Total charity quilts = 23. (finish #2)

• Online Challenge: This project and finish came early in the year with a book/journal from the Junk Journal January Challenge. (finish #1, book #1)

• Wild Card 1: was another fabric book made through participation in an online Challenge, the 100 Day Stitch Book 2025. This stitch sampler book was the impetus for the UFO 1 project, which used the same bookbinding technique. (finish #5, book #2)

• Yarn: I made a vow to myself that this year’s yarn project was going to be a stash-buster. I succeeded in using only yarn from a shop-and-swap, an impulse yarn purchase from several years ago, and yarns from my stash. The Taos wrap (crochet) was a brilliant success and I love the finished piece. (finish #9)

• Wild Card 2: was another junk journal from participation in the Junk Journal July Challenge, an online challenge. This was my 5th junk journal. I enjoy making and working in handmade junk journals and I know I’ll be making more. (finish #8, book #4)

Make Nine 2025 tracker, December 20, 2025.

I’m pondering prompts for 2026—my 8th year! I may have to include a “bookmaking” prompt next time…

Coptic bound art journals for winter sketching

Winter, with its cold temps and shorter days, seems like a season for slowing down and making something with my hands—vegetable prep for a rustic soup, baking cookies, or making hand-bound books.

Coptic bound art journals. 5.5” x 7” size.

Recently, I came across a few winter Art Challenges that focused on spending time on mindfulness, creativity, and self care. Inspired by these Art Challenges, I made two junk journals in order to practice the hand sewn Coptic binding method I learned this summer. It was a good opportunity to focus on making something by hand, practice hand bookbinding, as well as getting the bonus of two new journals for future use.  

Making Coptic bound journals, Junk Journal style

Rummaging through the recycled paper bin, I gathered various papers and old sales boards to make these small junk journals/sketchbooks. Coptic bound books require no glue and have a flexible spine that allows the books to open and lie flat. It’s a good binding method for art journals, junk journals, or sketchbooks that are used for drawing, painting, writing, and collaging in. 

Hand sewn Coptic binding.

The Coptic bound book lies flat when opened.

Recycling brown packing paper

One of my new journals was made with discarded brown packing paper. (You know, the brown paper that is stuffed in a box to keep items from shifting or rattling during shipping.) Before cutting the paper to size for the journal signatures, I ironed it with a warm iron to diminish the folds and wrinkles. Not all wrinkles were able to be removed, but the neutral brown paper and residual fold lines make it an interesting, imperfect surface to draw on, particularly with a white gel pen or white Posca marker. 

Drawing with white gel pens, colored pencils, or Posca markers on the brown pages.

There’s something satisfying about binding a book by hand while transforming everyday materials into something useful like a sketchbook or journal. These journals are 5.5” x 7”— a slightly smaller in size than what I usually make for my junk journals, but I like the portable, pocket size. 

Back covers of coptic bound journals. 5.5” x 7”.

With gentle encouragement, the quiet winter season beckons the hands to fill the pages with meditative marks and slow drawing. 

Inked line drawings with white colored pencil marks.

White and black marks on a neutral background. Reflecting the sparseness of the winter landscape.

One fabric panel yields 5 scrappy quilts

It’s like the story of “the loaves and the fishes”—where one fabric panel turns into five quilts!

Scrappy kitty quilts with a panel block.

I found this cat panel on the sale shelf at a quilt shop in Louisville, KY. Instead of using the panel in its entirety, I’m cutting out the individual vignettes and mixing them with various scraps to make a few improv kitty quilts.

Second quilt top from a panel image.

The first three quilt tops are complete.

Third quilt top from a block cut from the panel.

The two remaining vignettes from the panel will become quilt tops as well… for a total of five.

Cutting up the panel into smaller blocks.

This is one way to use a panel in your quiltmaking to make your fabric go further. This panel afforded a focal point for five projects. Using improvisational patchwork, the scrap basket becomes another resource and puts leftover fabric bits to good use.

Don’t you love these fast and fun, scrappy little quilts?? I do!

Happy Thanksgiving

 

With grace and gratitude to all the makers, teachers, business partners, associates, and mentors who inspire, encourage, collaborate, and support the arts, creatives, and their endeavors… a heart-filled Thank You!

Restoring a not-so-old quilt with appliqué… and perseverance

There’s a certain kind of beauty that only use over time can create. You see it in wooden floors softened by decades of footsteps, in favorite books with cracked spines and bent and rounded corners, and—if you’re a quiltmaker—in a quilt that has been used daily for over 15 years. 

Worn areas of a 2010 quilt that is in need of restoration.

This quilt, called Checks and Balances, and a gift to one of my brothers-in-law, turned fifteen this year. And like anything that’s lived life for over a decade and a half—and not been kept in a box or a chest—it is showing its age in the most endearing (and challenging) ways.

Holes and worn areas of a 15-year-old quilt.

The evidence of all that living is undeniable: 

• some fabrics have thinned to non-existance with the batting showing through, 
• a few holes went through to the backing, 
• there are several well-worn and slightly faded areas. 

I’m stepping into the role of caretaker to gently restore these areas to extend its life.

Appliqué to the rescue

I determined that appliquéing patches was a better solution to the quilt repair rather than unstitching and taking out older fabrics to totally replace the patchwork with new. If you’ve ever repaired a vintage or antique quilt, it’s not uncommon to find older quilts “inside” a vintage quilt. 

Going from “color memory,” I picked up yardage of several blue and red fabrics while I was traveling for work this past week. There was no way to identify nor find exact replacements for the thinning fabrics, so Checks and Balances is being introduced to new fabrics.

Auditioning new fabrics to replace (or cover) the worn patches.

The 4” patches from new fabrics will be hand appliquéd over the worn/frayed/faded patches. Even though the original alternate block was all from the same fabric, I decided that the restored quilt will be even more scrappy—with appliqués of new fabrics of different prints. The variety in color, print, and value will also help meld the old with the new.

New fabric patches laid over the worn areas.
There will be a lot of hand appliqué needed to restore this quilt.

A stitch in time …

There are quite a few areas in need of a refresh and the appliqué is being done by hand. These areas will also need quilting (likely free-motion by machine), so Checks and Balances will be in the repair shop for a while.  

When my husband brought the quilt to me for repair, he mentioned his brother’s comment, “… I’ve slept under it every night since I got it.” Oh, geeze… I’m sorry to break a 15-year record, but every race car has to go into the pit for a pit stop to keep it in the race. I promise that Checks and Balances will be back on the bed as quickly as possible.

Making progress on a new fabric stitch book

I’ve taken a page or two of my new fabric stitch book to work on while traveling. I am pleased with the good progress that has been made. 

New stitched iris composition using a stenciled print and painted fabric scraps.

Original stenciled image of the iris.

Back view of the iris composition.

Two stitched samples have been mounted onto fabric for book pages. The background fabrics for both are yarn dyed shot cottons.

Stitched landscape mounted on a background fabric.

A Dropcloth stitch sampler is mounted on a grass green shot cotton background fabric. 

A stitch sampler from Dropcloth Samplers mounted on a background fabric page

Back view of the mounted stitch sampler.

On this page (below), the painted cloth has been combined with hand embroidery and kantha running stitches. I haven’t decided if additional embroidery is needed to enhance more of the leaves.

Filling out the composition with embroidery and running stitches.

Still a work in progress… but coming along nicely.

Making the Sleeping Bunnies sewing project panel from Poppie Cotton

Do you ever want to retreat to your sewing room, make a fun little project requiring basic sewing/quilting skills and equipment, has minimal complexity or challenge… something that you can make for just the pure joy of sewing? Yes!

The “Sleeping Bunnies” project. A project panel from Poppie Cotton.

This weekend, I stitched up a sample of the Sleeping Bunnies project panel from the Rosy Cheeks collection from Poppie Cotton. It was a simple, fun project, requiring little effort and sewing know-how. From start to finish—including cutting out the pieces, sewing them together, stuffing, and hand-stitching the closures—it took me about 2.5 hours. 

Sleeping bunnies, bed and pillow.

Sleeping Bunnies 36” fabric project panel.

The 36” panel comes printed with the bunny and bed pieces in two colorways. There are four bunnies (two big bunnies and two baby bunnies), little beds and pillows for the bunnies, and both beds come complete with a patchwork quilt! 

Large bunny and baby bunny with the pillow and quilt.

Instructions for sewing and assembly are printed right on the panel, so there’s no fuss and no guessing. Just cut out each shape (the seam allowances are printed on each piece), pair the matching pieces, sew with a 1/4” seam allowance, then turn them right side out. Once stuffed, the bunnies come to life, are ready to play, or let them snuggle under their quilt.

Sewing and assembly instructions.

Sleeping Bunny—blue colorway.

Each of my bunnies was finished by hand with small ladder stitches at the opening. I added a thin piece of batting and also free-motion quilted the bed and the patchwork quilt—to keep the sleepy bunnies warm and snuggly. 

Sewing tips

Here are my tips for sewing and assembly: 

• reduce the stitch length to 2.0 to sew the pieces together.
• back stitch on either side of the opening to keep it strong while stuffing the pieces.
• I used pinking shears to trim the seam allowances, to reduce bulk. It was quicker than clipping the curves and just as effective.
• A walking foot was helpful for sewing the bed together—especially because two layers of batting were added.
• adhere to the recommended 2” opening (or slightly larger) for turning the bed right side out—especially if adding batting.
• trim the batting close to the stitching line for easy turning and to reduce bulk. 

Sleeping bunnies in their bed and under the patchwork quilt.

The Sleeping Bunnies panel is a wonderful choice for a quick, beginner-friendly sewing project that delivers maximum cuteness. It can be finished in an afternoon and the adorable family of handmade bunnies, tucked in their little beds, would be a delight for any child or nursery… or keep them for yourself.

Reimagining past projects to create a new fabric book

We all have them—the half-finished class projects, the forgotten stitch samples, the surface design experiments—that didn’t make it across the finish line. 

Fabric experiments and stitching samples.

In a conversation with a fellow fabric rep about our fabric stashes and collections of UFOs (unfinished objects), I decided to move forward with an idea we discussed to take some of my abandoned stitchings and make them into a new fabric book. A book project will incentivize me to finish the samples and revitalize them into a cohesive project—a tactile archive of textile experiments. 

Leaf print with embroidery.

Gathering the fragments 

I gathered several pieces—nature prints, stamped and stenciled images, painted and dyed fabrics, and other printed or stitched experiments. Seeing them all together was like flipping through a visual diary—loose, intuitive experiments, full of class memories—pieces that were waiting to settle into a more meaningful whole. 

Stitch sampler landscape.

Some of the samples were large enough to be—or fill—a single page. For the smaller samples, I paired them with other bits and scraps, a base fabric, and a plan to stitch them into new compositions. 

A garden of fragments begins to sprout 

As I laid out the pieces in this new collection… leaf prints, a stitched landscape, a stenciled iris, a chickadee perched on a branch… a theme began to appear. Among the pieces was an experiment with a thermafax screen print—a garden gate. Instantly, it felt like the gate was the missing connection between all the other pieces. It solidified the theme—Beyond the Garden Gate. Finding the gate was my invitation to begin the new book. 

Thermofax screen print. The garden gate.

Planning another book 

After completing the 100 Stitch Book and two other fabric books earlier this year, I’ve wanted to make another. I became enamored with the slot-and-tab binding through the previous books as it is the perfect technique for binding individual pages. It’s flexible and adaptive. Pages can be rearranged, added, or removed easily, allowing the book to evolve if I decide to add additional compositions. This is the perfect format for my new collection of individual samples. 

Leaf print with hand stitching and embroidery.

This project is another reminder that the creative process isn’t always about starting something from scratch, but about revisiting what you’ve already made and reimagining it with fresh eyes. It’s as much about revisiting the past as it is about beginning again. Each fabric piece holds a memory of learning or experimentation—a small story that might have been forgotten if not for its new context. My pile of “incomplete” projects has begun to germinate into something inspiring and cohesive.