Photo Play: 2025 Summary, 2026 Ambitions

My blog is mostly about the quilty stuff that goes on in my sewing room. If you are here for that, I won't be offended if you skip this post. 

Since I've retired, my goal has been to do more photography and learn to do it better. I've been retired a little over 3 years at this point and I'm not sure there has been much improvement in the more or the better aspirations.  Looking at how I did on my 2025 goals says a lot. 

1. Take more pictures.  Nope that didn't happen.  I only had 79 photos I felt that were worthy of posting, versus 112 from last year.  

2. Take more walks, go more places:  The more walks didn't happen, nor did I go more places. But I do think I used my cell phone more this year to take photos while we were out and about.  

3. Continue to learn my camera functions: Major fail, no effort at all on this point.

4. Keep studying photography via books/videos: Another major fail, I didn't read any books on photography in 2025. 

Before writing up this year's ambitions, I reviewed the last 3 year's photos, with My Guy's help and picked one that stood out for each year. Maybe not the best technical photo of the year, but that the one that elicited a response from both of us.  

2023

Canon 70D w/Tamron 18-400 mm lens

2024

Canon 70D w/Tamron 18-400 mm lens

2025

Canon 70D w/Tamron 18-400 mm lens

None of these three are my typical subjects. The Tamron lens is probably my most versatile, so it's the one in use most of the time.  What else did my review show?  My shots from 2024 included a lot of, "what if I tried this". There was almost none of that last year. Photos of flowers and butterflies were more than 90% of my photos Those are my favorite subjects. They aren't bad subjects, but maybe not the most interesting. 

So what's the plan for 2026?  

1. Take a photo every week. Hopefully that will encourage me to look harder for interesting subjects. 

2. Study both photography techniques and my camera operation.  One photography book a month, a chapter on my reference books on the cameras.  

I'm going to leave it at just two for this year.  Hopefully both will get me taking more and better photos. 

To Do List for the Week of 01/27/2026

It's definitely winter here.  Our low has been -1 F for the last couple of days.  We won't warm up much, barely above freezing most days.  Definitely good days to just stay home and stitch.  I mostly did that last week, so my to do list got a lot of attention.

To Do List for 01/20/26

1. 2026 Guild BOM: Finish April block ✔

2. Kate's Choice: Assemble fourth row ✔

3. SAHRR: Make block for first prompt ✔

4. Scenic Waypoint: Cut fabrics - progress

5. Magnificent Mystery: Work on Dec/Jan clues ✔

6. Wild and Goosey: Work on blue blocks ✔

I didn't check off all everything on my to do list, still it was a good week on the progress front. I made enough progress on the Guild BOM and the Magnificent Mystery that they don't show up on this week's list.  

To Do List for 01/27/2026

1. Kate's Choice: Assemble 5th row

I finished up the fourth row last week, but I'm going assemble rows 5 and 6, then sew those together and then sew the top and bottom together. I figure that will be easier to do on my home sewing machine. We'll see. 

2. SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Make block for second prompt

It's weird to be caught up, usually I'm still working on the first prompt. I still feel like I'm cheating a bit, but I do like how my SAHRR is coming along. 

3. Scenic Waypoint (Meadow Mist Designs): Continue cutting fabrics, start assembly of hourglass units. 

Half of the fat quarters are cut.  All the background pieces for the next week are cut.  My plan is to finish cutting the fat quarters, then I'll go back and catch up on the background cutting. Doing it this way means I can start on this week's step while I finish cutting the background. Hopefully that strategy will keep me on schedule with the assembly instructions.  

4. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Work on blue blocks 

I've made a few blue blocks, but have a lot more to make.  Soscrappy hasn't posted the color for February yet, so unless it's teal or purple, I'll keep working on the blue blocks for another month.  

That's my list for this week. Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.

2026 SHARR: Hourglass Blocks

The week 1 prompt for the 2026 SAHRR (Quilting Gail) was set as hourglass blocks by Songbird Designs.  I'm doing a single block for each prompt. After playing around in Electric Quilt for a bit, here's what I came up with. 

Just a simple block with 4 hourglasses. The fabric placement makes the design.  I had to work slowly to make sure I could get fabric into the right spots when I assembled the four squares.  

I'm not sure yet where the block is going to fit with my center, so for now it's just up on the design wall in the first postion. 

I'm ready for prompt #2. Linking up at Songbird Designs for the SAHRR prompt one and my usual Monday linky parties: Patchwork & Quilts and Sew and Tell Monday. 

Stitching Stuff: Week 4 of 2026

It's been cold, but that polar vortex struck yesterday, now it's really, really cold.  Snow started falling Friday night around 10 PM. The first round of snow left about 3" to 4" of snow depending on where you are in the county. The second round kicked off Saturday afternoon and is supposed to run till midmorning. So we may see another 6" to 8" before it tapers off this afternoon.   It wasn't exactly warm going into this storm, so it wasn't too hard to find time to hang out in the sewing room this week.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Jan = 24/24 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 24/24 days
• Success rate = 100%

Keeping a success rate of 100% in January isn't usually too hard. But February is just around the corner, and that's a busier month for me. We'll see how long I can keep the streak going.   

How are you doing at fitting in some stitching time?  

 

1. Gretchen 2. Karen 3. Melissa G 4. Linda at Texas Quilt Gal

5. Julie in GA 6. DonnaleeQ 7. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 8. Quilting Gail

9. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 10. Bonnie Stapleton 11. Shelina 12. Marsha's Spot

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Photo Play: November and December 2025

November was busy and December was too. I had a hard time getting into the holiday season last year, so just didn't get my camera out like I normally do.  Since there weren't very many photos, it seemed best to just combine the two months.

Compared to all the I Phone shots from October, all the November photos were shot with the Canon 70D with the Tamron 80-400 mm telephoto lens.  All the photos come from an early November walk along the local walking trail. We don't see peak fall colors here till early to mid November. The trees change just as the autumn winds pick up. Our fall colors don't last long. 

The days were still pretty warm in early November. A few butterflies, like this Common Buckeye were still out and about. 

The only interesting photo from December was the one I took with the I Phone 12 of our small Christmas Tree.

I didn't use a special filter (at least I don't think I did, the I Phone sometimes does it's own thing).  I like the colored streaks from some of the lights.  

That's the last of my best of photos from 2025.  I'll take a look back and see how what made the cut fits with the photography goals for 2025.  I know I didn't do as much as I had hoped, but there some nice shots from last year.  That's enough.