2026 OneThing #7 - Fix and Sell or Donate Cowboy Picture

One of my father-in-law's pictures was this interesting looking cowboy on a bucking horse in a rough wooden frame. The pieces that hold the backing on to the frame had all fallen off, so it stayed at our house when I got rid of other artwork. 

 

I knew I had a busy week coming up, so I set this as one small thing I could do to get something out of our basement.

Of course, that didn't work out! I did a little research on the artist Frederic Remington. I had hoped maybe this would be worth some money, but I was pretty sure it's just a print. It's also a bit water damaged. So it's just a question of putting it together and giving it away, right?

 

(BTW, it's called A "Sun Fisher" and was painted in 1895. It's a lithograph in a private collection. This is just a print.)

When I went to clean the glass, I noticed that the frame was a little shaky. One joint seemed to be coming apart. My husband is willing to repair it . . . but needs new wood glue. (Our bottles of it have congealed.) It is not a "today" thing, so I will have to be content with it being in progress instead of DONE.

I told him that although I think it's a neat looking piece of art, I would love to give it to his sister who actually has horses. And who might appreciate the connection to their dad (and possibly Aunt Barbara?) because we think it might have come from her place in Arizona. But honestly, if he wants to keep it and display it, that's fine with me.

So this One Thing isn't finished, but it's toward the top of the queue. I had a good week, but it was pretty busy. I'll have to choose carefully for next week's OneThing and see if it's something I can actually get done! 

 

(BTW, last week's dog bed is sitting around, waiting to be donated. That's also not a today thing.)

2026 OneThing #6 Sew Dog Bed to Donate

I use a "bag" made of flannel sheet to line a basket in my sewing room. Any random small scraps, threads, batting, etc. get tossed in there. It has taken a few years, but I've filled it up. (Actually, I think it has been several years. It has definitely been since pre-Covid that I filled one.)

I sewed it shut with my serger then decided to make a sturdy outer bag with a zipper. It's not very elegant, but I hope to donate it next weekend at a pet adoption event. 

 

 

 

This is my "new" scrap collection container.

 

 

 

 

This is the full bag, ready for me to stitch closed.

 

 

 

 

This is the finished bag and the stuffed bag, ready to be put together.

Titus didn't climb onto the finished bed, which surprised me. But he "posed" with it for scale.

That gets some stuff out of my sewing space. Now I just need to donate it (along with some gently used toys Titus doesn't really care for.) Getting rid of things! That's my game.

OneThing #5 - Rough Drafts of Estate Documents

Making wills has been on my list for almost twenty years! I got a wonderful book from the library about a decade ago - Quicken's WillMaker - and made a will for myself. But I feel as though this is something Louie and I need to talk about and decide on together. We said we would do it by Thanksgiving 2025, but had attended a session on wills vs. trusts and weren't sure which route was a better choice for us. After meeting with a legal guy (free advice), and some conversations with others, we have decided to make wills rather than create a trust.

But that's where we stopped. I brought various papers and a book with me to help with the process (up at the lake) to finally draft our wills. I already have a health care directive, but Louie does not. When I tried to get him to have a conversation about this, we had some words. I finally said that this is very important to me and I can go ahead with my own will and my own health care directive (which is already done, but I can review and revise it, then make sure Alex has a copy as well as my doctor's office). 

He conceded that if we were to die together in a car accident, we would leave a terrible mess for our kids and the state of Minnesota would get to decide how to disburse our assets. Theoretically, we will select a DIY option this upcoming Thursday and proceed with creating our wills. Once we have the documents, we will get them notarized and give copies to relevant people. 

I'm going to call this OneThing done-ish. 

 

Technically, I have my rough draft will (from more than a decade ago) and my HCD. 

 

Sigh. This has been a tough one for me to make progress on . . .  

 

This book is one that I've had for a long time but have not read completely or recently. Might be time to put it on top of the reading list.

And pray that we have a successful conversation on Thursday!

OneThing #4 - Make Binding for QFO quilt

I'm so glad I set this as the goal! I want to spend more time in my beautiful studio and this was manageable. I picked up a quilt and the binding fabric when I was at the MQ quilting retreat a few weeks ago. 

I pieced together enough pieces to make 324"+ and pressed it in half. I used quilting clips to attach it to the quilt to make sure I had enough. Done. 

 

I thought about stitching it on, but decided to go with a "OneThing" done. Boom.

 

The fabric in the middle is what is left of what I got from MQ.

2026 OneThing #3 - Downsize Boxes of Books 2 to 1

I actually started with "Read & Pack Away 2025 Christmas Cards," but I just did it on Sunday afternoon last week, so I picked this one.

Louie had gotten two boxes of books out of the garage attic and I thought it would be easy to downsize them. It wasn't. I love books and I love to read! But I made this my goal and I don't read as many hours a week as I used to (and I get things from the library often). To read every book in my house would take a really, really long time.

So I took books out and put them in piles: ones I really want to read, ones I want to read but may watch the movie instead, ones I want to read but if they're still sitting around in two years I can donate, and a few that I definitely wanted to keep so I removed books from my bookshelf to donate instead.

Here's what I had to bring to Half Price Books:

Some of these books are ones I had on my bookshelf when I taught English in the 1990s. Others were ones I had rescued from library weedings. Some I don't even know where they came from but I just don't need to keep every book I've ever encountered!

After I was done with that, Louie brought a third box down from the attic rafters. I may need to get really vicious about what I keep and what goes. Last night, I offered my son and grandsons first pick on Captain Underpants and similar type books and Great Illustrated Classics. There are still plenty left. I plan to finish box #3 and perhaps remove some more from my bookshelves. I have a lot of books!

Louie retrieved three or four books from my box of rejects. Bird books and SciFi / fantasy still call to him. I also have three stacks of books for other people in my life to consider.

I helped a friend last week and got two bags of books from her to donate to Half Price Books. Between those and my box, I got about $32 and quite a few books they wouldn't take! 

 

I'll probably drop the rest off at a Better World Books dropbox. I had thought about putting them in Little Free Libraries, but there are too many to get rid of.

2026 OneThing #2 - Prepare for and Enjoy the January Quilt Retreat / Be a Blessing!

It made sense to focus on this since I only planned to be home for Sunday through Wednesday morning. I had a great time at the quilt retreat and I hope I was a blessing to others. It was my first time hosting and Ann was my co-host. We had a good time and I think we did a fairly good job. There were only 18 quilters including us, so perhaps fewer people made it go easier. (Typically, there is room for 24 plus two co-hosts. And typically there is at least one person who is a bit of an irritant.)

I got a lot done on Morgan's and Angela's wedding quilt (I hope to finish it for their tenth anniversary this October), I made a pair of pants (that don't fit me but at least I learned how to follow the pattern), and I made a few gift bags. (I had already serged the bags at home, but added corners to a few and finished the handles / tops on all.)

 

KSTP's Joe Mason and his camera guy Jason were there to interview Merle about Quilting for Others. It was unexpected to me! The "So Minnesota" episode will air in about a month.

 Below are some pictures of other people's projects. 

 

2026 OneThing #1 - Finish Sorting Lou's Papers

I am going to say that this goal is both Achieved! and also In Progress . . . But let me explain.

When my father-in-law lived with us from March 2013 - September 2017, he eventually moved to an apartment in Northfield. He left behind twelve boxes of papers, which I spent a lot of time sorting through. Some papers were shredded, some recycled, some saved for family history / posterity. Records from Asbury United Methodist Church (now Living Spirit), including employees' full data with social security numbers - I brought to the church office. 

Then my sister-in-law emptied her Maple Grove home to move up north and I agreed to take the seven boxes of items she had from her parent's home - mostly photos, yearbooks, cards, etc. I sorted through enough of it to get it down to four boxes which are still sitting in my basement.

Then in August of 2025, we moved Lou into assisted living and his wife into a different apartment. Because his wife will throw out anything she doesn't personally see a need for, I tried to grab all Lou's stuff on his behalf. Then he died on October 3, and all his worldly goods came to us.

Here's what my basement looked like shortly after his death:

There were several boxes on the far side of the pool table. There was a lot of clothing; that and his furniture were the first things I tackled for donation.

I had put some things out in the living room on the day of the funeral for people to choose what they wanted. It was sweet to see how almost everyone selected a shirt of his to keep for themselves.

Now I've made a lot of progress and here's what the pool table looks like:

A lot of the stuff on (and under) the pool table is mine, but the white bins have files of papers for the Mohrs and LaMoores. I have done an initial sort through all Lou's papers (and there were a lot of them!). I am fascinated by some of the historical and personal items. It will take longer to completely finish this, but I feel good about the progress made. I didn't take a picture of the white table because more than 40% of the stuff currently on it will go to family members at Leech Lake this weekend. (I'm setting this to publish shortly after midnight on 1/11/2026.)

I also have a card table full of various office supplies. I anticipate that it will be empty within less than two weeks. I have a quilt retreat next week, so my basement will probably not change much for a while.