Quilting is in my Blood

Hi everyone. It’s been a busy few months. The most exciting thing that happened was going on a Quilting cruise to Alaska in August through Stitchin’ Heaven. We were on Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas ship which was 14 decks high! I sprang for a balcony cabin, and I am so glad I did as we spent hours on the balcony looking at the ocean. My best friend, Mary, came with me, and when I was in my quilting class learning how to make the Fractical quilt, she enjoyed a variety of activities on the ship including watching a trivia game and taking a class on making cute towel animals.

I made the decision to spend minimal time in the sewing room on the ship. We were in a conference room in the bowels of the ship with no windows, and it wasn’t a place I wanted to spend much time in. There were about 90 quilters in the two classes offered, and I met some delightful people. Some of these quilters spent many hours in the conference room that was open 24 hours a day. One woman who I met finished her Fractical quilt top comprised of 36 blocks. I, on the other hand, finished exactly one block on ship! I did get some other segments sewn together as well, but I prioritized just making sure that I was confident in making the one block with the plan to finish the quilt top at home. And I did! I finished it on Sept 8th and sent it off for quilting to Cara with Sew Colorado Quilting. See a section of my finished Fractical quilt at the top of this post. The instructor was Michael Davison (a very friendly and knowledgeable man), and he designed this quilt using templates, so even though it looks paper pieced, it was traditionally pieced. We did not need to do any cutting for this project as all the templates were laser cut using some gorgeous Tim Holtz fabrics. Even though I would have preferred to have paper pieced this quilt, Michael designed the templates with smart corners which made it easy to match up the laser cut fabric pieces. See a link to the pattern Here.

During the cruise, the ship docked at three ports: Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria Island in Canada. We did excursions at each port. In Juneau, we went whale watching. It was so cool to see so many humpback whales, and several times we saw them do a kind of feeding calling bubble net feeding where they exploded out of the water in a circle, flushing fish for them to eat as well as the flocks of hovering seagulls. Check out this video Here.

In addition to many whale sightings, we saw the cutest sea lions hanging out on a buoy. In Skagway, we took a motor coach to the top of the White Pass Summit where we saw beautiful water falls and learned about the gold mining history. We also walked through the charming downtown area and even found a quilt shop there! In Victoria, we enjoyed walking through their famous gardens.

It really was a trip of a lifetime that lived up to all my expectations!

Now back to the quilting part of this blog post.

The quilt pictured above is my Desert Sunset quilt (my version of the Lake Superior Sunrise quilt) that I finally finished a few days ago. It was not an easy finish. I lost the binding I made for it a few months ago, so had to remake the binding. And I got the quilt bound before my Alaska cruise, but didn’t like the top part of the quilt. I didn’t do a good job with the yellow part of the gradient. See pic below with our elderly cat, Minime.

The original dimensions of the quilt were 74” x 98”. I decided to cut off the top two yellow rows which entailed first removing and discarding the binding, and then I rebound the quilt using the original binding I made months ago that was hiding in my thread bin! Now my Desert Sunset quilt is 74” x 74”. And I like it much better!

What’s Up Next?

In the next few weeks, I’m going to make the Ombré Tree Time quilt pictured above. I’ve had the kit for maybe three years, so its time has come. I’m also going to make some blocks for the Favorite Things runner for my dresser. And lastly, I’d like to work on some small Christmas projects.

I’ve wanted to make a Cleo quilt for a few years in honor of my mother, Cleo, who also was a quilter. The pattern is by Kitchen Table Quilting, and I particularly like her rainbow version. Initially I wanted to make a larger version of the quilt using a color gradation, but I decided to make it baby size (40” x 40”) for a quicker project that could use up some leftover triangles from my Desert Sunset quilt (still not finished, more on that next post). I really like how the large indigo triangles frame the sunset triangles forming both indigo and colorful diamonds.

Rather than quilting this small quilt myself, I opted to send it off to Cara of Sew Colorado Quilting and treat myself to a dragonfly quilting motif I’ve been eyeing for a few years. The quilting thread is Glide Iris, and I love how it looks against the indigo fabric.

That’s about it for now. I have an exciting August ahead of me, and I look forward to sharing it with you all toward the end of the month.

I spent many hours the past two months working on two projects that have been on my Quilty Bucket List for the last two or three years. I worked on my version of the 74” x 98” Lake Superior Sunrise Quilt which I am calling Desert Sunset almost every day in May and the first few days of June, with the goal of paper-piecing three of the the 96 templates on a daily basis which took about two hours each day once I had my fabric cut. I tried to not overthink the design and using print fabrics from my stash, formed a loose sunset gradient from purples in the lower right quadrant to yellows in the upper left quadrant. The overall effect is a kind of a controlled chaos. My best friend, Mary, helped design a number of the templates which was fun for her and gave my brain a bit of a break. Below is a photo of a small section of the quilt top:

After I finished my Desert Sunset quilt top, I decided to use leftover triangles from the project to finally make a small (40” square) Cleo quilt top. I’ve wanted to make a version of this quilt for many years, primarily because my mother’s name was Cleo, and she also was a quilter. Originally I was going to make a full spectrum color gradient Cleo quilt, but I decided instead to use sunset colors (Again!!!) and in order to make it much less chaotic than Desert Sunset, I used indigo fabric for all the large triangles in the pattern.

I have sent both of these quilt tops off to Cara with Sew Colorado Quilting for edge-to-edge quilting. I will get both of these back in July and hope to have them both finished by the end of the month.

April has been a busy month with appointments and some Spring cleaning/organization, but I did get a few quilting-related things done. First and foremost, is finishing the graduation quilt for my friend, Kristen’s son Aidan. I used a Raven, Skull, and Roses paper piecing pattern for this 60” square lap-size quilt. This is absolutely my favorite April finish! I especially love the Driftwood quilting pattern used by Cara with Sew Colorado Quilting.

On the total other end of the quilting complexity spectrum, I made a simple patchwork sewing machine mat in sunset colors.

Finally I made four Mini Square in Square blocks for Many Hands and Many Hearts.

Next month I plan to start working on another sunrise gradient quilt. It is called Lake Superior Sunrise Quilt. I have loved this quilt for a few years now and am looking forward to using color design skills learned from Alison Glass’ Color Camp to bring this beauty to life.

Linking up with Quilting Jetgirl: Favorite Finish April 2026.

One of the things I worked on this past month was finishing up a little stitching project that I started four years ago with the Alison Glass Kantha Sew-Along. There is no batting used for this kind of hand-stitching project. The needle is just pulled through two layers of cloth. It was painful for my hands, so I stopped stitching after I finished the middle two columns below:

Over the last few years, I’ve frequently pulled out this work-in-progress (WIP) and have felt the desire to finish it, which is much more doable now that I’ve had carpal tunnel surgery done on both of my hands. A couple months ago I decided to give it another try, but even with considerably less pain in my hands, it was still difficult to pull Wonderfil Perle Cotton #8 thread through both the layers with several stitches on the needle. I admit to using my teeth on occasion! But then I remembered that I had a pair of Mini pliers with some other tools, and they worked perfectly to pull the needle through. After I completed the stitching, I turned it into a pillow cover with an envelope backing.

The other project I finished this month was my Luminary quilt blogged about Here.

I also finished the quilt top for the graduation quilt that I’m making for my friend, Kristen’s son, Aidan. I’m going to wait to share it sometime in April after I get it back from my long-arm quilter, Cara.

I won’t be starting any major project in April but have a couple of small projects to finish up. I’m participating again in Alison Glass’ Color Camp that starts on April 1st, so I look forward to continuing to learn more about color and how to use it more effectively in future quilt projects.

I am so thrilled to have finished my Luminary Quilt. It is a project that has been on my bucket list for over two years. I decided to trim down the original dimensions of the quilt (42” x 55”) to turn it into a wall hanging over my bed (33” x 50”).

I absolutely enjoyed making this guided improv quilt. I really believe it would not have been nearly as easy to make without the Luminary Workshop to supplement the pattern. I used prints from my stash in a sunset spectrum: purple, red violet, pink, watermelon, orange, gold, and yellow.

I had Cara with Sew Colorado Quilting do the quilting using the Clam Shell Fan quilting motif with Glide Desert Sunset thread. I oriented both the quilt and the quilting to be sunset-esque.

I am linking up with Quilting Jetgirl: Favorite Finish March 2026.

My favorite February finish is my Starry Signs quilt. I got it back from Cara at Sew Colorado Quilting earlier this month after it decided to go on an unauthorized trip to Indiana and then after it arrived in Albuquerque, it took another side trip to San Antonio, Texas! Thankfully, problems with the USPS transporting my quilts are few and far between. I’m thrilled with the finished quilt and will be putting it on the twin bed in the back room.

I also made some pillows to go with this quilt. Below is a quick pic I took of them earlier this week:

I did finish up my Luminary quilt top and sent it off to Cara. I plan to share the finished quilt next month after I get it back from her.

Finally, I made a quilt block that I will use in a Favorite Things table runner. In the block’s center, there are two hockey sticks with a puck to commemorate the gold medal accomplishment of the USA Women’s Hockey team as well as my obsession with Heated Rivalry. I purchased the pattern on Etsy and down-sized it 50%.

Like many women, I enjoy a good romance story, including queer romance. You’d practically have to have lived under a rock not to have heard about the overwhelming popular show, Heated Rivalry, on HBO Max. I watched it in January and was so impressed with the story line, acting, directing, lighting and music that I started listening to a variety of podcasts about the show. I particularly enjoyed the Empty Netters hockey podcast, hosted by two straight brothers, Dan and Chris Powers. They both loved the show along with a guest host, Shaun, whose Irish accent was a delight. For people who might prefer a less spicy queer romance, I totally recommend Heartstopper on Netflix. I’ve also listened to my fair share of Heartstopper podcasts 😁.

Coincidentally, Kim Lapacek with Project Quilting made a I’m Coming to the Cottage quilt using the same pattern. I love her free-motion quilted words on this quilt highlighting some of the show’s most memorable quotes.

That’s it for February. Next month I hope to share about a quilt I’m making for the son of my friend, Kristen, who will be graduating from high school in May.

Linking up to Quilting Jetgirl: Favorite Finish February 2026.

I can’t believe that we are 1/12 of the way through 2026! Life just zooms by these days. I worked on a few different projects this past month. My favorite finish is a puffin pillow that I made for my friend, Laura. We’ve talked about going on a trip to see puffins one day, so when I saw This pattern for a puffin block, I knew that I wanted to make a puffin pillow for her for her birthday. Laura took a pic of it with the January issue of Audubon featuring an article on puffins.

I participated in the Project Quilting’s Clean Slate challenge earlier this month. Read about it Here.

I made some donation blocks for the current block drive by Cynthia with Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.

I finally started working on my Luminary quilt. Below are the diamonds for the project (minus one that I didn’t notice had fallen on the floor):

Linking up to Quilting Jetgirl: Favorite Finish January 2026.

Over the past few years, I have come to really look forward to seeing the new quilting challenges dreamt up by Project Quilting starting in January of each year. Last year I participated in two of their challenges, and the Birthstone Challenge inspired me to create one of my favorite 2025 projects. Last Sunday when the first challenge of the 17th Season of Project Quilting was made public, I was immediately intrigued by the Clean Slate prompt. Though I shy away from New Year’s resolutions, I always love the opportunity to refocus at the start of each year. The deal clincher for me were two questions posed by Trish:

“When everything’s not yelling, what do you notice has been whispering for you to listen? How about you make that?”

Since I was between projects, I had the opportunity to think about the prompt for awhile, not feeling obligated to participate but instead during my favorite quiet morning hours on Monday, I thought about a theme for 2026 and came up with the word, Explore. I will be literally exploring a new part of the world to me in August when I take a Quilting Cruise to Alaska. I also appreciate internal exploration through journaling. And of course I want to continue to expand my creativity with color.

I had FPP templates on my computer purchased From Blank Pages for 3” letters and numbers. I decided to create a mini banner to hang above the doorway into the back room. I used a grey cross-weave fabric for background and colorful scraps for the letters and numbers. The mini quilt finishes at 3.5” x 22”.

Linking up to PQ 17.1 Clean Slate.

Yvonne with Quilting Jetgirl has hosted quarterly/yearly quilting goal-related linky parties for many years, and I have participated in many of them. It’s been so useful to me to reflect back on the quarter/year and see what I had hoped to accomplish. I don’t think I have ever checked every single goal off my list (certainly this is true of my 2025 Goals). I have often switched priorities midway through especially if some new project caught my eye. I have also enjoyed the thinking/planning/dreaming about future quilting projects and setting some specific goals for the coming year. This will be the last check-in linky party that Yvonne is planning to host as interest has waned in last few years. I suspect that is primarily due to most quilters posting on Instagram rather than on blog posts. While I do have an Instagram account, it’s never been a good fit for me. I prefer blogging on an occasional basis. So I will probably continue to do monthly or semi-monthly recaps along with a yearly review. My thanks goes out to Yvonne for all the work she has put into hosting numerous linky parties as well as her being a quilting mentor to me since 2015.

On January 1, 2026, Jamie Bright who is the pattern designer for the Luminary Quilt, sent out an email entitled, 5 Questions Every Quilter Should Ask Themselves in the New Year. They are copied and pasted below with my responses:

1. Looking back at last year, what parts of quilting brought you the most joy? 

I absolutely loved being part of Alison Glass’ Color Camp, and I’ve also enjoyed being part of her AG Bee. She is exceptionally talented, and she has been my guru as far as working with full and partial spectrums of the color wheel. I designed this 24” square mini quilt using a favorite analogous color scheme contrasted with a complimentary indigo background fabric. It was so much fun making the scrappy half-rectangles using Leila Gardunia’s Templates. I haven’t quilted it yet but hope to do so in the coming year.

 2. What unfinished projects/works-in-progress no longer bring you joy that you need to leave in the past and release? 

I think I’ve already released the projects that no longer bring me joy. The biggest one in 2025 was the murder mystery block-of-the-month program that ended up not being a good fit for me. But I did make two blocks from this BOM that I hope to turn into mini quilts this year:

 3. What new quilts or fabrics have been speaking to you lately that you want to do this year? 

The top two projects that I want to make are a Luminary quilt to go above my bed oriented like a sunrise and a Cozy quilt. I have plenty other projects on my 2026 list that will be satisfying to make including a high school graduation quilt for my friend, Kristen’s son, Aidan. I’ll be using this Raven, Skull, and Roses FPP pattern for the center of the quilt with more background fabric added to make the quilt approximately 60” square. I also want to appliqué the beautiful Cheetah scarf made for me by my longtime friend, Kelly, (see image at the top of this post) onto a plain grey background and turn it into a wall hanging that I can enjoy looking at every day.

4. How do you want to grow as a quilter this year? 

I want to increase my paper piecing design skills by making more progress with the Quilt All the Things Foundation Paper Piecing Design Class. I also hope to increase my free motion quilting and ruler quilting skills.

5. Imagine you are your wisest, kindest, and truest self and are nearing the end of your life. What would you say to your current self about your quilting and about your current life situation?

I would say, “Continue to enjoy quilting, but remember to also make exercise, healthy cooking/eating, traveling, and spending time with quality people priorities in my life as well.”

Linking up to Quilting Jetgirls’ #2025 Quilting CheckIn Linky Party.