Quilting is in my Blood

I was in catch-up mode in February after being gone for 2.5 weeks in January to help out with a family emergency in California and then coming home with a nasty virus that kept me away from all things sewing for another few days. In my #2025QuiltingPlanningParty post, I shared that I had committed to working on the SAHRR 2025 and three block of the month programs:

• Stay at Home Round Robin 2025 hosted by Quilting Gail
• 2025 Murder Mystery Quilt
• Starry Signs Block of the Month 2025
• Frightful Fun Block of the Month 2025

The hardest thing about working on four different large projects is keeping them organized. After I pulled fabric for all of the above projects, I put each of them in an IRIS Portable Project Case. These bins hold a decent amount of fabric plus folders of printed directions/templates. I rotate blocks on my design board and put the completed blocks in a large drawer or hanging from a skirt hanger.

The most fun project so far this year has been making blocks for the Frightful Fun BOM. I love Halloween decor, and it’s going to be delightful to have a new Halloween quilt this year. Below are the blocks I’ve made so far. They are obviously different sizes (witch hat and ghost 18.5″ x 18.5″), RIP 12.5″ x 18.5″, and candies 6.5″ square).

For the Starry Signs BOM, I’m mostly using hoarded fabric from my stash including Tim Holtz’ Eclectic Elements Provisions Indigo for the background and Alison Glass Kaleidoscope fabrics for the constellation stars. I purchased a different cross weave fabric, Artisan Cotton in Blue White for the constellation lines. Below is Capricorn (top) and Aquarius (bottom) each measuring 15.5″ x 12.5″.

I’ve only made one block so far for the Murder Mystery quilt that is set in Machu Picchu because I didn’t have enough different red fabric in my stash for the February block. It shouldn’t take me long to make once the fabric arrives. Here is the first block which measures 18.5″ x 27.5″

Yesterday I finishing making the back for my SAHRR 2025 project and got it sent off for quilting.

Finally I was able to participate in one Project Quilting challenge this month: the Birthstone Challenge.

That’s a wrap for February. I’m adding one unplanned project for March (of course I am!). My best friend, Mary, has purchased two Tree of Life panels and just NEEDS a quilt made with them. I’m trying to keep the layout relatively simple. Let’s see if I succeed!

Emily with The Darling Dogwood gave us our final border prompt assignment. She chose the Kite block. I drafted two different Kite blocks in EQ8 and then got to sewing! I made 8 larger 4″ fussy cut kite blocks using my Joel Dewberry Owls fabric and then 24 smaller kites that used Kona Pickle as the kite, Kona Cyan to define the kites, and my background fabric, Kona Zucchini, to frame the 2″ kites. The quilt top is now 65″ square including the outside Zucchini border. There are four more Owl corner blocks in my final pieced border, but left and right borders are hanging off the bed and don’t show in the photo below.

As a reminder, I saved my four Triangle log cabin blocks from SAHRR 2025: Round 5 to include in this final pieced border. Today I will sew together two large pieces of a Kate Spain Northwoods fabric for the back of the quilt, and I hope to get it sent off to Cara at Sew Colorado Quilting later on today. I’ve corresponded with her, and she’s going to try to get it quilted and returned to me in time for the quilt parade on March 24th.

Linking up to The Darling Dogwood: SAHRR 2025 Round 6.

This is the first Project Quilting challenge that I’ve been able to participate in this year. In January I had to be away for two and a half weeks in California due to a family emergency, and just this past week I felt that I had enough space in my schedule to join a challenge. And it is the perfect challenge for turquoise-loving me: the Birthstone Challenge! I’m a March baby, so I was able to incorporate the aquamarine color along with some turquoises and teals. Earlier this week I drafted a triangle log cabin block for the SAHRR 2025: Round 5, and I liked it so much that I decided to increase the size to a 6″ block for this Birthstone Challenge. I decided to hand-quilt it which was a challenge in itself wielding the needle through two layers of cotton (mostly Kona Oasis) and some 80/20 batting. But I’m very pleased with the overall effect. I then stapled it to an 8 inch blank canvas, and it looks rather hideous, so there’s no photo of the back! But here is the front:

Linking up to Project Quilting 16.4: The Birthstone Challenge. I only finished this one project in February, so it is obviously my favorite finish. I am also linking up to Quilting Jetgirl: Favorite Finish February 2025.

Brenda with Songbird Designs gave us our assignment for the fifth round of this year’s Stay at Home Round Robin. She chose the quarter log cabin block. I thought a different kind of log cabin block would look better in my SAHRR project, so instead I drafted a foundation paper-pieced triangle log cabin block in EQ8.

I only made four of these four-inch finished blocks. They will be centered in my last border, and I will use Emily’s Round Six prompt to fill out the rest of this border along with more owl corner blocks. Emily blogs at The Darling Dogwood. Check out her wonderful interpretation of this year’s SAHRR.

Below is a photo of my SAHRR 2025 project through Round Four (read about it here).

Linking up  to Songbird Designs: SAHRR 2025 Round Five.

Wendy with Pieceful Thoughts gave us our fourth round assignment: Sliced Square with Insert. I chose not to slice a square but instead used 2.5″ x 4.5″ strips of a pretty Joel Dewberry floral print with 1.5″ x 2.5″ side strips of Kona Celestial. It still has the look of an insert. Because this is such a simple block, I was able to add this border to my project and then add the 2.5″ coping strip border in a few hours of sewing.

When I was I working on my quilt top today, I remembered reading about a “magic numbers principle in quilting”. In my project, I am using 1.5″, 2.5″ and 4.5″ measurements. If I chose, 6.5″ strips or blocks would also work, but I don’t want that large of a border! Read more about this concept here.

Currently my quilt top is 53″ square. I am planning to combine Rounds 5 and 6 to keep the size of my finished quilt more manageable.

Linking up to Pieceful Thoughts: SAHRR 2025 Round 4.

Gail with Quilting Gail  gave us our third round prompt which is Stars. As a reminder, I am using Joel Dewberry fabrics that I’ve had in my stash for nine or ten years along with some coordinating solids. The background fabric is Kona Zucchini. So far all my borders have been four inch finished. I opted to make 12 Sawtooth Star blocks and 8 framed fussy cut stars. I used Lee Heinrich’s Perfect Geese templates to make the 48 flying geese (1″ x 2″ finished). They do turn out perfectly which is helpful when working with such small pieces. My project is 41″ square so far.

I can barely contain my curiosity regarding what Wendy has chosen for Round 4 next Monday!

Linking up to Quilting Gail: SAHRR 2025 Round 3.

I was gone a good portion of January due to helping out in California with a family emergency, so I was unable to get the first border done in time to join Kathleen McMusing’s 1st border linky party. Kathleen gave us the options to include a King’s Crown block or a block that starts with our first initial. I opted to make the King’s Crown Version 2 block. These are the four blocks that are centered in the border below. For our second border, Anja chose the ever versatile Half-Square Triangle (HST) block. I decided to make 32 two-inch finished HSTs and placed them in diamond formations which gives a kaleidoscope look. I put these eight Diamond HST blocks in same border as the King’s Crown blocks and then added four Owl Corner blocks. All my borders will be four inch finished (unless of course I change my mind!) and the coping borders are two inches finished. Currently my projects measures 28.5″ square.

Linking up to Anja Quilts: SAHRR 2025 Border 2.

I am joining this year’s Stay at Home Round Robin hosted by Gail at https://quiltinggail.com/

https://quiltinggail.com/

I’ve been having some problems with my laptop, so I’m trying to write this post on my phone and I really don’t know what I’m doing, so please pardon my omissions and/or repetitions.

I’m using some Joel Dewberry fabrics that I’ve had in my stash for nine or ten years along with some coordinating Kona solids.

I look forward to finding out on the 20th what our first border assignment will be.

Happy New Year! I’m so excited to share my first finish of 2025. It’s a mini quilt I’ve wanted to make for a couple years, and I finally had a little chunk of time to devote to it. By mid-December, I had finished my last sewing project of the year and wasn’t feeling inclined to work on any neglected Works in Progress. I also had most of my holiday baking done (my new favorite decadent cookie recipe is the Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies by Ambitious Kitchen). So I decided to start working on a 24″ Color Burst Mini quilt, pattern by Sassafras Lane. The wonderful rainbow colors don’t show up very well in the pic I took on my design board:

It looks wonky as all get out in the photo I took outside on the shed! But the colors in the pic are accurate. I guess we can’t have it all!

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project. Yellow was my most challenging color, and I had to dip into my stash rather than just using scraps. I wish my Orange section blended a little better, but I love the suns at the top of that section, even though a tone-on-tone fabric would have been less prominent. I quilted it simply with grey spokes and then outlined each segment with the closest color of thread from my selection of threads.

My Creative Color Wheel was a helpful tool in selecting fabrics. I’ve taken photos of both sides of it.

Linking up to Quilt Schmilt: To-Do Tuesday and Songbird Designs: Monday Musings.

Edited: This was my only finish in Jan 2025, so it is definitely my favorite! I’m linking up to Quilting Jetgirl: Favorite Finish January 2025.

I’m joining Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs with her Best of 2024 Linky Party. I’ve decided to share five of my favorite quilts I’ve made this year. I can’t resist starting with the T-Rex quilt made for my friend Kristen’s baby boy, Roman. I love how Roman was placed on the quilt below. Read more about this project here.

Here’s another paper pieced baby quilt (details here).

The largest quilt I made this year at 70″ x 80″ is my Rainbow Cheetah. Read more about this large-scale paper-pieced project here.

And much smaller at 15″ x 25″ is my Eiffel Tower wall hanging (details here):

I’ll end with my favorite 2024 color gradient quilt, Ranges, blogged about here.