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.

My favorite December finish was turning an old needlepoint that my mother made, probably in the 1980s, into a pillow for my niece, Mary Frances. First I dry blocked the needlepoint to even it out using this tutorial from Purl Soho.

I decided to give the pillow a more finished look by adding piping and used this tutorial from Joe, June, and Mae. My borders are more narrow than suggested in the tutorial. I was hoping that a 16″ square pillow form would work, but it is not as filled out as I wanted it to be (see photo below). I had a 17″ square pillow form sent to my niece, and I sent the finished pillow cover separately. She has received both in the mail and is going to try to wait until Christmas to see the finished pillow cover and put in on the pillow form. That’s her choice. I would’ve been fine with her ripping open the package upon receipt!

Linking up to Quilting Jetgirl: Favorite Finish December 2024.

I am joining the #2025QuiltingPlanningParty hosted by Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl. Like many quilt bloggers, a main motivation for blogging about my quilting has been to have an ongoing journal about my quilting journey. At this time of year I like to take the opportunity to revisit my goals for the year and to refine my goals for the coming year. I wrote three posts about progress with my 2024 quilting goals: #2024QuiltingQ1CheckIn, #2024QuiltingQ2CheckIn, and #2024QuiltingQ3CheckIn.

For the last quarter of 2024, I focused a lot on Christmas projects, some of which I blogged about here. I also finished the Red Sashiko Christmas Tree shown above which I started two years ago and finished this month by adding the free-form trunk and then stapled it to a 10″ square blank canvas. I’m not sure where I bought this pattern, but I think it was from BeBe Bold. I also made some Nativity blocks (pattern by Burlap and Blossom Patterns). Below is one that I finished in an 8″ x 8″ frame.

I also redid the binding on a quilt my mom made for my niece in the 1980s (see post here) and wrote a post about my Ten Years of Quilting.

2025 Quilting Goals

I have 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

These are some other projects that I may work on in 2025 or in future years:

• Aurora by Bryan House Quilts (I actually want to use the layout of this quilt for a wall hanging).
• Seaglass and Fussy T-Shirt quilts by Exhausted Octopus
• Effervescence Quilt by Quilting Jetgirl
• Signal Trace by Quilting Jetgirl
• Cleo and Modern Postage Stamp quilts by Kitchen Table Quilting
• Luminary by Craft a Dream
• Star Shower (modified) by Mashe Modern and Maeberry Square
• Butterfly Effect EPP Eclipse by Lillyella (scroll down to see the Eclipse version with the black background–I purchased this kit three years ago).
• Ombre Tree Time by V and Co.
• Color Burst Mini Quilt by SassaFras Lane
• All Star Quilt by Giuseppe Ribaudo (@giucy_giuce on Instagram)
• Online FPP Design class with Quilt All the Things

I also hope to participate in at least one Project Quilting challenge this coming year.

 Linking up to .#2025QuiltingPlanningParty

I’ve spent the last two months working on several Christmas quilts, and I have several finished quilts/runners to share with you. Cara with Sew Colorado Quilting did almost all of the quilting on these Christmas projects, and she did a wonderful job. The only project that I quilted was the runner to go under my sewing machine. The pics below taken on the grey down comforter on my bed are definitely not my best photos. It was cold yesterday. My back was tight, and I didn’t feel that it was safe to photograph using the curtain rod on my shed as that involves getting up on my step stool with very little to hang onto. So I figured it was better to have mediocre photos and no injury!

Gingiber Merrily Quilts

Awhile back my friend, Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts, sent me some Gingiber Merrily fabric and panels that she decided she probably wouldn’t use. I’m a sucker for Stacie Bloomfield’s animals, so I was happy to be the recipient of her generosity. For my friend, Kristen, and her three children, I made a lap size Merrily quilt measuring 60.5″ x 66 “that they can snuggle under this holiday season. This is the second Merrily quilt I’ve made. It’s such a fun and cheerful pattern. I used the fabric that Wendy sent me for the adorable inhabitants of the Merrily houses with the background fabric of Moda Sweetfire Road Once Upon Christmas Snowfall Snow White (which is really more cream than white). I used Gingiber Merrily fabric left in my stash for the houses and logs as well as the binding. Cara used Glide Linen thread for this quilt.

And I used the panels for the back of the quilt along with the background fabric used for the front of the quilt and another snowflake fabric from Backside Fabrics called Snowflake by Whistler Studios Light Gray. The thread is Glide Bone. I like the back of the quilt almost as much as the front of the quilt.

For my November 2024 Favorite Finish, I have chosen the tablecloth I made to go on our small kitchen table using these same fabrics except the binding is Moda Sweetfire Road Once Upon Christmas Snowfall in Red. The quilt measures 47.5″ x 48.5″ , and the thread is Glide Bone. I splurged on bamboo batting to help the quilted tablecloth drape nicely. Here’s a pic of the front.

And here’s a pic of the back where I used a sweet manger panel that I bought a few years ago along with a brown snowflake fabric from my stash.

Illuminations Quilts

I made a lap size Randolph & Rudy quilt to compliment the Awesome Sky Christmas quilt I made for my best friend, Mary, in non-traditional Christmas colors using Illuminations fabric. I accidentally purchased both a PDF and a paper copy of this adorable Elizabeth Hartman pattern and gave away the paper pattern in a giveaway to celebrate my Ten Years of Quilting. 

The back of the quilt was also made from two Illumination fabrics. 

I also made a runner with these Illuminations fabrics. I used tree foundation paper piecing patterns from Quiet Play. The runner measures 20″ x 60″.

I used this cute Illuminations polar bear fabric for the back of the runner.

SAHRR 2024

I really enjoyed participating in the Stay at Home Round Robin 2024 at the beginning of this year. I made a 32.5″ x 55.5″ quilt to go on top of my pressing table when I’m not using it. Read more about this project here. Below is a pic of the front of the quilt:

And here’s a close-up of the back of the quilt that shows off the different snowflakes in the pretty Ruby Glide thread.

Tell Me A Story Holiday Swap

In August I participated in a hosted  Tell Me A Story Holiday Block Swap hosted by Amy Friend of During Quiet Time. I used 11 of the blocks I received for a runner to go under my sewing machine and supplemented with 10 Tell Me A Story Christmas Transitions blocks. My favorite blocks are the New Mexico and Oregon blocks on the left side of the runner made by my cousin, McKenzie who posts on Instagram as @bogeyandbobbins.

Linking up to Quilting Jetgirl: Favorite Finish November 2024.

I recently found out about a Hurricane Block-A-Thon to support a fellow quilter, Lea Louise, whose house was split in half by Hurricane Helene. I purchased the pattern from The Fabric Hut for $10, with the proceeds going directly to Lea Louise. I made two nine-inch blocks using this simple pattern with the required white fabric and two complimentary fabrics. They sewed up quickly. The Fabric Hut is accepting blocks that are mailed by 10/31/24, so there is still an opportunity to whip up a block or two. The pattern can be found here. Below are the two blocks I made:

Many of you have entered the giveaway that I shared about in my Ten Years of Quilting post (a paper copy of Elizabeth Hartman’s Randolph & Rudy quilt pattern). The giveaway closed midnight MST on Sunday, October 27th, and the winner is Linda of Texas Quilt Gal. Congrats Linda!!!

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

I just finished sewing a runner made from Illuminations fabrics–the same fabrics I used for my Awesome Sky quilt and Randolph & Rudy (not yet blogged about). I used tree foundation paper piecing patterns from Quiet Play. The runner measures 20″ x 60″. I’m waiting for some cute Illuminations polar bear fabric for the back of the runner.

Many of you have entered the giveaway that I shared about last week (a paper copy of Elizabeth Hartman’s Randolph & Rudy quilt pattern). The giveaway closes midnight MST on Sunday, October 27th. If you haven’t already entered and are interested in possibly being the giveaway winner, see my Ten Years of Quilting post here.

I normally only link up to one or two linky parties when I write a post, but I’d like to give a lot of quilters the opportunity to enter my giveaway, so I contacted Rebecca Grace to ask her if I could copy her linky party list, and she generously gave me permission to do so.

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs  

TUESDAY

To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt  

WEDNESDAY

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

THURSDAY

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

FRIDAY

Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty

 TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday

SUNDAY

Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

On 10/25/24, I’m going to link up to the Monthly Favorite Finish linky party hosted by Quilting Jetgirl.

I was bitten by the quilting bug ten years ago. Five years ago, I wrote a post about my first five years of quilting. If anyone is interested, I have linked it here. I also shared about my quilting mentors in the Quilty Inspiration post I wrote in 2019. Sometime, hopefully before the end of the year, I’d like to write a More Quilty Inspiration post.

I’ve decided to share a number of my favorite projects over the years, sometimes with rather creative titles, and they are not in any particular order. This is definitely one of my longer posts, and quite frankly, not everyone will want to read it from start to finish. But I am going to have to have a give-away, so feel free to scroll to the end of this post to see if you are interested in entering the random drawing.

Newest FPP Projects

I’m going to start with my favorite finishes of October: my Eiffel Tower “spookified” with two bats made from Sarah Ruiz’ Batty Block free this month by commenting on her post here). Read a little about my trip to Paris and London here.

Quilt I Most Want to Remake

I really like the color gradient Ranges quilt I made for my great nephew, John, and I’m sure none of my friends and blog readers will be surprised if I end up making a version of this quilt to keep. See details about John’s quilt here.

The Only Quilt I’ve Entered into a Quilt Show (Spoiler: it wasn’t accepted)

My Mid Century Modern quilt is one that I’m very proud of and was thrilled to give it to my friend, James, for his 50th birthday. It looks amazing hanging on his wall above the loveseat with those modern looking pillows. Read about this labor of love here .

Temperature Quilts

I made three temperature quilts in 2022. This is hands-down the quilting project that required the most persistence. Read about it here.

Favorite Donation Quilt

For the past several years, I have donated at least one quilt yearly to a worthy cause. I’ve made three “Mercyful” quilts for patients in the hospice program at Mercy Hospital in Sacramento, California. Read about my most recent donation here.

Favorite Halloween Project

My favorite Halloween project is the Rotation Halloween quilt that I made last year, but I’m also quite partial to the Sugar Skull pillow I made this year. Read about both of these projects here and here.

Favorite Quilt with Curved Piecing

I made this quilt for my friend, Karla, when she achieved her long-time goal of getting a doctorate degree. She may have even celebrated with a drink from the bar next to her in the photo below showing her holding her quilt! Read more about the quilt here .

Favorite Comfort Quilt

This was the most heart-breaking quilt I’ve ever made. Read about it here.

Favorite Baby Quilt

Thankfully we quilters often have the opportunity to celebrate life. Below is a recent baby quilt I made. See the post about it here.

Favorite Paper-Pieced Mini

I am very fond of this paper-pieced Fairy Wren. Read about it here.

Favorite Large Scale FPP quilt

About three years ago, I started the large-scale paper piecing of Violet Craft’s Wolf Pattern. I made this quilt for my friend, Laura, pictured below with her cat and dog. I just love Laura’s smile in this photo! Read more about this quilt here.

Favorite QuiltCon Purchase

I absolutely love to talk about my Rainbow Cheetah below, but first I want to mention the photo of the sticker at the top of this post that was included in the give-away bag at QuiltCon 2023 in Raleigh, NC. The words, “Practice Makes Progress” totally resonate with me. The stickers were provided by HollyAnne of String & Story. Someday I’d like to take her online FMQ Quilting Rockstar class. Now back to my Rainbow Cheetah quilt. I bought the pattern directly from Violet when I had the opportunity to attend QuiltCon 2023. I fell HARD for the pattern when I saw the quilt hanging in her booth. Read about it here.

Favorite Placemats

I’ve made many sets of placemats over the past ten years. Before I made the placemats for my niece pictured below, the Reel Time Placemats I made in 2017  for my sister (my niece’s mom) were my favorite. But I think the herringbone placemats that I made for Mary Frances have taken over that place of honor, LOL. Read about them here.

Favorite Ombré Quilt

I absolutely love ombré fabric, and this Ombré Lotus pattern perfectly showcased Ombré Bloom fabric by V and Co. for Moda. Read more about this favorite project here.

Favorite Color Gradient Project

Erica with Kitchen Table Quilting is a very talented quilt designer. I am particularly partial to her color gradient/rainbow versions of her patterns (and I plan to make more of her quilts next year). Erica generously provided the color guide for her Sunrise version of her Katie quilt. See two posts I wrote about this project here and here.

Favorite Sew-Along

In 2021, I did a Blakely family sew-along with my Aunt Lois, her daughter Sally, and her granddaughter, McKenzie, and McKenzie’s son, Vincent, who was 11 at the time. Read more about this sew-along here and here. The first photo below shows me with McKenzie and Sally when with our Blakely quilts when I visited in June 2023. The second photo shows from left to right: Vincent, McKenzie, Sally, and Aunt Lois.

Favorite Sashiko Project

I’ve made a number of Sashiko projects over the past few years, but I absolutely love the pouch below. Read more about it here.

Favorite Round Robin-Inspired Quilt

I have enjoyed participating in the Stay at Home Round Robins (SAHRR) for the past few years, and I really liked how the quilt turned out that I made for my stepson, Drew, which featured his Boston Terrier dog, Sushi. Read this post here for more details.

Favorite Hometown Hero

I made a donation quilt in 2021, through Hands2Help, and I opted to give the quilt I made to my hometown hero, Kathy. Two years ago she moved back to Oklahoma, and I had a lovely visit with her earlier this month. If you’ve never been to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, I highly recommend a visit there. Kathy hung the quilt I gave her three years ago in her living room, and I love how it looks above her television. For more info about this quilt and Hands2Help, please see this post here.

Favorite Christmas Project

I love my sister-in-law, Sharon’s smile below as she is holding the North Christmas quilt I made for her and my brother, Bill. The Christmas fabrics are subtle enough that they keep it out year-round. Read more about it here. On a side note, Sharon is having major health issues, and I will be going to California to help her and Bill who will be having another hip replacement surgery the latter part of this month/early November. I share this to encourage you all to treasure your loved ones and to make them a priority because things can change quickly.

Favorite Camping Quilt

I’ve made several camping quilts over the last few years because some of my favorite adventures with my family have been during camping trips. Last year I finally made one for me. The pic below was taken outside of Arches National Park last year in October. Read more about this project here.

Favorite Quilt Apparel

I’ve wanted to add a quilt block to a sweatshirt for awhile, and in April I appliqued this lovely hummingbird, pattern from Liza Taylor, now available in her newly published book, Wonderful World of Paper-Pieced Quilt Blocks

Favorite Challenge Quilt

I just started participating in Project Quilting challenges this year, and they were so much fun. Read about this hourglass mini here.

Favorite Collaboration with a Long-Arm Quilter

Rebecca Grace did the long-arm quilting for me for many of my quilts over the past few years. She is super talented, and she is now using her skills and knowledge at a local quilt shop where she can leave the projects behind and go home and actually have a personal life. I absolutely love the Celestial Spark Clam quilting she did on the Lumen quilt I made in 2022. Read more info about this project here and here.

Looking Ahead

There are several projects that have peaked my interest. I probably won’t work on any of them until 2025. Not in any particular order, they are listed below:

• Aurora by Bryan House Quilts
• Seaglass and Fussy T-Shirt quilts by Exhausted Octopus
• Signal Trace by Quilting Jetgirl
• Cleo and Modern Postage Stamp quilts by Kitchen Table Quilting
• Luminary by Craft a Dream
• Star Shower (modified) by Mashe Modern and Maeberry Square
• Butterfly Effect EPP Eclipse by Lillyella (scroll down to see the Eclipse version with the black background–I purchased this kit three years ago).
• Halloween 2025 BOM by Hunter Design Studio, Leila Gardunia, and Quiet Play
• Ombre Tree Time by V and Co.
• Online FPP Design class with Quilt All the Things

Give-Away

I’m going to be giving away a paper copy of Elizabeth Hartman’s Randolph & Rudy pattern because I accidentally bought the paper pattern along with the PDF, and I’m hoping one of you might want to make this adorable quilt. I made the small quilt that includes three deer and three bears that I will share in a future post. If you are interested in being entered into this random drawing, please leave a comment that includes your first name and make sure you’ve entered your email address when you leave a comment. This give away will be open through midnight MST on 10/27/24. That will give me a chance to link up to several quilting linky parties. International entries are welcome!

I normally only link up to one or two linky parties when I write a post, but I’d like to give a lot of quilters the opportunity to enter my giveaway, so I contacted Rebecca Grace to ask her if I could copy her linky party list, and she generously gave me permission to do so.

MONDAY

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs  

TUESDAY

To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt  

WEDNESDAY

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

THURSDAY

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

FRIDAY

Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty

 TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday

SUNDAY

Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

At the end of the month, I will be linking up to the Monthly Favorite Finish linky party hosted by Quilting Jetgirl.

I had the wonderful opportunity to go to London and Paris, four nights in each city, in August. Before I even left for my trip, I had the Eiffel Tower pattern by Joe, June, and Mae printed up and ready to sew because I knew making an Eiffel Tower wall hanging would be such a special memento of this trip of a lifetime. The wall hanging is 15″ x 25″, which is something that I would typically quilt myself doing some form of straight line or wavy quilting or possibly stitch-in-the-ditch. But I wanted the quilting to be more intricate, so I decided to send the quilt top off for quilting, and the Diamond Loops quilting done by Cara at Sew Colorado Quilting did not disappoint. I really like how the curved sideways diamonds mimic the cross-hatched diamonds in the tower and how the diagonal lines complement the supports of the tower. The background fabric is Cosmic Grunge, and it looks very sky-like with a few wispy clouds.