Quilting is in my Blood

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.

During the last two months I worked on some Christmas ornaments, three Christmas pillows, six FPP trees for a swap, and on my Starry Signs quilt top. I also made a couple blocks for my Alison Glass monthly color challenges.

I used a paper pieced pattern by Easy Piece Patterns to make Tiny pine and fir Christmas ornaments.

I made an 8” FPP Standing Deer with Kristy Lea’s free pattern from the Winter Wonderland FPP QAL and added borders to make it a 16” pillow. Honestly I like Kristy’s Version much better!

Also from the Wonderland FPP QAL, I made two snowflake pillows. Read more information about these pillows Here.

For a quick December swap, we were provided patterns for six different sizes of FPP trees with the instruction to send one to five assigned members and to keep one for ourselves. I kept the smallest tree.

For the Alison Glass bee November monthly color challenge, we were supposed to pick three analogous colors from the color wheel. I chose pink, orange, and yellow and make a gem block from Alison’s Trinket pattern.

And for the December monthly challenge we were encouraged to take inspiration from another Alison Glass bee member. I really liked the diagonal rainbow striped journal cover made by one of the members, so I was inspired to make a diagonal striped rainbow tree.

I finished my Starry Signs quilt top today, December 31st. Overall, I’m happy with it. I will be sending it out to Cara with Sew Colorado Quilting. It’s a twin size quilt, measuring at 68.5” x 88.5” Below are a couple pics I snapped earlier today. I will take a decent photo of it when it is finished.

That’s it for now. In the next week or so, I will be writing a post that recaps my quilting projects in 2025 and shares some 2026 goals. I will be linking up to Quilting Jetgirl’s #2025 Quilting Check In.

Happy New Year!

When I signed up for the free Wonderland FPP QAL hosted by Kristy Lea earlier this month, I fell in love with the snowflake block by Ingrid Alteneder with Joe, June, and Mae. She offered the block in several sizes, and I opted to make the largest size at 12.5” square unfinished. I first made the snowflake with red background and then decided to make another with turquoise background. I added borders to make them 16” square. And I loved how clean and uncluttered they looked, so I decided not to quilt them and just add envelope backings.

I think they look pretty cute behind the North Stars Christmas quilt on my bed (pattern by Elizabeth Hartman).

Linking up with Quilting Jetgirl Favorite Finish December 2025.

I am joining the quarterly check-in hosted by Quilting JetGirl. See my second quarter check-in Here.

I had hoped to experiment with some ruler quilting this past quarter but didn’t progress beyond a bit of practice. My quilting go-to is definitely walking foot quilting, and to be honest, switching my sewing machine feet is generally a pain in the butt. Taking the walking foot off is easy and attaching the ruler (or FMQ) foot isn’t too bad, but putting the walking foot back on can make me cra-cra! So if I know I need to get some binding done in the near future, that walking foot is staying firmly attached!

I should make clear that I am using my new Janome for quilting and binding, and I’m still using my old Brother machine for piecing.

In September I used my walking foot to quilt some potholders made with 2.5” squares using a tutorial by Sherri at A Quilting Life. She has a You Tube video on Bias Binding which I found really useful to bind my potholders with rounded corners which finished at 8.5” and shrank about a half inch after washing and drying. Here’s a photo of one:

Also in September, I finished my Frightful Fun quilt. Read the details Here.

Here is the Virgo block I sewed for my Starry Signs BOM:

For the September monthly color challenge for the Alison Glass Bee, we were asked to sew a block with a light, medium, and dark value of the same color. I made a simple Economy block.

To see what I accomplished in July and August, please read the recaps below:

July 2025 Recap

August 2025 Recap

Fourth Quarter Plans

The focus is to finish up some small Halloween projects and hopefully get my Starry Signs quilt top sewn together. I have a couple other small projects in mind as well, but the last two and a half months of the year promises to be busy, so we’ll see what I get accomplished.

Linking up to #2025QuiltingQ3CheckIn Linky Party.

I have quite the history of signing up for sew-alongs and Block-of-the-Month (BOM) programs and either losing interest or wanting to spend my time on projects that are more joy-producing for me. But I never lost interest in the Halloween BOM designed by Sam Hunter, Leila Gardunia, and Kristy Lea. See the post announcing the BOM Here. The blocks were all well-designed using my favorite piecing method: Foundation Paper Piecing also known as FPP. I was able to personally drop the quilt top and backing off to Cara at Sew Colorado Quilting in Denver as I took a quick trip to Colorado with a friend in early September. It was so wonderful to finally meet Cara in person. Here is a photo she took of Frightful Fun after quilting but before she returned it to me for trimming and binding. The Haunted House was the final block of the BOM, and I had fun fussy cutting small Halloween images to fit in the windows.

The photo below shows the quilt top before I delivered it to Cara. I added two extra blocks not included in the BOM (to be made into pillows) and some Halloween fabric for a runner to also have quilted with the cobweb motif. I cut those extras off before binding it with a favorite Halloween print, Double, Double, Toil and Trouble, available at this Etsy shop.

The finished quilt is good size—68” x 79”. My bestie, Mary, is going to put it on her bed in early October. Below are a couple close-ups that show the cobweb quilting done with medium grey thread.

I will be linking up YvonneQuilting Jetgirl when she opens the linky party for Favorite Finish September 2025.

August has been a productive month. Let’s start with my smallest finish. I’ve been blogging recently about participating in the AG Bee hosted by Alison Glass. This month we had the opportunity to sign up for a mug rug swap. My assigned partner shared that she likes blue and purple colors. A tutorial was provided for a 6.5” x 9.5” mug rug. I really liked the FPP bee hovering above a flower pattern that was provided (but not required), so I decided to make it for the right side of the mug rug. For the left side of the mug rug, I used the bonus ribbon block from Alison Glass’ Trinket pattern. Here’s a pic of the front of the mug rug. I attempted to make the photo somewhat artistic, but the darn grasshoppers have been chomping on my cosmos flowers. The second pic shows a less obscured shot of the front.

And a boring pic of the back:

I made two doll quilts for a couple of girls who are important to my bestie, Mary, and me. I actually call them “Teeny Quilts” because maybe these little girls have some stuffed animals that need to be covered by a quilt. Mary designed both quilts from my bin of 2.5” squares, and the finished teeny quilts measure 16” x 19.5”.

I also finished my On-Point Halloween quilt, blogged Here.

I paper-pieced the second-to-the-last block for the Frightful Fun BOM that I am participating in.

I also made the Leo block for the Starry Signs BOM:

And lastly I made a 8.5” unfinished block for AG Bee Monthly Challenge where we were challenged to use a favorite color in a new or different way. I decided to use a pretty red violet Alison Glass fabric as the background of a white star.

My other August activity was to sell some fabric from my stash at the Fiber Flea Market in Santa Fe on August 23rd. I did quite well with over $750 in sales!

What’s Up in September?

My main focus in September is to finish my Frightful Fun Halloween quilt. The Haunted Mansion block drops on September 1st. I also plan to make the next Starry Signs block and the AG September Color Challenge block. Anything else will be gravy!

I am making two Halloween quilts this year. They are both for my bestie, Mary. Earlier this month I finished the one for her couch which is 54” square. I used the same pattern as the Flora & Fauna quilt I made for my niece last month, blogged Here. I took a couple quick pics this morning. The first one was photobombed by my cat, Weebles. She really wanted to get on it but thankfully couldn’t figure out how. If you enlarge the second photo, you can see the orange Cobweb quilting done by Cara of Sew Colorado Quilting.

I hope to finish my Frightful Fun Halloween quilt top in early September. The pattern for the last block, the Haunted House, will be available on September 1st. Cara will do the long-arm quilting using the same Cobweb quilting pattern in a silvery grey.

Linking up to Quilting Jetgirl: August 2025 Favorite Finish .

I have continued to make progress on both of my Block of the Month quilt projects. Here’s the scaredy cat for the Frightful Fun Halloween BOM:

Here’s Block 7: Cancer for Starry Signs BOM:

I also worked on one of the mountains for the Add-on Mountain Range border for the Starry Signs BOM. See the pattern Here. I’m making the twin size quilt, and this mountain is 46” across.

For the Alison Glass Bee, I have made two 8” Sawtooth blocks for different color prompts. The first one was using the colors in the AG Bee:

The second prompt was to choose a color that we’re generally not drawn to and pair it with a color we like. The color I’m not that drawn to is Avocado Green (I’m still traumatized by Avocado Green kitchen appliances in the 1960s!), and purple is definitely a color I like:

I finished the quilt for my niece, Mary Frances, blogged Here.

I also made the same quilt in Halloween fabrics. I’ve received it back from Cara at Sew Colorado Quilting. I plan to trim and bind it next month.

The other thing I’ve been doing is pulling fabrics from my stash to sell at my quilt guild’s Fiber Flea Market on August 23rd. Believe me I will have plenty of fabric to sell! It’s been fun to see fabric from many of my older projects.

So that’s about it for now. I hope everyone is keeping cool. I love the longer days, but Pumpkin Spice Everything is starting to sound pretty good!