Rhapsody in Blue

The quilt has been rolled again but I took pictures first. The quilting doesn't look very different from last week but progress was made.

Here is the quilting from the left to the right.

I'm taking 10 days off blogging. I'll be back Wednesday the 21st with more to show you.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts,  Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday

First Flimsy Finish of '26

Here is the first flimsy finish of 2026, the 2025 Laundry Basket Mystery quilt which has been renamed Tennessee by the designer, Edyta Sitar.

If you remember, I had made a start with this quilt in September and kept up for several rounds until I decided I didn't like the fabrics I was using.

I started over again in late November using other fabrics that had also been purchased for another quilt that didn't happen. I showed you that in another post.

Now the flimsy is completely finished and has been delivered to the long arm quilter.

Here are multiple picture in various displays for you to peruse. 

This was a fun quilt to make, it actually sewed together fairly quickly. The blocks all finish at 6" and there are a lot of them but making a round at a time didn't seem to take that long.

The outside gray border is the same background fabric used in the chain 'round'. The binding is a striped light blue fabric. I had thought about using it for the outside border but didn't think it would look right so I went with the gray.

Here is a picture on the display floor in the sewing studio. 

And another picture with the flimsy displayed on our king sized bed.

I made a change to the pattern. The outside pieced border has a light background triangle in the block. You are supposed to use the same block in the corner but I didn't think the light triangle looked right, at least I didn't like it.

Anyway this is what I came up with.

The lighter blue square doesn't look quite right since it's not centered in the corner but I didn't want to spend the time figuring out how to make that change. I still think this is better than having a light triangle in the corner. Here is a link to the Tennessee pattern, look at the corner and see the light triangle, what do you think?

My flimsy measures 98" square. In the online sew-along, Edyta had an option to add applique to the outside border. The appliques she had were coordinated to match the fabrics she is selling. I already have an applique project in progress and I was ready to be finished with this quilt.

After finishing the flimsy, there are all the scraps left from cutting the pieces. I was so tempted to just set those aside and start on the next quilt but we all know what happens when we do that. Instead I sorted them into piles and cut the smaller pieces into usable sizes and put larger pieces into their appropriate box. It really didn't take very long to cut into smaller pieces and now the cutting table is clean! Hopefully I'll keep that practice up throughout 2026.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Rhapsody in Blue

A lot of quilting happened last week since section six of Stonefields is finished. I need to get prepping on section seven.

Again I've take picture along the edge of the quilt, not close ups. I don't get shadows this way.

This is the left side of the quilt. The quilting is beyond the applique in the corner so the stitching goes faster than when I need to stitch in the ditch around the applique.

The next section is the center applique. This is actually the top part of the applique. You can see the curved triangle background quilting. 

Stitching diagonally through the little white squares makes the blue blocks slightly puff up. It looks so nice and the texture feels wonderful. Unfortunately you  can't see that detail in pictures.

The last picture is the right side of the quilt. I've always liked the stencil I'm using for the outside borders but it is a wider stencil and doesn't work with a lot of quilts.

I've lost track of how many more inches to quilt but I will be reaching the center of the quilt in a couple of weeks!

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday

What's in Store for '26?

It's a new year, time to share a few of my dreams for this year. This year I don't intend to have as intensive of a list as last year's list was. Most of the projects on that list were worked on if not completely finished. There are several in the flimsy stage that will be quilted this year.

This year is going to be more freeing. There are at least 10 kits I've made by putting fabric and the pattern into a bag. Some of these project have been waiting for years, hopefully some of them will happen this year but definitely not all of them.

Progress continues of quilting Rhapsody in Blue and appliqueing the Stonefields blocks. The Stonefield blocks should be finished this year, then arranged and sewn together. I haven't decided if I'll make the EPP hexie flower for the border or not, applique would look very nice on that quilt. I won't make that decision now, I'll think about it after the center flimsy is completed.

There are several 'out of character' quilts (for me anyway) to work on. I haven't touched my Fabric Vortex since 2022! Here is a link to the November 2022 post.

I didn't remember I had this many blocks and bits & pieces completed. I'm adding in some orphan blocks too. Be warned if you decided to make a fabric vortex it will definitely create vortex chaos in your sewing room!

Here is a link to Amanda Jean's scrap vortex sew-along from 2015. She was able to keep her pieces small, I'm adding larger pieces to my blocks because I don't have the patience to mess with all the tiny blocks!

Or you can check out Jo's Youtube video about Diamond Crumb creating.

Another project started were these very small pineapple blocks. These blocks are foundation paper pieced and use a lot of the small triangles and scraps leftover from other projects.

The pineapple blocks finish at 5", these blocks will definitely not be used for a king sized quilt.

Of course there are all the compassion flimsies that were pieced last year to be quilted this spring. Some will be donated, some will stay here until the right person comes along to gift the quilt to.

The finishing kit for the Designer Mystery quilt, through the Fat Quarter Shop, was sent to me several months ago. I would like to get started piecing the sashing for the blocks so they're ready to add to the blocks.

There are several long term quilts I want to start this year, I'll share those with you when I actually start them.

And . . . I really want to get the bookshelf in the sewing room organized! 

What do you have planned for 2026? Feel free to share your plans and dreams.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts

Stonefields, Section 6 Blocks Finished

The blocks from section 6 of Stonefields have been completed. For once the names of the blocks make sense.

Block 69 is called The Owl & the Pussycat. This block has a lot of embroidery which was fun to do. Only one block was designated for the quilt. This is a cute block but it has a lot of detail, one was enough!

I had originally planned to applique the owl and the pussycat but the cat tail scared me, embroidery was an easy choice. Twelve weight Sulky thread was used for the embroidery.

Blocks 70, 71, 72 & 73 are named Butterfly. I liked this design, the blocks were easy to applique so I went ahead and made four of them like the pattern says.

And a picture of all the blocks completed so far. I definitely won't be able to fit all 121 blocks on this design wall.

Stonefields is designed by Susan Smith.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday

End of Year Review

2025 has come to an end and it's time to review how I did with my long list of projects posted in January.

#1. The fabrics for the Fire Island Hosta Queen quilt have been washed and pressed but then nothing more happened. Hopefully '26 will be the year piecing actually happens.

#2. The Blueberry Pie flimsy was completed in 2024 and is hanging in the 'to be quilted' closet. He's in the queue for hand quilting but that won't happen until the relief sale quilt is finished.

#3. Elegant Garden is a flimsy and is stored in the to be hand quilted closet. I have a plan for this quilt when she's finished so she will probably be quilted before Blueberry Pie.

#4. Garden Party  Garden Party is designed by Bonnie Hunter and the pattern is found in her Addicted to Scraps book. The 'flower' blocks have been pieced and the chain blocks were pieced at a quilt retreat in November. The plan is to piece the half chain blocks at a quilt retreat in January. Maybe this quilt will be a flimsy in 2026?

#5 Relief Sale Quilt is in the hand quilting frame and is in the process of being hand quilted. It will be donated and sold in the 2027 Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale.

#6. Teal Stars -

#7. Log Cabin Hearts -

#8. Quadrangle -

#9 was a project from one of the many projects I have selected fabrics for and stored in a bag. This project didn't happen. 😉

#10 was a quilt from the Red & White Gatherings book designed by Lisa Bongean. I made a small quilt with the Love Triangle pattern. It's not quilted and I'm not sure when that will happen. The light colored background cries out for custom quilting. I'm not capable of doing that with my machine and I have so many quilts waiting to be hand quilted.

I really like the star design and I can envision several of these stars made into a quilt . . . using blue fabrics of course!

#11. Blue embroidered blocks  I appliqued blocks for the corners of this quilt. This flimsy has been delivered to Calico Point for quilting.

#12. Lavender embroidered blocks  I used the same idea as the blue embroidered blocks, four blocks were appliqued for the outside corners. This flimsy has also been delivered to Calico Point for quilting.

#13 - Four Patch Around the World was pieced early in January and a complete finish in February.

#14 Embroidered Crib Quilt

Two Compassion Quilts

#15 - Hand quilt an Amish Crib Quilt

#16 - 2025 Designer Mystery BOM  . . . This mystery quilt started in June and runs through 2026. 

#17 - I quilted Book Adventures or Peter Rabbit on my home sewing machine in May.

Several compassion quilt flimsies were pieced and will be quilted next spring to be donated. Overall, I think I accomplished a lot in 2025 and managed not to get sidetracked by squirrels. Next week I'll publish my 'to do list' for 2026 which won't be as intensive as the 2025 list. 

Linking to Quilting Jet Girl, To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts

Rhapsody in Blue

Good progress is happening with Rhapsody in Blue, the quilt that will be auctioned in the Michiana Mennonite Relief sale in 2027. I know that's more than a year away but it takes time to hand quilt a quilt. It's okay if it is finished in 2026, I don't want to have to be staying up late at night trying to finish the quilting. I don't do well with late nights anymore and my stitches might turn into 'toe catcher' stitching.

For this post, the pictures have been taken across the quilt but there are some close up picture also.

My phone recently updated and the program is different for sending picture from my phone to the home computer. I had taken a picture of the side that included the left outside border, it's apparently floating around wherever picture go when they disappear.

I have started the center section so I took individual pictures from the bottom like normal.

The background quilting is this curved triangle design. I like it because it's different from normal cross hatching, a nice change from the diagonal quilting in the 9 patches.

I also stitched in the ditch on both sides of the blue border that surrounds the center applique.

This is a picture from the right side of the quilt. It shows the quilting design very nicely.

When I roll the quilt, I alternate the side I turn the stick from. This keeps the edge of the quilt even. If you always roll the same side first, the edge runs crooked. You do need to keep track of which side is rolled first, I just place a pin on the edge of the first rolled side.

I have seen hand quilted quilts in the frame where they haven't been careful to keep the quilt even. I think it pulls on the bias and makes the quilt not straight. You can see in the above picture that the blocks from the 9 patches run straight across. That is how it should be.

I don't quilt with a portable quilting frame so I know nothing about quilting in one of those. This is for the old sticks & stands frame. I also think I'm more particular than a lot of quilters, I've been told by friends that I'm too picky but if I'm going to invest the time for hand quilting, then I'm going to quilt it my way. That's the end of my sermon for the day.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Sew & Tell,  Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday