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, Beauty Pageant, 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

What's Under the Needle?

Blocks 63, 64, 65 and 68 of Stonefields are foundation paper-pieced blocks. I don't think Susan intended them to be completed that way but that is how I decided to make them.

Blocks 63 & 64 are called Perfection Syndrome.

Block 65 was supposed to be the same as blocks 63 & 64 but I decided to make it the same as block 68 which is called Halfway House.

The rest of the blocks in section 6 are appliqued, you can read about those blocks on my Sunday posts. Stonefields is designed by Susan Smith.

The 2025 Laundry Basket Mystery quilt, which Edyta has now named Tennesee, has been started over. Again I'm using fabric I purchased several years ago for another quilt that didn't happen. For those of you who are interested in fabric lines, the fabric is named Pointe Pleasant and designed by Nancy Rink for Marcus Fabrics. The first 6 'rounds' have been completed.

I made a change to the flying geese 'round'. The geese are supposed to go around in the same direction but I didn't like how that looked against the corner block. I like my setting better.

The background fabric for the star blocks came from my stash. I didn't have a background cream that quite matched the other light fabrics but it was close. However the next round background fabric is a light gray and I think it will tone down the brightness of the cream fabric. The gray fabric used in between the stars is the same background fabric in the zig-zag round.

The dark blue of the stars makes a nice contrast to the softer blues and brightens up the whole quilt!

The light gray fabric is displayed at the bottom and is a part of the fabric line. As of now, the flimsy is a scant 54.5".

I've been wanting a cover for my sewing machine for years and I finally made one. Heartland Sewing Center had June Tailor kits on sale so I purchased one. I measured my sewing machine and thought it was the large size but apparently it's not. 

The cover looks baggy but it completely covers the machine. It's made with batting but I wonder if it would have been better to use a stiff interfacing? I would like to make a cover for my retreat machine, I think I'll try interfacing for that cover. I'll let you know how it turns out whenever I get it sewn.

MSQC has the kit on sale but I paid less at Heartland. Misty Doan has a tutorial at MSQC, I watched the tutorial before I cut anything. It really did help in making the cover.

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

Rhapsody in Blue

My goal for this quilt was to be ready to start hand quilting the center applique medallion by New Year's and I've done it, I'm ready to start the center!

I apologize that the pictures aren't better quality, the lighting is just fine when I'm hand quilting but it just doesn't take good pictures. I'll take some nice outside pictures when the quilt is completely quilted. 

There are a lot of photos to show you today. The background on the outside borders is quilted along with stitch in the ditch around the applique. Also you can't see in pictures how the quilting puffs up slightly, it looks so nice. I enjoy lightly moving my fingers across the quilt after it's quilted. It's a different texture than a machine quilted quilt.

The 9 patch border is diagonally stitched both directions. That pin is in the one block because I missed quilting the other direction. That will be quilted before I start the next section. 

Next is an applique border which does not have background quilting, just stitch in the ditch around the applique.

This is the bottom border of the 9 patch section so there are a lot of 9 patches, again all diagonally quilted in the light fabric. This makes the blue fabrics puff up nicely. I don't think you can see that in the pictures but it looks so nice in real life.

On the right side of the 9 patch border is the right side applique border. Just like the left side, there is no background quilting, just stitch in the ditch around the applique.

The right side 9 patch border.

The outside border on the right side. There is no applique in this corner. The applique is on opposite diagonal corners of the quilt.

The section just completed is 9" which means there is 77" to be quilted, if my math is correct anyway.

This is the center medallion center. The blue border will be stitched in the ditch along both sides then the sticks will be rolled and quilting will start. Of course the sides will also be quilted, not just the center section.

Rhapsody in Blue will be sold in the 2027 Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale, just in case you interested in buying a beautiful blue and light gray quilt!

Here is a post from April that shows pictures of the flimsy before the outside applique was added. I was also working on Elegant Garden at the same time, so you will see blocks from that quilt in the same post. I'm sure I showed you a picture of the quilt with the outside applique border but I can't find it! The original size of this quilt is 118" square. A hand quilted quilt doesn't shrink as much as a machine quilted one does. 

Elaine and I are collaborating on this quilt. She did the applique while I did the piecing and am now hand quilting the quilt. She'll do the binding and is making a special label for the backside.

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

Stonefields

The first two applique blocks in Section 6 of the Stonefields quilt are called Baby Audrey. I don't know why Susan Smith named these blocks or any of the blocks their name.

Of course I made a few changes, the top circles was supposed to be smaller but I don't like to applique really small circles. And the tips of the leaves were supposed to under the stem, I like them better on the sides. The dark blue stems are bias vine leftover from the Blueberry Pie flimsy. Probably the next several blue applique quilts will have vine/stems from the Blueberry Pie quilt.

These are blocks 62 & 63.

Block 66 is named Hot Cross Bun and was an easy block to applique in an afternoon.

I'm going to remember this block and perhaps make a second one as a substitute for a block I don't like in the future.

I was in Wakarusa last week so I took a picture of the quilt garden 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