A quilty update - September 2025

It’s been a few months since my last quilty update and so, it’s time for another update. If you remember I posted my quilt plans for the year in February, and it’s been useful and helped me not add too many more things to my list, despite a visit to the Festival of Quilts in August!

The ‘stretch project’ I set myself is still the main focus, as now I don’t want to not do that. But it’s not just that project in this update.

So how am I doing?

1 The teal flying geese

I’ve still not started this one, and I’m wondering if I will get to this one this year. I’m still debating whether or not to postpone this one until next year, or wondering if I could spend an afternoon getting started. But then again, maybe I should spend that time finishing some of the things I’ve started, or the other non-quilt projects on my list!

2 The mystery block a month

Progress on this one remains steady, and I think that’s mostly because it’s linked to the ‘stretch project’. I’m almost back on my slightly relaxed track with this one, which is great news. Since the last update I’ve shared the following monthly blocks:

I’ve also laid the blocks out partly to see what they look like together, but mostly to check I’ve got the right greens in the right place - and I have, so far, phew!

Laying out all seven blocks of the month in order

And while this looks good, I don’t think this will be exactly how it ends up as I suspect, looking at Sherri’s other quilts, that there will be sashing (or borders) in between each block, and so that will give me more decisions to make when the time comes!

I hope to share the August block later this week, or early next week - which definitely takes me back on track, not that I’ve started sewing it yet of course!

3 The jeans and pyjamas

Nothing to see here, and no updates either. I still think this one will happen this year though.

4 The Essex linen kisses

There has been a spurt of progress since the last update, and the quilt top is together.

And it’s looking fab.

The completed quilt top, complete with a thin matching colourwash border

Since my last update I’ve sewn all the blocks together, added sashing in between the blocks with pops of corresponding colour by the crosses. I also decided I wanted to add more borders, and just about had enough material left to add a narrow border following the colour wash across the blanket.

Then I added a final glittery gold/charcoal border, and considered the backing fabric and binding. I’ve bought some gold bias binding which I’ll use to finish off the quilt, but the backing fabric was more problematic. I saw a beautiful ochre colour material, and ordered that - but when it arrived it wasn’t right for this quilt, even though it was lovely. I realised the backing needs to be bright to really work, and so ordered some bright orange and bright green fabrics when they were on sale, and typically these both work!

Now I can’t choose which I prefer. I like the orange, but I think the green may work better as this blanket’s purpose is a picnic blanket - my thinking is that any grass stains will show less on the green! I’m forever practical.

Actually I think that’s my decision, so you never know that may even be the prompt for me to pick this up again. Keep on watching this space.

5 My floral fancy

No update here either, but in my defence at the start of October I’ve got a day’s training on my new Bernina machine at their London HQ, so I’m hoping that I will gleam knowledge, or at least know how from there, and that that will help!

6 My English Paper Piecing (EPP) blue diamonds

I have made progress here, it’s been just the thing to pick up on those warm summer days in the garden. I’ve even cut into the vintage tablecloth, and while it was never going to be a heartbreak thing for me, I did have a bit of a ‘should I be doing this’ little wobble.

But I pressed on as I wanted to free up more of the small diamond templates, as my pile of green and blue blocks are growing more quickly than I have free templates. MOH suggested I just bought some more, but I have them - they’re just covered in fabric, and freeing them gees me along on this project.

I think it’s going to work out pretty well too, though now I think I may need an additional fabric for the larger diamonds, but we’ll see.

Four blocks of blue stars edged in lime green diamonds, joined together with a central large diamond from an embroidered vintage table cloth

And the ‘stretch’ project

My quilting timetable is still very much dominated by this project, and it’s still delivering the results. Since my last update I’ve completed the following quilts to be donated to charity:

Which makes nine completed quilts, all of which are photographed below and have been donated to the Mansfield Project Linus Coordinator.

A stack of nine charity quilts which I've made and donated to Project Linus UK Mansfield

I was able to donate these at the same time as attending a ‘Project Linus Sewing Day’ with a new-to-me patchwork group. I went along to their day to find out more about the group, take part in the day and to take these quilts along with me to donate.

Of course I started, but didn’t quite finish, another quilt on the day so I spent a short amount of time finishing this baby quilt the next day, so it’s ready for the next patchwork group meeting. It’s not my usual style of quilt, but all the materials were provided by the charity and all I needed to do was sew.

A small - baby size - Paddington 'snowball' quilt started and almost finished at the charity sewing day

I’ve still more to come on this stretch project, and hopefully at least some of the other projects too. I’ll share how I get on later in the year, and with the summer days moving behind us I’m hoping for many more sewing room days, which will definitely help!

Half the Scraps

I’ve made another quilt as part of my quilting ‘stretch’ project using the block from Sherri at A Quilting Life’s mystery block a month. As I said then I don’t know if I’ll manage to make a quilt a month, but I won’t really know unless I try…

What I’ve learnt generally from this ‘stretch’ project is that while I’m using lots of fabric from my stash, I’ve also got a fair bit which remains from these projects which is already cut to the widths I’m generally using. So my plan for this quilt was to use up ‘all the scraps’ and to be ok with random fabric and pattern piecing.

My ninth charity quilt

So while my plan was to use ‘all the scraps’ in reality that didn’t work - not only was there more than I could use in my latest four block quilt, some of the colours jarred. So hence this quilt’s name of Half the Scraps!

Strips of pinks and neutral fabrics leftover from earlier charity quilts

I’m sure you’ll recognise at least some of the fabrics I settled on - in fact, they’ve all been used in previous quilts. Some as recently as last month, and at least one from way back at the start of the year.

The block itself was a churn dash, which I wasn’t sure about at all when I first saw it. I’ve not sewn one before, but actually now with five under my belt I can see the attraction.

Laying out the smaller pieces to make the churn dash central block
Another of the churn dash blocks assembled and ready to be sewn together

Making the test blocks helps me understand how they go together, but also it helps show which colour placements are most successful, or which I like the most in any case. And this month it was the lower right block that worked best for me with it’s darker triangular corners, so that’s something I noted for my own Mystery Block quilt - come back tomorrow to see how that one went!

The four churn dash blocks on my cutting mat

Adding the borders

As my aim was to use up the material strips I had left from earlier quilts, my plan was to embrace random log cabin borders - but within reason. I decided to still split the fabrics into two groups and try to keep them in the same half of the borders. I managed it pretty well for the green and peach striped fabric (an old summer shirt of MOH’s), but with less of some of the other patterns it was definitely more random.

The four central blocks complete with log cabin borders and joined together

I needed to twirl some of the blocks around to get a layout that worked for my eye, and so that the dominant pink ‘patchwork’ material (an old duvet cover) was more evenly spread.

But still I felt it wasn’t quite right.

I had no idea what colour final border to add. But then I remembered I was doing random, and so the final border could also comprise more than one fabric. And that helped a lot. On the pinker edges I used a paler fabric, and on the paler edges I used a new multicoloured pink fabric which came from mum’s stash.

The front of the finished quilt - using 'half the scraps'

It’s also the fabric that I’ve used on the reverse of the quilt, so it fits in with this month’s ethos of using what I had cut. More so actually as the strips leftover from the backing piece haven ‘t even made it into the scrap stash pile!

The quilt is partially flipped over on itself showing the patterned reverser

Now that it’s finished I’m much happier with it, but during its construction I was less sure. I also tried a different way of quilting this one - and well, I learnt why most quilts aren’t quilted in circles! It’s hard and the material on the back wants to pucker up more than normal. It’s not something I’ll be trying again for a long while, that’s for sure!

You can see my other quilts which I’ve made to donate to Project Linus - a charity whose mission is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children, who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged or distressed through the donation of new, homemade, washable quilts and blankets, including those that are part of this ‘stretch’ project in earlier posts. I’m aiming to publish an update on my progress in the last week of each month for the remainder of 2025.

A Raspberry Plus

I’ve made another quilt as part of my quilting ‘stretch’ project using the block from Sherri at A Quilting Life’s mystery block a month. As I said then I don’t know if I’ll manage to make a quilt a month, but I won’t really know unless I try…

I’m beginning to think this stretch project was a daft idea.

Though I know it’s a self imposed challenge, I’m not ready to give up or make compromises just yet. To catch up, i.e. to make the July and August blocks that Sherri has released I just need a few days to sew, and that’s no bad thing. I’m yet to convince MOH, but I’m still working on it!

But I don’t like to be beaten, so I’m continuing.

My eighth charity quilt

This month I definitely wanted some calmer colours, but had no set ideas when I looked in my fabric stash. These were the colours that called to me this month.

Pulling caramel and raspberry toned fabrics from my stash

Quite a pleasing caramelly raspberry infusion. The fabrics are mostly fat quarters which I’ve acquired from various de-stashing events, along with two old shirts - one mine, the plain raspberry colour, and the other MOH’s the pink/white small patterned material in the top right of the photo above.

The pattern for this block, the June release, is another star - this time a friendship star - and in my rush to ‘be done’ my points were a bit off on a couple, so that’s yet another lesson for me - patchwork isn’t a speed sport!

The four central blocks - caramel stars surrounded in a plain raspberry fabric

I ummed and ahhed about the border fabric placement, eventually settling on this layout - which was also partially informed by the amount of fabric I had!

Trying out the placement of the border fabrics

And as ever, it wasn’t long before the borders were on and the squares were sewn together. This time for a single unifying border I added some strips cut from a vintage pillowcase. The floral pattern reminded me of the ‘Edwardian Country Diary’ phase from the 1980s, and I like how the floral pattern is interspersed around the blocks.

The four block quilt top sewn together with a cream border added (it was an old pillowcase)

I have once again used the vintage single duvet for the backing, which is turning into quite the bargain. It cost £1.04 plus postage from eBay a few years ago, but I’ve used it on plenty of quilts so far - and there’s more to come from this 'costly’ investment!

Taking a look at the vintage pink floral backing with one corner folded over to show this

For this quilt I have once again used straight line quilting. This time I’ve used varied widths, mainly to see how that turned out and how much I liked it. I think I prefer more equal distribution on reflection, but it’s good to try these things. I’ve also used a burgundy top thread (with cream beneath) for the quilting, and I’ve learnt that my lines aren’t always straight, and this notices more with a dark thread!

The finished quilt with straight line quilting in burgundy thread and a scrappy binding

But overall it’s another great looking quilt which I’m pleased with and one where I’ve learnt more about what I like most, and used the opportunity to improve my skills further. As I was sewing this one I was trying to think of a catchy name for it, they centred around caramel, coffee, wine and raspberry - which no doubt is obvious. But as I laid this one out it became clear that there was only one name for this - a great big raspberry plus, so it named itself. Sometimes these things just happen, don’t they?

You can see my other quilts which I’ve made to donate to Project Linus - a charity whose mission is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children, who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged or distressed through the donation of new, homemade, washable quilts and blankets, including those that are part of this ‘stretch’ project in earlier posts. I’m aiming to publish an update on my progress in the last week of each month for the remainder of 2025.