So Much to Show!

 I have been busy in my sewing room! I have a bit to show so please excuse the longer post. I'll try to be brief!

First up, I continue to work on my Fancy Four Patch blocks. Here are blocks 5-8 (I'm a bit behind but it is not a race)

Next, I worked on and finished the Fibonacci quilt. 

I was between projects...waiting on a fabric order and needing to sandwich and quilt other projects. This wall hanging sized quilt was a free pattern by Carolina Oneto when you sign up for her newsletter. Carolina is a fabulous quilter and I love her style. Fibonacci sequence is a math term that occurs in nature and all over. I do love math so it was a quick and fun quilt to make!

Maker's photo

I used fabrics from my stash (including the backing), machine pieced and machine quilted in concentric circles. It finished at 32" square. 

I have been participating in the Magnificent Mystery QAL by @meadowmistdesigns and it is coming to an end soon. The final instructions were given in February and March is for catch up and putting the quilt together. Here is my completed top!

This was another fun Mystery QAL and I love how this turned out. It is next on my docket for sandwiching and quilting!

Another QAL I participated with @MeadowMistDesigns was the Stash Busting QAL. Cheryl choose 4 of her patterns to choose from. I choose Board and Batten. I liked this pattern because of its simplicity. I had received a curated bundle of 5" squares that I won from @Quilttaffy many years ago and were just sitting on my shelf. I just didn't have a pattern calling its name before this! I added some coordinating fabrics from my stash to get enough to make my quilt. 

Maker's photo

I love how it turned out! Thanks Cheryl!

Linking up to Finished or Not Friday @AlyciaQuilts, TGIFF @quiltinggail

For the RSC block, March's color is red. Here is my flower block.

And the first 3 month's blocks!

Linking up to ScrapHappySaturday @SoScrappy. 

Thanks for hanging in with me on this long post!

Last finish from 2025

 My 2nd RSC quilt from 2025 is finally completed! I made 2 last year; one a traditional and one an improv version. I finished the improv quilt in November 2025. The improv version.

You can see the post here.

And here is the traditional version!

and with my cute little helper peeking out!

I named this quilt Line Dance! It is all machine pieced from scraps in my stash and FMQ on my domestic machine. 

The binding is a pieced binding that I learned on a @craftymonkies class with @katemustsew that turns your scraps into fabric rolls.

Its finished size is 55" x 64"
The backing is one solid piece from my stash! Here my adorable helper is showing off the backing!

It feels good to have another finish! I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy and Finish or Not Friday @AlyciaQuilts.

Since it is Valentine's Day, I thought I would share the Valentine's that I made for my friends and family. 

I did most of these using water color and string art on watercolor paper. Then I glued them onto color card stock and stitched them on my machine.

They were a lot of fun to make! Happy Valentine's Day!

Making Progress!

On my last post, I mentioned that I was about 1/2 finished with quilting my 100 Dresses quilt! It is now finished!  This was such a fun personal challenge quilt from the summer of 2025! 

This quilt was inspired by the book The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes.  The book is about bullying of children based on their race and nationality. Estes based the book on an incident from her own childhood to atone for staying silent when a peer was bullied. We need to stand up to bullying!

Some of you played along and encouraged me in this challenge by weekly choosing your favorite dress and I thank you!

All the blocks were paper pieced from over 100 different scraps from my stash (100 dresses plus tights, hair and skin tones). I drew the pattern myself so it gives the appearance of holding hands.

This quilt finished at 60" x 80"

The backing is an aqua gingham fabric! Isn't my helper adorable!

I also joined the new challenge by Taryn @reproquiltlover on IG. The pattern is called Fancy Four Patch.

Here are my first 4 blocks. They are 4.5" finished. The tiny HST are only 3/4"! Again, I am using fabric from my stash. Only needed to add one solid color to balance out the colors. 

My RSC block for February is finished too! The color is light green! Here is my flower block!

And on a final note, I started and finished the quilting on my 2nd RSC quilt from 2025! The binding is on so the last step is to hand stitch!

I'm linking to SoScrappySaturday @SoScrappy, Finished or Not Fridays @AlyciaQuilts

It Is About Time to Update!#?

On my last post I showed a peek of my Scrappy Meets Thrift Challenge quilt. I had decided to hand quilt this baby and I love the way it turned out.  

This challenge was hosted by Taryn @reproquiltlover over on Instagram. The block size is 3" and the quilt finished at 45.5" x 48.5"

I also showed the progress on my 100 dresses quilt. It is now partly quilted so it is getting close to a finish! Pictures coming!

And I showed you my quilted coat that I made from one of my quilts. My daughter wanted one so I looked through all the finished quilts that I have and determined which ones would be the right size. From those I narrowed down a few for her to pick from. We talked about a few changes that I would make from what I learned making my coat. 

She chose this bow tie quilt that I made the summer she got married! It was a 100 days of summer challenge making one bow tie block a day.

Since her birthday is 5 days after Christmas, I needed to get started right away. 

 

She wanted the coat to be slightly shorter (she is shorter that I am) and I changed the pockets to be a bit larger.  I kept the sleeves longer because she liked the idea of a cuff. 

I kept the label (although a bit faded) from the original quilt. Another dilemma I had was the buttons closures. I did not want to make button holes, so for mine I bought frogs with toggle buttons. It isn't ideal as they don't stay closed tightly. So for hers, I order heavy duty magnet 'buttons'. We are finding that they don't stay closed especially when she uses the pockets. I'm looking for alternative options. Anyone have ideas that worked for you? I did take some scraps from the quilt and tried button holes which seem to work pretty well. Looking for buttons that will work!

I also changed the way I covered the seams. It is similar; however, I sewed the seams flat to make a cleaner finish.

Here I am trying it out before her birthday.

She loves it and it looks so good on her!

See the problem with the magnets?

Linking to Finished or NotFridays @AlyciaQuilts

Finally, I started a new block for the 2026 RSC (Rainbow Scrap Challenge) over @SoScrappy. January's color is blue. I am making flower blocks using the flower pattern from Hello Spring from @Penandpaperpatterns

I may or may not add the leaves in the future! We will see how it goes!

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy

Working behind the scene. Here's a peek.

 I really do mean to get better at posting but my retired life is busier than ever. We spend quite a bit of time with our loves, our grandchildren! Although we get tired, we wouldn't change the chance to spend time with them and develop a sweet relationship with them. 

Behind the scenes, I have been quietly working on some hand stitching. The quilt I made for the #scrappymeetsthriftchallenge that I joined with Taryn @reproquiltlover is being hand quilted by me. It is a slow process. Here is a sneak peek.

I believe I have 21 rows left to quilt.

I also put together the flimsy of my 100 dresses quilt.

Sorry for the poor quality photo

And I finished one of my RSC quilts - the improv blocks!

I named this one Take Five. It finished at 57" square. 

I arranged the blocks in a checkerboard and quilted in an improv straight line grid.

I will link with @ScrapHappySaturday over @SoScrappy.

Now to get my traditional blocks arranged and ready for quilting!

Another exciting project I just finished is making my first quilted coat! I've been wanting to make one for several years and searched for a pattern that I liked and could be used for an already made quilt. You see, I have so many quilts that don't get used very often so I wanted to use what I have. I finally settled on this pattern - knowme ME2058

I needed to make some adjustments like putting the top and bottom pieces together because I was using an already made quilt. I also needed to adjust the seem allowances and eliminate the lining. I changed the pockets and the buttons. 

The original quilt I wanted to use was just not wide enough so I went with this quilt. You can read the original post about this quilt here.

I made this quilt in 2017 and named it Splendid. The pattern is a called Delectable Mountain. I carefully removed the binding, saving it for later use. I laid out and cut out the pieces. I made a pattern for some patch pockets and cut those out. I bound those separately and attached them to the 2 front pieces. The rest of the piecing was fairly straight forward but I used the old binding to cover all the raw edges of the seams. I didn't want to make button holes so I purchased toggle button closures. Here is the finished coat and some details.

Selfies before buttons and details of covered seams.

As we head into the holiday season, I hope to posts some projects in progress or completed. 🤞🏻

Linking to Finished or Not Friday @AlyciaQuilts