First Finish of 2025!

I have a finish! Yesterday I put the last stitch in on the binding of the Marble Mystery quilt! Today I braved the cold weather to get some outside photos of the quilt. 

This QAL was hosted by Cheryl @meadowmistdesigns

Cheryl hosts a QAL every year and I have participated in many. I love Cheryl's patterns and the way the QAL is written. It gives plenty of time to complete each step along the way! The Marble Mystery QAL began back in July 2024 and the last clue was released in January. All completed quilts and quilt tops will be on parade on March 10th.

The top and bottom border was added to make the quilt rectangular rather than square.  It is all machine pieced and machine quilted - both straight-line and FMQ.

I built the color theme around the multi-colored print that I was gifted several years ago. The pink, green and yellow prints were smaller pieces in my stash.  Only the Kona Violet was purchased for this quilt. 

The backing is a larger yellow print that I had in my stash!

The finished size is approx 65" x 76"

Here is my quilt maker photo! 

I'm linking up to the Marble Mystery linking party here. 

Welcome 2025!

 I'm back and hopefully will be able to blog on a more consistent basis this year! Although 2024 had so many fun things packed in, it made for an extremely busy year! I will attempt to post about some additional quilts from 2024 at the end of each post (until I catch up), mostly for myself, as a record of my quilts. 

Starting out 2025, I finished the top for the Meadow Mystery QAL! 

This QAL is called Marble Mystery and was designed by Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs. She offers this annual QAL free. I have been doing her QALs for many years. They are well written and I love her designs. If you are like me and don't like mystery QALs, Cheryl offers a secret sneak peek. It helps me in my color choices and I feel confident that I will like the quilt after all the work put in. 😆

This quilt is about 63" square. I am thinking of adding an additional border to the top and bottom to make it a rectangular quilt. The final reveal parade will be in March!

I also will be joining the RSC QAL over @SoScrappy. This is my 13th or 14th year of joining in on this quilty fun. January color was announced as pink!

This year I choose to make this stripe block. I will alternate the month's color with a cream color. I'm using Confetti Cotton Vintage White from my stash for the background. I will make 3-4 blocks in each color. The block is 9 1/2" square.

While sewing the first blocks, I decided to try to do the same block but improv stripes. The color of the month is paired with a gray from my stash (not exactly sure the color name). This block is 8" square. 

I am linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy.

Now for one of many quilts from 2024 that need some time on my blog:

I made this quilt from a class I took with @quiltcarl through the @Craftymonkies platform. The class was called Improv Toolbox and I'm calling this Mix It Up. Carl taught a lot of different techniques as well as encouraged us to look up Irene Roderick and her book Improv Quilting. 

The backing is this graphic black and white fabric from my stash pieced with a strip of black. 

I quilted it with straight line quilting with 4 different color threads. This piece finishes at 31" x 35"

I'm liking to Wednesday Wait Loss @The Inquiring Quilter, Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, TGIFF @BooksandBlocks, Put your Foot Down @AQuiltery, Off the Wall Friday @Creations, Art Whatever, and Free Motion Mavericks @QuiltingandLearning

More 2024 quilts to come!