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! 

A lot has been happening here!

A new year and new month brought new projects! I continued working on my PINK Wonky Shoo Fly blocks. I now have 10 ~ 6 1/2" blocks. 

I'm having fun using up some of my smallest scraps! I will link up to Scrap Happy on Saturday over at SoScrappy. 

Kat over at Kat & Cat Quilts posted the Covered in Love block for the January and February. It is a 13" string quilt. The strings need to be of one color family except for one strip which should be a contrasting color. 

            Here are my blocks ~ blue with and orange contrast and red with a blue                 contrast. These blocks are sewn onto an oversized batting foundation piece and cut to size.

 

     On Monday, January 4th, the #ShoalSewalong with Nicholas Ball of       @QuiltsintheAttic started. Week one is all about the fabric pull and 

the start of cutting the pieces needed for the fish block. This is an 

improv sewalong so the size and number of pieces needed is really 

up to you. Nicholas suggested some colors for your fabrics and his 

quilt in his book is basically a 2 color quilt so you could use whatever 

you like! I pulled fabric from my stash that I bought at a lecture by 

Amy Walsh from Blue Underground Designs as my focus fabrics. I 

added some batiks from my stash. The deep blues are for the 

background water. 

Here is a very basic layout of the rectangles, squares, and triangles needed for the fish blocks! 

Week Two will include sewing these improv fish!

Linking to Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Peacock Party @ Wendy's Quilts and More, Finished or Not Fridays @ Alycia's and Friday Foto Fun @ Powered by Quilting. 

The January instructions for the Moorwood Mystery Quilt by Meadow Mist Designs was released yesterday. This month we put together a block using some of the units that were sewn in previous months. I am excited to see how this one comes together!

There are 15 of these blocks. 

I joined some friends of mine to do some charity quilting yesterday. My friend, Marylyn, fosters many tiny kitties that are abandoned by their mammas. The shelter had a quilt that was donated to them and needed it to be cut down in size. Since it was a large square, I cut it down into 4 smaller quilts. I then set out to rebind the 2 sides that were now unfinished. Here is her little kitty helping us.

Now to hand stitch the bindings on the smaller quilts. 

Each of us took one home to finish!