Friday finish - Moda blockheads 6

I am participating in the Moda Blockheads sewalong for the first time. I am using scraps on a black polka dot background. My intention is to donate the completed quilt to Quilts for Care leavers. Block 2 was released on Wednesday and it’s lovely to have a quick stitch alongside working on larger projects.

 

June 2025 plans

This month, I really need to finish projects! We have just two days away this month in London. Two quilt finishes is not unreasonable to expect from myself.

The Ruby Star Society anniversary needs to be pressed again, quilted and bound.

My pumpkins and potions ladder quilt is ready to quilt the borders and in the ditch. Then bound.

I am joining in with Moda Blockheads 6 which is one or two blocks a week. I have raided my scraps for the first two blocks on a white spot on black. If I should run out of this fabric, I will add in some other black fabrics as well. I sorted my basket of grey and black fabrics last week and I have more black fabrics than I had expected.

I have made a start on another large Guild Challenge UFO - Have yourself a Quilty Little Christmas. I plan to make further progress on this and make it into a Christmas ladder quilt.

Our Guild UFO Challenge for June has been chosen and it's embroidery designs from the Homemade Collection by Tula Pink from OESD. I'm going to look in the charity shops for a white denim jacket to embroider this on the back.

May 2025 finishes

 Although great progress was made on ongoing projects, I only finished a couple of projects during May.

My first finish was my Guild UFO, and I made this butterfly mini quilt for SCBU using two Dresden plate blocks pieced on my embroidery machine.

I stitched and finished this free chart from Primrose Cottage Stitches.

My big finish was this piece for Quilts 4 Care Leavers made using foundation pieced blocks and set on point. I used the Malachite pantograph which a customer chose for her quilt having seen mine during a Guild Show & Tell.

I made this Swedish star for our contribution to a local Christmas Tree Festival, and I have one more that I made doing a demo. Our Guild Christmas challenge is to make a draft excluder which I will not be participating in.

My last quick make for May were two Lennon glasses cases by Center Street Quilts. I also crossed off making an optician's appointment from my to do list.

Friday finish - Lennon glasses pouch

 

My strawberry addiction continues with two versions of the Lennon glasses case by Center Street Quilts. I thought I was so clever using double sided premade bias tape which I bought in Glasgow. I even added some of my strawberry labels. However, I hadn't realised the corner world mean you'd see both colours. Never mind, they're finished and in use. I should now book a checkup with the optician too.

WIP Wednesday - Swedish stars

I knew today was going to be busy with an 8.25am blood test, a 9am appointment with an estate agent and then I'm on cake duty at our morning quilt group too, until an email was sent to us all with a reminder that I was doing a demo of the Swedish star.

We participate in a local tree festival every year and Astra uses decorations from previous years on the tree. Every two years we make new decorations. This year we have decided to make Swedish stars in a red and white colour scheme.

I used the following free tutorial How to Make Scandinavian Star Ornaments to make one ornament and have made up a kit of fabric strips and tools to do the demo. This is a great pattern whether you use pper strips, fabric strips or perhaps even 1" wide ribbon.

Monday make - selvedge panels

Lizzie and I will be going on our next sewing retreat at the end of July (ie in two month's time). Lizzie's first question when the retreat facebook group opened up was - what project are we doing together? Rosie Taylor Crafts released a new pattern last week which we decided was perfect for retreat. The Sew and Tell case has an optional selvedge front so I made up two panels yesterday to use for the case. 

I've never used selvedges but I have a lot of them put aside. I have cut the selvedges with 1" of the patterned fabric and I had also pressed them and put them all together in a bag. I selected those with strawberries and predominantly pinks and blues in them.  Though the large background strawberry selvedge threw me as it is the opposite way around to all of the other selvedges. I cut two rectangles of Bosal foam to size and stitched the selvedges down.  I trimmed them down to the size of the Bosal and stay stitched around the panels. 

They are now put away with the printed instructions and strawberry labels in a zip lock bag. Nearer to the time I will kit up the project with other fabrics, vinyl, zips and snaps ready to make on the first day of the retreat. 

I have also been doing some prep to progress two other projects. I have ordered some backing for the Ruby Star Society anniversary quilt in a bank holiday sale. The quilt top now needs to be pressed ready to quilt.

The Pumpkins and Potions ladder quilt by Kimberbell Designs is now pieced together and I have added borders to all four sides. I now need to add wadding to those borders ready to quilt the border and between the blocks. I found a black and white off cut of backing which is the perfect size for this quilt and I have loaded the backing ready on my long arm.

I have also started looking at my next large project on my Guild UFO list, which is A Quilty Christmas, also by Kimberbell Designs. I plan to make it into a Christmas ladder quilt and need to embroider a block a day or spend one day a week stitching multiple blocks. I located the embellishment kit so that is also bagged up ready to start. However, I should probably focus on finishing my two quilts in progress first. I also have a pair of shorts cut out which should be a fairly quick project to complete.

Friday finish - more pumpkins and potions

 

I had decided to work on this project during May, and I am really pleased with my progress. This is the Kimberbell Pumpkins and Potions ladder quilt using the Kimberbell embellishment kit and my own choice of fabrics. I had completed section 1 last week and finished section 2 last night.

I hadn't read the instructions completely before starting the project so I hadn't realised that the potion bottles were made in two stages, the first being water soluble fabric. I have only used this once before so I decided to embroider all of the other blocks first. I am thrilled that I have now finished all of the blocks including the potion bottles. They weren't complicated but  I did one at a time and took it slowly. 

The owl is also cute and includes a vinyl cloche. I'm now ready to stitch the blocks together, but first I need to sort out a small plumbing issue and I hope that Google will be my friend.

WIP Wednesday - Happy Saint Patrick’s Day

 

I know I'm too late for St Patrick' Day 2025, but I thought I'd start another of the free stitch Friday patterns from Primrose Cottage Stitches as the Spring pattern was a quick stitch. What was I thinking! This pattern is stitched on 36 count Platinum Edinburgh with Cottage Graden Threads. I have none of the called for as I generally stitch on 32 or 28 count fabric. I thought I'd use a 40 count fabric instead!! I think this might be a slow stitch one over one on a bright day. 

I also chose the floss from my stash and the Weeks Dye Works green is called Lucky so I think that's a perfect choice. I have a small start so far. I must remember to track where my Irish passport application has got to in the system via the provided QR code.

Monday make - Spring

You really NEED to sign up for the Primrose Cottage newsletter. Once a month they release a free pattern for free stitch Friday. The May pattern is a cutie. I lost my focus and needed an easy stitch to take to group meetings, so I started the project. Not that I got to take it to any group meetings!

I had all of the DMC threads and substituted Weeks Bubble Gum for the called for pink variegated Dinky Dye Works.

I have even finished it into a little pillow for spring decor using a scrap of yellow and Bonnie and Camille white spots on pink. The mini ric rac was from Gisele's sale of stash, but i should really have changed my thread colour to yellow.

Do I kit up another of these patterns for group meetings or get back to Frosty Tiny Town?

Friday finish- pumpkins and potions

 

I have been focusing on section1 of Pumpkins and Potions by Kimberbell. I am using my own choice of fabrics but purchased the embellishment kit. This size of quilt is something different for me and it has my head spinning with options. I have browsed Amazon UK for extra wide quilt ladders but am coming up blank at the moment, I might have to ask Nick to make me something suitable.

So far, I have completed section 1 of 5 together with all of the pieced blocks and the filler blocks. Next is section 2 and I already have four of the eight blocks completed. However, the potion bottle uses water soluble stabiliser which is new to me. I am liking the pop of pink in the quilt too.

WIP Wednesday - Ruby Star Society anniversary quilt

The Ruby Star Anniversary quilt was my second project that I was doing monthly during 2025. I focused on this project over the last few days and especially trimming the flying geese units for block 5. I found the trimming tedious but got there in the end.

I have a design wall in my small sewing space which was not quite big enough to organise the blocks for the project. With a few pins used on each end, I was able to display most of the blocks and whilst stitching up the sawtooth stars, I started to piece the rows together starting top down and left to right.

As well as my design wall, my home-made alphabet pins came into their own and I labelled the rows with a pin in the first block of each row. I love all of the designs in the anniversary panel. Look at this little turnip or is it a radish? 

Monday make - woven stars

 

I started this project in January 2025 as a block of the month by myself. I used foundation papers from Fat Quarter Shop and a fat quarter stack of first light by Ruby Star Society. I planned to make four blocks a month and take it slowly! However, these 6 inch blocks are very addictive and I have now finished the 40 blocks needed for a quilt for the Quilts for Care Leavers charity. 

I used a number of different off white background fabrics from Ruby Star Society for this quilt and my process was simple. I cut strips of fabric for the stars and kept them in a plastic bag and then cut squares for the corners and triangles. I stitched four blocks at a time and cut more strips for the star points as needed.

I used a digital pantograph called Malachite by Urban Elementz combined with a king tut in Grey and Black. The Quilting is quite bold, but I like it.

My usual quilt assistant is away for two weeks visiting family in the UK. So, I have had to improvise for these photographs. The quilt is about 40" x 70" and I used squares of leftover fabric from the fat quarter stack to put the blocks on point. Thus, making it bigger quicker.

I found a perfect black and white spotted fabric for the binding in my stash. This was originally purchased in France a couple of years ago. The backing is a neutral also from my stash. I keep my backing separate to my working stash so it is quick to find something that will fit the brief. This will now be packed away ready to handover to my friend Gill in July as she does a lot of work with this charity.

Friday finish - Guild UFO challenge

 

I was inspired by the border fabric to only make two blocks and make them into a butterfly to match the butterfly border. I then added jumbo ric rac to make the body of the butterfly and embroidered the antennae.

I even remembered to add a tag to the reverse of the quilt in the binding. I was glad to have an easy make for our guild UFO challenge for May but now I need to work on pumpkins and potions as I have a lot of work to do on that UFO. 

April 2025 achievements

April was a busy month with a two-day trip to London, a trip to Nantes for Pour l'Amour du Fil and the Modern Quilt Club retreat at the end of the month. I have no planned trips for May so hope to finish a few projects.

Twice as nice pouch by Aneela Hoey with strawberries.

Easy duffle bag by Sweet Cinnamon Rose with more strawberries!

Spring Quaker by Primrose Cottage. I really need to finish some of these pieces to put on display.

Another mini quilt for SCBU was my Guild UFO challenge for April.   

May 2025 plans

I have no planned trips in May, and my husband is also away for two weeks visiting the children and his family. I have big plans for stitching this month and finishing projects.

Woven stars - I need 40 blocks and have made 38 so far. At the retreat fabric was being offered by Hantex for quilt backings for charity quilts so I now have a peachy backing ready to go.

I haven't progressed much further with the Ruby Star anniversary quilt but only have block five to cut out and complete. I will put it all on my design wall once the woven stars are complete and I can start piecing the blocks together as leader and enders whilst piecing block five.

I was awaiting the announcement of the Guild UFO challenge with some trepidation as none of the larger projects have yet been selected. I had already decided to recommence work on the Kimberbell Pumpkins and Potions ladder quilt in May as that's probably the largest of the projects I've selected for the UFO challenge.

Fortunately, this month's project is another small project which will become another SCBU mini quilt.

I have a small start of one house for the Winter Tiny Town by Heart in Hand but I would hope to finish it this month too.