Last Quilt of 2025

This was not a big sewing year for me. I completed a few projects here and there, but I almost went through all of 2025 without a sewing post. Just this week I finished a quilt that was 2 years in the making. This quilt was started in November of 2023. Jeanine had a book that I was flipping through for inspiration and found this picture. It became the pattern for a scrap quilt. I made this design 4 times and then rotated the block 90 degrees for each corner. 

Block for each quadrant of finished quilt

The fabrics are a combination of things in my collection and scraps given to me. Nancy, you will probably recognize several fabrics from your collection in there. As usual, I didn't have yardage to make all of the blocks without piecing so each quadrant ended up a bit different from the other three based on what scraps I had available. 

One quadrant coming together

Working on 2 quadrants

It took until December 2, 2023 for the top to be finished. I don't get a lot of sewing done during garden season. Any time I can be outside, I'm going to go there first. 

Finished size just fits on the kitchen floor

The backing was made a year later on December 29, 2024. I used several fabrics that do not match the front, but they won't be seen when the quilt is hanging on the wall. 

Backing gets pieced

On December 31st 2024, I took the quilt top to my parents' house and mom helped me baste it on the living room floor. 

Basted with safety pins

In September of 2025, I spread the quilt out again on the kitchen floor to get ideas for quilting.

Taped to the kitchen floor

The quilting was done by hand and is a mixture of Sashiko and quilting. I used a Sashiko thread I purchased at Sew On Central and made up my own technique. There are different patterns in most of the smaller blocks and then 7 of the rectangles in each quadrant are finished with horizontal or vertical lines. At times I used the 15 inch square Q-Snap quilting frame and then for the larger rectangles I finished with the floor Q-snap frame.  

Each rectangle gets a unique quilting  pattern

The binding was sewn on with the Juki and then finished by hand. The binding fabric is from Sew On Central and I was very pleased to find some of the chartreuse color.

I did have 'help' with the binding. 

Stewie inspecting my work, Lainie taking a nap

Slow and steady

After a wash the quilt hung dry on the shower curtain rod. This morning I hung it up on the wall and I can see that it isn't hanging square. It may settle and change shape a bit, but I'm not going to worry about it. It looks great on the wall already. 

Here are a couple close-ups of the variety of quilting designs used on the rectangles.

It feels good to move this quilt from the work-in-progress pile to completion. There are so many more sewing projects that are calling my name now. Happy sewing!

Scrappy Blue Hearts Quilt

This quilt was a made for Project Linus. At the February meeting of Loose Ends, Jane mentioned that the theme for quilts in the next month was the color blue. Since I could choose any pattern I wanted and I had plenty of blue scraps at the ready I decided to try to meet the submission deadline. 

The pattern came from the blog Neverlandstitches. The author, Lisa Girodat, wrote that she had designed this block to be a scrap buster and I thought it would would work perfectly with my blue scraps. I ended up using scraps of all sizes and from a variety of sources. I didn't have a finished size in mind when I started, I just wanted to make a dent in my blue scrap collection.

At the beginning there was very little piecing needed

I started by cutting several block pieces in the sizes listed in the pattern, but after sewing a few blocks I realized I was going to need to piece some scraps together before continuing to cut.   

So many different patterns

The finished size of the quilt was ultimately decided when I started to run out of scraps. At the start of the project I hadn't even considered that possibility, but it turns out that my scrap pile is not limitless. I could have maybe patched together one more block, but it would have been mostly solid fabrics at that point. All the fabric with prints or patterns was used up.                        

Here is the pile of too-small-to-use scraps

Most of the piecing was done on my Bernina 1230. The ironing board is right next to the machine and there was quite a bit of back and forth while sewing the smaller scraps together. The quilt top was finished on Feb 14, 2021. We had a significant snowfall before and after that date and I photographed the top laying on about a foot of snow.

Quilt top in the snow

The next weekend I was ready to baste and quilt. I used the kitchen floor as my workspace and I taped the backing to the floor to minimize quilt movement. The backing was donated by Nancy, a sewist who had also donated her machine a couple years ago. She couldn't see well enough to sew any longer and hoped that her machine and small fabric stash could go to someone who would appreciate it. I think she would be pleased that several of her blue fabrics are in this quilt. 

Stewie helped with the basting

Pinned and ready to go

Quilting was done on my Bernina 717 using the walking foot and the seam guide. I went in 1/4" from each seam line so the quilting lines are 2" apart. 

Bernina 717

I worked on the quilting during the week in the evenings after work. The bias binding is made from scraps, sewn on by machine, and finished by hand. 

Finished

On a very sunny day in early March I photographed the quilt before delivering it to Jane. She would make sure the quilt got to Project Linus.

Here are a few close-ups of the heart blocks. There were so many fabrics in this quilt that have now been completely used up and are no longer in my collection. If you have ever shared blue fabric with me, there's a good chance that it made it into this quilt somewhere.

I forgot to take a picture of the back. It was very plain, just three solid blue fabrics pieced together. This quilt will be great for snuggling under or for display. I hope it brings some comfort to its new owner.

Charm Squares Quilt

Hanging in the sunshine

 This quilt was started on July 19th and the binding and sleeve were finished on Nov 3rd. Most of the fabric is from a charm pack I purchased at a quilt store in Naperville. I had taken two of my computerized Berninas in to be serviced and since it was a bit of a drive to get there and back twice, I treated myself to some fabric and a couple clothing patterns I found in the shop. I used all of the squares from the charm pack, but I wanted the finished quilt size to be a bit larger so I pieced a few blocks from my collection of scraps.

Starting to lay things out on the floor

The sewing was done on my Bernina 830 which was set up in the living room. I moved my ironing board into the living room temporarily as well. Piecing the blocks went smoothly and the finished top sat for a couple weeks until I found a suitable backing. I ended up using a piece of turquoise fabric that needed a small patch in the corner. I had used corner cut-out as a block in the quilt before I realized it would make a perfect backing so I had to patch another corner back in. This quilt is the first one I have done in a long time where I didn't generate more scraps from cutting blocks. I used the entire charm pack, scraps from my collection, and backing I already had. The batting was also pieced together leftovers from other projects.

All of the quilting was done by hand on my my 16" square Q-Snap frame. I traced out a template from one of Todd's pizza boxes for the blocks and then free-handed inside the white rectangles. 

Quilting template

The binding was pieced from the scrap collection, sewn on with the Bernina 1230, and then finished by hand. 

Trimming before finishing the binding

Hand sewing the binding

Pictures were taken on Election Day. The sun was shining and it was in 60's. I was trying to take advantage of daylight for pics since I'm rarely home during the day.

The finished size is 35" X 35"

The blocks and the quilting are all straight lines

One gray corner patched in for the backing

Changed out the wallhanging in the living room

Denim Quilt

This is the second and final denim quilt that came from Ethel's stash. There were already five columns pieced, each 2 blocks wide and 12 blocks long. Fortunately, there were no missing squares and I did not have to add any new blocks from my denim scraps. I played around with the layout a bit before sewing all the columns together. The blocks are a colorful mix of denim in white, light blues, and dark blues. Some pieces had the shadow of a pocket that had been removed.

Laying out the five columns

The sewing was done on my Bernina 717. It's a flatbed in a table and this gave me a bit more space to maneuver the heavier fabric. 

No issues with the sewing

I measured a few of the previously completed seams and decided to use a 3/8 in" seam to finish the top. Clearly, Ethel had taken her time to press all of her seams open, so I continued in that fashion. 

Seams pressed open

 For the backing, I used another piece from Ethel's collection. After washing it, I cut it in half and put a seam up the middle. That made it large enough to cover the back.

It was a very long piece before washing and cutting

70's colors, I think

Help sewing the center back seam

Early one morning in June, before the heat of the day kicked in, I basted the quilt on the back patio. There is shade back there until about 7 am so I started at about 6 am and finished just as the sun was starting to come over the tree tops.

Backing

For the batting, I searched online for alternatives to cotton or poly batting. The denim top itself is a bit heavy and will be warm, so I was looking for something lighter weight and thinner. One blog writer suggested using a flannel sheet for the middle layer. I didn't have any flannel sheets, but thankfully, mom did.

Flannel sheet instead of batting

Pieced top

Not a bad view while I was pinning

Completed just as sunlight starts to come through the trees

I didn't have a sewing machine with enough harp space to accommodate all this fabric while I was quilting so I watched a tutorial online and tied my first quilt. I used two colors of button and carpet thread and tied each square once on each of its four sides and once in its center. 

Needles and thread for tying quilt

Blue thread on the sides and tan in the block centers

 Good napping quilt even with safety pins in it

Very sharp needle needed to push through the seams

Knots were tied and the ends trimmed short

For the binding on this quilt I used some leftover blue windowpane fabric that a co-worker Martha shared with me this summer. There was just enough to cut 1.5 inch strips for the binding.

Binding sewn on to quilt

After trimming off the extra batting and backing, I finished the binding by hand. 

Binding at the corner

I found out that I cannot use these quilts for Project Linus because they are made from recycled denim, but they will get a good home eventually. For now, I think one or both of the denim quilts will hang in my classroom.

Back side