Twelve Mystery Blocks of the Month

Over the past year I’ve been making mystery blocks of the month to complete Sherri’s mystery block a month quilt alongside the charity quilts I’ve made from the test blocks, which I named my ‘stretch project’.

Twelve months, or more accurately twelve blocks later I’ve realised that now the real work starts! My quilt hasn’t miraculously come together of its own accord, that’s clearly down to me. Sherri shared detailed instructions on how to assemble and finish the quilt, and I am broadly following them, but broadly is the key word here.

If you’ve been following my making journey for each of the blocks you’ll have seen each one on its own, but you won’t have seen them together.

Until now that is.

The twelve monthly blocks laid out in a grid formation

Don’t they look great?

I’m so glad I chose to add a second ‘green’ log cabin border option early on in the block assembly road. I know now that I wouldn’t have had enough of the original greens to keep them consistent throughout the quilt, and as they were designs I’d had for a while topping up my supply wasn’t an easy option.

The spacing between the blocks in the photo was to help me decide which sashing and borders to add, but before we get to that, here’s a reminder of each month’s blocks:

My plan to finish this quilt

Each of the log cabin (outer) strips on the monthly blocks are 2.5 inches so with seam allowances each piece is 2 inches wide. Sherri suggests using two 1.5inch sashes between each block, so the overall finished width would be 2.5 inches, but I wanted to maximise the width, as far as I can without it looking daft - but also to use the material I already had.

In the end with a fair bit of ‘mathing’ I worked out that my sashing (internal borders) between blocks could be 2 inches at the most, so with two sashes the same width, that’s 3.5 inches when complete, which I’m happy with.

By far the trickier decision was deciding on which fabrics to use, and I spent a lot of time staring at fabrics on my kitchen floor.

A lot of time.

six of the monthly blocks laid on top of various greens, creams and navy fabrics to test out border options

And a lot of time swapping in and out different colourways and patterns. But I have finally decided, and my sashings are cut. They’re not sewn yet, but they are cut so there’s no going back now!

I have also decided on the colours for, and sewn, the ‘posts’ which will be at the intersections of each block, and while the colours complement the internal border colours they aren’t from the same fabrics, so you’ll have to wait until the quilt top is completed to see it in its entirety.

Six individual blocks made up of 4 squares

I’ve decided to add three outer borders around the whole quilt, which will add to the width of the quilt, and I’ve chosen the fabrics for these. I haven’t decided on the width for each border, but my instinct is to start with a narrow(er) border nearest to the quilt blocks and widen the borders as I go. More ‘mathing’ will be needed when I reach this stage, as my remaining material is limited, and while I think it’s enough I don’t have an endless supply.

It’s been a decision heavy time for this quilt, so while I was in decision making mode I even selected which fabric to use as a binding, eschewing my usual scrappy approach. Even I’m shocked at myself!

There’s still plenty of sewing to be done, but I’m really looking forward to seeing how this comes together.

New to my craft room in February

As predicted last month it has been a relatively quieter month for things arriving into my craft space this month, and in better news for my purse they’ve cost little, or nothing.

I’ve recently started going along to a new-to-me crochet group which impressively meets in the nearby village pub every Friday afternoon - all very civilised! But of course I needed a portable crochet project to take with me, for the first session I dug out some wool I had and a hook and at the first session made the granny square in the photo below.

Three autumnal shaded balls of wool and a completed granny square

The wool I had would only take me so far I knew, so I stopped off in one of the shops in town selling wool and picked up three matching 100g balls for less than a fiver. I’ve now got three larger than usual granny squares, a new craft group and a new project. My plan is to make eight of these squares and use them to cover one of the many canvas tote bags which are now ubiquitous aren’t they?

The shop selling wool was just along from where I bought some fabulous yellow buttons (pictured in this older post) which is sadly closing at the end of this month (mental note: must make another visit before it closes!). I was hoping to discover some more vintage buttons, and I did leaving with this bundle of buttons and trims for £10.

Nine packs of variously shaped and coloured vintage buttons and two cards of ribbons

At my sewing group I was given these small squares and rectangles of fabric, some of which are the same size that I’m using to make my scrappy houses (more on that project another day), so those have gone straight into the scrappy houses biscuit tin. I’m planning to use at least some of the others for small lavender sachets, that’s the plan anyway.

Four piles of pink gingham and patterned small squares of fabric

I also nabbed some pretty remnant Liberty fabric from an Instagram destash sale for £4, and then a few days later I added the rather fabulous and completely eccentric ‘Emergency Brooch Kit’ for another £4. I love the idea of carrying it ‘with you at all times’ for ‘those quiet moments or to kill a bit of time’.

A Liberty fabric remnant and an 'emergency brooch kit'

I’m still collecting stuff for potential weaving with waste projects, this month adding three plum fruit nets and a further lime fruit net to my stash, along with the length of blue wire cut from our new chandelier when it was installed.

A net from the limes and three from the plums, plus some blue electrical cord from our new chandelier

I’ve also finally relinquished some much loved tops from my wardrobe. They’re well past donating to charity, so they’re currently in my craft room waiting for the perfect project to claim them, or until I no longer need to store them - I’m not sure which will come first if I’m honest.

Four well worn tops of mine ready for their next iteration, whatever that may be



So that’s another month in my craft room, check out my previous updates for earlier additions, and remember to let me know below what you’ve added to your craft supplies this month.

A year of my 'stretch' project

Around this time last year I rather foolishly (with hindsight!) set myself what I said at the time was a ‘potentially crazy project’ as part of my quilt plans for 2025. It was borne out of wanting to make use of the test blocks I was determined to make so that my mystery block of the month quilt would be the best it could be.

The thing about setting myself this challenge, however crazy it seemed, was that it became a thing that I didn’t want to fail at, even though back then, and every month since, I said I wouldn’t know if I could do it unless I tried…

Well I tried, and I succeeded!

Not only have I made the equivalent of a quilt a month for charity, I’ve also improved my sewing skills and sewing confidence too. I hoped that I would also sew through my stash rather more than I have, and while I clearly have shifted a fair bit of fabric, I’m very much of the opinion that scraps of fabric breed when you’re not looking!

Seriously.

But I have a plan for dealing with that in 2026, as you knew I would, but more of that another day.

My ‘stretch’ project quilts

These quilts aren’t the largest quilts, but the are big enough to give a quilt-sized hug to children that need one. They have been/will be donated to Project Linus who provide quilts to children who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged or distressed through the donation of new, handmade, washable quilts and blankets.

They are:

  1. A log cabin log cabin

  2. A mostly repurposed vintage star

  3. Four pink hearts and a hug

  4. The Friendly Bee

  5. Pleated Tulips

  6. A Raspberry Plus

  7. Half the Scraps

  8. Blues and greens

  9. Marmalade hearts

  10. Ohio flower garden

  11. My Dresden buttercup

  12. Stars and spots

PICTURED (FROM BOTTOM): BLUES AND GREENS, MARMALADE HEARTS, OHIO FLOWER GARDEN, MY DRESDEN BUTTERCUP AND STARS AND SPOTS WHICH ARE WAITING TO BE DONATED TO PROJECT LINUS

PICTURED (FROM BOTTOM): BLUES AND GREENS, MARMALADE HEARTS, OHIO FLOWER GARDEN, MY DRESDEN BUTTERCUP AND STARS AND SPOTS WHICH ARE WAITING TO BE DONATED TO PROJECT LINUS

Lesson learned

I am proud to have finished all of these quilts and to donate them to charity, but I won’t be setting myself any such similar challenges for this year, though I will still continue to make quilts for charity. What I found was that this was the focus of my sewing time, and it meant that I didn’t spend anywhere near as much time as I hoped on the other quilts on my list, or on garment sewing - though of course, I found there’s always time to make a pouch or two!