Making my Mystery Block of the Month: June 2025

You’ll have seen that I plan to complete Sherri’s mystery block a month quilt and in my last post I shared the test blocks which I made into my eighth charity quilt, today I’m sharing the centre block I made for my own quilt.

And yes, this is June’s block in August - I’m still catching up with myself and a more relaxed blogging approach this month is also contributing. But that’s life, hey.

We’re also back on the stars, this month’s is a Happy Friendship Star and the star also means we’re back on the navy blue fabrics, which I’m using for alternate blocks.

Learning from my test blocks

The purpose of my ‘stretch project’ is to up my skills, and this month that clearly also includes reading all of the instructions. Somehow I missed trimming my Half Square Triangles (HSTs) in the Raspberry Plus quilt which also probably explains why I wasn’t overly happy with my joins.

This time though I’ve learnt.

And my points were much better, but still not perfect - though good enough!

I spent more time than I should have working out which borders were required for this month’s block - and that was even after many looks at and double checking my handy drawing. But I got there, and the right borders are in the right place.

It’s turned out ok, hasn’t it?

I even spent some time ‘fussy cutting’ the centre square to get the pattern centred, and I think that was definitely worth the time it took. So that’s six months in on this mystery block quilt, six months of blocks left - and then there’s the assembling. I think it’s going to look really special, but there’s a while to go yet!

Join me next month to see how I get on with the next mystery block, and check out my previous posts for my mystery block quilt or the charity quilts made from the test blocks.

Post Comment Love 8 - 10 August

Hello there, and welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a relaxed, friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love.

Please don’t link up posts which are older as they will be removed, and if you see older posts are linked then please don’t feel that it’s necessary to comment on those. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

It’s been another relaxed and easy going week here, both in real life and and on my blog with planned schedules taking a back seat. That said it feels like we’ve still accomplished much. I was at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham last Saturday - and wow! - my first visit, and definitely not my last, but so many amazing quilts!

And while I ponder those and all the posts I’m planning to share, I’ll leave you with this more serene and calm view from our village post box. I’d popped out Monday evening to post an impromptu letter, and couldn’t help but stop and admire - and snap - this view. Even though it looks as if one of the trees may have experienced some damage in the recent winds, it’s still a pretty perfect view isn’t it?

Have a great week.

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A Raspberry Plus

I’ve made another quilt as part of my quilting ‘stretch’ project using the block from Sherri at A Quilting Life’s mystery block a month. As I said then I don’t know if I’ll manage to make a quilt a month, but I won’t really know unless I try…

I’m beginning to think this stretch project was a daft idea.

Though I know it’s a self imposed challenge, I’m not ready to give up or make compromises just yet. To catch up, i.e. to make the July and August blocks that Sherri has released I just need a few days to sew, and that’s no bad thing. I’m yet to convince MOH, but I’m still working on it!

But I don’t like to be beaten, so I’m continuing.

My eighth charity quilt

This month I definitely wanted some calmer colours, but had no set ideas when I looked in my fabric stash. These were the colours that called to me this month.

Quite a pleasing caramelly raspberry infusion. The fabrics are mostly fat quarters which I’ve acquired from various de-stashing events, along with two old shirts - one mine, the plain raspberry colour, and the other MOH’s the pink/white small patterned material in the top right of the photo above.

The pattern for this block, the June release, is another star - this time a friendship star - and in my rush to ‘be done’ my points were a bit off on a couple, so that’s yet another lesson for me - patchwork isn’t a speed sport!

I ummed and ahhed about the border fabric placement, eventually settling on this layout - which was also partially informed by the amount of fabric I had!

And as ever, it wasn’t long before the borders were on and the squares were sewn together. This time for a single unifying border I added some strips cut from a vintage pillowcase. The floral pattern reminded me of the ‘Edwardian Country Diary’ phase from the 1980s, and I like how the floral pattern is interspersed around the blocks.

I have once again used the vintage single duvet for the backing, which is turning into quite the bargain. It cost £1.04 plus postage from eBay a few years ago, but I’ve used it on plenty of quilts so far - and there’s more to come from this 'costly’ investment!

For this quilt I have once again used straight line quilting. This time I’ve used varied widths, mainly to see how that turned out and how much I liked it. I think I prefer more equal distribution on reflection, but it’s good to try these things. I’ve also used a burgundy top thread (with cream beneath) for the quilting, and I’ve learnt that my lines aren’t always straight, and this notices more with a dark thread!

But overall it’s another great looking quilt which I’m pleased with and one where I’ve learnt more about what I like most, and used the opportunity to improve my skills further. As I was sewing this one I was trying to think of a catchy name for it, they centred around caramel, coffee, wine and raspberry - which no doubt is obvious. But as I laid this one out it became clear that there was only one name for this - a great big raspberry plus, so it named itself. Sometimes these things just happen, don’t they?

You can see my other quilts which I’ve made to donate to Project Linus - a charity whose mission is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children, who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged or distressed through the donation of new, homemade, washable quilts and blankets, including those that are part of this ‘stretch’ project in earlier posts. I’m aiming to publish an update on my progress in the last week of each month for the remainder of 2025.