Making my Mystery Block of the Month: November 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 thirteenth charity quilt, today - a little later than normal - I’m sharing the centre block I made for my own quilt.

Despite being pleased with how I’d previously conquered this block for my charity quilt, it wasn’t until yesterday that I cut out and made my own block. And then I quickly remembered that it wasn’t anywhere near as daunting as my mind would have me believe!

I’d been playing with the colour options for my blocks but in the end settled on these, though I did intentionally switch the placement at the last minute when I realised the cream fabric would look better framed with the darker fabric.

I was even more pleased to discover that previous me had already cut the interfacing for the quarter circle - that saved me some time, and once I got started the quarter Dresden block came together quickly.

For my test blocks, and subsequent charity quilt, I’d tested out various stitches to attach the petals to the backing square. And while these worked well, in the end I decided to stick with a plain stitch, but opted to stitch as close to the edge as I could. That turned out to be pretty close in the end with the sewing machine going oh so slowly!

I’m really pleased with how it turned out, though as I started to add the borders I remembered to check and decide which way I wanted the quadrant to face, and typically it wasn’t the way I’d set up in the photo above.

It’s been a while since I’ve used the original green fabrics for the borders so there was lots of checking and double checking to make sure I was adding them in the same way as before to avoid any unecessary unpicking.

Before I knew it the eleventh block of my mystery block quilt was completed, so there’s just one more block to go - and that final charity quilt of this series. I’ve not started it yet, but it is another star. After that there’ll be more decisions on how to finish the quilt - I’m looking forward to seeing it all laid out together, it’s been a long time coming!

Join me hopefully soon 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.

Other makes of 2025

I quite enjoyed recapping my Quilts of 2025, so I thought I’d do the same with my other (sewing) makes of the year. You’ll not be surprised to learn that there’s a lot of pouches - my love for them continues, and I think there’ll be plenty more this year too.

But I did make more than pouches, there’s even been a dress and a pie-carrier, and plenty of embroidery thrown in. Many of the things I’ve made have had previous lives - as t-shirts, dresses and even covering a headboard. Seriously. There’s been small fabric samples too, and I’ve even used materials cut out from the larger books, and I’ve already found a use for the sample books I picked up at the Harrogate show in November.

I’m hoping that in 2026 I’ll have even more ‘other makes’ but first let’s look back at my 2025 makes.

Here’s what I’ve made in 2025

In January I completed my mandala pouch which continues to be home for my poppers, and all the tools associated with that. I also found time to add some sparkles to my zumba pouch (I’m still missing that class which stopped in the summer - sad face!) and knocked myself up a quick felt pencil case for some of the supplies I needed to take along to a workshop.

In February there were more pouches, obviously and I made an appliquéd velvet pouch and a impromptu saucepan saver as I discovered how to use my new sewing machine. And then making use of a block left over from the Noughts and Crosses quilt, I made myself the ‘all the patterns’ project bag.

Then it seemed I had an ‘other makes’ rest for a few months, as it wasn’t until June that I completed my next make - and that was a big one for me, it was my dress.

Let’s gloss over the fact that I’d bought some material (still not used) to make this dress back in 2023 though! This was the toile, or test run of the pattern, which if it didn’t work then I’d never have to wear, and I wouldn’t have spoiled my lovely bought fabric either. But as it turned out I have worn this dress, quite a lot in fact, and it continues to bring compliments which is also nice.

Even better it still hasn’t fallen apart. But I’ve not yet made it in the original material, nor some of the other material I’ve bought since either. Maybe 2026 is the year…

In July I was making things up again and created a really useful velvet box pouch from various fabric samples I’d collected over the years. This one’s purpose is to keep the foot pedal of my ‘take to’ machine safe during journeys, and to stop it banging against my second new sewing machine of the year.

The end of the month saw me create an incremental update for dad’s birthday bunting - I hadn’t worked out how to attach it to the original banner, but then again I also reckoned that really wasn’t my problem!

In August, inspired by the workshop I attended at the Festival of Quilts I stitched two kantha inspired landscape scenes, including one with a hare for the bedside tables in our spare rooms.

Though clearly by now I was experiencing some pouch withdrawal symptoms - but don’t worry another eight were to be completed by the end of August, and I jest but they were the perfect project to get used to my ‘take to’ sewing machine, and well, pouches are always useful. I don’t know where they go, but the pile soon disappears!

Actually I made another project bag as well in August, but I haven’t shared that one here yet so when I do - I’ve another one on the go as part of the ‘set’ - I’ll add a link in here.

In September I was clearly busy finishing quilts, so it wasn’t until October that I became obsessed with and made myself a small pie carrier, and while it’s a bit smaller than I’d like it’s still useful. I still need to make myself a slightly larger, less prototype version, so that should be along this year too at some point.

In October I also had a bout of repurposing old clothes into, yes you’ve guessed it, more pouches and project bags - and this is definitely something that will continue this year.

I ended the year with some more Christmassy items - a Scandinavian folded fabric star which tested my ability to follow instructions, and several ‘sheep in Christmas jumper’ Christmas cards, as you do.

And of course, some more pouches - this time as presents, so add three pouches and a further project bag to my year’s ‘other’ makes. Not a bad year at all, and I’m hoping that 2026 is even more prolific - with maybe even a new style of pouch too, who knows?!

Quilts of 2025

Today I’m sharing the quilts I’ve finished in 2025, and I mean completely finished. There’s more that I’ve started but haven’t quite finished yet so I’m not including those. This year I’ve made a lot more quilts than I have ever done before, let alone in one year and so I’m proud of that, and you never know this could be the start of a whole new annual series here on my blog. Actually, I’d be pretty happy about that.

Twelve completed quilts, but not one a month

This year I’ve completely finished twelve quilts, all of them for charity. My most prolific month with three finished quilts was September, while I managed to complete zero in May and December! But that’s life hey?

So let’s have a quick recap of those quilts.

January started with a Noughts and Crosses quilt, the crosses were left over blocks from a previous Great Granny Quilt top (which so far has remained unfinished) and they were paired with some blocks I made to test sewing on a curve, and if I could cope with making enough for a quilt. In case you’re wondering I could, but so far I haven’t!

In February it was the Log Cabin Log Cabin, whose name still makes me smile. The log cabin centres were test blocks for my mystery block of the month quilt - and it was this that set me onto the slightly mad ‘stretch’ project of making a quilt a month for charity from these test blocks.

February’s Log Cabin Log Cabin

In March I opted for a blue and green theme for the Mostly Repurposed Vintage Star quilt, which I think only the white/navy flowered material was new. At this point I was unsure in which direction the mystery block of the month quilt would take me.

April’s finished quilt saw hearts as the centre block, and so this Four Hearts and a Hug quilt was always going to be pink, and as it turned out, riotously so!

That meant my eyes needed a break, so The Friendly Bee quilt I completed in June was just the thing and used two different bee fabrics I picked up at my Sewing Group’s stash sale.

The calm colours didn’t last long though, and colour broke through for the Pleated Tulips I finished in July, though the Aztec patterned border gave me a bit of headache, until I added the grey border which immediately stopped the zig zags looking too unruly.

For August’s Raspberry Plus finisher I played with the layout, opting for a plus, or cross, layout for the first but not the last time.

While September was my most prolific month for completing quilts, it didn’t stop my creativity or optimism. For this Half the Scraps quilt, which was renamed from All the Scraps while I was making it, I also decided to try quilting in a circle - it was way harder than I expected it to be, and I’ll not be trying that again for a while!

In September I went along to a Project Linus charity quilt day hosted by my now Patchwork Group, and during the day I made the majority of this baby-sized Paddington quilt in a snowball pattern. I was disappointed not to get it completely finished on the day, but it didn’t take me that long to complete once I was home. I shared more about this quilt, and the ones I donated, in my September Quilty Update.

For my third completed quilt of the month I was back raiding the Blues and Greens in my stash, clearly needing another break from the pinks. This one also used scraps leftover from previous quilts, but with the addition of some other fabrics from my stash. And by now, I was firmly entrenched in the straight line quilting - I think it works particularly well with this quilt.

October’s completed quilt was one that the central block challenged me unnecessarily, though partly because I switched machines part-way through. That resulted in completely mismatched seams for one of the central test blocks, so that was binned and a new one made - I guess that’s the purpose of test blocks, and you’d never know in the resulting Marmalade Hearts quilt, would you?

Which brings me onto the last completed quilt of 2025 - the Ohio Flower Garden - and another that I’ve played with the layout of and have used all floral fabric, and there’s a lot but I think it turned out well.

So it was quite a year in quilts, and I’ve learnt lots including:

  • Test blocks are always a good idea, but a quilt a month is a lot to keep up with (in shocking news!)

  • I’ve used a lot of my stash, but I’ve created a lot more scraps I could use too.

  • I’m a fan of straight line quilting, though quite often my lines could be straighter - I’ve a plan for that though.

  • I should aim to get a better final shot of the completed quilts, I much prefer those from the start of the year on the sofa or the trellis, something for me to remember for this year!

And I’ve plenty more to come this year, with at least two from my initial list hopefully completed in the first part of 2026.

Hopefully.

But I’ve a couple more charity quilts and blocks of the month to complete right now, so I’ve plenty to crack on with.