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.

My Dresden buttercup

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…

This one was challenging, but mostly because as I said before December was a lot.

This is my thirteenth charity quilt and the pile continues to grow, since the first nine have were donated to the Mansfield Coordinator of Project Linus UK.

Number thirteen

Well I guess that explains a lot, but it is finished and I think it’s one of the favourite ones I’ve made. As usual I started by pulling fabrics from my stash - and I think all of these have featured before, whether in quilts or other makes. It seems once a piece of fabric has my attention it stays there until it’s mostly used up.

For the centre blocks I used some leftover fabric from the first charity quilt I made, which I’d discovered when I was sorting and rearranging my craft room the other month, and luckily there was just enough for the Dresden part of the blocks.

This was the bit that was doing its best to intimidate me, but actually it was easier than I expected and the instructions I was following were really clear.

It wasn’t long before I had the four centre blocks, looking good hey?

It wasn’t until after I started to add the borders that I decided that I wanted to keep the layout above, and typically one of the blocks had the blue fabric in the opposite corner, but I decided to continue and work with it - whatever it was to be.

Then I had a wobble for the last border on the blue side. The pinker flowery material just didn’t work for me.

I’d remembered that I had the blue dots and buttercup material and I already planned to use that on the back, and it seemed a much better fit. So for a few days I stared at this layout on my craft room floor, before finally deciding it was the way forward. And wasn’t it just as well I did, otherwise this quilt wouldn’t have had a name!

And then December became a lot, shortly followed by Christmas so it wasn’t until the end of the year that I picked this up again.

Before basting this one I added another ‘half’ border in the buttercup material so that there was some balance for my eyes. And that block that had the blue the wrong way round was still the odd one out, but I was happy with where it was.

Once again the quilting was the straight line type - and this time I think they’re pretty straight thanks to the adjustable guide I bought. Not only were they straighter than ever before, they’re also more evenly spaced - and even better it whizzed through my machine. I was (and am) very happy.

So with the binding added it was time to remember one of my lessons from my Quilts of 2025 post and take a more pleasing on the eye photo.

This spot struck me as idea as I was walking downstairs, and even though this quilt would look great on the mustard kitchen sofa I couldn’t wait to try it out. It also gives me a real easy way to photograph the back too!

And if you’re wondering how I got it to stay perfectly balanced on the bannister, there was three very small pieces of parcel tape doing all the work. I even impressed myself with that!

I’ve still to cut out, let alone make my own block for my block of the month quilt so that will follow - and I’ve one more quilt to make as part of this ‘stretch’ project, which I’ve not even started yet either. It’s taken until the November block for me to slow down on this project and monthly block quilt, which isn’t bad going - but there’s still a lot more to do to put together my quilt, but the end is almost in sight!

You can see my other quilts 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.

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.