Making my mystery block of the month: February

You’ll have seen that I plan to complete Sherri’s mystery block a month quilt and earlier this week I shared the test blocks which I made into my fourth charity quilt, and today I’m sharing the vintage star block I made for my own quilt.

I’ve chosen the three fabrics with navy backgrounds for my block, and a more densely patterned pale background fabric. Thankfully I remembered my learnings from the test blocks, despite my hesitation to get going with my own block.

I wasn’t sure how this one would go, as I shared in the earlier post that matching the seams on my test blocks had been, well variable. And it’s a great block, but I didn’t find it as enjoyable to make this one, but - spoiler alert - it turned out pretty well and I think it’s probably the best version I’ve done.

Phew. And isn’t that often the way?!

Adding the borders

For this block I’ve used the same fabrics for my borders as for my January block, but I’ve reversed their placement so when the quilt is assembled the greens are together. I suspect that I might need to make some adjustments to the planned layout at some point so that my quilt is wider than it’s long, as I already know that I want to use this on a double bed. It may mean that I make extra blocks at the end of the year, but there’s plenty of time to work that out.

Doesn’t it look great?

I’m really pleased with how it turned out, and like the patterned star against the light background.

And I was even more pleased when I placed it alongside January’s block of the month. I think that when it’s done the quilt is going to be pretty special.

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

A mostly repurposed vintage star quilt

I’ve made another quilt as part of my quilting ‘stretch’ project this time using the February 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 already suspect that the warmer months may be more challenging, what with adding in some time to garden as well as going out and exploring the area around where we live, but that’s the point of a challenge right.

My fourth donation quilt

When I pulled the fabrics from my stash I had no intention of making this vintage star block in blues and greens, but there you go, those are the fabrics that called to me and so that’s what I’ve got. Unlike last month I don’t have a silly name that makes me smile, but I’m pleased to have repurposed quite a few old clothes in this one.

And when I say quite a few I’ve used material from old cropped trousers of mine (from three pairs), an old shirt of MOH’s, a blouse of mine and even some from Hawaiian swimming trunks. In fact the only piece that’s remotely new is the navy and white flowered material, which I bought in Newark whilst I was collecting additional material for the flying geese quilt, before I changed my mind.

But onto the blocks

I found this block centre more challenging, right from the off - but entirely because I misread the instructions. Instead of making HSTs (half square triangles) from the smaller squares I used the larger ones and of course they didn’t come out right. So with more squares cut, and my first learning under my belt I was back on track.

My second learning came on trimming the HSTs - the rotary cutting mat made life a lot easier, as did using the small square template.

But it was still trickier than it looks. My seams were, shall we say variable, and didn’t always meet where they should. And once I’d sorted one seam’s placement another misbehaved, but I did get my four blocks (with variable seams) done, and I’m happy enough with them.

And so with the four centres complete I added the log cabin borders. My original plan had been to add a dark border but not only was I concerned it would be too dark, I also didn’t have enough of the plain blue fabric left, so I needed another plan.

I used the relatively new flowery fabric to add a border to brighten the quilt overall, and realised that there was plenty of the green spotty material (I’m sure this was a 1990s impulse buy from IKEA) to add a final border. This also brought a learning, and tested my patience, with its tendency to slip about with its own free will. But I got there.

For the backing I cut into an old duvet cover, and I think the grey and white zig zags really work - it’s definitely super soft, that’s for sure.

Once again I added my usual scrappy border, using up the majority of strips I’d cut for the quilt top. Looking at those central blocks now, I’m not looking at the wonky seams (well not so much) I’m looking at the quilt as a whole, so I’m glad it all worked out.

As I’m using these quilts to practice and refine my quilting making skills, I was keen to try something a little different with the quilting. It’s still straight(ish) lines, but instead of ‘stitching in the ditch’ I’ve gone bolder and stitched down the middle of the log cabin strip, using a navy thread - a bold move on the pale green fabric, less so on the plain navy strips!

I think it works, and overall I’m happy with how this one turned out. And as it’s been so nice I took my quilt outside for its own photoshoot in the garden! The block for my next quilt is out already, and it’s another cute one - but first I have to make my own block for my mystery block of the month quilt, all being well I’ll share that here later in the week.

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.

Making my mystery block of the month: January

You’ll have seen that I plan to complete Sherri’s mystery block a month quilt and yesterday I shared the test blocks which I made into my third Project Linus quilt, well today I’m sharing the log cabin block I made for my own quilt.

So while I knew that I’d use the Lewis and Irene fabric bundle which I picked up at the Newark Quilt Show in January for the block’s centres, I didn’t know what to use for the borders. I wanted something quite bold for one of the colour ways, as our house is predominantly white, and although I like that I’m also keen to add colour through accessories and furnishings.

But it was the borders that made me think twice, and more than twice really. I ummed and ahhed about whether I should add them as I go along, or wait until the final block is completed later in the year. The pluses for delaying meant it would give me longer to decide which fabric to use and I could be sure I had enough of that; but the downsides were that there would be a lot of quilt still to complete at the end of the year, and the chances of that happening could be low. But I might not have enough material to use the same on the borders throughout, though I remembered that it really didn’t matter so much on the quilt I’d just completed - but you see my dilemma.

In the end I just got sewing, and hoped I’d work it out along the way!

Sewing the central block

Having completed the test blocks I felt pretty confident to try the block for my own quilt; as well as learning how not to cut off the point of the roof, I also learnt that I preferred the darker border colours on the bottom half of the block, and the lighter ones on the top. Perhaps for this block because they were representative of the ground and the sky respectively - who knows.

I’ve also worked out recently that pulling the fabrics together for a quilt is one of the most enjoyable aspects for me, but while I thought these were busy, I thought they would probably work.

But with the block sewn, I was less sure. The more I looked at it the more I was less sure - and nor did that help my borders dilemma. When looking at it again with fresh eyes, and realising the thing that pleased me most about the sewn block (on the left in the picture below) was the placement of the door handle, I realised it was time to try again.

However perfect and completely unintentional the door handle placement was!

And so I tried a second combination of fabrics - one that’s much less busy, and introduces a plainer element for the sky. This worked so much better, even though this time the door has no handle.

Happier with my block it was time to deal with the dilemma.

Adding borders, or not?

I tried many combinations before I made my decision, but as you can see I’ve added borders.

My main concern was not having enough fabric and ending up with a quilt that looks as if it was of two halves. But in the end I’ve made peace with myself and have mitigated this as far as I can. I’ve bought an extra metre of both of the outer light borders, ideally I’d have bought a metre of the pale background star border too, but I was only able to get half a metre of that. So the lights will be my constant, or that’s the plan anyway.

For the darks - or the bold jade green borders, the material is much older and hunting down similar quantities wasn’t going to happen, but I do have other toning fabrics which were all part of the same set. I think they came from either a magazine subscription or a competition win, but I have ten or so of similarly coloured AGF fabrics which I’ll use interchangeably. The colour will be the constant rather than the pattern for this border, and I’m pretty sure it will work.

And so, on went the borders.

I’m really pleased with how it turned out, and I know it’s bold - but that’s also by design as my working theory is that this will be a quilt for our spare bedroom which will have a rather ornate headboard (well it will once I’ve recovered it!).

So it needed to be bold to get the attention I’m sure it will warrant once its complete.

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