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.

A quilty update - September 2025

It’s been a few months since my last quilty update and so, it’s time for another update. If you remember I posted my quilt plans for the year in February, and it’s been useful and helped me not add too many more things to my list, despite a visit to the Festival of Quilts in August!

The ‘stretch project’ I set myself is still the main focus, as now I don’t want to not do that. But it’s not just that project in this update.

So how am I doing?

1 The teal flying geese

I’ve still not started this one, and I’m wondering if I will get to this one this year. I’m still debating whether or not to postpone this one until next year, or wondering if I could spend an afternoon getting started. But then again, maybe I should spend that time finishing some of the things I’ve started, or the other non-quilt projects on my list!

2 The mystery block a month

Progress on this one remains steady, and I think that’s mostly because it’s linked to the ‘stretch project’. I’m almost back on my slightly relaxed track with this one, which is great news. Since the last update I’ve shared the following monthly blocks:

I’ve also laid the blocks out partly to see what they look like together, but mostly to check I’ve got the right greens in the right place - and I have, so far, phew!

Laying out all seven blocks of the month in order

And while this looks good, I don’t think this will be exactly how it ends up as I suspect, looking at Sherri’s other quilts, that there will be sashing (or borders) in between each block, and so that will give me more decisions to make when the time comes!

I hope to share the August block later this week, or early next week - which definitely takes me back on track, not that I’ve started sewing it yet of course!

3 The jeans and pyjamas

Nothing to see here, and no updates either. I still think this one will happen this year though.

4 The Essex linen kisses

There has been a spurt of progress since the last update, and the quilt top is together.

And it’s looking fab.

The completed quilt top, complete with a thin matching colourwash border

Since my last update I’ve sewn all the blocks together, added sashing in between the blocks with pops of corresponding colour by the crosses. I also decided I wanted to add more borders, and just about had enough material left to add a narrow border following the colour wash across the blanket.

Then I added a final glittery gold/charcoal border, and considered the backing fabric and binding. I’ve bought some gold bias binding which I’ll use to finish off the quilt, but the backing fabric was more problematic. I saw a beautiful ochre colour material, and ordered that - but when it arrived it wasn’t right for this quilt, even though it was lovely. I realised the backing needs to be bright to really work, and so ordered some bright orange and bright green fabrics when they were on sale, and typically these both work!

Now I can’t choose which I prefer. I like the orange, but I think the green may work better as this blanket’s purpose is a picnic blanket - my thinking is that any grass stains will show less on the green! I’m forever practical.

Actually I think that’s my decision, so you never know that may even be the prompt for me to pick this up again. Keep on watching this space.

5 My floral fancy

No update here either, but in my defence at the start of October I’ve got a day’s training on my new Bernina machine at their London HQ, so I’m hoping that I will gleam knowledge, or at least know how from there, and that that will help!

6 My English Paper Piecing (EPP) blue diamonds

I have made progress here, it’s been just the thing to pick up on those warm summer days in the garden. I’ve even cut into the vintage tablecloth, and while it was never going to be a heartbreak thing for me, I did have a bit of a ‘should I be doing this’ little wobble.

But I pressed on as I wanted to free up more of the small diamond templates, as my pile of green and blue blocks are growing more quickly than I have free templates. MOH suggested I just bought some more, but I have them - they’re just covered in fabric, and freeing them gees me along on this project.

I think it’s going to work out pretty well too, though now I think I may need an additional fabric for the larger diamonds, but we’ll see.

Four blocks of blue stars edged in lime green diamonds, joined together with a central large diamond from an embroidered vintage table cloth

And the ‘stretch’ project

My quilting timetable is still very much dominated by this project, and it’s still delivering the results. Since my last update I’ve completed the following quilts to be donated to charity:

Which makes nine completed quilts, all of which are photographed below and have been donated to the Mansfield Project Linus Coordinator.

A stack of nine charity quilts which I've made and donated to Project Linus UK Mansfield

I was able to donate these at the same time as attending a ‘Project Linus Sewing Day’ with a new-to-me patchwork group. I went along to their day to find out more about the group, take part in the day and to take these quilts along with me to donate.

Of course I started, but didn’t quite finish, another quilt on the day so I spent a short amount of time finishing this baby quilt the next day, so it’s ready for the next patchwork group meeting. It’s not my usual style of quilt, but all the materials were provided by the charity and all I needed to do was sew.

A small - baby size - Paddington 'snowball' quilt started and almost finished at the charity sewing day

I’ve still more to come on this stretch project, and hopefully at least some of the other projects too. I’ll share how I get on later in the year, and with the summer days moving behind us I’m hoping for many more sewing room days, which will definitely help!

A quilty update - July 2025

It’s been a few months since I posted my quilt plans for this year, and so I thought I’d stop and reflect for a moment to see how things were going. In that post I set out six projects I wanted to work on this year, and then added in a final stretch project.

I’ve realised that the ‘stretch project’ to make a quilt a month is dominating my sewing, and so while I’m ‘on target’ (mostly) with that, I haven’t got as close to where I’d like to be with the other projects. So this post is to also help keep myself accountable, and to make sure I change that.

It’s not all bad though, I have made some gorgeous quilts and my confidence and skill levels are increasing. So much so that there’s a further surprise and addition to my sewing repertoire which I’m expecting to post later this week!

So how am I doing?

1 The teal flying geese

To say this one is still percolating would be a lie, it’s on the back burner. It’s still on my To Do list but not close to the top yet.

2 The mystery block a month

I’m doing much better at this one, and even though I’m working to a more relaxed timetable being a month behind the pattern releases it’s going well. I knew being away last month would scupper my plans a little, but I’m ok with that.

I’ve yet to start the May block, and the June block has already been released but I think with a gentler timescale for these few months I should be ok. Hopefully that’s true, and not famous last words!

3 The jeans and pyjamas

I thought that this would be the one I’d start the soonest. I’ve even got as far as sorting out some jeans to use, and the pyjama fabrics from my stash. I’ve recently added another pair of pyjama bottoms to that pile as I realised that the waistband was wearing out through use!

Other than that though I’ve yet to start this one, but I still think this one will happen this year.

4 The Essex linen kisses

I have made progress here - yay! Earlier in the year I’d cut the colourful, patterned scraps into 3 inch squares and even sourced and bought a darker grey Essex linen fabric for the background. Of course that’s not just plain, it’s got a gold tinge to it so the quilt will be rather special I think.

Last week, when I realised I wasn’t making progress on ‘my’ quilts just the stretch project this was the one I turned to, so I was right when I predicted that I thought this would be the one to start first.

I started to play with the layout one evening, aiming to have the colours wash from neutrals through to the much more brightly coloured fabrics. And it wasn’t as easy as I thought, but I ended up with a layout I liked.

Testing the rainbow layout and colour progression

I thought I’d better start sewing before I forgot my carefully laid plans, and pinning strategy. And the next day, before long I was able to lay out the blocks something close to my original plan.

The sewn blocks laid out in a colour progression order with spaces between on my kitchen worktop

I’m really pleased with this - and pleased it’s worked out just as I imagined in my head!

Clearly it’s not the largest quilt in the world, but with some sashing and borders it will, I hope, be large enough to be our go to picnic blanket, and one that’s way more stylish than our current rug.

Watch this space on this one!

5 My floral fancy

This one remains on the craft mat in the corner of my craft room. It’s still beautiful and mostly the pieces are still in the place they should be, but not much progress here.

I’m still collecting grey materials to extend the quilt, and have bought myself a sizzix machine and templates so I can cut out more flowers and leaves for the extended quilt.

I’d like to think I would have picked this one up before now if I hadn’t changed my sewing machine, but I know that my new machine will be make this one much easier to work on.

6 My English Paper Piecing (EPP) blue diamonds

This was always going to be my slow burning hand sewing project, and it is just that. I’ve added some more to the pile of completed blocks, and I’ll continue to do that over the next few months. Hopefully with a bit more speed than at present.

And the ‘stretch’ project

This one is the one that’s been getting all the attention and delivering all the results. Partly because it has a monthly schedule, and because I’m using it to burn through my stash (albeit slowly) and to build my skills and confidence.

All of these quilts will be donated to charity, so far there’s these:

And there is more to come, but I don’t want these to be my sole quilt outputs this year - so I need to work out that balance, alongside normal life too. It’s still going to be a busy rest of the year, and hopefully a productive one too.

Stay tuned…