A quilty update - June 2026

June 9, 2026

It was only March when I set out my quilt plans for this year, and to be honest it seems like yesterday - but one of the things I want to do more consistently this year is my quilty updates, even if there isn’t that much to share.

I’m being harsh on myself, there are some quilt updates to share but while last year’s stretch project took over a bit, I’m finding that without that structure I’m not quite so productive. I’m sure I’ll work it out, but hopefully when the weather’s not so warm!

So how am I doing?

1. The teal flying geese

2. The jeans and pyjamas

3. My floral fancy

The update for all of these is there is no update, so that was easy!

4. My English Paper Piecing (EPP) blue diamonds

There is progress of sorts on this one, albeit small. It’s become my project to take to my monthly Monday evening sewing group, and so it has had an outing and a small update. I’ve even moved it into an organised bag so I don’t need to think about getting it all together before I head out, the issue has been life - and I’ve only managed two out of five of the monthly meetings, but then again this was always going to be a slow burn project.

5. Scrappy houses charity quilts

I have completed my first village quilt, and I’ve almost got enough houses for the second one, so that’s real progress. I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out, especially as these are all pieces of fabric that were leftover from other projects (mostly the stretch project) and might have been deemed on the small side for keeping. And I’m sure whoever the recipient is won’t mind about that one bit.

6. Wonderland meets Moda

7. Word Star

Again, there is no update on these.

A couple of bonus quilty updates

1. My mystery block of the month quilt has been playing heavily on my mind, but now the quilt top is finally finished. After I joined the monthly blocks together and added the sashing between those blocks, I spent some time pondering the borders - or specifically how wide they should be.

I wanted them wide enough to add some width to the quilt so I can use it on a double bed, but not so wide that it looked silly. In the end I settled on increasing each border by an inch, and ahead of adding the final border I did the sensible thing and took it to my patchwork group for confirmation and reassurance, and the use of the floor in the village hall to check it out once and for all.

So the quilt top is now done - yay! Now it needs basting, quilting and binding which for the size of the quilt is no small job.

2 The second bonus quilty update is another quilt, but not one made by me. Mum decided to use up some of her charm packs and make a quilt to donate to Project Linus, which I’ll take along with me when I donate mine.

Isn’t it bright and cheery - I love it (but will still donate it, honest)

So there has been quilty progress against my long list, and none of it has been a chore - I just need to work out how to do more with my sewing time, and to make time for more sewing time!

My first village quilt

May 11, 2026

I knew that I wouldn’t be making quite so many charity quilts this year (after all one a month is quite a lot!) but I didn’t think it would take until now for me to finish my first charity quilt of the year. I guess that’s partly down to life, but also not having the defined structure that I had last year with the mystery block of the month.

Earlier in the year I decided to try and use as many scraps as I could for these charity quilts, and this cute ‘village’ pattern by Sherri from A Quilting Life looked like it could be just the thing, as I mentioned when I posted my quilt plans for this year.

And with my tin of scraps I’ve been diligently making little scrappy houses, thoroughly loving the process of matching fabrics together.

I’ve taken the tin of scraps to a few sewing and patchwork group sessions and my houses were starting to accumulate. Which got me to wondering how many houses make a small village.

There was one way to find out, and as I’m a visual person (no surprises there!) I laid them out on top of my last charity quilt to gauge my progress. Well it worked for me!

And it gave me the spur to complete the last five or so I needed to equal(ish) the size of my previous quilts.

It wasn’t long before my village assembled, and acquired additional borders.

While I still love the look and process for straight line quilting, I wanted to try something different for this quilt. Partly because I’m wondering how straight line quilting would work for my larger mystery block of the month quilt, both practically and design-wise, or if something with more curves would be better suited to the mostly log cabin quilt.

But anyway without knowing more about wavy quilting I didn’t feel informed enough to make that decision, so I’ve wavy quilted this village using one of the preset stitches on my machine.

And I quite like how the wavy quilting turned out.

I also love how the scrappy houses have come together to form the perfect little village and I know that this design was the right choice for my charity quilts for this year. Isn’t it cute?

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.

A year of my 'stretch' project

March 2, 2026

Around this time last year I rather foolishly (with hindsight!) set myself what I said at the time was a ‘potentially crazy project’ as part of my quilt plans for 2025. It was borne out of wanting to make use of the test blocks I was determined to make so that my mystery block of the month quilt would be the best it could be.

The thing about setting myself this challenge, however crazy it seemed, was that it became a thing that I didn’t want to fail at, even though back then, and every month since, I said I wouldn’t know if I could do it unless I tried…

Well I tried, and I succeeded!

Not only have I made the equivalent of a quilt a month for charity, I’ve also improved my sewing skills and sewing confidence too. I hoped that I would also sew through my stash rather more than I have, and while I clearly have shifted a fair bit of fabric, I’m very much of the opinion that scraps of fabric breed when you’re not looking!

Seriously.

But I have a plan for dealing with that in 2026, as you knew I would, but more of that another day.

My ‘stretch’ project quilts

These quilts aren’t the largest quilts, but the are big enough to give a quilt-sized hug to children that need one. They have been/will be donated to Project Linus who provide quilts to children who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged or distressed through the donation of new, handmade, washable quilts and blankets.

They are:

PICTURED (FROM BOTTOM): BLUES AND GREENS, MARMALADE HEARTS, OHIO FLOWER GARDEN, MY DRESDEN BUTTERCUP AND STARS AND SPOTS WHICH ARE WAITING TO BE DONATED TO PROJECT LINUS

Lesson learned

I am proud to have finished all of these quilts and to donate them to charity, but I won’t be setting myself any such similar challenges for this year, though I will still continue to make quilts for charity. What I found was that this was the focus of my sewing time, and it meant that I didn’t spend anywhere near as much time as I hoped on the other quilts on my list, or on garment sewing - though of course, I found there’s always time to make a pouch or two!