Making my Mystery Block of the Month: October 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 twelfth charity quilt, today I’m sharing the centre block I made for my own quilt.

As I said yesterday I’m a fan of this block, and making it for my own quilt didn’t change my mind on that.

As it’s a ‘star block month’ that meant I’d be using the navy blue fabrics from the range I’ve chosen for this quilt, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to use a selection of the three available, or just one. I knew from my blocks yesterday, and from the examples from Sherri that the triangle next to the inner square looked best if it was a lighter colour, and so I branched out a bit and opted for a non-navy fabric.

With that decision made I decided to go for a single navy fabric for the block - my gut instinct was to use this green and pink patterned fabric as I felt I hadn’t used that much. And once I’d finished the block I knew that was the right call as laid alongside the blocks that will be closest to it, that fabric didn’t appear. Phew.

Not only did the block come together quickly, despite the numerous triangles, it was one that seemed to match and keep its points without too much work on my part - maybe that’s why I liked it?!

But it’s done, and pressed and is now hanging alongside the previous month’s blocks. There’s just two more blocks to go, and then the real work of assembling and finishing the quilt starts. I’ve read today that Sherri will be sharing more about finishing the quilt next week, as well as the final block, so it’ll be good to see what’s in store - and I must remember to factor in actually finishing this quilt into my quilt plans for next year!

Join me next month 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.

Ohio flower garden

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…

And I really enjoyed making this one.

This month I’m sharing my twelfth charity quilt and my new pile is now growing, since the first nine have now been donated to the Mansfield Coordinator of Project Linus UK.

My twelfth charity quilt

This month I decided to embrace the pinks and everything floral - after a couple of months avoiding pink, it felt good to let the pink roll! The Ohio Star block looked similar but different to one I’d completed earlier in this challenge, and when I looked back it was the friendly bee quilt it reminded me of.

I think all of these fabrics have made appearances in previous charity quilts and as you can see - it was destined to be full of florals, with lots of pink.

Making the central block

The Ohio Star block requires lots of squares cut into triangles and then sewn back together again, and despite it sounding (and looking) complicated it came together relatively quickly - and the individual stages looked pretty on my cutting board too.

Adding borders

I randomly laid the blocks out after adding the first log cabin border and really liked the position of the darker burgundy fabric, and so that became the layout I was working too, although it meant I needed to make some adjustments when adding a final border so that it remained balanced to the eye.

As soon as I saw the layout above, and especially the daisy which had placed itself quite unintentionally right in the centre of the quilt, that was the layout for me. I’d love to say it was planned this way, but it wasn’t!

It’s a really effective central block and one that I enjoyed making, so I can see more Ohio stars in my future. And with all these floral patterns, it really did remind me of a flower garden so this month finding a name was easy.

That’s twelve, but that isn’t it!

You may be thinking that now that’s the twelfth charity quilt, that’s my stretch project finished for the year. You’d be wrong - this is only the October edition of the Mystery Block quilt I’m making, so I’ve a further two quilts to go before I complete this challenge. It does mean that I’ll be making fourteen charity quilts in total but the first two that I shared were not part of the mystery block challenge. I always knew this would hopefully be the case, but I also knew that it’d give me a two month leeway if I needed it!

I have the November block and that’s currently doing its best to intimidate me a little, but I’m sure once I actually start it I’ll be fine…

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.

My pie carrier prototype

Sometimes things unplanned happen, and just have to be acted upon. I mean, I never knew I needed let alone wanted a patchwork pie carrier, but when things collide at just the right time you just have to go with it.

Let me explain.

Scrolling Instagram a post from @suzyquilts for a quilted pie carrier caught my eye, I looked a little closer before thinking that I’d quite like one, and then how hard can it be. Which as we know is dangerous.

So I dived into my stash and emerged with a gloriousness of pink, butterflies and fruit.

And at around the same time my love for flying geese was reawakened with the Cloud Nine block by Debbie Maddie in the Moda Blockhead emails which I’m subscribed to and rarely act upon. I was smitten, and realised I could combine my new yearning for a pie carrier with this Moda block, and then I really would be on cloud nine.

Assembling the block

Well this was the easy part as I had instructions (yes, I still hadn’t bought the pie carrier pattern), and after a morning sewing group session I was well on the way to finishing the Cloud Nine block.

It’s busy, but I thought that will hide any spills when it gets used - practical and honest! And mostly I’m happy with it - if I were to use these fabrics again I think I’d make some changes to the flying geese (outer row) block on the top left - there’s not quite enough contrast between the two fabrics I’ve used. But I decided to live it with and carry on - it’s only a pie carrier after all.

I also knew I’d need to add some borders to my square to give it a chance of being big enough, and it’s at this point that the patterns all went a bit crazy, but I was ok with that, as I said it’s a pie carrier and honestly it will get some use, but only occasionally.

I followed loosely Madam Sew’s pie carrier tutorial , adapting things such as the corner handle length, and decided to pin it together to see how it might work.

Phew. It was looking as if it might work…

I also decided to ‘bag’ my square rather than sew the wadding to either the top or bottom fabric, and I’d remembered to add in and secure the corner loops before I connected the top, wadding and backing layers.

I even remembered there were pins in evidence when I turned it through, which was something.

And it still looked like it might work (the longer ‘handle’ strap is still pinned on in this photo).

Adding some detail

With my newfound Bernina BSR skills and keen to practice them at home relatively soon after my training day I decided to add some machine stitched detail to the central butterfly. Tracing the outline of the wings, body and markings freehand.

It’s easier to see where I went on the backing side - and I’m pleased with that, especially given it was the first time I tried it on my machine for real.

That only left the longer handle to attach, and with plenty of securing stitches that’s just what I did.

And it works, just. I’d forgotten to allow enough for a seam allowance so any pie in an 8 inch tin will get a bit of an airing. But carry pies it does - or rather it has already successfully carried a flourless chocolate cake. I think though this one will be better size for my small quiche dish, but that really doesn’t get taken out much!

So this one is really to test the process, and to have a bit of fun - but I’m planning to make another, larger and more practical one just as soon as I can decide what fabrics to use, or rather where to place the fabrics I’ve chosen.

Watch this space, and if you’re lucky I might even bring a pie (or something alternatively sweet) with my non-prototype pie carrier!