True Blue Cutting Progress

I had a very productive day cutting True Blue strip sets.

All of the strip sets are cut now.  It's time to arrange them around the blocks and see if I have enough.

I also trimmed a few of these half rectangle paper-pieced blocks for Lupines & Laughter (2025 Bonnie Hunter Mystery).  Check out Bonnie's blog for info on that here.  I am not very good at making this block.  It is taking me longer than usual.  The block assembly is pretty and something I don't often do, so it is worth it.  I'll keep plugging away at them.  There were no issues using my rotary cutter during my breaks at school.

I let out a little squeal of excitement when I walked into the art room -- I got to help the kids learn how to make stitches with big plastic needles and yarn on burlap pieces!  This bin was waiting for me.

True Blue Sew Along--American Patchwork and Quilting put out a pretty tempting quilt along that starts 1/15/2026.  It's called True Blue.  You can get the details here.

 

Prepping My School Bag -- True Blue Progress

I'll be the substitute teacher in art class today and tomorrow.  Big tables, two planning periods, lunch...sounds like a good time to cut strips.  I got up early this morning to press my strip sets.

Pressing these is one of my less favorite parts of this quilt.  But this should be enough for today:

I'll be using my easy angle ruler, a fresh rotary cutter blade.  I just got this rotary cutter on Amazon last week or so.  I'm not sure if I like the design yet or not.  Sharp is good though.  It will definitely be buried in my bag and under the desk when I am not holding it and only out during planning periods and lunch.

The goal is a bunch of these:

True Blue Sew Along--American Patchwork and Quilting put out a pretty tempting quilt along that starts 1/15/2026.  It's called True Blue.  You can get the details here.

I'm linking up at Quilting is more fun than housework for Oh Scrap!

Slow Sunday Stitching

Current project I'm working on in front of the tv in the evenings is the embroidery quilt that my grandma did 50 years ago.  I am slow stitching a light blue striped binding on it.

I finished the binding on my big green charity quilt.  We didn't have school due to snow days during the week of 1/26.  Temperatures were in the negatives and we got over a foot of snow.  Bus stops and bus loops were snowy and icy.  Last weekend volunteers shoveled and shoveled in area school districts so that students could go to school this week.  It was nice to sit and stitch under this quilt in the evenings on our days off.

I also finished all the applique of an old dragon project.  I'm not that in to dragons, but this was something we did as a learning thing at the quilt guild I used to be a member when our son was small.  I'll most likely add some pink patchwork blocks around it to make it crib sized.

Cold stitching... I only had to take the 22.5" mini Kathleen Tracy QA to work with me for two days to have the binding complete.  Here it is on Monday in the parking lot of the school.  I arrived early due to the fact that good parking spots are limited with all the snow plowed in the lot.  Yep, that says -9 degrees.

Here's the finished cutie:

You can find the Kathleen Tracy Facebook group here.

I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching here.

 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2026 (RSC26) Green

I added some green pieces to my Kawandi table topper.  All the little white strings are where I basted to the piece so that I don't have to worry about pins in my sew-to-go bag.  I'm also working with various green embroidery floss pieces.  Oh how I love the texture on this project.  It is very relaxing to stitch and touch as the rows of stitches grow.

I finished my 90" x 92" big green charity quilt this week:

I finished my Kathleen Tracy mini quilt in blues this week.  It makes me smile almost every time I walk into the kitchen.  I know I should be decorating with pink and Valentine stuff, but I just love this one.  It has a wintery feel to it.  With all the snow and cold weather here, wintery is definitely a theme.

I'm linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for the RSC26.

Big Green Charity Quilt Complete

 The binding is now finished on this big green quilt.  It's ready for donation.

This is a rare photo of my quilt husband holding a quilt.  He saw that I made my way out to drive up to care for the chickens/ducks.  He noticed from the back part of our property that I was stopped at the fork in the driveway.  I think he thought that I was stuck.  When he got closer he realized that I just stopped to take photos in the clean snow pile.

This quilt measures 90" x 92".

The back of the quilt is a wide piece of double wedding ring cheater fabric.  It wasn't wide enough.  I had to add a neutral strip down the side to make it work.  It was quilted with 6" circles and cream thread.  I picked red for the biding to give it some interest.

2026 finishes -- 8

Here's my Fall 2025 Ravelry UFO Club Projects:

1.  Bit Con quilt -- Needs more rows of strips sewn together -- size yet to be determined

2.  Rail Fence 3.5" RSC block -- 900 blocks needed/need arranged

3.  Piccadilly Circle -- Need a few more circle blocks

4.  Kite Girl -- Needs sashing sewn and put together

5.  Folk Art Birds -- Need more birds and alternate blocks

6.  Hourglass Mini -- Needs sashing

7.  Maroon Sampler -- Needs two more blocks

8.  Dicey -- Blocks need sewn together with sashing and cornerstones

9.  Fireflies Wall Hanging -- Blocks need appliqued

10.  Tall Shoofly Block Lotto Win -- blocks need sewn together

11.  Sail Away crib quilt -- blocks need sashing and borders

12.  Aqua/Brown HST -- finished 1/30/26, 7th finish this quarter

13.  Aqua/Brown arrow crib quilt -- in my bag to stitch binding at lunch

14.  Fish -- a 12-block RSC26 project -- 2 fish sewn

15.  Scarborough Fair -- Needs more blocks made

16.  Random Blue Blocks -- Hand Quilting -- In the hoop

17.  Acorn Harvest -- Quilt top needs assembled

18.  Bubble Gum Pink/Blue Quilt -- finished 1/23/26, 6th finish

19.  Green king-sized quilt -- finished 2/6/26, 8th finish

20.  Green king-sized quilt #2 (problem child won't lay flat) -- finished 1/10/26, 3rd finish

21.  Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter 2025 mystery quilt) -- in the piecing process

22.  Christmas Memories 4-patches sewn, need more

23.  Noel -- finished 1/15/26, 4th finish

24.   Zip It Sew Along -- waiting to be quilted!  Top and back completed

25.  True Blue Sew Along (starts 1/15/26) -- all blocks made; starting the strip-pieced corners

26.  Kawandi 17.5" x 22" -- backing and batting sewn together.  Rows are being stitched

27.  Cameo Rose embroidery quilt -- finished 1/18/26, fifth finish

28.  King Rosebud embroidery quilt quilting complete, needs binding made and attached

29.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #1 (pinwheels)

30.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #2 (squares)

31.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #2 (HST and a Square)

32.  Classic Meets Modern QA from 2014 -- block complete, need sashing

33.  RSC UFO (six blocks for a crib-sized quilt)--finished 1/8/26, 2nd finish

34.  Betty House #1 -- finished 1/7/26 -- 1st finish

35.  Betty House #2 -- some stitches done

I Found It! -- Cheddar Jack

 I have been looking for these three Cheddar Jack blocks hooked together for the longest time!  

I finally found them when I got out another project.  I put them in the wrong box because I was using the same neutral for both projects.  Ugh...  Now I can move with making a postage-stamp quilt of 2.5" Halloween color squares for the rest of the quilt as leader/enders.

I'm running out of small quilts that I can take in my sew-to-go bag to school.  I think the kids that come in the mornings with their breakfasts and after lunch breaks that are very interested in my stitching will like the cats.

You can find the pattern for this block at Mama Spark's World Cheddar Jack Block Pattern Release.

Zip It is on the Frame

 I loaded this pretty blue/cream Zip It quilt.

Zip It is a sew along with Emma Jean Jansen on facebook here.