A Quilting Life's BOM 2025 is a FLIMSY

 UFO #27 (UFO list) is finally a Flimsy!

A Quilting Life's BOM 2025

The quilt consists of 12 blocks. I did 10 of the blocks in RSC colors (Rainbow Scrap Challenge) last year. Somehow I dragged on the last two - see my previous post. 

I couldn't decide on what color to choose for the house block. For the Dresden Plates block; I was not veeery eager to do it since I had never done any before. As I can recall, I think an alternative block was suggested. I 'survived' doing the Dresden Plates block! LOL 

It always takes me some time deciding on sashing and border fabrics, when needed. Suitable fabric (from my stash) is usually not enough and I'm not purchasing fabrics this year unless strictly necessary to finish a project. 

I dived deep into the fabric shelves and pulled out a red fabric I had totally forgotten about it! Not easy to see on the phot, it has black cherries and tiny white dots on dark red, from STOF France, 100% cotton. I bought this fabric in Port Louis some years ago. If I can remember the name of that shop, I'll go there again! I know that shop has moved to another location and right now I can't for my life remember the name of that shop or the location it moved to. 

I'm pondering about backing. I may do a pieced one? I have a piece of 108" backing in my stash, I may use that one? I'm sure there are fabrics just sitting there that are waiting to be used. You know... Those 'ugly' fabrics! I shall see.... 

In the garden

I don't know the name of these. We picked up a few wild plants on one of our hikes some years ago and now it has spread beautifully. I love it, because it prevents weed from growing.

The flower bud

The flowers stay for one day only. 

Amaryllis in full bloom. It has a beautiful red/orange color.

Linking up with 

So Scrappy

Melva Loves Scraps

Small Quilts & Doll Quilts

  

Jolly Tree Farm QAL / A Quilting Life BOM 2025/2026

 Hello everyone! 

First of all: THANK YOU to those of you who have commented on my previous posts! I'm sorry I've not been able getting back to you. 

I'm online again! After two weeks off due to the PSU on my desktop PC failed. Long story short; DH managed to fix it (install a new PSU), by communicating with our DF and data-guru in SA! Thank you so much, A! I hate using my mobile phone for 'computer work', it is way too small and I tend to lose patience (very fast!)! 

Sewing, cross-stitching as well as decluttering have been done. 

The RSC color for August is yellow.

I did finish the last two blocks for A Quilting Life's BOM 2025

This is #27 on my UFO list 

BOM 2025 - January

BOM 2025 - November 

This is the very first time I attempted a Dresden Plate block! What a pain! 

It didn't turn out that bad though. I have yet to applique the 'plates' to the background fabric. 

Those of you who have made Dresden Plates, do you applique by hand or machine stitch? I've never attempted hand applique, not sure how that will turn out. 

A Quilting Life's BOM 2026

BOM 2026 - July

BOM 2026 - August

Jolly Tree Farm Mystery - QAL 2026

Rejoice Fir-ever block #2

Block #1 - Spruced Up 

Block #3 - Feelin' Pine & Dandy

Block #4 - Tree-Mendous Holiday

This weekend I 'plan' working on assembling these two quilts. Let's see how that pans out. 

UFO #8 (Got the Blues) has to be finished too. I got the fabric for the binding about a week ago. 

And... my 'secret sewing' is done, except for the binding. I can't show it until the recipient has got it (maybe not before October). 

**********

Linking up with: 

Angela at Super Scrappy

Melva at Melva Loves Scrap

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

My Treat: Jolly Tree Farm Mystery QAL

After all the sorting / decluttering I've been doing the last couple of weeks, I need a treat, right?

Good progress on my 'secret project' too, ....and not to forget the UFOs I have finished so far this year! (I still need to take photos!!).

I think I have deserved to have fun with something new! 

I couldn't resist FQS's 'Jolly Tree Farm Mystery QAL'! 

Any of you quilting along?

I've printed all the released block patterns

I'm not purchasing the recommended fabrics, I'm using from my stash. 

I remembered I have a Christmas half yard bundle (Nose to Nose - Susan Winget), but it does not contain any green and it has only one dark red/black. Hmmm.... no, I don't think so.

That means I have to dig deeper into my Christmas stash! GOSH!! I'm so tired of my 'old' boring fabrics! There should be some green, red, gold, and white/cream fabrics, I'm sure. 

Later in the day

These are what I pulled out; white on white background, green, red and brown for the trees and gold for the star blocks, all scrappy

My 'plan' was to pull weed today. This is what happened instead: 

Block #1 - Unfinished size: 11.5 x 18.5 inches / 29 x 47 cm

Yet to trim to size

I took this photo after dark in lamplight, not a good idea. The background fabric is white, not 'cream' as it looks like on the photo. 

 

Christmas in July Sewing / Going Through Stash

 Well, not much 'Christmas in July' sewing has happened since this post. However, some already prepped dog and cat mug rugs have been quilted, that's all. 

I got sucked into decluttering accumulated fabrics and other crafts.

Some of the jeans will be donated and some are cut into useable pieces. I'm not going to use the most worn areas, and I see there are some spots too that won't be used. I will get to that eventually.

My goodness, jeans take up a lot of space!  

Flannel shirts from a DF are also cut into pieces

The small heap with quilting cotton is sorted and some small pieces cut into squares. 

(I forgot to take a photo before I put it away)

I rediscovered this beautiful bullfinch Christmas fabric. Originally Christmas kitchen curtains (cotton). Too beautiful to be donated, right? 

I'm going to make some placemats and two table runners.

It looks like there is a color difference, actually it's shades.

I'm also doing 'secret sewing' that can't be revealed until it's delivered. 

We discovered this guy in the garden the other day

If not mistaken, this caterpillar (about 4.7 inches / 12 cm) is the Death's Head Hawkmoth. 

It's an impressive moth and we don't see them often. We saw one closeup some years ago - here.

Take a look at this YouTube video if you would like to see them hatch. An amazing process. 

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Melva at Melva Loves Scraps

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

 

Forgotten Treasure Boxes - Decluttering

The last week I've been going through my fabric/craft stash/wardrobe.

Particularly one big box mostly containing fabrics not suitable for quilting. The box once contained a 21" bulky television, was filled to the brim with stuff! I don't remember how many years it has taken up space at the bottom of the wardrobe. Every time it annoyed me, I postponed doing anything to it, until beginning this week! 

(forgot to take photo of that box)

Most of the fabrics were cotton mix, pieces from curtains and other things I've made, old jeans, flannel etc. 

Most of it will be donated. I still have three heaps to go through; jeans, flannel and fabrics suitable for grocery bags. 

My intention was to make a denim quilt from old jeans... Well, not anymore! I may make a floor rug, or grocery bags.... I shall see...

Some of the flannel I can use for donation quilts 

and we always need grocery bags. 

Not the most interesting fabrics, but suitable for bags.

A small heap with cotton quilting fabrics I can use.

The greenish/white fabric to the right is furniture fabric, I may use on a chair where the seat badly needs a new cover. 

To my surprise, I discovered these two boxes!

I had totally forgotten about them! 

They date back to 2006!! I had many pen pals and I got the idea to ask each of them to send me two 5-1/2" fabric squares. Some were very generous and sent me even more. As you can see from the labels on top of the boxes, there are fabric pieces from Brunei, Germany, Sweden, New Zealand as well as from my DF Kari in Norway. Most pals have stopped writing, but Waltraud in Germany is still a very dear pen friend to me. 

I have yet to go through these boxes. I even have the envelopes! What a treasure! 

After all the years stored away, I notice some pins have rusted (always high humidity here), I hope the fabrics are not too damaged. I will definitely make a quilt using these treasured squares! 

Linking up with: 

Angela at So Scrappy

Melva at MelvaLovesScraps

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts 

Christmas in July

Have you ever thought from where Christmas in July originates?

To be honest, I have always thought it came from the Southern Hemisphere. Recently, I did a search and according to this link, it originates from France! Did you know? I didn't!

The month of July is usually the time I start making Christmas items for gifts etc. 

Last year, I prepped some dogs and cats themed mug rugs, using scraps from my stash. (I forgot to add them to my UFO list). I have finished quite some big quilts (so far) this year, it feels good working on something small, like quilting the mug rugs (even if that can be a bit tedious).

I have three Christmas UFOs I hope to finish / make progress.

The first two, I hope to finish before Christmas so that I can display them on the wall.

  Kris Kringle Kit - Teresa Kogut (UFO #19)

Christmas Card holder (UFO #4)

The pattern is in French - UGH! I'll get it done, eventually! 

Scrappy Christmas Stars (UFO #3)

Or should I say ongoing project? I have done 3 blocks only. I shall see if more can be done this month.

It's raining this a.m., showers with gusts up to 56 miles/h (90 km/h) is predicted today. I hope there will be some dry spells so I can do some grocery shopping later. 

 

Coffee with Dad - RSC Finish

...as the title says; Coffee with Dad is finished! 

UFO #26 on my UFO/WIP list 2026

Actually I finished it in May, but didn't take photos at that time.   

An easy and fun quilt to make! 

Drums, daffodils, black cat and colorful gecko

Yellow cat

Geckoes and sunflowers

The pink cat, and favorite coffee batik

Yes, I love cats! It was fun to rediscover some of the fussy cut fabrics for the cups.

Pieced backing

It was difficult to get the colors right. I took the photos in the shade on the porch. The bottom looks a bit washed out compared to the top that have more the right colors. 

I've had this teapots / teacups fabric for years. The idea was to make some table quilts (table runners, placemats, tea cozy etc) which never happened. I had saved it because it was 'too pretty to cut'! lol Well, I just had to trim it a bit to fit the backing.

...and yes, I did incorporate the broken handle cup to the back! 😃

The binding is an 'old' black and white animal print I found in my stash.

First blocks made: January 2025 (RSC)

Flimsy: March 2026

Finished: May 8, 2026

Size: 60 x 83 inches / 153 x 210 cm

All fabrics from my stash

Pattern: Quiltmaker May/June 2022

Other UFO Finishes 2026, take a look here

Swirling Stars - An RSC Finish

Swirling Stars (UFO #11) has moved from my UFOs/WIPs list to Finished UFOs. 

My goal was to finish it by end of February. That didn't happen due to delayed thread order.

The thread was finally delivered on March 25!

It took me some time to decide how to quilt this one. Simple FMQ (Free-Motion-Quilting) is the easiest and fastest, but it doesn't always 'fit' a quilt.

For this one, I went for custom quilting each block. I didn't have a plan fully in my head when I started, it was like 'quilt it as you go and see what happens' on the first big block. I liked how the first block turned out, but knew it would take some hours quilting all the blocks. 

All straight seams, 3/4" in between each seam. 

The small HSTs are outlined.

I don't remember when I purchased this 108" wide backing. I find it perfect for this colorful quilt. 

The binding is red and white gingham.

Finished size: Approximately 67 x 89 inches / 170 x 226 cm

First block made: January 2023

Flimsy: January 27, 2026 

Started quilting: Beginning February 2026

Finished: March 27, 2026

Hours of machine quilting + burying thread tails: 115 hours

Thread used: 

King Tut: 902, 911, 942, 955, 956, 959, 997, 990, 1001, 1018, 1029, 1034.

MasterPiece: 152 (bobbin thread)

Free PDF pattern from FQS

A Squirrel popped in and... / BOM June 2026

...decided what I should do with some of my accumulated 2" squares:

SCRAPPY IRISH CHAIN!

I've been looking for the 'perfect' pattern to use 2" squares. I've always loved Irish Chain quilts and when I came across this pattern, I knew this is the one I want to make!

The pattern uses 2.5" squares and the finished size is 90" (2.28 meters). Since I'm using 2" squares, it will be smaller, approximately 68" (1.73 meters). That is IF my math is right! 

Block A

81-patches block! 

I didn't like the negative space in block B, and not the big rectangle in the center (pattern). Of course, that is an easy way to make the block, especially if pretty quilting is involved. 

I prefer to make it scrappy, using a variation of white / neutrals and a PLUS block in the center. 

(I'm running out of white / neutrals, more is on the way).  

Here is the box with 2" squares from swaps only 

Do you see the '6600 dated April 8, 2017' (blue sticker)?

That is how many squares that box (laptop box) contained at that date! 

Each zipper bag has 100 squares. Some squares are already used and there are quite some left (not sure how many).

I prefer to sort the squares on colors before I start sewing scrappy blocks

Layout for one block A; 81-patches

These two boxes contain my own cut 2" squares

They do not include 2" Christmas prints, which I have a lot of as well! 

...and 13 16-patches happened too (all from swaps)

A Quilting Life's BOM 2026 - June

I'm not that happy with this one, but may let it go as it is. I shall see when all blocks are done. Had it looked better if the background for the star had been white, and the white had been the red?? Maybe not??

I'm happy to say 'Got the Blues' is quilted! It went faster than I anticipated. 

I went through all my blue stash (not much left). I didn't find anything suitable for binding; either not enough, or not dark enough. I did a big SIGH and ordered dark blue for the binding! I also ordered a few more of the Parlor fabrics I didn't have.