Silent Sentinels

Although I managed to get my trees quilt finished on Sunday by 5:30 pm, I didn't get it done in time to take advantage of a couple hours of beautiful sunshine we had in the mid-afternoon. Luckily the clouds cleared this morning and I was able to do a photo shoot in fresh snow that we got overnight.

As I mentioned when I wrote about the flimsy, I bought Amanda Jean's Trees! pattern quite some time ago, before buying the main fabrics, and even when I did buy those three, I did not plan for them to be in this particular quilt. However... I am really pleased that the pattern and fabrics came together as they have! Simmering is a good thing, right?

SMGO

So. Much. Going. On.

And it's all wonderful with lots of blue! I've joined in once again with the SAHRR. Here is my post about the centre I'm starting with.

I'm once again participating in the RSC: Rainbow Scrap Challenge with Angela of soscrappy. This month's colour is blue. She didn't specify light or dark so I did light, bright and dark! 

SAHRR - Stay At Home Round Robin

This is the fourth year I've participated in this fun, great for the creative brain activity, dreamed up by Gail of Quilting Gail, when we were all in lockdown. The first year I participated was in 2023, and I haven't missed a year yet. If you'd like more information, click the link to Gail's post that explains how it works.

Here are the my previous year's quilts. There are four because in 2025 I made two, one in the round robin style and the other all blocks.

Lower right, coneflower—2023; lower left, fishies—2024; top right, Arabesque—2025; top left, aquamarine blocks—2025

Each one is so very different, no? Three of those four were built in the round robin style of adding a round around the centre. The blues and greens quilt was done in the bloc style where each week’s prompt saw me making a block as opposed to a round. It’s your quilt, so you can choose how you want to build it as long as you fulfill the prompt.

Project Quilting 17.1 A Clean Slate

The first challenge for this year‘s project quilting challenge was 'A Clean Slate'. Trisha always includes within the first prompt the Pantone colour of the year, which is not even a colour: white aka Cloud Dancer. We were in Cuba up until late Thursday, so, because many American sites are blocked due to the American embargo on Cuba, I did not know what the prompt was until I got back. That left me two days to figure something out. I knew it would have to be a smaller project so I chose to make a couple of placemats.

I’ve made many placemats over the years using this stitch and flip, quilt as you go method that I first saw on Janine‘s blog, Quilts From the Little House. It’s a great way to use up those proverbial ever present strings, batting scraps, and make a useful item.

The Best Of 2025

I 'm joining in with Cheryl for a Best of 2025 look back. I've done my five in a couple of ways.

1. The most viewed quilt was Jasper the Bear, finished in February, with 19.5k views!

It was such a fun, creative-brain-stretching, rewarding make, though the cause for it was a rather sad one. I loved the process of designing this on my design wall once I made the (Lorna's--Sew Fresh Quilts) bear section.

Good King Wenceslas

I had a pretty good month for finishing quilts, especially those of the USO (Un-Started Object) kind. This is number three, the sister to Santa's Power, which I made in December 2022. I bought this wonderful border print, 2.5 metres of it, close to 20 years ago, knowing I would somehow design a quilt with the same Ohio stars pattern as in the king's/Santa's coat.

And, there it sat, for the next many years until I pulled it out in 2022 and made Santa's Power. I loved how it turned out; I had even bought the trees print in the same line to use as backing, and even bound that quilt with it, using it up completely, hooray.

Gratitude and Glimmers #102

Welcome to my post of glimmers (of joy and wonder) and gratitude for the month of November. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color. Thanks for hosting these once again all year, LeeAnna.

From my mindfulness calendar for today:

It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.

--David Steindl-Rast

1. I love sunrises and sunsets, but in winter with silhouetted trees, they’re something else. 

Sunrise