Happy Easter, 2025

Stan Leigh kitty checks out the Bunny Bag.

Enjoy the day!

Gettin’ into the FMQ groove at the cuddle quilt workshop

I had a fun afternoon visiting with the Choo Choo Quilters at their Cuddle Quilt workshop this weekend! With three finished cuddle quilts to turn in, I popped in at the workshop and got four new quilt tops spray basted.

Three cuddle quilts finished.

Quilting designs: finished cuddle quilts

One of the finished quilts was made with this peacock panel. The free-motion quilting pattern was feather variations, with a thread change for the border.

Feathers quilted on the peacock panel quilt.

The second quilt had flowers and loops quilted into it. This design quilts up fast. 

Flower quilting design.

And the third was quilted with swirls and circles.

Swirls and circles quilting on this mix of batiks and cotton prints.

I try to keep the width of cuddle quilts to less than about 42” wide so the backing fits on a standard 44/45” fabric width. The finished sizes of the three cuddle quilts that were turned in:

• (left): 29.5” x 35.5”,
• peacocks (center): 41.5” x 46” 
• tiny florals (right): 34.5” x 36.5”.

The cuddle quilts for the guild’s community service project.

Quilting the new quilt tops

At the workshop, I reconnected with guild members I hadn’t seen in a while and I met some of the new members. It was a lovely visit! The weather was cooperative for outside spray basting and the four tops I brought got basted.

Four spray basted quilt sandwiches.

I was so inspired from the workshop, I sat down at the sewing machine and quilted two of the basted tops immediately.

Two cuddle quilts quilted in an afternoon.

A swirls and feathers quilting motif for this one.

Swirls and feathers. FMQ: 45 minutes.

Double circles for this one.

Double circles. FMQ: 1 hour.

After dinner, the third one—with several small floral prints—was quilted with flower motifs.

Small floral prints mixed with stripes and blenders.

Flower motifs quilted on the quilt. FMQ: 30 minutes.

The last cuddle quilt top is from the Make Do wreath blocks that I pieced back in December. I haven’t decided on a quilting motif yet… and all-over pattern? or msybe something that follows the patchwork?

Wreath block quilt top.

I’ve got bindings picked out for these quilts. And from the leftover backing fabrics, I cut several binding strips to add to my binding inventory.

Binding strips from backing fabric after trimming to size.

My third Make Nine finish: mending a vintage quilt

In 2023, I put a new binding on this vintage quilt. During the recent Winter of Care and Repair Challenge, it received a few more patches and mends. I’m certain it won’t be the last time this vintage quilt gets an appliqué over a worn area.

Vintage quilt.

Collaborating with Anonymous

I have a fondness for this quilt! It’s been on the bed for several years. I like its scrappy, make-do, improvisational nature—and that of its maker. While I don’t know who made the quilt, I’m happy to care for it, mend it, keep it in good condition, and preserve the original maker’s work. A happy collaboration with an anonymous quilter!

The quiltmaker had an interesting stash of fabrics to work with for this scrappy quilt.

The original quiltmaker evidently had an eclectic stash of scraps and apparently some yardage (the red and blue prints used for the alternate blocks) for this project. I’m guessing the prints are probably from the 1940s and 1950s. Some fabrics (especially the stripes) appear to be from shirts. The feed sack backing could possibly be from an earlier time. 

Feed sack backing of a vintage quilt.

I came to find out through making a few of the repairs, that the middle layer is not a batting. It is some sort of woven textile or a blanket. Another make-do attribute of this quilt! So even though this quilt is thin, it’s heavier than one with a cotton batting.

Mixing in new fabrics

On a sales call earlier this year, I saw a quilt displayed in a quilt shop. Several of the fabrics had a retro vibe to them… which reminded me of my vintage quilt. Walking the aisles of the shop, I perused all the bolts of fabrics and purchased several prints that I thought had similar colors and patterns reflective of the fabrics in my vintage quilt.

Purchased new fabrics (left). The tiny floral (far right) is from my stash.

Several of the fabrics I chose are from fabric collections that I rep. It was interesting to focus on individual prints and pull them away from the other coordinating fabrics. Taken out of their original context, they took on a new meaning for me.

The mends

Here are photos of the worn and torn places of my vintage quilt, along with the mends that were made.

Holes and worn areas.

I actually had to unpick part of the binding to make the repair to this area.

Preparing the appliqué patches and the unpicked portion of the  binding.

Patched and mended.

Worn area.

Appliquéd patch with new hand quilting.

After appliquéing the patches, I followed the existing lines of hand quilting to quilt, secure, and blend in the new patches.

A Make Nine 2025 finish

2025 Make Nine tracker with the Mend/Upcycle prompt. March 30, 2025.

One of my Make Nine 2025 prompts is a Mend/Upcycle prompt. I’m counting the mends on this quilt, as well as my participation in the Winter of Care and Repair, to fulfill this prompt. 

Now that I have a curated bundle of vintage-inspired fabrics, however, I’m itching to follow Anonymous’ block pattern and make a few blocks of my own. Maybe coordinating pillowcases with a scrappy cuff are in my future. That would be a fun, easy, and purposeful project.

The 2024-25 Winter of Care and Repair concludes

Participating in the Winter of Care and Repair Challenge, held from the Winter Solstice to the Spring Equinox, makes me mindful of taking time to extend the life of textiles, home goods, garments, and other useful items. It also makes me keenly aware of upcycling and recycling efforts, keeping things out of landfills, and minimizing unnecessary waste.

The toe of one sock mended with a wool mending thread.

How I fared with the Challenge 

This Challenge started last December and ended this month on March 20, the Spring Equinox. My pledge for the 2024 - 2025 included textile mends and repairs, upcycling and repurposing, organizing my fabric stash, using scraps (rather than tossing them), and office tidying.

The zipper seam in a pillowcase

Mended zipper seam.

Textile mending

This winter, I did manage to mend a few garments and household textiles:

• mending a hole in a pair of socks,
• repairing the zipper seam of a pillowcase,
• reinforcing seams in pants and shorts,
• mending several worn or torn patches in a vintage quilt.

Holes and shredded areas of a vintage quilt.

Appliquéd patches over the worn areas.

Upcycling/recycling

I upcycled/recycled old paper sales materials and paper catalogs into two Junk Journals. I gifted one to my cousin and used the other in this year’s Junk Journal January Challenge. I continue to use my junk journal for slow drawing, watercolor play, and hand lettering.

Junk Journal made with recycled papers.

Here is a flip-through of one of the junk journals.

Fabric scraps

I didn’t get much fabric stash organizing done, but did complete 4 scrappy kitty quilts in December and donated an additional 16 kitty quilts to two local animal hospitals at the end of February. The quilts were made of orphan quilt blocks [a repurposing effort], discontinued fabric samples, fabric scraps, and the bindings were pieced and scrappy as well.

Scrappy quilt tops for charity quilts.

Two additional kitty quilts went to our gang of outside tuxedo kitties—to care for the fuzzy ones at our house.

Scrappy quilt bindings.

I’m also using fabric bits and scraps from various improv quilting projects in this year’s 100 Day Project, the 2025 Stitch Book with Ann Wood. Here is one of the pages.

A page from my 2025 Stitch Book using fabric scraps.

Office tidying

The response to this goal wasn’t as prolific as I had hoped for the home office, but I did do a a clean-up of my “mobile office” (my car). The vacuuming efforts in the back where my sample suitcases go, and the carpets in the front seats were welcome sights!

Care and Repair take-aways

Jeanna, from The People’s Mending [@thepeoplesmending], is the creator of the Winter of Care and Repair challenge. She wrote a synopsis of her 5-year experience and posted a list of take-aways. The ones I resonate most with are:

• It’s going to take less time than you think.
• It’s going to take more time than you think.
• If it’s worth repairing, it’s worth repairing right… even if you have to redo it.
• Repairing is caring.
• To speed up, slow down. Or, “the hurried-er I go, the behind-er I get.”
• Practice makes better: the more you do, the more you learn, the better you get.
• You can do anything, but not everything, and that’s OK.

I try to remember to give myself the grace to do what I can. Because all the small acts do add up.