Progress on Welcome to the North Pole wall hanging

I posted about this quilt on the Aug 25/2025 post, showing the layout and the first block I did, the Ice Cream Shoppe.  After finishing that one, I started to work on this next block.  This block is called North Pole Bakery.  Another cute one!  The deep teal coloured fabric behind the block is the backing fabric.  I plan on quilting these in the quilt-as-you-go method.  The one that has no sashing and once you quilt it you carefully assemble the block, excluding the backing and then later turn under the backing edges and hand stitch it down to close off the seam.  Done this way, most people can't tell it is a quilt as you go, unless they take a look at the back and see the seams.

This block also needs the circled signage added above the door.  I did the labels later on.  Not sure if you can see it, but I'll draw your attention to the windows, which were done as reverse applique.  I don't do it this way often, but I feel that windows and doors especially need it.  For a refresher, I visited Piece O' Cake by Becky Goldsmith's blog.  She has excellent tutorials and all sorts of methods regarding applique quilting.  Plus, she has many different designs and some free patterns too. 

Now I am working on this next block.  It's only partially completed as I got distracted, as I usually do.  This block is called Santa & Mrs. Claus' house.  I am looking at it now and wondering if I stalled out because of the very, very thin roof line.....lol.  I don't think so, but true fully this roof is challenging, as it is less then a 1/4".  I am sure it was the fact that I had a few things going on at the time, like getting back to work and getting back in the rhythm of work, household stuff and playing in my quilting studio.

So now I have 2 1/4 blocks done, out of 16!  That makes me happy, as I've only started this one recently.  Some of the remaining blocks are small, but a couple for sure are much bigger than these ones.  One block at a time and it will get done.

Take care everyone.

Fidget Quilts

For the May/2025 meeting at the HHQG, we did a sewing day, where we all worked together on fidget quilts.  Kits were made in advance by our Outreach coordinator with fabrics and odd bits and pieces to help get us started.  There were other thinks up at the Outreach table that you were welcome to use, that people brought in from there homes, which they thought may work for this purpose.

For those who may not know what a fidget quilt is, it's a small quilt that has little activities to keep hands busy and different textures to satisfy the senses.  These ones will be going to the residents at Extendicare.  Below I was able to get a couple of examples, with some close up pictures of the different activities.

This first one was from my group.  We had four in the group and everyone did what they could, to organize things and come up with ideas for the block's activity.  Then I would follow their instructions and sew what I need to, to get the block done.  They do take time and planning and once all the blocks are done, you kind of want to space out the colours and different activities.  Our group received a kit that was primarily orange with the bright colourful square grid fabric.  I believe the squares finished at 4" square, for a lap quilt that measured 20" x 28", as these are often used for people in wheel chairs. 

We used buttons, beads, ribbon, rick rack, badges, velcro, tassels and more.  In this section, a four patch, we had a reddish orange textured ruffles fabric, another block has a ribbon that I sewed a little stuffed toy to and the other end sewed in the seam to secure it, plus a pocket was made to put it in. On another there was upholstery trim that was sewn to the block for texture and the last one was ribbon and rick rack, that was folded into a loop and sewn into a flower shape, with a badge for the centre to secure all the ribbon.  I think these are my favourite blocks.

This one was also special.  We did buttons that go into loops, beads that go from side to side, a key secured to a long ribbon, some tassel, more textured fabric, a flap that has a ribbon loop to pull that has velcro between the flap and the fabric, and lastly taking up two blocks is the colourful square grid with a zipper that actually works, and is in fact a pocket that they can put something into.  How cool is that!!

 

I'm not sure which group did this next one.  It turn out great!  Their kit was primarily greens with some blue and a diagonal design.  They also had various things that they used to make the blocks.  It amazes me how the ideas differ from group to group.  

Here is a sample of some of the blocks up close.  We have a ring on a ribbon, a buckle on ribbon that can be moved up and down, some tassel, different textured ribbons sewn in strips across the blocks, beads on a string, and they also have a block with a stuffed toy attached to ribbon that can go into a pocket.  So cute!!

I'd have to say that these were fun to make.  Time consuming, as every group did have to take their quilt home to finish, but a good portion of the blocks were done, so it wasn't too bad to finish up.  They are all so playful.  I am sure that the recipients will enjoy them.

Take care everyone.

Two large leader/ender quilts finished

I've said it many time before, but for any newbies here, I'll explain that I am a big fan of leaders & enders.  I learned this technique from Bonnie Hunter, through her blog.  Leader/enders are an opportunity to advance on a quilt bit by bit, while working a quilt that is your main focus.

How it works is, if I am making a quilt, we'll call it quilt A, I will always be working on quilt A, as that is my focus.  Now, if for any reason I have to take the pieces out of the machine to do the next step, instead of cutting my thread or putting in one of those thread bunnies (piece of scrap fabric), I will put two squares together finished sides facing together, we'll call this quilt B.  Those blocks I just put through are called the ender (ie I just ended my quilt A piecing).  Then I can just snip off the quilt A pieces.  

When I am ready to start on quilt A again, the blocks that are currently in the machine holding the thread ends, is now considered your leader.  You leave it there and start sewing your parts for quilt A.  Once that is done you can just snip off the blocks of quilt B.  And there you have it.  You just did a leader and an ender.  Press them to the dark side, and you have your first 2-patch.  

Just set these aside.  Don't worry about them, just let them keep piling up.  I have a large jar for mine and I don't always have a plan for them.  I just keep making them.  Currently I am making those tiny HSTs (see previous post for details on that one).  If you prefer a theme, you could chose to do a light and dark block.  In my case I went with random squares, as I had a plan for the first quilt I wanted to make.  I just made too many, that I had to come up with a plan for all the extras.....lol.  I most often work with four patches, so as the 2-patches accumulated, I would start using two 2-patch blocks as my leader/ender to make 4-patches and I would set those aside and let them pile up in the jar.

When I felt I had enough 4-patch leader/enders, I started this 1st quilt, back in Jan/2023.  I then turned this to my main focus and started to assemble the quilt.  I made this Irish chain quilt.  I used black as the first row, burgundy for the second row and light brown for the last row.  These three colours frame the colourful chains and become part of the chain as well, for a nice wide chain.  The background is a dark cream.  The borders are finished with the same black, burgundy and light brown.

I think it turn out nice.  The black tends to define the space and contains the colourful squares.  I finished this top in Dec 15/2024 and quilted it in Mar/2025.  It measures approx. 72" square.

Next, since I had such a large pile of leader/enders remaining, I was able to make a second quilt.  I started this 2nd quilt in Dec/2024.  For this quilt I found this quilt layout.  Not sure it has a name, because it was one of those flash sightings.  You see a quilt and your memory stores the information for another day.  This was the day.  For this quilt, I decided to tone it down some.  I took out all the 4-patch blocks that had bright colours.  I just wanted the muted, sometimes called muddy colours, for this quilt.

I used a lighter cream, the same fabric for the sashing and the divides in the block itself.  This block assembly uses partial seams on the middle 4-patch.  You sew two 4-patches plus a 2-patch together in a row and add the cream strip to one side.  Make four of these to form the perimeter of the block.  Then you sew one perimeter block to the centre 4-patch, but only half way.  By doing this, you have created a partial seam, where you started to sew.  On the edge that is a complete seam, you can now attach another perimeter block to the 4-patch, and this time you will sew it all the way to the end.  Continue this same process with the third perimeter piece and then the four perimeter piece.  Now that you have added the four perimeter piece, you are ready to finish the first partial seam.  Start where you left off at the half way mark and sew it to the end.  Sit back and admire your block....lol.  That wasn't so hard now was it?  

This quilt was also quilted in Mar/2025.  This quilt measure approx. 70" x 97"

Both of these quilts, other than the border and background fabrics, were made using scraps that I had.  I often cut my smaller scraps into usable strips and squares for future projects.  I follow a similar system as Bonnie, but I don't do all the sizes she does.  The system makes is easier to start and faster to finish a quilt.  Plus I saved a lot of time by putting through these pieces as leader/enders too.  To start this method for the first time, I would suggest you have a quilt planned, that has simple blocks that can be used as leader/enders.  Don't make it complicated.  Just sew, press and put aside.

Both of these quilts were recently donated to HHQG.  They have donated the first one to raise money for SickKids neuroblastoma research and the second one is still to be determined.  I would like to send out a big thank you to all the folks who drop off packages of their scraps to me, when they don't want them anymore.  It's with your scraps and mine, that I was able to make these quilts, that are going to a good cause.

Take care everyone.  If your are in Canada, enjoy your long weekend!!

Work in progress update - Rhododendron Trail quilt

I joined the Bonnie Hunter Mystery of Oct/2021-Jan/2022, called Rhododendron Trail.  This was the first time I did one of Bonnie's mysteries.  I enjoyed it and anticipated each of the clues that were sent out each week.  This is Bonnie's version.  If you would like to make this quilt yourself, you can find the link to purchase the individual pattern through Bonnie's blog at:

https://quiltville.com/shop.html#!/Rhododendron-Trail-Digital-Pattern-Booklet/p/442910163

I didn't know what it would look like when I started, but I am definitely NOT disappointed.  I'm not done though, as I was not able to keep up on a weekly bases.  I do have all the main pink blocks done and the pieces for the border, but only part of the secondary blocks done.  Even the sashings are all cut out and ready to be assembled.  This is another quilt that I was thinking should come out to play soon...

I made some extra main blocks at the time and ended up making a NICU quilt with them. See picture below.  I have one more extra block, which I am trying to come up with an idea to use it in a NICU quilt as well, but with a different layout.  Any suggestions are welcome.  Just leave them in the comments.

Then recently, I came across this version of the quilt from Bonnie Hunter's retreat participant.  Instead of on point, she put hers straight, instead of the small turquoise sashing, she used larger pieces of background fabric, and instead of the pieced border, she did a simple border treatment.  This version has a completely different flavour.  I love them both!

Once the layout clue was revealed, I had decided to put mine straight, instead of on point too.  You can check out my design board in previous posts to see the layout I had.  I think I will still go with the blue sashing, as it adds punch to the quilt and I already have the flying geese done, however since I was going to enlarge mine to king size, I had a dilemma of deciding whether I should do more geese or substitute the rest with simple coordinating fabric. 

Decisions, decisions, decisions......  Need to think on it some more....

Take care everyone.

Scrap Attack blocks gifted by Guild members

In May/2024, I had to step down from the President roll at the HHQG, two months earlier then expected due to my cancer diagnoses.  Someone stepped into the roll and continued on to fill in the position for the following year.  

During this time, the guild was making plans.  One of the executive members organized and led the project to accumulate blocks, made by all the members of the guild.  This was happening behind the scenes.  On Oct/2024, I went to the Guild meeting and was gifted a stack of blocks.  

The block is called Scrap Attack.  It's paper piece.  The instructions the guild members received when they got the paper piece pattern was to think scrappy and bright, as I usually like it that way...lol.  They really got to know me....lol.  This picture is of one block and a copy of the paper template.  

I threw the blocks up on the design board, the next day and organized a layout with what I had, based on how big I wanted it to be in the end.  Just peeking out at the top of the picture below is the border fabrics that I was planning to use.  Now I'm going to work at finishing the remaining blocks needed.

The following pictures are of the progress, as of April 8/2025.  I haven't really had much time to work on them and got distracted with other projects.

I have since removed the blocks from the design board, to be worked on later.  As a guidance, I took this next picture for a closer view of the bottom half, of the quilt.   This way, when I get back to it, I can confirm which block I am making and what colours are in the area to help mess the blocks together.

I appreciate all the blocks I received and find it interesting how each member interprets the instructions given and how well they have come to know me!  Now it's up to me to make a cohesive quilt!!  I'll get back to this quilt soon.  There are others that I want to get out of the way first.....some of the old quilts.   

Take care everyone and don't forget to take some time for yourself.

Remaining party hats

 A bit of content for this post, a clip from a post of June 29/2022 called Celebrating with Party Hats:

The Halton Hills Quilter's Guild celebrated our 30th anniversary just as covid hit, so we weren't able to gather together to celebrate in person.  It is quite a milestone and we didn't want to just let it go by without doing something to mark the date.  

One of the executive members, Susan, suggested that we make these party hats as a group and make a quilt with them.  I thought it was a great idea and agreed, as did several others.  I did the mistake of saying, oh, that is great and I know just the right pattern to set the blocks...which was followed by Susan saying great so you can make the quilt and present it to the guild at the June meeting...lol...I guess I just walked right into that one...lol.  Anyways, I was good with it.  I enjoy doing what I can to help.

Below is the first quilt that was made from all of the blocks received.  Please view the previous post for all the details.

Shortly after this first quilt was made and presented, I received some more blocks.  What to do with them played in my head for quite some time, plus life happened and now we are in Aug/2025.  It finally came to me what to do with them.  I thought simple was what I wanted to do.  I made four hats to finish the design I wanted and put all the blocks in the borders.  It's different....simple, but still cute.

Close up of a party hat.  All I had to do was add the tassel on the top.  I really love strips on a diagonal for bindings.  Strips, plaids or polka-dots are always my favourite for bindings.

Take care everyone.

The start of Welcome to the North Pole wall hanging

At the end of March, I had a second surgery.  I was ordered not to do anything strenuous.  Take it easy they said, as the stitches need to heal.  With my adult kids on patrol, I had to stick to those orders.  Taking walks or sitting and reading books was about all that I could do at the beginning, but come the end of April I was going stir-crazy.  I couldn't take it anymore.

Then all of a sudden an idea came to me.  I received a pattern book from my daughter.....I want to say about 5 yrs ago, maybe 6.  It was at the old house.  The pattern was a hand applique wall hanging called Welcome to the North Pole by Piece O' Cake.  I had been wanting to start this quilt for a while, but I kept putting myself off.  I already had a hand applique project on the go.  But I decided that I was going to treat myself and just go for it.  Who cares how many I have on the go!!  As a friend told me recently, "at least you get them done".  I do get them done.....eventually.....lol.

Anyways instead of sitting in my chair upstairs reading, I decided to take myself downstairs to my studio and start tracing the pattern on freezer paper.  It was such a peaceful thing.  I was enjoying the process of working on this, and my kids were ok with it, as it wasn't strenuous.  I did also take my time with many breaks in between.  A few days later I was done with the tracing.

Then came the fabric selection.  As this is essentially a Christmas quilt, I pulled out my stash of Christmas fabrics.  As I said earlier, I've been wanting to make this quilt for some time now, hence over time, I had already collected all the dark blue background fabric.  I placed all of those blocks out on the floor and proceeded to select fabrics for the different elements of each block, working with the large main objects first, to distribute the colour throughout the quilt.  This was also done over the course of a few days.

By this point, I took a few days of rest with some appointments.  Once I got back downstairs, I figured I would just start cutting the pieces.  As I took my time and worked on these pieces, I went on YouTube, to the Piece O' Cake channel by Becky Goldsmith.  What a fountain of information!!  Through what I watched, I learned a few different methods of applique and applied some of it to the way that I cut certain pieces.  That's why you will see below, that some of the pieces are cut properly and others are only rough cut.  All the pieces are now cut!!  I moved it from the floor to the design wall, to keep the dog from making a scramble out of all the pieces...lol.

The whole process was so relaxing and that was good for my mental well being.  I'm just not the type, to just sit around and do nothing all day.  As the t-shirt I have says, Quilting is my Therapy!!  I was quite in the zone of making this wall hanging.  I took the first block out on the back patio, sat under the umbrella and started hand stitching the pieces.  I think it took me another couple of days to get this block done.  It's sooooo cute!!

The block is called Sprinkles Ice Cream Shoppe.  The signage was done later so it still needs to be appliqued onto the block.  While selecting the fabrics for this block, I tried to find fabrics to play up on the theme (ie the cone has the grid that you often find on an ice cream cone, the ice cream fabric looks like they have sprinkles on them, and the tree looks like it is decorated already).  Fun, fun, fun!!  This was so much fun!  By the time this block was done, my spirits were lifted.  It felt good to get back into it.

Take care everyone.  Hope you can find some time to do whatever it is that gives you peace and lifts your spirits!

HHQG Workshop, paper piecing with two finished quilts

I've been busy this past week with getting settled back into work and decided that I needed to finish some stuff here in my studio.  A while back, I got some lights added in the ceiling and I finally got around to patching the holes that were needed to run the wiring.  Just waiting now for my sister to come and paint the ceilings.  There's a fresh coat of paint on the walls after further repairs there and the baseboards are now all in.  It's taking me a bit, as I have to go easy on it.  So over the next week, I hope to have the baseboards painted and my sewing table and accessories put back in place.

As I've been busy with this, I haven't had any time to do any quilting, so I am pulling out some pictures from the achieves.  Below are the ladies that attended the HHQG Workshop of May 13/2023.  I taught the class for paper piece and the pattern was a pineapple block.  

What a happy bunch of ladies.  They made the class so enjoyable.  Most of them were able to finish at least one block.  They had an extra paper piece pattern to take home, in case they wanted to photocopy some more, to make a quilt or some other project.  Below is of the ladies hard at work....  Though it looks all serious with heads down and concentrating on their work, there was a lot of laughs and chats about this that and the other...  

Shortly after the workshop, I received this picture of a quilt finish.  This quilt was on it's way to Australia, for a young boy.  You can't go wrong with blue pineapples, and this one with it's orange center and border, really sets it off nicely.

Then more recently, on Dec 14/2024, I took a picture of this finished top.  This quilt was being made for the maker's husband and I think it was him who wanted a red and black quilt, but don't quote me on that.  This maker customized the perimeter blocks to create a border affect of colours that frame the centre and almost look like a scalloped edge.  It's still part of the pineapple block itself, but she changed the position of the neutrals from centre to outer edge and used the red and black to finish off the outside edge.  I love it!!!

Same block with two completely different appearances.  These make me curious....I wonder if any of the other ladies finished their projects?  I'll have to ask around when I see them.  I would love to be able to share them all with everyone as well.

Take care everyone.

Where I left off with the Ocean Wave quilt

The last time I posted about my Ocean Wave quilt, was on Aug 11/2025 called Sometimes I like the pieces small..., in relation to my new set up for moving forward with trimming all the HST (half square triangles).  As I was writing about it, I realized that I hadn't posted about this quilt.  I posted on April 9/2016 called Examples of Ocean Wave Quilt, where I talked about this pattern being on my bucket list with several examples from different sources, but nothing about my own version.

These HST blocks finish at 1" square.  I pulled up Bonnie Hunter's version from her blog under the free patterns tab for some guidance.  Mine will be very much like hers, except the background colour.  This first photo is to show you just how small these HSTs are!!  I have to make something like a gazillion more of these four patch units......lol!

Some of the progress already made are these two pieces below.  Essentially this quilt consists of two types of blocks.....or so I thought....until I tried to make a large block section.  That is when I realized that there are in fact three types of blocks.  The piece with the background square in the middle is correct and gets rotated depending on where it is.  The second block you see below however, is one rotation.  There is a second rotation where the centre pinwheel spins in the opposite direction followed by the outer HSTs spinning in that same direction.  So needless to say, I couldn't assemble the large block.....and.....that is about the time that I ended up putting this quilt aside....

This quilt is now back out and I am working on it as my leader/ender between other projects, plus trimming what I already have.  I drafted up a diagram of the quilt on EQ to get a gauge of the colour I wanted to use for the background, however the colour is quite off.  Regardless, I look at this diagram and know that I will like the dark background.  Note that the white strip in the border is where the HSTs will go.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  Take care and don't forget to take some time for yourself!

A string pieced heart for Project Linus

A recent finish!!  This quilt went together really quickly, as I was making two quilts at once!  While I was working on the low volume string chevron quilt, I was also working on this one.  The chevron quilt requires long strings, as they are on a diagonal, so any strings that were not long enough, but at least 3 1/2" long, were put aside.  In between the chevrons, I would sew the leftover strings into squares that measured 3 1/2".  

For the pink heart blocks, I decided to also use strings for the main centre pieces and for the outer edges that make the heart shape, I decided to just use HST (half square triangles).  

The original pattern calls for neutral squares of fabric.  I just decided to do mine with strings, as I have an abundance of them and I'm always looking for ways to use them up.

The pattern came from a magazine I purchased called All People Quilt and is called Pieces of My Heart.  The pattern makes a larger quilt, but as they use basic squares, it is easy enough to just reduce the amount of rows to make it smaller.  I kept the pattern and drew some reference lines to show the various sizes I can make.  Next I think I will make a NICU quilt for Project Linus.

This small quilt turned out so cute, that I am definitely going to make another!

Take care everyone.

Spring version of the Heartfelt quilt

Introduction: This post is brought to you by one of the ladies in our small group, who all got together to make the Heartfelt quilt.  The following pictures represent her variation on the original quilt.  I absolutely love all the different aspects of this quilt.  Truthfully, I love all the different variations that came from each and every person in our group.  There were four of us that participated in making this quilt, and you will see, they are all completely different.  

This quilt was recently finished.  It is a representation of cheerful Spring colours.  If you enlarge the picture, you will see that this maker adding in a lot of her own elements to vary the quilt.

In the making of this quilt, there were some "reject" blocks.  And again, as in the last Heartfelt post, I don't like using that word here, as these blocks are also worthy of being on the front, but there was not enough room.  Instead, these blocks were assembled in a pleasing arrangement and placed on the back.  Here is a picture of the back.

The first blocks are a couple that I thought were cute!  Sorry for cutting off the points, while I took the picture.  It is not a representation of the maker, just my lack of photography....lol.  I am really loving the texture of the fabric.  So much going on that it draws in your attention.  Like the fussy cut centre too.

These monkey wrench blocks were an addition from the original pattern.  I like that the background fabric and centres keeps the four blocks cohesive, yet the monkey wrenches themselves are all different.  The variety of scale of all the fabrics definitely draws your attention.

I asked the maker to share with me a couple of her favorite blocks and this is what I received.   This first block was something that the maker came across in some book or online and decided to use it here in this quilt.  The individual blocks are called double bow tie and she made four blocks to assemble them together to get this pleasing layout.

This second block, I think is one of her favourites for the fabrics that she combined to make this block.

This was where she was learning to vary the scale of prints to make a more interesting block.  Attention to details can really make a difference in the outcome.

The heart picture from post dated Aug 13/2025-Heartfelt quilt words, also belongs to this quilt.

This was the third example of the Heartfelt quilt I posted and as you can see, there is such a vast difference between them all.  The next one, once I get the pictures for it, will also show you yet again how different it is from the others. 

Dogs and Cats version of the Heartfelt quilt

Introduction: This post is brought to you by one of the ladies in our small group, who all got together to make the Heartfelt quilt.  The following pictures represent her variation on the original quilt.  I absolutely love all the different aspects of this quilt.  Truthfully, I love all the different variations that came from each and every person in our group.  There were four of us that participated in making this quilt, and you will see, they are all completely different.  I already posted about my finish, on Aug 14/2025-My finished version of the Heartfelt quilt, and this version is the second finish.  I'll post the rest in future posts.

This quilt was finished back on May 16/2024, it is primarily blue, red and brown.  There are numerous references to dogs and cats within the quilt, with panels used, fabrics that had bones, or paw prints, and lots of fussy cut dogs and cats.  Every block was treated special, with it's own unique features, but a blog is just not big enough to post them all!  Instead of the words along the perimeter, this maker decided to make a bunch of crazy scrappy hearts.  They finish off the quilt so well!

In the making of this quilt, there were some "reject" blocks.  Honestly, I don't like using that word here, as these blocks are also worthy of being on the front, but there was not enough room.  Instead, these blocks were assembled in two columns and placed on the back.  Here is a picture of the back.

I asked the maker to share with me a few of her favorite blocks and this is what I received.  This first block, which is actually an accumulation of four blocks put together, to form one block.  One quarter section is a block from the original Heartfelt pattern.  It looks completely different when assembled together in a set of four, with fabric colour placement and the distraction of the fussy cut dogs running through the middle of the block.  So cute!!!

This block is in loving memory of her beloved Chloe:

This is in loving memory of her beloved Owen:

I hope you enjoyed seeing this individuals variation.  Throughout the making process, this maker continually added in her own touches to make the end quilt more of a representation of her tastes and personality.  I think it turned out fabulously!!

Take care everyone and don't forget to take come time for yourself.

Work in progress update - To Grandmother's House We Go wall hanging

I started this quilt back in Jan/2016, when I first posted about this wall hanging.  I posted some more from Feb 1-May 24/2018 in various posts.  Then from what I can see from previous posts, I got distracted while I returned to doing more on my Hexagon quilt and Gathering Flowers quilt.

These panels are backstitched in black.  The first panel is the third design on the wall hanging.  I finished this after May/2018 sometime, however couldn't tell you exactly when, as I didn't post about it.

This next panel is more recent.  I started it after finishing the one above, however only to the "Over the River" part.  That's when I put it aside.  When I have too much time on my hands, sitting around waiting, I have to keep my hands busy, so when I started going to the hospital all the time, I pulled this one back out and started working on the rest of the words.  I finished it some time in Oct/2024.

Then once the above one was done and I was still often going to the hospital, I started this last panel.  I haven't worked on this one for about a couple of months now, as hospital visits dwindled.  I'm thinking of getting back to it soon.  I'd really like to finish it and hang it on my wall.

As a refresher for those who don't want to go back to previous posts.  Here is the pattern that I am working on.  Middle panel and bottom panel are done, plus all the pieced blocks and pieced borders are completed.  Once I get this last panel done, everything will be ready to assemble.

Take care everyone.

Work in progress update - Gathering Flowers quilt

Interesting question....WIP versus UFO?  That was the topic on April 30/2021 by Yvonne @QuiltingJetgirl.  Discussion is at: hhtps://quiltingjetgirl.com/2021/04/20/wip-versus-ufo-discussion/  

I have to say that the consensus in the comments were relatively the same, though the perspective of whether you call your project a WIP or a UFO is more individual.  It's a personal opinion and as Liz wrote, "based on intention".  Liz also wrote that classifying something as a UFO, is like admitting that it will probably never get finished.  I liked her definition....lol.

I used to have a "UFO" list and sometime in either 2022 or 2023, I started calling my list "Quilt Progress", which is another word for Work in Progress.  It has a more positive spin on the list itself.  If it is on my list, it means I have "intentions" of finishing it.  

My oldest work in progress is the Gathering Flowers Applique quilt.  I started this back in May/2011, prior to starting this blog!  I don't call it a UFO, because from time to time, it does come out to play.

I finished two blocks in Aug-Sept/2019, three blocks from Jan-Mar/2020, one in Oct/2024 and two recently in July/2025.  Some of the previous posts were from Jan 14-Mar 16/2019.  I posted about the last two finished blocks recently on Aug 6/2025, but searching my blog achieves, made me realize that I didn't show any of the previously finished blocks or if I did, I couldn't find them.  So let's do an update.

Centre double rose with swirling branches, source unknown, completed Feb/2020:

Crossed Leaves, Baltimore Basics by Mimi Dietrich pg.64, completed Mar/2020:

Wreath with berries/cherry wreath, Baltimore Basics by Mimi Dietrich pg.74, completed Sept/2019:

Centre double rose with buds in corners, source unknown, completed Aug/2019:

Blue straight basket with hearts, Baltimore Basics by Mimi Dietrich pg.84, completed Jan/2020:

Distelfink (Good luck bird, my version), Inspired by Tradition by Kay MacKenzie pg.18, completed Oct/2024

Plus the last two completed blocks that I recently posted about on Aug 6/2025 called Handwork progress on my Gathering Flowers quilt.  There are 12 more blocks to complete, so it will be a while, but I will try to be a bit more regular with posting about my progress.

Take care everyone and don't forget to take some time for yourself!