2025 - My quilting year in review

It's nearly the end of the year so it's time for my annual recap. I may not blog as much as I used to, but I definitely still love to quilt and sew.  

So here's a recap of 2025.  

Prizes for Excellence in Hand Quilting and Excellence in Piecing

The quilting highlight of my year was when I won two prizes for my Kokomo quilt at The Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Christchurch.  This is a show put on by Aotearoa Quilters and members from across New Zealand can enter, so I was thrilled to win prizes for my hand work.

Here are my finishes for 2025:    

1. Licorice Allsorts

My first finish of the year was my Licorice Allsorts block of the month designed by Wendy Williams.  I love this quilt because the soft Tilda Chambray colours are quite different to my usual colour palate. The hand embroidery on the black linen really pops and I loved stitching those blocks. 

2. Lightning Strike

It's become a tradition for me to make a Kaffe quilt each year, so this is my 2025 contribution.  It's big, bold and beautiful.  

3. Blue Monday

Our guild celebrated our 40th anniversary and we were each challenged to make a quilt based on the bear's paw block because it's in our logo.  I wanted to use up some of my low volume scraps, so I chose the Archie pattern. 

4.  Baby quilt

My nephew and his wife had a baby girl and I wanted to try out the Charlotte pattern, so I made them this quilt from my stash.  

5. Jingle Bells Stocking

This is a Sarah Fielke design and I really enjoyed making it.  The pattern is very good, but the video that comes with it is even better! The hand quilting makes it extra special. 

WIPs

I've spent a lot of this year working on my Sue Spargo Block of the Month projects. 

NOT my work - this is Sue Spargo's finished quilt

I have all the packs for Critter and Clover (above) from 2023 but have barely made a start on block 1. I do like the blocks, but I found it a bit hard to understand the instructions on my own. 

I have just recently finished House Plants from 2024 and it's ready to be quilted.  I love it but I can't show you until Sue Spargo releases the pattern in mid 2026.  

I'm about 65% finished Salad Days from 2024.  I'm planning to get back to that one soon.  

Then, I signed up to Bloomer in 2025 because my mum saw my House Plants and Salad Days and asked if we could do the 2025 programme together.  She was keen to do it, but she was unsure if she could manage it on her own.  So I enrolled us both and when our first blocks arrived I spent a week prepping my own blocks and then I went to Auckland to help mum get setup with her blocks.  In between my visits we exchange photos and phone calls and we are both up to date and just waiting for our final shipment to arrive in a few weeks.  How exciting!

Now we're both signed up for Sue Spargo's Kith & Kin in 2026! 

And dare I admit I bought the complete kit for Forest for the Trees when there was a big sale on? 

So this is why I hardly get any cross stitching or hand piecing done these days - I'm full time working on my Sue Spargo blocks.  But they are gorgeous and I've learnt so many new stitches. 

Slodki by Sarah Fielke

I also embarked on the Sarah Fielke block of the month called Slodki.  It's quite different to my usual style of quilts, but I do love the folk art from Eastern European countries and I'm going to Scandinavia next year! So how could I resist. 

Of course there's other WIPs in my quilting room, and even more designs I want to start in 2026, but there's only so many hours in the day and I'm very fortunate to be able to spend quite a few of those hours quilting.  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all, and thank you to everyone who reads my blog, and/or follows me on Instagram or Facebook. 

Lightning Strike

Each year in January I like to start a new Kaffe Fassett quilt.  This year I chose Lightning Strike from Quilts on an English Farm.  

When I made Kaffe quilts I like to take inspiration from the books, and use fabrics that I already have in my stash.  I love mixing up older prints with the new ones.  

This pattern is just giant half square triangles but the placement gives the quilt real movement.  

I love a soft, hand quilted quilt with wool batting and that's what I've done here.  I quilted the whole quilt with a variegated Aurifil 12wt thread and I love the result.  

Name: Lightning Strike    

size: 90" x 72"

backing: Tree Fungi by Kaffe Fassett Collective

A little Christmas quilt

I'm going to donate this little Christmas quilt at our guild meeting tomorrow. Each year our guild members make a special donation of Christmas sewing to our local hospital - Hutt Hospital.  

The hospital staff like to make Christmas Day special for the children stuck in hospital for Christmas. Our members donate more than 50 stockings each year. 

One of our guild members passed away quite suddenly this year, and her friends have been working through her stash trying to ensure it all gets used.  A couple of months ago they gave each of us a brown paper bag with 4 pieces of Christmas fabric in it. Their simple request was to sew something for Hutt Hospital.   

In my paper bag were the rabbits, the kiwis, and red, white and gold piece and the blue stripes.  I added some of my own fabrics to make a big enough quilt. 

I decided to make a baby quilt using the Trip Around the world pattern that can be used on the cot or on the floor as a play mat.  It can even be used as a table mat in years to come.  

I had it quilted at Busy Bee Quilt Shop because I was already going there to get my nephew's baby quilt quilted.  

2025 Baby Quilt

My nephew and his wife have just had a baby girl so I decided to make a quilt for their new baby.  

I chose the Charlotte Quilt pattern by Erica Jackman of Kitchen Table Quilting because I had seen a few quilts made from it at the Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Christchurch and I was keen to try it myself.

The pattern can be made in a random fashion, or a carefully planned out version and of course I chose the more complication version.  I managed to get the strips weaving correctly on this baby sized quilt, but I wouldn't try that method on anything bigger.  I had to keep checking back to ensure I had the blocks up the right way and the strips were placed correctly.  

I'm really pleased with the finished quilt.  Hopefully the baby will still be happy to use it when she is 3 or 4 years old.  

Blue Monday

I'm very pleased to report that I've finished the bear paw quilt that I made to celebrate Capital Quilters 40th anniversary. I used the Archie pattern by Penelope Handmade.

I wanted to try something different and I've always liked the Irish Chain effect.  I used Essex Linen for the chains, and an Anna Maria Horner print for the blocks - Coreopsis in Shadow | Made my Day by Anna Maria Horner.  The background is all white and pale blue low volume scraps from my stash. 

The pattern has four size options and I chose the throw size so it is 70" x 70".

 I had this quilt quilted by Busy Bee Quilt Shop with a simple Baptist Fan pattern and I think it suits it well.   I called it Blue Monday, continuing my tradition of naming my quilts after my favourite songs from the 80's. 

Our guild's logo is the bear paw block - also known as the Hand of Friendship block.  So when our guild had our 30th anniversary we were all encouraged to make quilts using bear paws.  Here's what I made then - my Scrappy Bear Paw quilt.  You can read about it here. 

And now, 10 years later we were encourage to make another bear paw quilt for our 40th anniversary, so I made Blue Monday. What if I'm still a member in another 10 years time at our 50th? What will I make then? 

And what if I'm still around another 10 years after that for our 60th? I sure hope I'm still quilting then.  

Sue Spargo pin cushion and needle rolls

On Sunday night I was cleaning up my sewing table and I stumbled across a cute little pattern.  I'd bought it back in May, at the Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Christchurch. I'd also bought a little bundle of wools that I planned to use on it.  So I decided to start it there and then.  

But my background piece wasn't a wide as in the pattern, so I had to consult another book and turn my pin cushion into a jumbo pin cushion.  Or maybe it's more of a "pillow" like cross stitchers make. 

I had fun making my version of the Canna Blossom pattern.  I even used some of my precious Kaffe Fassett buttons for the flowers.  

While I was hand sewing up the gap on the side, I realised that my new pin cushion matched the Sue Spargo needle roll that I made earlier in the year. 

I used Sue Spargo's Tranquil Garden needle roll pattern but I did my own embellishment on the cover based on a thistle image I saw in a book.  I can't remember if I got the pre-printed labels with the needle roll pattern or by purchasing a complete set of Sue's needles.  But it's very helpful to have all my needles labelled in this way.

The wool felt applique piece is one I made before I taught at Coastal Quilters back in 2022 and it matches too! You can read about it here.   I wouldn't even say these are my favourite colours, but somehow I've made three matching pieces.  

Funnily enough I have made another Sue Spargo sewing roll and it's in a similar colour way.  I don't use this one alot, but it's still in my cupboard.

Sliced Charm Runner

While I was at the Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Christchurch I picked up a pattern for a quilt as you go table runner.  

I didn't really need a table runner, but I wanted to experiment with the technique because I bought some Japanese jacquard fabrics in Japan that I think I'm going to have to quilt as I go.  They look like they will fray very easily so this may be the best method for working with them.  

The pattern I bought came with a charm pack of Kaffe Fassett fabrics so I followed the instructions and sewed it up quite quickly.  I'm really pleased with the result and I learnt a few tricks along the way.  

Now I need to firm up my ideas for my Japanese fabrics.