February and March finishes and starts

Days for Girls is a great voluntary organisation where volunteers make up reusable menstrual health kits to be used by girls and women in a number of countries around the world.  The kits help to improve the lives of girls and women who can't access work or education for one week each month because they have their period.  There are also kits for women who've just given birth.  

I enjoy the sewing for our local Days for Girls group as I know that I am helping another female somewhere in the world.  The sewing isn't difficult, although we do have to be precise as the quality standards for each component are strict.  This month, I also brought home lengths of fabrics to be cut up for the various components.  

There are often small pieces of fabric left over from making the kits, which our group use to make small quilts for the babies born to the women our heavy-flow kits go to.  I had a heap of fabric pieces, both cotton and flannel, from last year's kit-making, which were turned into quilts suitable for newborn babies.  The quilts are generally sized around 30" x 36".  I ended up finishing eight of them in March.  The backings and bindings were all from my stash.  


So frustrating in January when my main sewing machine encountered a hiccup.  My fault entirely, according to the sewing machine mechanic, who told me off for trying to mend my son's backpack strap on the machine.  I really should have used one of the older heavy duty machines I have but was too lazy to go and get it out and set it up.  I ended up fixing the backpack strap by hand!  Anyway, it took a couple of weeks to get to the mechanic.  I was fairly busy in that period anyway, with overseas visitors and travelling around a few local places with them.  Three lots of overseas visitors in the first three months of the year!  

I've spent a lot of time on the menstrual health kits, mainly sewing shields.  And just to get some sewing for me done, I completed a number of 6” scrap potato chip blocks to add to the growing pile.  I need to work out what I will be doing with them.  I have some plans but nothing definite yet.  It is so satisfying to make these - mindless sewing, using up scraps, finished blocks when done, a quilt on the way.  


I'm still working away on the Quatro quilt, designed by Sue Daley.  It is good hand sewing to do while watching TV.  I laid out the quilt on the floor to work out how many more different blocks I needed to make.  As you can see, there are a few more flowers (as I call them) to make for this round, and more light grey crosses needed as well.  It is the second last round so the end is in sight! (The rugs on the floor distract from the quilt bocks, sorry.)




March 2026 fabric tally

Finishes since the start of the year:  Days for Girls baby quilts (bindings and backings) =  7 m; 

Purchases since 1st January:  0 m

Fabric used:  - 7 m         Fabric acquired:  + 0 m

Don't forget that the fabric tally returned to zero at the beginning of the year.  So we will see how I go at using up some of my stash this year.  



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Scrap Happy Day March 2026

I've been all out of whack with my blog posts lately, including my Scrap Happy Day posts.  The theory is that I will get better!  

In the last couple of months, I've made eight small baby quilts from scraps of fabric leftover from making Days for Girls menstrual health kits.  We use new fabrics - flannel for the pads, and cotton for the shields - and there are often scraps that aren't big enough to include in the kits.  So a number of us have made baby quilts from those scraps.  



Recently I backed a quilt for a grand-nephew with one side of a doona cover I picked up at the op shop.  The other side of the doona cover divided nicely into four for backing for these baby quilts.  The rest of the backing fabrics are from my stash.

Bindings are all from the Days for Girls scraps or from my basket of leftover quilt bindings.  Still lots left in the basket for more quilts.  

Each quilt is machine pieced and quilted, with bindings sewn down by machine.  Battings are mainly polyester (preferred for our recipients.)  The quilts are 30" x 36" each.  


ScrapHappy is open to anyone using up scraps of anything – no new materials. It can be a quilt block, pincushion, bag or hat, socks or a sculpture. Anything made of genuine scraps is eligible (including food). If your scrap collection is out of control and you’d like to turn them into something beautiful or useful instead of leaving them to collect dust in the cupboard, why not join us on the 15th of each month? Contact Kate on katechiconi@gmail.com and she'll add you to the list.  We welcome new members. You don’t have to worry about making a long term commitment or even join in every month. Regular contributors will receive an email reminder three days before the event.

Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at).

Kate, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin,  Alissa,
Hannah and Maggie



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Scrap Happy Day - January 2026

I prepared this post ready for the 15th of December - and then forgot to post it!  So here it is for January.  And running late for that as well.  

The double bed top sheet on my father's king single bed was too wide, so I cut a 30cm or so strip from one side to stop it dragging on the floor when not tucked in.  That strip came in handy for lengthening the top sheet on our king size bed.  I like a generous fold with the top sheet over the blankets so adding the beige strip to the bottom of the green top sheet was an easy fix.  Now the turnover is a decent size, and we won't see the mis-match in the sheet.  This solution also saved me having to store the cut-off strip.  


Now to do something similar on the other top sheets for our king size bed.  


ScrapHappy is open to anyone using up scraps of anything – no new materials. It can be a quilt block, pincushion, bag or hat, socks or a sculpture. Anything made of genuine scraps is eligible (including food). If your scrap collection is out of control and you’d like to turn them into something beautiful or useful instead of leaving them to collect dust in the cupboard, why not join us on the 15th of each month? Contact Kate on katechiconi@gmail.com and she'll add you to the list.  We welcome new members. You don’t have to worry about making a long term commitment or even join in every month. Regular contributors will receive an email reminder three days before the event.

Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at).

Kate, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin,  Alissa,
Hannah and Maggie

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2026 - creative aspirations

2026 has started well, sewing wise.  And I'll report on what I've been working on at the end of January.  

Last year, I participated in the Chookshed Challenge and was happy with my work towards the goals I set myself.  However, I won't be doing the formal challenge this year.  I still have some goals, or creative aspirations, for the year but will work on those as I want.  I was away so much in 2025, I didn't have heaps of time for sewing.  I plan to do a lot more sewing this year.  

Realising that I've not made a quilt for my husband, a quilt for him will be my main goal this year.  He has quite a few Tshirts so I would like to make a Tshirt quilt for him.  I haven't ever made a Tshirt quilt so that will be a new challenge.  

We have a US friend visiting us this year, from St Louis, and I would like to make her a cardinal block, probably as a cushion, to celebrate her baseball team.  Once I started searching for patterns, there were so many!









Early in 2025, a friend gifted me the Quilt Recipes book by Jen Kingwell, and sets of templates for two quilts from the book.  I've become enamoured of the Wensleydale Quilt so bought foundation papers for the blocks recently and have started a project box for it.  I'm not sure what colour/s to make it with - I'm leaning towards shades of blue and beige/brown - but have not made a firm decision yet.  There are so many possibilities!  



Sue Daley's Quatro quilt is still my evening EPP work but is taking so long.  I am hopeful that I will finish the hand piecing this year - only two rounds to go! - and I will definitely NOT be hand quilting it.  This has been claimed by a friend.  


On my "Quilting to do" list are a number of projects yet to be started - they are just aspirations, after all. 
One aspiration for a number of years has been to have a few smaller baby quilts ready to give as a gift when the baby is born. This has never happened!  Instead I've been starting a quilt after the baby is born; I do usually add their names to the quilt so can't finish them until after the birth anyway, but I have had trouble keeping up with births in the last couple of years.  
Young friends of ours recently married and I offered to make them a quilt.  They have given me the wedding dress to include in this quilt, so I am now mulling over possibilities for this quilt, likely to be a wall-hanging which includes embroidery from the dress.
I also want to do more dressmaking, so that's another sewing  aspiration this year.  
Another aspiration is to complete one or more scrap quilts, made from the copious amount of scraps I am accumulating.  

So this year will be interesting, and I wonder how many aspirations will be achieved?  Knowing me, not many.  Those squirrels keep on appearing!


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December 2025 - what did I get up to?

Two quilts - for a great-niece and a great-nephew - were finished in December.  Hopefully there is a bit of a lull in the procreation stakes and I can work on other than baby quilts in 2026.  I've never made a quilt for hubby so that is a goal for 2026.  

Lainey's quilt - I'm finally gifting a quilt before the baby turns one!  Miracles can happen.  I saw the quilt design on Pinterest and thought that would make a nice change for a baby quilt.  I've worked out that there is about 110m of quilting on this quilt, in addition to the piecing and adding the binding.  That's a lot of thread - Bottom Line Rainbows and .  All fabrics came from my stash, which is good.  Finished top:  79" x 55".  Finished quilt (after quilting): 77" x 53" 

Finlee's quilt - another Happy Block finish.  All fabrics from my stash.  The backing is a doona cover from the op shop.  So nice not having to piece the back.  The quilting is walking foot diagonal lines over the blocks, swirls around the letters in the name block, loop the loop in the grey border, and several wavy lines along the length of the striped border.  Finished top:  61" x  77".  Finished quilt (after quilting):  60.5" x 76".


Yes, I've used the same border fabric for each quilt.  

December 2025 fabric tally

Finishes in the month:  Fin's quilt = 8.4 m; Lainey's quilt = 7 m  

Purchases in the month:  0

Fabric used:  - 15.4 m         Fabric acquired:  + 0 m

Grand fabric totals for 2025

Fabric used: 54.4m

Fabric acquired: 50m

Woohoo!  My stash decreased by a whole 4.4m!  

The fabric tallies will return to zero for 2026!


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Chookshed Challenge 2025 - final update

 

As I've been away a lot this year, I'm out of whack with my blog posts, so this is a catch-up post for the Chookshed Challenge. 

So here is how my list looked at the end of June  

  1. complete strip sets for blue strip twist quilt
  2. quilt and bind A's quilt (March)
  3. second backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  4. quilt and bind S's quilt
  5. quilt and bind R's quilt
  6. continue flower blocks for J's quatro quilt (January)
  7. complete bunny Fat Quarter Mixer quilt top
  8. Start on Amelie’s quilt
  9. backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  10. quilt and bind Mason’s quilt

July's challenge was no. 9 - which I've done.  A simple backstitch while travelling in the USA.  It is yet to be made into anything.  That will come.  This pattern was from a stitchery of the month I participated in many years ago from Grandmother's Garden in NZ.  I had good intentions back then but soon realised that I couldn't keep up the momentum.  That was in the days when I was working full-time.  


August's random number draw brought up no. 7 - sadly I've done nothing with this planned quilt other than gather the fabrics together.  Another one for next year's Chookshed Challenge.  

September's random number was no. 3 - which I've completed while travelling.  Just a quick cross stitch kit that I had in the sewing room.  It was from a cross stitch magazine from 30 years ago!  Better done than sitting there.  I've yet to put into the included card; that will happen and I can give it away as a gift.  (I personally don't need any more bookmarks - I have a shoebox full of gorgeous ones.)


So the challenge number left for October is no. 1 - which I've done!  Yay me.  I did actually finish this top back in March - see more info here.  But I added it to my challenge list because I could!  And making it into a finished quilt can be on my list of goals for 2026.  



So here's my challenge list at the end of November.  

  1. complete strip sets for blue strip twist quilt
  2. quilt and bind A's quilt (March)
  3. second backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  4. quilt and bind S's quilt
  5. quilt and bind R's quilt
  6. continue flower blocks for J's quatro quilt (January)
  7. complete bunny Fat Quarter Mixer quilt top
  8. Start on Amelie’s quilt
  9. backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
  10. quilt and bind Mason’s quilt

So the Chookshed Challenge year has gone fairly well, considering I was away for over 19 weeks of the year.  I did make it easy for myself though with small projects, and even including several quilts that I had almost completed.  I found that challenging myself like this worked well, and I'm looking forward to next year.  Just to figure out what to include in the list.  


Chookshed Challege 2025 - Deana from Dreamworthy Quilts is one member of the Chookshed Quilters.  Each month in 2025, Deana will select a number from one to ten and quilters work on the project with the corresponding number from their own list.  The main rule for this challenge is that there are no rules, which should work for me as I am away for large chunks of 2025.  For example, if the number six is chosen, and that particular month is a bit tricky to work on that numbered project from my list, I can change the project!  And a goal could be just making minimal progress on a particular quilt.  I like those sorts of rules.  

Here are the links to other participants:






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Finally I've been in the sewing room - November update

This year has been a very bitty one for me, so this post covers the last four months of occasional forays into the sewing room.  I have completed some projects so I'm very happy about that.

Back in July, during a short time at home, I finished off Amelie's quilt.  Amelie is the granddaughter of a good friend.  Mainly fabrics from a fat quarter pack I've had for a few years, as well as some from my stash. The back was made from stash fabrics also.  Simple walking foot quilting - I was on a (self-imposed) deadline for this one.  Finished size:  52" x 77" (132cm x 195cm)



Apologies for the poor photos.  The quilt was pegged (sideways) to the clothesline; my tall helper wasn't home. Also a photo of the quilt top before quilting.

Some time ago, a friend asked me to make her a table topper, from a pattern in American Patchwork & Quilting (Oct 2009 issue.) I think she saw the picture on Pinterest or similar.  Called the Stepping Stone Quilt, it is sewn from some of my many batiks.  I had fun with the pattern.  No binding strips, just a knife-edge binding which I hadn't done for years.  And I didn't stuff it up!   

Finished size:  33.5" (85 cm) x 25" (63.5 cm)


 

I've been working on a few other projects, although none are finished yet.  Here's a few snippets.

     

 






In October, we were in Canada where I visited two patchwork shops on Price Edward Island and supported their economy.  I bought a few Canada-themed fabrics, as well as some Anne of Green Gables fabric.  It added up to 6.5 m.  I haven't acquired any other fabrics since July.



November 2025 fabric tally

Finishes since June:   Amelie's quilt = 5 m; Gail's table topper = 1.25m

Purchases since June:  Canada fabrics = 6.5 m

Fabric used:  - 6.25 m         Fabric acquired:  + 6.5 m

Running tally for 2025:  + 9 m   



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February and March finishes and starts

Days for Girls is a great voluntary organisation where volunteers make up reusable menstrual health kits to be used by girls and women in a...