Weeks 15 and 16 of Fifteen Minutes to Stitch

 I posted week 14 results late, which made me lose track of time in posting things.  This means you get to see two weeks of progress. 

15 Minutes to Stitch Week 15

This week, I finished editing the Dozen Quilts in a Dozen Weeks video. I have posted it here in case you want to watch it. There is a large variety of fun projects and you get to see their relative sizes. 

Also I had posted earlier a YouTube video about the Quilt National Show if you want to see that. I didn't notice until linking it here that the thumbnail picture is crooked. I have fixed it, so hopefully it will appear straight to you. 

I continued the relaxed pace that I started in Week 14. Cleaning the sewing room and sewing some more Sawtooth Stars and Lupine and Laughter blocks.

I have been very particular with the colors in the Green Sawtooth Stars. I started with a bluish green and was trying to work my way down to the yellow greens, but I don't have a lot of fabrics in the solid green. My older fabrics don't seem to be as clear as the newer ones.  I don't know why this quilt is being so particular, because in the past, I would say that if it is in my green fabrics box, it will work. I had plans to take care with the directional blocks, but as you can see in my haste to get them together, I didn't place them right, and I am not changing them. As you can see in the bottom row, color placement changes the look of the block. I'm not sure I like them, but for now, I am going to say that it is going to add to the quirkiness of the quilt without breaking any rules.

• 15 minute days this week = 7 / 7
• 15 minute days / April = 11 / 11
• 15 minute days / 2026 = 101 / 101 days
• Success rate = 100%

15 Minutes to Stitch Week 16

This week, I didn't do any sewing, though I did clean a little.  Mostly, I was focused on other tasks around the house.  Just doing a spring refresh around the house and spending time with family.

• 15 minute days this week = 1 / 7
• 15 minute days / April = 12 / 18
• 15 minute days / 2026 = 102 / 108 days
• Success rate = 94%

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

I Made a Dozen Quilts in a Dozen Weeks

As we were nearing the end of the first quarter at the beginning of last week, I was thinking about how many quilts I had made already an because it was a good number, I made a bigger push to finish even more quilts. I have recorded a show and tell video and am in the process of editing it now. II will publish it on my Quilt and Color YouTube channel when it is finished in a day or two.

I've shown you a lot of finishes here throughout the year, but I haven't shown you all the finishes yet. I will post them here since I always publish my finishes here, but I want to get the video out first.

I finished all four Dresden Plate quilts. 

15 Minutes to Stitch Week 14

After the big rush, I wanted to take a break from quilting, so I didn't quilt on April 1.  Then I remembered that I also want to quilt every day.  With my rules for the 15 Minutes to Quilt challenge, I am allowed to make up the time as long as it is within the same week. So I made up the time, and will say that I have quilted every day. 

The first part of the week was in a finishing frenzy, and the second half of the week was more relaxed, working on a much needed cleaning of the space, and making more sawtooth stars.

• 15 minute days / March = 31 / 31 days
• 15 minute days / April = 4 / 4
• 15 minute days / 2026 = 94 / 94 days
• Success rate = 100%

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

Relaxing 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 11

This was my week off from the Project Quilting challenges. The new one was announced today. So hard to believe that this is the last theme for the year.

The theme is Happy Handful in which we make something small enough to hold in your hand. My Pocket Hugs would work for that. 

Marsha Cooper wanted more information about these, but she may be a no-reply blogger, so I will answer here. It is not a formal organization or anything, so they can be any size, or shape. Pocket Hugs are little things you can make (or buy) to give to someone as a remembrance of your love and support. You can give it to someone especially when they are going to do something like a trip, getting married, job interview, etc.  Or you can just surprise someone with it in their lunch box, pocket, etc. for a random act of kindness.

I am working on a video tutorial for it, and will make some printouts that can explain its purpose and be attached to them for gifting.

There is a related thing which is more formal called I Found a Quilted Heart, where you make little hearts and hide them around the world for strangers to find. You put a note on it so people know it is for them, and not something that has been lost or stolen. There is a Facebook group where people can post the ones they find or hide.

Anyway, this challenge makes me excited. Although I could easily make another Pocket Hug (and I still might do that), I have a glass cookie jar I got from the thrift store several years ago. My plan was to make little bowl fillers, and this challenge is a great way to start on that challenge. I have also been thinking about making those hanging chickens (prosperity hens) that I saw in a tutorial. I was about to make the hens, but then I didn't want to start anything new, and I started about thinking about other shapes to make instead of hens.   I hope this is a good start to make those little stuffed things.

15 Minutes to Stitch

 I have continued to make progress on my week away from the Project Quilting challenge. I felt like I should be continuing at a speed pace so that I could make good progress on my off week, but then I decided that I needed to rest up so I could be successful next week.

Also, sewing is supposed to be fun, and productivity is something for the job, and not for quilting.

In my relaxed snake, I made the "snake" I made for my Dots and Dashes quilt a little bit bigger and sewed it around the quilt, log cabin style.  It is now about 30 inches across, and I think I want about 10 more inches, so I have started another snake. A snake, in case you don't know is one and a half inch strips sewn end to end. They are from scraps so they can be long strips (dashes) or super short ones (dots).

Apparently, part of the sentence I wrote in my last post was deleted while I was editing it, so I completed it.  I continued to make progress on the Lupine and Laughter mystery quilt, and it is now looking more like the intended quilt than just parts and pieces. Although I have seen posts from people who made their quilt scrappy, I think I will probably win the award if there was one for the most scrappy. I hope it will look okay in the end.

• 15 minute days / March = 14 / 14 days
• 15 minute days / 2026 = 73 / 73 days
• Success rate = 100%

Linked with 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026.

Busy 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 10

 This week was Project Quilting Challenge week, with today being the submission date. But since I submitted a quilt earlier in the week, I felt like my "off week" started early, and I have been busy relishing my time off.

I finished a bonus quilt.  I showed both of my quilt finishes in my last two posts.  Then, I worked on making progress on already started quilts. 

 I added some more patches to repair the bunk bed quilt my mother made. counted what still needs to be made for my Lupine and Laughter quilt.

I made more "snake" for my Dots and Dashes quilt.

I did some sorting in the sewing room and made a pile of quilt tops that need to be finished.   I even found backing and batting for most of them, so they are all ready to make more progress to the completion line.

I trimmed some half rectangle triangles, made some half square triangles, and counted how many more blocks and parts and pieces I still need to make.

• 15 minute days / March = 7 / 7 days
• 15 minute days / 2026 = 66 / 66 days
• Success rate = 100%

I was sick one of these days, and although I didn't do any housework that day, I did manage to get my sewing time in, so I am still at 100%. Good thing we aren't tracking housework!

Linked with 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026.

15 Minutes to Stitch and 100 Days of Index Cards

 

Continuing more of the same may sound boring, but it has been a fun and exciting quilting week.  I have continued making little pieces of art on index cards.

I have chosen background fabrics and finished sewing down the Dresden Plates. I've chosen the backings and bindings for each of the plates, which I needed to piece. 

I still need to decide whether I want to use the sashing fabrics. I thought about appliquing the sashing to the quilts, but that might be a lot of work, so maybe I should just sash two blocks, which will be a similar look. I still need to think about it.

The Project Quilting challenge theme was announced and I found a short quick project to meet the theme, so hopefully this theme won't carry onto future weeks. The Dresden plate was done in a week, but since I decided to make more plates, it is crowding into my free weeks and slowing down the progress on the Lupine and Laughter mystery quilt. I did take a day and sewed some of the pieces so it wouldn't feel abandoned.

15 Minutes to Stitch Week 9

Besides the aforementioned projects, I also made these little things. I saw a Facebook post where they made some Pocket Hugs.  They are made by hand. I figure they would be good to use up small bits of fabric. I will probably make some more of these little things because they are fun.

• 15 minute days / Feb = 28 / 28 days
• 15 minute days / 2026 = 59 / 59 days
• Success rate = 100%

Linked with 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026.

#100 Days, Dresden Plate Reveal, 15 Minutes to Stitch

100 days

Today marks the first day of the #the100days challenge on Instagram. My plan is to decorate index cards. I already have a box, and this will give me a tangible way to show the results for 100 days. I was initially thinking of incorporating the 100 days to the 15 minutes to stitch, but since I work on different projects which are in varying states of completion, the results aren't as easy to identify.

Also, an index card is quick to do, even on days when there isn't much time and energy. It also doesn't require perfection or a pretty result.

Project Quilting

Today is also the deadline for the Project Quilting challenge. The theme was "Another Era". I don't know why I put that in quotes, I don't know if that is the exact wording. 

I decided to make a Dresden Plate because it makes me think of the Art Deco movement.  I have a template and I had been planning on making one for a long time.

I decided to make these with stripped pieces. I made different sizes of strips so that the green would look like it is whirling around. When you cut these, you wind up with two different sets -   one with a peach tip, and one with a green tip. Which meant I could either alternate, which wasn't my plan, so I needed to make two plates, but two plates doesn't make a size of quilt that I use, so I made four plates.

I decided to go ahead and bind these individually and make a potholder quilt with four Dresdens. This works well for the challenge, since I only needed to complete one plate to have a finished quilt. 

I managed to finish it yesterday. The narrow single fold binding is a challenge for me, since I am not used to machine stitching the binding down. 

I think it wound up okay though, and I have a sashing fabric that I might applique over the inside bindings. I really like the fabric and was tempted to make it all one quilt, but I also knew that this four block quilt would be a great way to try out a potholder approach.  

I probably will add the sashing fabric because I like it so much.  I used decorative stitch to sew down the center.

These are a lot of fun to make. Even though I finished this yesterday, I wanted to wait until today to take pictures in the daylight and didn't do that by the deadline. Oh well, since this is technically part of a bigger quilt, we'll just say it doesn't qualify as finished.

15 Minutes to Stitch Week 8

Every day this week, I have been working on the Dresden Plates.  I was highly motivated to make progress so it was exciting to see how much more progress I could make.  I haven't made a Dresden Plate quilt, and the pieced wedges with the many different fabric combinations did add some mystery to the project.  I haven't made a potholder quilt, which is also a fun challenge. 

• 15 minute days / Feb = 21 / 21days
• 15 minute days / 2026 = 52 / 52 days
• Success rate = 100%

Linked with 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026.

15 Minutes to Stitch Week Seven

 There is no project quilting theme this week - the theme is announced every other week. This means there is time to take a break, but the momentum of making the Fire Horse is high, and with the theme being announced the following week, it makes sense to keep the momentum high.

I have been tempted to start lots of quilts. Right now, I am thinking about making a simple sawtooth stars quilt in greens, with an emphasis on teals. I am also thinking about joining a challenge by Reprolover with four patch made with HSTs. I could use the teals scraps and add other colors with that.

But so far, I have been resisting, because I need to keep working on the quilts I have already started. The Lupine and Laughter quilt is still hogging up the design wall. I did this on purpose to keep things organized, and keep my focus on it. I followed along making about a quarter of the blocks, but I ran behind, and then I decided I needed to make a few more blocks to make the size I want. I have been making more pieces to fill in the missing blocks.

So this week, I have been trimming more half rectangle triangles. I printed out templates for Jane blocks. 

To take a break from those, I brought out the Dots and Dashes quilt. I have been thinking about that quilt because my plan is use my leftover scraps from the L&L quilt to the D&D quilt. I am cutting all scraps into one and a half inch strips and sewing them together end to end. One of my viewers called them "snakes," and I think that is a fitting name.

I brought out the quilt and sewed two rounds. The "rule" is that the snake gets sewn into the quilt, around and around, log cabin style, and letting serendipity decide where the pieces land. I like how some of the fabrics turn a corner, but it does make me nervous as to how things will turn out.

I used up the snakes I had already prepared, so will make more snakes with the small amount of strips  have already prepared..

• 15 minute days/Feb = 14/14 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 45/45 days
• Success rate = 100%

Linked with 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026.

Quilt Reveal: Year of the Fire Horse

 

The theme for the Project Quilting Challenge for this week is Year of the Horse. This quilt must be started and finished in one week. This theme made me happy because I had a lot of fun making the horse quilt last year, and the mythical creature quilt.

The rule is to find inspiration from the turn of the year, in the animal, in our hopes and desires for the near future.  I looked up some information about the Chinese zodiac, and decided that I needed to make my horse red, to ward off misfortune and invite blessings.

The Horse embodies enthusiasm, speed and fieriness, bringing a year focused on bold moves and exploration.  While the zodiac cycles every 12 years, the Fire Horse year appears just once every 60 years, making it especially rare. This year is celebrated for its dynamic energy, symbolizing passion, change, and transformation. In simple terms, think: rapid change, fresh opportunities, personal growth, and a faster pace of life.

I was originally thinking of a sold red on a solid black or vice versa, but when I saw this red fabric that I had rejected for another quilt, I knew it had to be in this quilt.  The design didn't work so well on the horse. I had made an elephant with a different patterned fabric and the pattern was perfect for the elephant, but it looked strange on the horse. 

So I just added more applique to add some more fire and dimension to the horse, and I think it looks pretty good now. The patterned fabrics add enough energy and vitality to the horse.

I chose a horse facing right so that it would face left on the finished quilt. Because of that, I didn't think about having to reverse the numbers. Of course, I did know they would go on backwards if I left them like that, and I thought about remaking them, but I noticed that it said SOS, which I think is fitting for the current mood.  Maybe Save Our Souls and our Democracy.  I'm sure years from now people will think I was lazy and didn't bother to fix something easily fixable, and I will have to explain myself. Maybe I need to do that now!

I birthed the quilt because I wanted to include the fun fringe beads that my mother recently gave me. I think it looks fabulous on this quilt, and nice to be able to use incoming things right away.

Be sure to to to the link at the top of the page to see how other people interpreted the challenge. It is a lot of fun!

15 Minutes to Stitch Week Six

I have continued to quilt every day this week.  I trimmed more of the Lupine and Laughter blocks and worked on this Year of the Fire Horse quilt.

• 15 minute days/Feb = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 38/38 days
• Success rate = 100%

Linked with Kate's Life in Pieces 15 Minutes to Stitch.

15 Minutes to Stitch Week Five

 Look at me, posting on time.  This week was a week off from Project Quilting challenge.  The challenge for this upcoming week, is Year of the Horse, which makes me happy. I was hoping that they would do that. I made a horse quilt last year, and even though I was afraid it wouldn't turn out right, tracing a pattern does let me make a horse that looks like a horse.

In this time off, I continued to work on the recently started quilts.  That is the Lupine and Laughter mystery quilt. I had one block done, but I still needed to finish the half rectangle triangles to make the star block.  I also decided to make another couple of blocks to make a 4x4 setting. These quilts look better with repetition, and although a 4x4 setting doesn't create a lot of repetition, it is better than a smaller setting.

I also finished the quilt top for the Valentine's mystery hosted by Kathleen Tracy.  I still need to applique the heart. Her small quilts are fun to make and although I usually resist making them, I usually also regret not making them.

• 15 minute days/Jan = 31/31 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 31/31days
• Success rate = 100%

Linked with Kate's Life in Pieces 15 Minutes to Stitch.

15 Minutes to Stitch Week Four

 It is going to take me some practice to remember to post my progress on the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge every week.  I have been stitching every day though.  

I've shown you some of the quilting from this month already on the blog:

• The Project quilting challenge #1 where I made An Open Space to Breathe (I originally wrote that as A Quiet Place to Breathe, which is also a good name)
• The project Quilting challenge #2 where I made Change
• The bunkbed blanket I am repairing
• The peacock made with leftovers from the Lupine & Laughter mystery
• The Lupine & Laughter mystery

Since then, I have made a little more progress on each of the unfinished projects aforementioned.

But that's not all.  I found a group on Facebook that is making a Jane Stickle block a week, and I've made a couple of Jane Stickle blocks with them.

I have also started a small mystery quilt by Kathleen Tracy. I am very tempted to start a lot of quilts, but have been resisting, but I think this small quilt shouldn't take too much time. Plus it uses the tiny extra fabric from the Lupine and Laughter mystery quilt. The tiny blocks are the Valentine's mystery quilt and the bigger HSTs are from Lupine & Laughter.

• 15 minute days/Jan = 24/24 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 24/24days
• Success rate = 100%

Linked with Kate's Life in Pieces 15 Minutes to Stitch.

15 Minutes to Stitch Week 1

Although I did try to sew for at least 15 minutes a day in 2025, I did not keep track of it, and I wound up losing some motivation in the summer. More importantly, I didn't have a good record of what I did during the year. So I have decided I am going to try again to report my progress on a weekly basis. To help with that, I am going to try to take photos every day. I won't show them all to you, but at least they will be available for my posts.

I have probably committed to more than I can do this year, but I have decided to go ahead and try.  I'm following the saying, "Reach for the Moon! Even if you fail, you will still land among the stars".  Or something like that, I didn't look for the actual quote.  Anyway this picture represents the 75 Day Soft Challenge.  It is a mental toughness challenge that was created by Andy Frisella. He requires strict adherence to these rules:

1. two 45-minute workouts, one outside, with hours in between

2. your choice of diet with zero cheat meals and no alcohol

3 drink a gallon of water

4. read 10 pages of a non-fiction book

5. take a daily progress photo

Because his rules are not tough enough (ha ha), he requires that if you miss a day, you have to start over from day 1.

I like the challenge because it isn't just a weight loss / exercise regime.  It adds fun things like the reading which helps with the mental part, and the progress picture that serves as a reminder to stay on track and can let you see changes. Although it seems strange to say that something that takes this much time out of your life is a good thing, it helps make sure that I prioritize my health.  Since the diet is more of a lifestyle change, I like the idea of actually thinking through the lifestyle I want and then making a plan to make sure that I do things that make that plan into real life. I love that I am choosing my own lifestyle and making it happen.

Since I want to make this a sustainable habit, and because I want to be a laid back nice boss to myself after decades of working for corporations where each year we had to do more and more with less and less, I have changed the rules for myself to be easier and more sustainable for the long run.

1. One 45+ minute workout a day

2. spend at least 10 minutes outside

3. drink 6 glasses of water, about half a gallon

4. read 30 minutes of a book (I usually read nonfiction books, but I like flexibility).

5. take a daily progress photo

6. more importantly, I add the 15 minutes to quilt challenge here.

7. to make up for the second exercise, I am cleaning instead for 30 minutes. I can get a physical workout and get my house cleaned at the same time. This is mostly for deep cleaning, like the basement, closets, etc., but if I don't feel like daily cleaning, it serves as motivation for me to do the daily stuff too.

8. Follow a healthy diet with no cheat meals / alcohol

My list looks longer only because of the way things are broken up. It takes approximately the same amount of time. I try to do some cleaning or reading outside to save time. I did do this challenge in 2025 and since I didn't keep it up after the 75 days were up, I am starting again. My daily videos in December meant I dropped the exercise and the deep cleaning, and I am picking them up again. 

Anyway I guess I can post updates for that here too.  I did well on the 1st but have already started sliding.  I don't like to call them fails because if I miss one thing (say eat a cookie) then that means I can take the rest of the day off.  But if I continue to stay onboard by exercising, reading, etc., I think that is better for me in the long run. Plus, when you start something new (again), it takes a while to get everything in gear and form habits.

75 Day Soft Tracker

• Met every goal / Jan = 1/3 days
• Met every goal / 2026 = 1/3 days
• Success rate = 33%

15 Minutes to Quilt

This week, I worked on my peacock quilt using leftovers of the Lupine and Laughter mystery quilt. I have the background chosen and pieced. I sewed a fusible behind this peacock so it could be appliqued in one big piece. I also have cut the lace I am going to add to the background.

I also made more progress on making the blocks for the Lupine & Laughter mystery quilt. I moved my African quilt to the back of the design board so I could see how the L&L look together. I trimmed the flying geese and have started the kitty ears blocks.  

The Project Quilting challenge was announced today, and I will be participating again this year. I will do my best to keep all of the submissions small enough that I can complete them in one week.

• 15 minute days/Jan = 3/3 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 3/3 days
• Success rate = 100%

Linked with 15 Minutes to Stitch

Upcoming Blog Hop and Upcoming Videos

 

The "Give it a Whirl" blog hop, hosted by Carol Swift starts on Monday. There is a big group of participants and we have been spinning around getting our projects done to share with all of you.

Check it out, I'm sure your head will be spinning from all the fun! The pinwheels are sprinkling happiness throughout blogland.

I will see you on Thursday the 21st!

MARCH 18

 

Just Let Me Quilt (our wonderful hostess)

Quilted Snail

Pattern Princess

Days Filled With Joy

Quilted Delights

A Quiltery

Bumbleberry Stitches

MARCH 19

 

Selina Quilts

Inflorescence

Words & Stitches

Quilting Between The Rails

Sew Many Yarns

Vroomans Quilts

 

MARCH 20

 

Quilting Gail

Just Sew Quilter

Karrin’s Crazy World

Scrapdash

Time 4 Stitchn

 

MARCH 21

MooseStashQuilting

Ms P Designs USA

Songbird Designs

Beaquilter

High Road Quilter (that's me!)

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Homespun Hannah's Blog

15 Minutes to Stitch 2024

I have been quilting every day this year. This week I have been alternating between the pinwheel quilt and the pajamas lap quilt. 

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7 days

15 minute days this year -- 77 out of 77 days

Success rate  = 100%

Linked with: Life in Pieces 15 Minutes to Stitch

YouTube

On YouTube this week, I recorded videos for both quilts. For the pajamas quilt, I made a tutorial for how to make a quilt with blocks that are on point, but my microphone has malfunctioned, and I didn't check it since it generally works, so I have many videos without sound. I thought I had forgotten to turn on the microphone so I recorded it again. But apparently it is the microphone's fault. Replacing the battery didn't help.

I was getting so frustrated and running out of time so I switched tracks and recorded a video about quilts that are already finished. I am hoping to have some videos ready to go for these types of situations, but so far I haven't been able to get that far ahead.

In today's video, I showed my two Drunkard's Path quilts. I had lots of photos and videos already ready for these quilts so that worked out much better. 

Quilt Reveal: Crumpled Heart

 I finished another journal quilt this week. It is a quick project made with leftover strips of fabric from my blog hop project I will be showing you on Thursday.

When I made the Raggedy Heart quilt last week, I knew it didn't come close to approximating the inspiration, which was the artwork of Marcellina Akpojotor. She takes strips of Ankara fabric and glues them onto canvas. I translated that work onto a quilt and I think this looks closer to her artwork. Only the black, white and pink fabric is Ankara in my work.

It is a great technique that adds lots of texture to the quilt. Since the pieces aren't fused and keep moving, this technique requires some careful work to make sure that the fabric is where you want it to be and doesn't sewn around the presser foot. 

In keeping with the ragged edging I used last time, I used this trim around the quilt to finish it off.

15 Minutes to Stitch 2024

I still want to try to quilt every day this year. I haven't been updating this every week since I have been so busy working as well as making quilts for the challenges and recording and editing the videos to show them, but I have definitely been working every day.

15 minute days these weeks --21 out of 21 days

15 minute days this year -- 49 out of 49 days

Success rate  = 100%

Linked with: Life in Pieces 15 Minutes to Stitch