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.
It's time for the annual parade of the quilts, this time for 2025.
This year started, as many of the past years, with the Project Quilting Challenges. This is sponsored by Kim Lapacek. Thank you, Kim, for hosting this every year. It has inspired me to make many quilts. For the challenge, every other week, the theme of the challenge is announced, and the participants are to make a quilt or quilty project from start to finish in just one week. That is right, just one week. This means that it is best to keep the project as small and simple as possible. I keep telling myself that, but somehow the projects keep morphing bigger and more complex, as you will soon see.
Mythical Creatures
The first challenge, 16.1 Mythical Creatures was announced January 5, 2025. For my entry, I made an Al-Buraq. It is the creature that took Prophet Mohammed to heaven.
I didn't finish it on time, because the project kept expanding, and it has a lot of techniques including pencil drawing, an applique border and beads.
There is a series of six videos that show you more details and how I made this quilt, and they are on a playlist for your convenience.
Ombre
16.2 Ombre challenge was announced on January 19, 2025 I knew that I had a small piece of sunset fabric that was ombre but I couldn't find it. I didn't think I had any other ombre fabric and was thinking I might have to make one, which would ruin the small and simple mantra I kept saying in my head. Just then I noticed that the piece of fabric I was using for a Glitter block, and I was able to get this one finished pretty quickly.
I finished the quilt early, but lost track of time and did not report it on time, which means I missed the deadline on this one too.
There are three videos that go with this quilt.
Common Blocks
16.3 Common Blocks was announced on February 2, 2025. This made me happy because I was already planning on making common blocks to test out what happens when you prewash fabrics and what happens when you don't. My original plan was to make three separate quilts, but I decided this challenge is giving me permission to make one quilt with three blocks, one with prewashed fabric, one with unwashed fabric, and one with a mix. My original plan was nine patches, but I thought a sixteen patch would provide more intersections to really see the results.
And amazingly, this quilt was finished and posted on time for the challenge.
There are four videos that show all the details of making this quilt.
Birthstone
16.4 Birthstone challenge was announced February 16, 2025. I decided to make a red and white quilt.
I did make and finish this quilt on time. I'm glad I am making this post, because it is good to remember that I did submit some entries on time.
Since the announcements are every other week, we get a week off to recoup. Instead, I tried to make something out of the leftovers of the Ruby Buttons quilt. I'm not sure what it is, but I've been calling it Perfume Bottle. I think it just needs to be quilted and viewers can decide what they see.
Arrow
16.5 Follow Your Arrow was announced on March 2, 2025. I found lots of arrow patterns that used multiple arrows, and finally found a block with just one. I decided to add a heart to it. It looks like I didn't post this quilt on my blog, because it was definitely not done on time. I will show you a picture here, and do a separate post with more details on this quilt.
Button It Up
16.6 Button It Up challenge was announced on March 16 2025. I had already made Ruby Buttons so I decided I would make a quilt with actual buttons. I remembered a quilt that was on my to-make list for a long time, and decided to make it. Although it is a small enough project, the fact that I was trying to recreate something from memory made it difficult to accomplish and I knew going in, that I would not be able to complete it on time. It is one I'd rather get right than fast.
I am calling it my Everchanging quilt, which does make it hard to photograph. The yellow pieces are sewn with a different fabric on the reverse side, so that they can be placed the way they are (with eventual buttons) or they can be opened to reveal the fabric on the other side, and more of the fabric square that is underneath the yellow triangles.
I have a series of videos on this quilt. There are 7 videos but since the quilt isn't finished (I need to add buttons and finish the quilt), there are likely to be more.
Scrappy Fish
In between these challenge weeks, I thought I should clean the sewing room or finish something I had already started. So I did both of those things, to some respect. This Scrappy Fish is using leftovers from another project, and I have made several quilts with these leftovers. I don't count them as starts until I actually get a finish because it is trash until it is used, but then I have to backdate the start date to the date that the scraps were made. So although this was a quick finish, it took years to make.
There are two videos on making this quilt.
Lupine and Laughter Mystery Quilt
I have been pretty good at not getting into the mystery quilt craze when Bonnie Hunter announces her quilt every year, but I do enjoy seeing all the camaraderie and do regret not joining in. But they are a serious time commitment which is hard for me to make since I have so many unfinished quilts. I decided to join this year, but only make about a quarter of the blocks. Hopefully I can get a nice wall hanging and skip the serious time commitment.
I did well with the first clue, but didn't keep up starting with Clue 2. I am chugging along though and made a lot of progress yesterday.
African Stack and Whack
While you have the last photo on your mind, take a look at the Stack and Whack quilt on the left. On my channel, a viewer asked for a tutorial for how to cut fabric for a Stack and Whack that I showed a while back. By the time I had done the video for the Opulence quilt, the squares were already cut and I was sewing them to each other. So I did a tutorial using some African fabric that had a short repeat. I really like the way this turned out and have thought of border options. This quilt needs a better name.
I am hoping to make this quilt bigger, like 40" square or so to make it big enough to put on my curtain rods I use to hang up my bigger quilts.
Also while you are looking at that photo, did you notice the letters I made to decorate my design wall? That's the name of my YouTube channel.
Quarter Square Wreath
I had already started Clue 1 for the Lupine and Laughter mystery quilt when I noticed that some people were having trouble making their quarter square triangles. So I made a tutorial on how to make quarter square triangles. I decided to not to use my actual quilt to make this, so I found a quilt block that uses them. Once I did the tutorial, I went ahead and finished the quilt to give as a gift. We were exchanging handmade gifts in 2025.
As usual, I wind up taking horrible photos of quilts I am giving away. I think I will be able to get better screenshots from the videos. I am making a tutorial for how to quilt a quilt and using this one as an example. I have to edit it still. I will do a separate quilt reveal blog post on this quilt as well.
Peacock Quilt
I made a tutorial on my YouTube channel for how to make half rectangle triangles, and I made some blocks to show how not to make two at a time blocks. I knew this was going to happen and had a grand plan to use up the bad blocks.
I am having a lot of fun making this quilt and it draws me to it every time I walk in the sewing room.
Quilt Journal
Not a quilt exactly, but it is quilt related. I published a fill-in-the-blank book that lets you tell the story of your quilt. The book tells the entire life story of the quilt, not just about the quiltmaker and how the quilt was made, but then how it was given to a recipient, and its life with the recipient. It also has space for another recipient, because quilts do exchange hands over time. I made it a long time ago for a quilt I was making for my teenage daughter. I knew she wouldn't remember the pertinent details so I figured putting it in a book would be better. Looking back at that book again made me realize how much had changed and how grateful that the details that I thought were unimportant became more important over time.
It comes with three different covers for the hardback version and there is a softcover version as well. Here's an Amazon affiliate link if you want to get the book. Quilt Journal: Recording the Story of Your Quilt
Lace Canvas
Last but not least, although it isn't a quilt, I wanted to show you a lace I painted. I stapled a piece of lace to a framed canvas and painted it. It was fun to do, and was given as a gift so another dark photo and probably upside down. I have plans for the leftover lace.
And yes there is a video for that.
Recap of 2025
This year didn't have as many finishes as 2024, nor as many starts. I've given up on getting more finishes than starts, but am tracking it anyway. I plan to do better with posts on this blog so making a year-end wrap up isn't so difficult, and so I can stay in touch with you. This starts with taking more photographs. With the videos, and the crazy amount of space they take up on my computer, I keep forgetting to take photographs, so I am going back to taking daily photographs.
I had to switch software programs, and I couldn't find those fun numbers I was using to keep track. I liked having them even though they look like I made more quilts than I did. So I finished 7 quilts this year and started 11. I didn't quilt much in the summer as I spent time cleaning out my garage and basement. The basement isn't finished but I am about half way there, and that makes me happy.
Annual Quilting Starts and Finishes for Shelina
And while we have the spreadsheet pulled up, here is the long term view showing the starts and finishes. I started and finished fewer quilts this year, but it looks more like an average number of starts and finishes.
Here, you can see that the gap between starts and finishes keeps increasing. Since I want to make bigger quilts this year, I'm not sure I will be able to narrow this gap, but I guess we can keep trying. I'd rather just enjoy starting and making quilts and not worry about making any rules.
I hope you had a great quilting year and I hope that 2026 goes even better for you. I will post separate posts for the quilt reveals I missed this year, and a separate post for my plans for 2026.
Once upon a time, I came across a tutorial on how to make a quilt with collage pieces. It was a llama and I really enjoyed the process of making it.
I really enjoyed the process so I made more like it.
I didn't research whether the elephant came before or after the camel, but it is not really that important. I just wanted to show you the elephant too.
When I made the camel, instead of making a collage that was just the size of the camel, I got the bright idea that I could collage the whole sheet of fusible, and that would give me some scrap collage for another project.
It is a gift that keeps on giving!
There were so many leftover scraps!
We got a giraffe!
There was also a scrappy cat.
That left this fish piece.
I finished it in January, in between the Project Quilting Challenges.
I made a video about making it if you want to see it.
There was a tiny walrus. That piece didn't stay fused and I didn't bother to salvage it.
I'm not sure where this piece is either, but I know there are more collage quilts in my future because they are so much fun to make and use up the tiniest of scraps.
At the end of the each year, I make a post summarizing my year, and show the quilts I made during the year. I am late this year, but I didn't want to skip this post.
I'm pretty sure that this was a record-breaking year for me, both in terms of quilting starts and quilting finishes. I started 17 quilts and finished 13. While I didn't finish more than I started, I did finish more quilts than I usually do. I also made tremendous progress on a lot of quilts which are not listed here. Let me show you the quilts I finished.
There are videos for all of these quilts on my YouTube channel.
Haven of Harmony
The first quilt of the year was made for the Project Quilting challenge. The Project Quilting challenges require that the quilt be made from start to finish within one week, so they tend to be very small projects. The theme for this month waws birdhouse. I wanted to make a quilt that was in the shape of a house based on a design inspiration, and although it would have been fine as a birdhouse by itself, I had a peacock fabric I just had to use to add to it. This was really fun to take a country design and turn it into something much more exotic. You can read more about this quilt here: Haven of Harmony.
Rabbit's Reverie
Rabbit's Reverie is made for the Just Let Me Quilt blog hop challenge. This is a monthly blog hop challenge. The theme for this month is White Rabbit. I took a pair of embroidered pants and made this rabbit quilt. It was a lot of fun to find designs on fabric to add to the quilt and let the fabric choose what would be added.
Where Horses Dream Under Endless Sky
This quilt wound up getting a lot of names. It said Inktense Sky because of the pencils I used to color the sky. This was made for another Project Quilting challenge. The theme was to use a sky color, but not sky blue. I am really happy with how this turned out, especially how the horse looks, even though the house is much more casual than the horse. You can read more about this quilt here: Inktense Sky.
Raggedy Heart
Pink Explosion is a quilt that I made for the blog hop. The blog hop does not require finished quilts, so I didn't limit myself to a small project. I was only able to make the quilt top, and did not get a chance to quilt it before the due date.
Raggedy Heart is made for the Project Quilting Challenge. The theme was raw edge, so I used strips from the Pink Explosion quilt, and used a ribbon to finish off the edges.
While I was making the textured fabric, I made another texture using the same fabrics. I am calling this one Crumpled Heart. I am hoping to make a series of quilts with different textures.
Red and White Hourglass Quilt
The Red and White Hourglass quilt was made for the Project Quilting challenge. The theme for the week was hourglass.
I didn't post a full on picture of the quilt on the blog, and it is too dark now for me to try to take a new photo.
Web of Life
The Web of Life Quilt was made for the Dust Off An Old Quilt Book Blog hop in March. Since it doesn't require a quilt that has been started during the week, I started with a quilt I had already started but had stalled. I had used a gray background for my web, and I was not happy with it, so I removed the gray background, and used a white background. I also added the applique.
Pajamas Doll Quilt
I have been wanting to make a quilt with the flannel fabric I have saved from my old pajamas, and this Project Quilting challenge made me bring them out or this project. The challenge was Wearables. It just had to have some connection to clothes. I like the soft, cozy look of this quilt, although the flannel is a little stretchier due to its age and harder to work with. I also cut up bigger squares and triangles for a bigger quilt, but I haven't done any work on them since. You can read more about it here.
April Showers is another blog hop challenge. I was able to finish all but the binding in time for the challenge and it has been bound, but apparently I haven't shown you the bound quilt on the blog. The video does show it bound though.
Beach Picnic
Beach Picnic is made for the For the Birds blog hop challenge. I hadn't finished this quilt by the challenge date, but this challenge does not require a finished quilt, so I could make quilts that are a bit more complicated.. Even though I know the deadline and theme ahead of time, the Project Quilting challenges kept me from being able to devote as much time for the monthly challenges.
Five Minute Quilt
In September, I asked AI to give me a video idea that could go viral. It said to make a quilt in five minutes. I didn't know if that was even possible, but I made an attempt. The results are mixed, so you will have to watch the video to decide whether I succeeded. You can read more about the Five Minute Quilt here.
Tropical Fish
I finished the Tropical Fish quilt in September. It has an applique center and a pieced border. I love the bright colors in this quilt. This is another quilt for the blog hop, where I was able to make a more complex quilt. I submitted the unfinished quilt, and finished it afterwards.
Bona Lisa
The last quilt finish of the year is Bona Lisa. I started it in October as a part of the Something Wicked blog hop. I technically didn't finish sewing down the hand sewing part of the label, but I am still counting it as a December finish.
I have started other quilts that are not a part of a challenge, but it doesn't look like I finished any of them. Since the monthly blog hop challenge will not take place this year, hopefully I will be able to make more progress on my quilts and show finishes on quilts that have already been started.
I managed to make this week's Project Quilting Challenge submission early. The deadline is Sunday at noon central, but here it is, Saturday evening, and I already have the quilt done. It is also a proper quilt with lots of pieces, so not a small coaster.
The theme of this week's challenge is to make something that is the color of your birthstone, My birthstone is ruby, so it was easy idea for me to make a quilt for my red and white quilt collection.
I wanted to make a quilt with little red squares. I sewed them together in strip sets. They remind me of fabric covered buttons.
This quilt reminds me of the small squares in the Maximum Minimum quilt.
I quilted it with some straight lines, thinking of pinstripes, but looking at it, it looks more like button placards, which makes them look like buttons even more.
Although the other quilts for this challenge were made by birthing quilts, this quilt needed a binding. In order to make it quickly, I machine stitched the binding to the back, folded it over the front, and sewed it down using a serpentine stitch.
I am really happy that I get to submit this quilt on Saturday and not have to worry about whether I will finish it before the deadline.
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