2025 in Review

Here are my accomplishments for 2025, followed by pictures and headings only. Details are in my past posts as indicated by a clickable completion date after each name. My own assessment of how well I met my 2025 goals is after the pictures of completions. 

2025 COMPLETIONS:

• 10 quilts
• 4 quilt shows
• 1 knitted or crocheted item 
• 22 home decor
• 5 miscellaneous items
• 16 burp cloths
• 2 classes
• 0 blog books

10 QUILTs

1) Baby Blocks Quilt (1/20/25) 29½" x 41½"

2) O's Quilt (4/9/25) 45" wide by 53" tall (small group assist)

3) Blorange (4/23/25) 38" wide by 50" tall

4) Bin There Done That Again (5/3/25) 42½" wide by 53½" tall (small group assist)

5) Ski's Tees (7/17/25) 69" wide by 83½" tall

6) Strawberries for June( 9/6/25) 31" by 31"

7) Roses and  Pansies for May( 9/11/25) 31" by 31"

8) Bees and Sunflowers for August (9/21/25) 31" by 31"

9, 10) Two construction throws (11/21/25) each ~54" wide by ~47" tall.

 

4 QUILT SHOWS

 1) Guild of Quilters of Contra Costa County in Walnut Creek  (4/8/25)

2) Quilts by the Bay in Pacific Grove (5/26/25)

3) Central Oklahoma Quilters Guild Show (8/6/2025)

4) Pleasanton Quilt and Craft Show (9/25/2025)

1 KNITTED OR CROCHETED ITEM

1) Creeper Wooble (10/15/25)

22 HOME DECOR

1&2) Two Repurposed Tea Towel Pillows (4/5/25)

3) Frankenstein Pillow (10/1/25)

4, 5, 6, 7, 8, & 9) Steampunk Halloween (10/3/25) six pillows

10, 11, & 12) Three more Frank (10/18/25) pillows

13, 14, 15, & 16)  Four Halloween Ornaments (10/20/25)

17,18)  Two Reindeer Pillows (12/6/25)

19, 20)  Two Santa Pillows (12/12/15)

21) Third Reindeer Pillow (12/19/25)

22) Third Santa Pillow 12/22/25

5 MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

1) Sassy Simple Tote Bag (4/6/25)

2) Otter Tote Bag (8/8/25)

3,4 &5) Paper-pieced Cards (10/5/25)

 16 BURP CLOTHS

1) Six burp cloths for a baby girl (6/18/25)

2) Six burp cloths for a baby boy (6/19/25)

3) Four Woody and Buzz Lightyear cloths (6/20/25)

2 CLASSES

1) Class with Jacqueline de Jonge in Oklahoma (8/7/25)

2) Holiday Card Class with Tekoa at Cotton Patch (10/5/25)

Repeated for convenience, here were my 2025 goals

In 2025 I had planned to:

• 1) Work from my stash - kit and scrap management
• kits - make or give away at least one kit 👍 gave away 6 out of 10 quilts
• kits - restrict purchases to no more than number made 👍 jelly rolls are kits
• scraps - develop a system to consolidate/control 👎 no success on this one
• 2) Interface with other quilters - social 
• continue to blog 👍 blogged
• publish my blog books 👎need to find new publisher
• attend guild meetings and quilt shows👍 yes
• get together with quilting friends👍 yes
• 3) Intersperse small projects among big ones - fun, growth, satisfaction
• take a class, in person 👍 cards and paper piecing
• use opportunity to try new tools or skills 👍 new rulers / paper piecing
• reduce size of stash / amount of scraps 👎 barely holding my own

A Third Santa Pillow

This one is for me to keep. The other two, which can be seen in my post for 12/12/25 each went on its jolly way to Colorado or Oklahoma. All three were made from the Lella Boutique pillow pattern Sew Jolly #244. I've gotten much swifter and more efficient at the cutting out phase and identifying the pieces by clipping on Alphabitties. This pillow had pieces A thru W. This Santa's pom pom was fussy cut to have lacy pine needles centered in it, like the part of the tree in the fur trim on his hat.

Now for the FMQ... I'd already stitched waves on one Santa and scallops on another, so I decided to try something different on this Santa. I used my Handi-GADGETS Swish template. I am pleased that the stitches sort of look like a mustache.

Here is the finished pillow front and back. My attempt to center the template swishes on his face was successful. Yay! The back is a print I just really love. I inserted a zipper in the bottom rather than having an overlapping back. I am trying really hard to use fabric from my stash that I really like rather that saving it for some theoretically more perfect project. Often specialness fades with time, so I am gonna make a concerted effort to use it at its height of awesomeness. 

This pillow completes my Lella Boutique pattern fixation. I have made four Frank #232, three Merry Reindeer #245, and three Sew Jolly #244. They are so much fun and come together so nicely. Details are in my blog posts dated 10/1/25, 10/18/25, 12/6/25, 12/12/25, and 12/19/25.

A Third Reindeer Pillow

Here is the front of my third reindeer pillow, fresh from under the foot of my sit-down Sweet Sixteen long-arm. I stitched in my trusty wave pattern using my HQ F-wave ruler with a wave height of 1.5 inches and a wavelength of 4". I usually try to center my pattern, but this time I was more successful than usual. My other two reindeer can be seen in my post for 12/6/25; one reindeer has the same wave pattern and the other reindeer has clamshells. That post also has more details about ruler and cutting out aspects, not repeated here.

I really love this Lella Boutique pattern titled Merry Reindeer. The pieces mesh so well, seams meet flawlessly, and points do not get cut off. The only place I needed to watch which way I pressed the seam was at the base of the antlers, where white meets white. Other seam intersections were very forgiving. How clever and crisp is the branching of the antlers, a real satisfying joy to assemble!

I finished the pillow off with a backing that had not only the same blue as in the front background, but also just enough dash of red to signify Christmas. I remembered, but just barely in the nick of time, to add a name/year grosgrain ribbon label in an upper corner. The bottom edge has a red zipper tucked away.

Two reindeer are alike except for the quilting pattern. Number three has a different background and a different fur color from the first two. I did not have enough fabric to make all three reindeer pillows identical, but I like all three. They are each about 18" square with a 20" pillow form inserted for extra  plumpness. Here are two pillows side by side. But, just like my children, I do not have a favorite. The trio is destined for homes in California, Colorado, and Oklahoma.