A year of my 'stretch' project

Around this time last year I rather foolishly (with hindsight!) set myself what I said at the time was a ‘potentially crazy project’ as part of my quilt plans for 2025. It was borne out of wanting to make use of the test blocks I was determined to make so that my mystery block of the month quilt would be the best it could be.

The thing about setting myself this challenge, however crazy it seemed, was that it became a thing that I didn’t want to fail at, even though back then, and every month since, I said I wouldn’t know if I could do it unless I tried…

Well I tried, and I succeeded!

Not only have I made the equivalent of a quilt a month for charity, I’ve also improved my sewing skills and sewing confidence too. I hoped that I would also sew through my stash rather more than I have, and while I clearly have shifted a fair bit of fabric, I’m very much of the opinion that scraps of fabric breed when you’re not looking!

Seriously.

But I have a plan for dealing with that in 2026, as you knew I would, but more of that another day.

My ‘stretch’ project quilts

These quilts aren’t the largest quilts, but the are big enough to give a quilt-sized hug to children that need one. They have been/will be donated to Project Linus who provide quilts to children who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged or distressed through the donation of new, handmade, washable quilts and blankets.

They are:

1. A log cabin log cabin

2. A mostly repurposed vintage star

3. Four pink hearts and a hug

4. The Friendly Bee

5. Pleated Tulips

6. A Raspberry Plus

7. Half the Scraps

8. Blues and greens

9. Marmalade hearts

10. Ohio flower garden

11. My Dresden buttercup

12. Stars and spots
    

PICTURED (FROM BOTTOM): BLUES AND GREENS, MARMALADE HEARTS, OHIO FLOWER GARDEN, MY DRESDEN BUTTERCUP AND STARS AND SPOTS WHICH ARE WAITING TO BE DONATED TO PROJECT LINUS

Lesson learned

I am proud to have finished all of these quilts and to donate them to charity, but I won’t be setting myself any such similar challenges for this year, though I will still continue to make quilts for charity. What I found was that this was the focus of my sewing time, and it meant that I didn’t spend anywhere near as much time as I hoped on the other quilts on my list, or on garment sewing - though of course, I found there’s always time to make a pouch or two!

This February...

There has at long last been a break in the rain! There’s also been glimpses of the sun, and for a couple of days I’d even go as far as saying it was sunny. Whether or not spring is really on its way or if the weather is fooling us, I’m not so sure but I am glad to see the cheerful snowdrops and even more cheery daffodils appear in the hedgerows.

Our heating is fixed, and it’s stayed working better than it ever has which is even better news. I’m not looking forward to the bill coming in though, as I suspect it will be more than it usually would be, but life, hey. We’ve spent afternoons and early evenings watching the Six Nations tournament, and have quite gotten into the Premier League darts matches each week too, and we’ve finally started on the second season of The Night Manager - though we had only just watched the first one!

There’s been more speedwatch sessions, and the traffic is still high, and faster than it should be. In one of our sessions the highest speed we recorded was 59 mph, and it isn’t the first time one of our volunteer group has recorded that level of speed, which is shocking for a 30 mph limit - or it is to me anyway.

Somewhere along the way this month I seem to have crocked my ankle, or more specifically my achilles, and I’m not sure how which is odd as I’d expect something dramatic for the amount of pain there’s been. But some rest, my trusty Italian ankle support and putting my foot up and a painkiller or two has taken the soreness down many notches, what really seemed to have fixed it though is one of my regular massages. To be honest I wasn’t sure if I would be able to bear anyone touch it at one point, so for this gentle, recuperating massage to have had the effect it has has been wonderful.

I had a day in London at the Garden Press Event speaking to suppliers and leading figures in the garden industry, learning lots and with plenty more to share from the day in the next few weeks. That same day my blog turned thirteen, a fully fledged teenager now which hardly seems possible. To celebrate I picked up some glorious cut flower hyacinths, which I’ve never seen as cut flowers before, little did I know that my challenges with drooping hyacinths were about to start!

To round off the day in London I visited the most fabulous haberdashery just off Oxford Street, all the time wondering why I didn’t know of MacCulloch & Wallis while I lived in London - and more amazingly, I left without a purchase too. Then we headed to The Barbary in Covent Garden for dinner, which was fabulous and a much smaller than we expected restaurant.

It’s been a busy month in our home too, with a couple of new blinds fitted on the small but long front windows and the blue chandelier was assembled and installed - and we love it.

I’m not sure our electrician loved putting it up quite so much, but he agrees it’s a good addition to our stairway. We gambled on the length, reducing the drop by 50 cms, gauging this just by him holding the wire in place, and we got it right first time, which he definitely was pleased about, but I know if it wasn’t right he would have insisted on changing it. But phew, from us all in this case!

We also took delivery of our new sofas, much earlier than expected. They were due towards the end of March, but the company are ahead of themselves at the moment and so they’re here already - and have only been here a day or two, but even on the day they were delivered they just felt right for our space.

We’d hoped to book a decorator in before they arrived, and decide on the colour scheme too - but we haven’t, and so we’ll sort that out another time. In some ways it’s good to have them so we can be as sure as we can be that the colour we finally go for works, but in the meantime our house is currently auditioning as a sofa showroom and a cushion mountain!

I’ve finished the last of my ‘stretch project’ quilts, which I’m glad about as they really have dictated my sewing time, and I really have so much more that I want to sew. I will still sew more charity quilts, but not on the scale and voracity that I have this past year.

Finishing the last of my one-a-month-charity quilts also means I’ve completed the last mystery block of the month, so now I have twelve blocks to assemble into a quilt top which has taken some maths to make sure I have enough material to carry out my plans. I’ll be sharing more soon on both of these year long projects, so watch out for those posts.

I’ve realised that over the past year I’ve not found as much time as I’d like to ‘play’ when crafting, and trying out things I’ve not done before, this month though I’ve had more time for that and have found myself tackling a series of sewn miniature items. They’re not perfect and I’ll find a use for them (and will most likely share more here at some point) but it’s been good to experiment and get things out of my head!

I’ve had a request for a rosette from my mum, so I need to make her one of those for an upcoming family wedding - which is also a good reminder that I need to sort myself out an outfit too, but it’s a tricky one as April weather could be literally anything - wish me luck!

Post Comment Love 27 February - 1 March

Hello there, welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a relaxed, friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love.

Please don’t link up posts which are older as they will be removed, and if you see older posts are linked then please don’t feel that it’s necessary to comment on those. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

A lot can happen in a week, can’t it? Since last week we’ve had a couple of new blinds fitted and taken delivery of some gorgeous new sofas for our lounge. Though currently our house is looking like it’s auditioning to be a sofa showroom and cushion depository, but I’m sure I’ll get things sorted soon enough.

The new sofas arrived way ahead of their anticipated date, so we haven’t even really settled on a paint colour let alone booked in a decorator! But it’s good they’re here, much better than them being delayed that’s for sure.

In other news I’ve been dealing with drooping hyacinths, and enjoying their heady smell (which reminds me of my nan growing hyacinth bowls in a dark, warm cupboard!). I’ve overcome the drooping by using separate bud vases, but of course as soon as I sorted these out some more started to droop - clearly they also wanted special attention!

Have a great week.

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