Best of 2025

Each year, Cheryl invites bloggers to join the best of year link-up and share their 5 best blog posts of  the year and we get to define what 'best' means! It is hard to narrow things down but these are my favorites from 2025 listed in no particular order.

Favorite Make

I wanted to make a new queen sized quilt for our bed for awhile. I was very happy with my finish - a modern twist on a double wedding ring quilt. Read more.

Peachy Keen in Make Modern Magazine

Peachy Keen was my entry for the Pantone challenge. It was a fun quilt to work on and I was thrilled that it appeared in Make Modern magazine. Read more.

Favorite New Obsession 

What fun it was to make all these colorful granny squares and join them together. However, burying all the threads was not fun at all and in fact there are a still a few to go even though the blanket is getting lots of use. Read more.

Favorite Quilt Exhibit

It was such an honor to have my quilt selected to be part of a Modern Quilt Guild exhibit at the Virginia Quilt Museum. Read more.

Favorite Quilting Event

QuiltCon Phoenix was memorable in so many ways. I had two quilts in the show - Island in the Sky and Arcturus - which was awesome and I got to spend time with my sister! I took a class from Kitty Wilkins (Quilt Your Life) which was awesome. And I got to see so many old friends and make some new ones - - the Best Bits.

I enjoy participating in the link-up each year even though it is always tough to choose just 5 highlights.  You can find my previous yearly top 5 here: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020,  2019,   2018,  2017, and 2016.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Handmade Holiday 2025

Now that Christmas gifts have been opened, I can share two mini quilts I made for family members!

My husband runs in a park early (like it is still dark early) each morning and often encounters various wildlife. Recently, he and a coyote met up on the trail and the coyote just walked right on by him! Each year, I make him a mini quilt to commemorate some animal encounter. (See the 2024 version.) The coyote pattern came from Quilt & Dagger Designs and the alphabet is from Carolyn Friedlander.

My second mini was to celebrate my daughter who finds delight in so many things!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Happy Dance

Happy Dance was a joy to create from beginning to end. I sketched out the beginning of the design in Procreate one day when I was just playing around. It excited me so I decided to play with the design further but with fabric.

The quilting was a combination of both walking foot and hand quilting, both done in a very organic way - just playing around with thread.

This quilt is 49" wide x 32" tall.

Happy Dance was one of my 4 entries to the QuiltCon 2026 show. I am extremely happy and honored that 2 of my quilts will be in the show. However, this particular this quilt is a QuiltCon reject. (My second reject is 1 1 2 3 5 8.)

I would have loved to see this quilt hanging in Raleigh and will likely submit it again in the future for consideration by another jury.

Until then, more soon on the two quilts that were accepted.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

1 1 2 3 5 8

1 1 2 3 5 8 was my entry for the QuiltCon 2026 fabric challenge. Emails went out yesterday announcing which quilts were juried into the show. I am honored that 2 of my quilts will be in the show. However, this particular this quilt is a QuiltCon reject.

While this is an original design, this is not the first time I made this quilt. The original version was featured in Make Modern magazine. When I was trying to come up with a design for the fabric challenge, I kept coming back to this one and thought the design gave me a chance to explore how the fabrics worked together.

This was the first QuiltCon entry that I completely hand-quilted - that process was so fun and I hope to do it again.

In the show or not, I am really proud of how this quilt turned out!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Bee Blocks - October and November

I am a member of the @unscriptedquiltsbee and have enjoyed the monthly challenges from fellow bee mates.

Sarah invited us to create blocks with simple improv wedges in a color way of pinks and greens for our October block. I really enjoyed working with this color combination.

The prompt for November from Isabelle was to create a block using improv curved piecing that captures movement and flow. The color palette was warm oranges and grays with a bit of teal. The block really took on a life of its own!

You can see the blocks from March through September here. There are a total of eleven members of the bee. My month was June - you can see all the blocks sent to me here.

We take the month of December off. I've been pleased that I've been able to get each block done on time and hope that this continues into next year!

Have a wonderful day! Patty