Project Update: 21.10.2025

Hello Friends and Welcome Back!

As the season progresses, I've been enjoying the feeling of Autumn!

I really love the contrast of the brightly coloured leaves against the grey and overcast skies, the symphony of wind and rain, and the feeling of cool air on my face while I'm out walking with Meara. A truly lovely time of year!

While it's nice to get out and enjoy the season up close, it also makes a beautiful backdrop for a productive day in the sewing room!

Ice Cream Soda Quilt

At the end of September, I took a little break from Ice Cream Soda, leaving the leftmost third of my quilt top mostly assembled, just missing a few pieces around the edge to square off the shape.

Now that I've had the chance to visit my Mom a few times to pick up remnants, I've been able to finish piecing the edges of this part of the quilt!

Once that was finished, I was excited to start working on the central third of my quilt top!

I flew through the assembly of this third of the quilt, in part because there were fewer pieces, and in part because of my enthusiasm to see the quilt top in one piece!

I still haven't put the chunks together to make the central column yet, but I wanted to see all the blocks together again!

It's been too wet to lay out my blocks on the grass, so I pinned together the central chunks to hang on the clothesline. Though the quilt didn't want to hang nicely, I'm so happy to see the gradient coming through!

After giving each chunk a press and removing some basting, I'm back to stitching!

I've had so much fun working on this quilt over the last few years and am looking forward to more stitching while I get the quilt top finished!

After that, I'll have to start thinking about how I'd like to quilt this project! I can't wait to find out!

My Ice Cream Soda quilt is based on a design by Jodi Godfrey of Tales of Cloth.

The Generations Quilt Project

Looking at another of my hand pieced projects, my Generations Quilt blocks are now completely finished!

These were the last two of my Six Pointed Stars to be appliqued, so now, I'm switching my focus to quilt top assembly!

After meeting with Mom and Grandma at the beginning of the month, I brought home all of the blocks that everyone had made and now I'm trying out different block layouts and sharing my thoughts with them as I do!

My Generations Quilt is based on the traditional Dresden Plate and Six Pointed Star blocks, using templates drafted from extant blocks by Valerie Anne.

Midnight Circus Sample Quilt

The final quilt I've been working on over the last few weeks is Midnight Circus, where I'm continuing on the custom quilting!

Since I'm still not the most confident in my quilting, I've decided to use thread that corresponds to the colours of the piecing to help disguise any errors.

For the blue and off white star blocks, I'm using white thread; for the red, copper, and beige sashing areas, I'm using copper thread; and for the navy background, I'm using dark blue thread!

While this helps disguise the quilting on the front, the white and copper threads show up pretty well on the navy backing fabric.

This doesn't bother me, but if you're looking to use this method for your own project, just keep in mind that a really busy backing print can help hide quilting that you're not entirely happy with!

Back to Midnight Circus, I've finished quilting the three star blocks and about half the copper sashing areas, as well as a small section of background that I did back in the Summer.

Right now, I'm happiest with the quilted design in the copper sashing areas, which I feel is doing a lot to unify the pieced design, rather than some other areas of my quilting that feel like they're just filling the space.

It's interesting to see how my planning and thought processes have changed just in the time I've been working on this quilt! I can't wait to see my style continue to evolve!

Midnight Circus is my own original design, by Valerie Anne of the Fibre Arts blog.

Friends, it has been so exciting to look back on all the work I've done so far this month! I've put new stitches into three of my four ongoing projects and am looking forward to seeing each of them creep closer to completion!

And I would love to hear what all of you have been working on as well! Please share photos and stories in the comments below, by sending me an email, or by tagging me on Instagram!

I can't wait to see what you've been working on!

Until Next Time Friends, Keep Creating!

~VA