Cake

It's been a while since I've finished a Dropcloth @dropcloth sampler, hasn't it? I kind of took a break from the Floral Stitches series and have been working on another of the samplers from my Advent calendar. Meet Cake.

Apparently, it was inspired by a very early Dropcloth sampler - earlier than my participation. But I loved it from the minute I opened it, and I really enjoyed stitching it up.

The design itself measures 3.25" x 4.5", and I used a soft, peachy palette for the cake, variegated threads for the flowers, and bright red for the cake stand, all Wonderfil perle cotton, double-thickness. I never quite know the complete palette when I start out, so it's always nice to discover it as I stitch along.

Pantone Quilt Challenge 2026

Did you hear? The 2026 Pantone Quilt Challenge kicks off today and will run for 8 weeks through April 27. This year's challenge is hosted by Sarah Ruiz @bysarahruiz and Audrey Esarey @cottonandbourbon, and the challenge will feature Cloud Dancer, Pantone’s 2026 Color of the Year.

Now I know that Cloud Dancer got a verrryyyy mixed reception when it was announced in December, and even I felt some disappointment. But if the challenge is on, I'm in!

Per tradition, my daughter Rachel @snippetsofsweetness ordered us both Pantone COTY Swatch Cards, and yes, knowing I'd need plenty of Cloud Dancer-colored fabric for my challenge project, I've ordered a couple fabrics to see the closest match, just like I usually do. Though the challenge rules say to Make a white-ish quilt, I was still curious. All I know so far is that Kona White is not it. Not that I won't use some of that, but it's not a match. So stay tuned for more there, but meanwhile, here's a link to Pantone Quilt Challenge 2026 – Week 1. Are you in? 

February Fabric Usage

I was so close to purchasing zero fabric this month, but a friend's destash caught me up.

She wanted to find a new home for several UmbrellaPrints Trimmings packs. I remember seeing these trimming packs several years ago, but never indulged, so I was happy to do so now. UmbrellaPrints has since closed and morphed into Moonbow Australia, and I see they still have smaller quantities of trimmings for sale. Anyway, I thought these would be fun to play with - a variety of prints, colors, and substrates. 

The good news is that the several projects I worked on last month added up to a good amount of fabric usage. So I'm feeling ok, heading into March, even though I know that at least a couple of fabric purchases await me.

February Fabric Usage

Used up: 11.87 yards [8.34 projects + 3.53 recycled/donated]
Brought in: .82 yards
Net: -11.05 yards

Pillars

This month of Block Studies Collective with Tara Faughnan @tarafaughnan felt a bit disjointed, interrupted my some mid-month travel. The prompt was Pillars, with the encouragement to hand-piece, so I opted to go that route for the blocks at least. My fabrics were a mix of Tara's suggested palette and colors from my stash - Konas Sienna, Geranium, Lupine, Thistle, Grapemist, Blueprint, Blue Jay, Teal Blue, Pool, Aruba, Key Lime, and Summer Pear.

The blocks were basically stripes with optional 'caps' top and bottom.

Though I began with a thicker thread (what was I thinking?), I switched pretty quickly to Aurifil 80wt, which was very nice for hand-piecing.

The quilt backing was also pieced, using my scraps to simulate a block from the front.

The only truly disappointing part of this project was the batting scrap I used, which was a little too puffy for my liking. But I survived, and I enjoyed the quilting more once I gave it all a press mid-stream.

For quilting, I used a variegated Wonderfil Fruitti FT16 [Grapes], which complimented the colors in the quilt nicely, I thought. Plus, it's a dream to stitch with. 

With a running stitched binding in Kona Geranium, the little quilt finished at about 13" square.

One thing I did with the quilting that was quite unusual for me, was to leave all the knots from my quilting threads showing on the surface, with both the quilt front and the binding on the back. For some reason, I thought that suited this piece, and it was indeed, very freeing to do.

Weave Got This! :: :: It Begins

I hadn't touched my sewing machine in 10 days due to travel and out of town company. AND I had finished the big project I'd been working on just before leaving. I was kind of feeling like, "what now?" And it dawned on me, with the100 Day Project looming, I should get my first assignment for the guild's new BOM out of the way.

It basically involved making strip sets that will be used in upcoming blocks. They only required four of my six colors, but I'm ready for March's assignment, and really looking forward to seeing the design develop.

The 100 Day Project

"The 100 Day Project is a free, global art project built around one simple idea: show up to your creative practice every day for 100 days." You've probably heard about it, maybe even participated in it before? Well it started yesterday!

Honestly, life has been a whirlwind lately, so I didn't really get a chance to prep properly, so I'm going to jump right in and take it one day at a time. And my focus? Those scrap baskets that have been piling up, specifically my solid scraps, and the basket with blacks and grays. 

I'm confident other bits and bobs will find their way in, but that's where I'm planning to start. So far, I have two string blocks pieced, making them up as I go. Finished block size isn't important.

The first block (above) is 8.5" x 9.5"; the second (below) is 7.5" x 12". Pulling straight from the basket on the center right in the first photo, I've begun with a loose palette of black, white, gray, and brown, with (hopefully) a bit of blue in each block. 

I fully expect a variety of projects large and small over the course of 100 days. So stay tuned! And let me know if you're joining in too!

TOP SECRET

It's not often that I get TOP SECRET emails, but when I got one a couple of weeks ago, and saw who it was from, I knew what it meant. My quilt had won an award at QuiltCon 2026! And considering I only had one quilt accepted, I knew exactly who had won something, Ode to Joy.

It's always a bit rough watching QuiltCon from home. The FOMO is real. And knowing my quilt is there, especially since there is a ribbon hanging alongside it, hasn't been easy. But I'm oh so grateful for friends who send pictures!

Photo courtesy of Naomi te Wildt @quiltingnaomi

I was happy, too, to be able to watch the awards ceremony from my son and daughter-in-law's home in California! That definitely helped me feel a part of the action, and I was glad that my beemates Stephanie @spontaneousthreads and Émilie @mili.tra were able to accept the award on my and Bee Sewcial's behalf.

Photo courtesy of  Stephanie Ruyle @spontaneousthreads

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Ruyle @spontaneousthreads

Meanwhile, I'm watching eagerly from home via Instagram, seeing and experiencing what I can. And I'm glad that someone once shared that if you purchase a ticket for a day at the quilt show - even if you won't be there - you get access to the QuiltCon app. So that isn't totally satisfying, but I at least get a look at more of the quilts than I would otherwise. And there or not, I'm super proud and happy that Ode to Joy gets to spread its message just a little further.

Liturgical Calendar Wall Hanging

These last few weeks I've been working on a secret project! I can't say I love secrets, but when I decided I wanted to make a version of the Liturgical Calendar Triptych that I made back in 2023/2024 for our son's birthday, I had to keep it hush-hush. 

I had just two weeks before we were going to see him and celebrate, so I didn't have much time! My intent was to make a smaller version that would be suitable for hanging in his office. He's a pastor, and I was pretty sure he'd enjoy this representation of what is called a liturgical calendar following the Revised Common Lectionary. As I mentioned my original post on the other project, the calendar provides a three-year series of Biblical readings for Sundays for many many denominations in the US and Canada and beyond. The major seasons of the church year are represented by color, and that is the part that both of these projects are focused on. For this one, I decided on a size of 52" wide by 20" tall, just about 1/3 scale or the original. To help me gauge that size as I sewed, I put parallel strips of blue tape on my design wall, which helped very much!

Perusing my stash, and considering the timeframe, I used mostly fabrics I already had on hand, though I did order several pieces of Marcia Derse's Palette, a fabric I had used liberally in the original triptych, and I knew it could get here quickly. Here are the fabrics I used:

Blue

Kona Blueprint

Marcia Derse Palette in Royal Blue

Essex Speckled Yarn Dyed Ocean

Alison Glass Topography in Pond

White

Kona White + Organic White

Free Spirit Arctic White + Winter White

Essex White

Alison Glass Topography Whisper Chartreuse 

Red

Kona Rich Red

Essex Crimson

Marcia Derse Palette in Cardinal

Black

Kona Black

Marcia Derse Palette in Vine Black

Purple

Kona Nocturne

Marcia Derse Palette in Concord Grape

Yellow

Kona Banana Pepper

Alison Glass Topography in Lemon

Unknown woven

Green

Kona Clover

Essex Kelly

Marcia Derse Palette in This Green

Once I had the sections pieced to their approximate size, I began trimming them vertically and piecing them together. I would sew a joining seam, press it well, then measure before trimming for the next addition, rather than cutting all the colors the widths I thought they needed to be first. This method allowed for any width being taken up in the pressing due to the bulk of multiple-substrate fabrics. 

For a backing, I continued to pull from stash, using Kona Willow, Jungle, and Pesto. 

I quilted vertical lines at increments of 1/8" to 1/2", feeling like the unequal increments kind of fit with the colored sections being different widths. Of course, I used matching threads, though using what I had, while I had the necessary colors, they were of different weights. All together, I used 40wt 2730 [Delft Blue], 2024 [White], 2870 [Green], and 2250 [Red]; 50 wt 4225 [Eggplant] and 2892 [Pine]; and 28wt 2120 [Canary]. Not perfect, but it worked ok. The 40wt seemed to quilt the nicest on this piece.

Once trimmed, I used Audrey Esarey's @cottonandbourbon Quilt Facing Tutorial, which is free on her website. For better or worse, the top and bottom facings were differing greens (the single most used color on the quilt front); though I used blue and white fabric for the ends to match those sections. Whatever, it seemed ok once it was done, and happily, the piece measured exactly 52" long, the number of weeks it represents. I must have over-compensated a bit making the colored sections on the front, but I left as much height as I could, and it finished at a smidge over 22" high. 

Lastly, I added a hanging sleeve - also a free tutorial from Audrey - thinking my son might use a rod of some sort to hang it in his office. If not, it can be ignored or removed. Considering we live a few states away, I thought it was safest to add it just in case. Happily, we are together for a few days, so I was able to gift it to him today on his birthday. Glad I was able to finish it in time!

Linking up with Favorite Finish {February 2026} hosted by QuiltingJetgirl.

Mushrooms

You might remember I got several little samplers in my Dropcloth Samplers 

@dropcloth Advent calendar, and recently, I've been working on a mushroom sampler. 

For its size - about 4.5" x 5" - it felt like a lot of stitching. 

Rebecca's plan from the start for this little sampler was for us to make it into a zipper pouch. So we also received, over the course of several days, a zipper, calico lining fabric, and a cute little mushroom zipper pull from Comma Craft Co @commacraftco. All that make me think,  "Why not?" 

First up, I needed to choose a backing for the pouch, and selected a brown and white dot that seemed to coordinate with the front well enough.

I referenced Svetlana Skumanicova's @sotakhandmade video, How to Shorten a Nylon Zipper, to remind myself what length to trim the zipper (1" less than the width of the pouch front) and what size to cut the zipper tabs (1.5" x 2"). It was extremely helpful, and from there I could find way.

It turned out pretty cute, don't you think? Its small size makes it seem like a coin pouch, I think. Whatever, it's always nice to make those samplers into a useable item.

Log Cabined Circles

With the start of February, Bee Sewcial received a new prompt, this time from Tia @tiacurtisquilts. She asked for log cabined circles in saturated tones. 

These were a little challenging for me, even with Tia's demo video. But I managed!

We were supposed to make the equivalent of two 12.5" blocks, but it was ok to leave them untrimmed. My first was about 15" square-ish, with plenty of room to trim. The second definitely allowed for a 12.5" block, but a little less obviously so, thus I left it not trimmed at all. Tia said she likes the puzzle of making our blocks fit together, so I'm confident this pair will be good additions for her challenge.

At the Table :: 2026 Rainy Day Bites Cookbook Club | January

Considering I've already made seven new recipes for the Rainy Day Bites Cookbook Club just in January, I thought I might should post a little oftener than quarterly. We'll see how it goes going forward.

Anyway, 2026 is Year of the Deep Dive for the club and we kicked off our four-month savory cookbook club selection with Something from Nothing by Alison Roman @alisoneroman. For January, our challenge was to Eat Your Veg: Make any recipe from either the Vegetable or Beans & Grains chapters. And boy, did I. Sorry I'm not a better food photography, but you'll get the idea.

Forever-Roasted Squash with Browned Butter Dates

Toasted Rice Pilaf with Crushed Walnuts and Dates

Browned Butter Potato Salad

Perfect Oil-Roasted Tomatoes

Spiced, Butter-Roasted Carrots with Walnuts

A Chili, because you asked

Then Baking & The Meaning of Life: How to Find Joy in 100 Recipes by Helen Goh @helen_goh_bakes is the yearlong cookbook for our last day of the month baking party.

For January, we had the choice of making one of two madeleine recipes, and I chose the Lunchbox Madeleines,

You'll find longer descriptions of each recipe if you click to my IG posts about them. But overall, it's been a really yummy month, and I'm happy to just keep cooking and baking from these two books into February and beyond.

January Fabric Usage

Ugh. Good thing I didn't make any New Year's resolutions against fabric-purchasing. Between a good sale, what felt like a necessary restock or two, a new BOM, and a secret (for now) gift, plenty of new fabric was welcomed in during January.

• A few yards of Kona Lemon (I rarely have that much of any solid, and the price point made it a no-brainer) and a Checks bundle from a Fabric Bubb detash. I knew those checks could be combined into a future project that I'd really enjoy.

• Tiny Treaters Stripe Charcoal, which I'd recently used up for finishing Shattered, and I knew I'd want more for future projects. That, and it's getting harder and harder to find.

• Solids for the afore mentioned BOM, Weave Got This!, February's Block Studies Collective palette, and a couple restocks for stash.

• Marcia Derse Palette in a handful of colors for that secret project I mentioned. Honestly, I'd love to be able to have all the colors of this blender line in my stash.

• Then finally, just a half-yard of Alison Glass Sun Print Whisper Topography in Chartreuse, which has proven to be a perfect addition for that project I can't share yet. 

So yeah, that's a lot, but already a good portion of it is being put to use. With several projects going on at once, I'm not regretting any of my choices. So the overall stats may not look so goo, but the year has just begun.

January Fabric Usage

Used up: 16.52 yards [11.47 projects + 5.05 recycled/donated]
Brought in: 15.25 yards
Net: -1.27 yards