Best of Life in Pieces for 2025

I'm never ready for the end of a year. With holidays in November and December, there are so many other things to think of. It always comes as a shock the day after Christmas to realize that the end of the year is a little less than a week away.  My thought's naturally turn to what I didn't get to this year and thinking of what to do better next year.  In all of those thought sessions it's so easy to loose track of all the cool things that happened in 2025.  So it's always fun to take some time to put some thought into what fun things happened this year and share them over at Meadow Mist Design's Best of 2025 linky party.  

Here's my Best of 2025. 

Most Viewed Post: New Projects Coming 

Not sure why this post had so many views. I'm not convinced the views are all from "real" people if you get my drift. But I can't prove it one way or the other.  At any rate, the coolest thing in this post was My Girl's first completed quilt top. 

 

The embroidered squares are from Ingrid's Wildflowers from Missouri Star.  She did all the embroidery last January and February.  When she moved home this summer while job hunting, she finished the quilt top.  It was a big learning curve for her, but she did such a good job.  I'm hoping she decides to start a new quilt sometime in 2026. We are planning a couple of nothing but sewing weekends, maybe with a few friends in the coming year.  

Most Comments: The 2025 SAHRR: Round #1

This year was my third time playing along with Quilting Gail's SAHRR quilt along.  I designed my own block for this quilt, I wanted something modern as the quilt was intended as a thank you for My Girl's grad school roommate. 

  

Round #1 was either a King's Crown block or to make a block that start's with the letter of your first initial.  The Key border was my choice. It proved to be a really good starting point.  

Oldest UFO Progress:  Progress on Kate's Choice

Kate's Choice started out as Grandmother's Choice, part of Barbara Brackman's 2012 quilt along. I quickly discovered that sewing with templates is just not my thing.  So the project was put in time out till January of 2024.  The plan was to use the existing usable blocks and add whatever blocks needed to make a good sized sampler.  I picked the blocks.  Those were done by the end of 2024. The plan this year was to put it together as a quilt as you go project.

 

 All the blocks are quilted and the first row of blocks got assembled. Then I stalled. The QAG method where you quilt with the back on and then add the sashings is a lot harder than I expected.  I plan to get back to this in January and get this one finished.  

Most Fun Collaboration: Slaying the Big Scary Walking Foot Dragon

Before putting her embroidered quilt together, My Girl first practiced piecing by making some trivets she could use under her long cookie sheets. She made her first set during the guild retreat last January.  I eventually got up enough nerve to get out my walking foot so I could quilt those for her.

This is the second one I quilted, it's definitely much, much better than the first one.  Working on this project gave me the confidence to actually start quilting the Kate's Choice blocks.  My Girl made two more sets of trivets and I quilted those too. 

Mushroom trivets for one of her high school buddies. 

And two more kitties for her cousin (my niece).  I've learned a lot about quilting with a walking foot finishing these three projects.  My Girl has learned a lot about piecing and is starting to get a handle on the math part of cutting pieces.  The biggest learning is that she needed better rulers and a nicer rotary cutter. Both of those got addressed at Christmas.  

My Favorite Finish: First Finish for 2025

Obviously I was optimistic when I wrote that post. It turned out to be my only finish for 2025.  

I was so happy with how this quilt worked out. I ended up adding one additional border because it didn't feel finished once the prompts ended.  This was the last quilt to be quilted by Trudy before she retired.  That's a big reason why I didn't have more finishes this year. It's not easy to find someone new to quilt for you.  But I'm going to make a big effort on that front next year.  So even though it's my only finish, it's still one of my favorite quilts. 

That's my best of 2025.  It wasn't the most productive year for me. But looking back helped me remember all the time I got to share with My Girl as she took her first steps with a sewing machine.  The memories we made making those trivets are my favorite for the whole year. I'm hoping for more fun adventures in 2026.