February PHD 2025 Update

Hi Quilting Friends,

February was busy, even though it’s a short month. We’ve had birthday celebrations, game nights & meals with family & friends, “sister time” with Susan, and lots of “walkies” in the cool weather with Astrid and Freya.

Mr. Fix-It and I spent Valentine’s Day at the Museum of Fine Art, viewing the Gauguin exhibit. I always learn something new and see something inspiring at the museum!

The highlight this month was the discovery that a pair of Great Horned owls are nesting about three blocks from our house. I’ve been spying on their nest every day; it’s such fun to watch the owlets as they grow and develop. The young ones have flown now, but we’ll see them again in the autumn.

How is your PHD list looking so far? Have you pushed through and finished up another project or two? Have you had too many other things on your plate that have kept you away from your studio? We’re excited to read about your progress, your challenges, and your celebrations!

I’m celebrating several February finishes, along with progress on several other projects, so let’s have a look at my February update-

---

Project #1 – Star Party Sampler

Quilting is completed! I opted for echo lines around the Friendship Stars and wishbones in the “Dot Dot Dot” filler sections.

I quilted several straight echo lines in the outer borders, with more wishbones between the lines. The binding is the black and white print that I used for the filler sections.

Ta-done! I love it, and I had a blast with the quilting! All of the “Star Party” block patterns are available in Ms P’s Pattern Shop, and we’re running an all-star celebration sale until March 6. Check it out!

Project #2 – Lone Star Quilt

February was filled with finishes, so much of my hand-stitching time was spent on stitching down bindings (and un-stitching a row of quilting stitches gone awry, see Project 3). I quilted just one square this month. Even so, progress was made toward the finish line.

Project #3 – “Old Town” Mystery Quilt

Ta-done! I’ve finished up my “Old Town” mystery quilt (pattern from Bonnie Hunter).

As you may recall from my January update, I took the quilt top over to Susan’s studio and worked with Rosie (Susan’s Gammill Statler longarm) on an edge-to-edge quilting design. Unfortunately Rosie had a problem with her bobbin on the second “row” of quilting, in that the bobbin thread was pulling the top thread onto the back of the quilt. That’s not great, and so I ended up having to un-sew it.  I returned to Susan’s to re-quilt that row, and now the re-stitched area looks SEW much better.

Here’s a close-up photo so you can admire the quilting, backing, and binding.

Project #4 – Autumn Throw Quilt

Susan and I did a deep dive in her stash while Rosie and I were finishing the quilting on “Old Town”, and we found fabric that will be perfect for the applique backgrounds and the pieced blocks. (See how I continue to help Susan reduce the volume of her stash and make room for future purchases!  I’m such a wonderful sister.) I also found a FQ bundle in my own stash that coordinates with the hand-dyed fat eights that I had planned to use.

I’ve started cutting out the applique pieces for this quilt, but I have nothing to show quite yet so stay tuned.

Project #5 – Christmas Place Mats

Susan has finished digitizing my drawings, creating the piecing diagrams. I can start stitching this project at my convenience. I’ll share more when I’ve actually done some sewing.

Project #6 – New FPP Designs

Inspiration arrived this month, and I spent an afternoon sketching three more new FPP block designs. Susan worked her magic to digitize the piecing templates, so now I can stitch them out and create the new patterns for Ms P’s Pattern Shop. This will possibly be a project for March.

Project #8 – Scrappy Pinwheel Star Quilt

I completed two more Pinwheel Star blocks in blue, because BLUE is the RSC2025 color for February!

Now that I’ve thought more about it, I will need to make two of these blocks each month in order to have enough for a quilt by the end of the year. Not a problem; I have loads of scraps in every color and plenty of time to stitch.

Project #9 Bento Box Table Runner

I found four Bento Box blocks tucked away in the studio, leftovers from this table runner that I made last year-

The extra blocks include shades of red, coral, cream, and brown. I used them, along with some fabrics from my stash, to create a table runner.

I added a dark brown frame around the center of the runner, with 2″ wide red borders on all of the edges.  The backing is a paisley floral print, with shades of red, blue, and brown on black.

I quilted the runner with matching red thread, using a grid pattern in the center of the runner and a leafy vine for the borders. The binding is also dark brown. Ta-da!

Astrid apparently believes that it is her job to model with finished projects, so she hopped right up and posed for this photo, LOL. Do your pests pets insist on getting into the pictures too?

Project #15 – SAHRR 2025

Rounds 1 through 6 are all finished, and the quilt top is ready for quilting now that I’ve added the final borders –

You can read more about the prompts and my process if you like: Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6. My “One Monthly Goal” for February was to complete this project through Round 6. Ta-done!

My “One Monthly Goal” for March is to wrap up this project in time for the SAHRR finish link-up, which goes live on March 24. Ready? Set. SEW!

Stories from the Sewing Room March One Monthly Goal

---

New Projects

I made twelve very colorful pinwheel blocks for our upcoming nursery quilt pattern release.

Susan has stitched all of the applique blocks, and we’re both pretty excited about this circus-themed nursery quilt! Susan will finish making the quilt, and I’ll write up the pattern when that’s all done. Stay tuned!

Astrid’s puppy pajamas have gone AWOL and the temperatures here have been rather chilly, so I stitched up a new quilted dog coat for her. I used some of my purple scraps because Astrid’s favorite color is purple  She’ll be nice and cozy if the cold weather continues, and she was happy to model her new coat. (She’s a natural!) Astrid looks amazing in her pretty new coat!

Of course, if Astrid gets a new quilted dog coat then Freya needs one too!  Freya’s signature color is pink, so I used pink scraps for her coat.  She was too distracted by a squirrel to pay attention to the camera, but Freya looks mah-velous in her pretty pink coat!

Ongoing Projects

The RSC 2025 color for February was BLUE, so I made another Rolling Stone block and a coffee mug!

---

PHD Progress Update

Here’s my updated PHD list, with completed tasks shaded in-

Here’s my PHD tracker, updated for February-

---

Linky Party

Your turn! Add your link, and then visit the others to comment and encourage.

We’d appreciate a link back to this post. Here’s one to copy and paste into your post-

PHD in 2025 February Update

---

Thanks for visiting! We hope that you’ll have another fabulous month of working toward your PHD in 2025.

Happy quilting,

Sharon