Most Popular Projects of 2025 + My Biggest Goal for 2026

I can't believe it's that time of year again: the time for Top 10 lists and looking back at what resonated most in the past year. I love reading end-of-year recaps - as well as writing them. It's always interesting to look back at what was accomplished over the past year as well as looking at what resonated most with all of you. It was fun to see which free tutorials or other information you enjoyed most. Sometimes I'm surprised when I'm reminded of projects I made in the past 12 months that I've already completely forgotten about. 😂

I say this every year but please don't make any comparisons to what it looks like I've accomplished. Remember, this is my job - I create content for a living. Plus, this is the internet and things aren't always idyllic as they seem - there are definitely some smoke and mirrors happening too.

Here are the Top 10 posts of new content for 2025. Many of them are free patterns or printables, so here's your chance to find them again if you missed them the first time!

Top 10 Most Popular NEW Posts of 2025

1. The most popular new post this year was the free Susannah Quilt Pattern. This pattern is perfect for using precut 10" x 10" squares (aka Layer Cakes) and only needs one set + background yardage to make a large Throw-sized Quilt!

CLICK HERE for FREE SUSANNAH PATTERN

2. This free tutorial was also the top Guest Post on my site this year: a sweet little scrap-buster, this Log Cabin Heart Quilt Block is from Sydney Nodgren of Stuff Sydney Sews and was a big hit. This free pattern combines classic log cabin strips with a heart shape that's perfect for Valentine's Day (or anytime you want a little cozy-cute in your sewing).

LOG CABIN HEART BLOCK PATTERN HERE

3. Tips and Tools for Accurate Quilt Block Piecing - while working on the Riley Blake 2025 Quilt Block Challenge, I thought it would be helpful to include a list of Tips and quilting notions that help piece your quilt blocks more accurately. Includes free printable PDF.

7 Tips and Tools + Printable PDF HERE

4. This Spring-inspired scrappy Checkered Garden quilt was one of my favorite makes this year. Go HERE to read about where to find the free pattern and more photos of my version.

Checkered Garden Quilt Pattern HERE

5. Quilt Con 2025 Recap - this was my first year going to QuiltCon since 2019! It was so fun to be there. The inspiration and skill level of the quilts in the show was off the charts!

2025 QUILTCON Recap HERE

6. Tips and Tricks: An important final seam before you machine quilt your layers together. This seam is sometimes called "A Victory Lap" 😉- here's how and why you need to secure your quilt's outside seams.

Final Seam Tip Here

7. Appropriately, the next post on the list is the free Tutorial for Making the Tumbler Baby Quilt in the post above.

Tumbler Quilt Tutorial HERE

8. I was so excited to introduce you all to Wrap the World In Quilts - an amazing organization providing quilts in local communities as well as helping with foreign crises.

9. I was invited to do a presentation online this summer about my favorite tips and tricks for working with precuts. And I put together a free-printable resource with these tips + free tutorials and patterns for using your favorite precuts!

See video and get free printable here

10. Finally, it was fun to get to introduce you all to my 2025 fabric collection with Riley Blake Designs - Mary Catherine.

You can read all about the sentimental inspiration behind this collection here. Also, I am taking a little break from fabric design for a season, so this will be my last collection for a while.

Popular Guest Posts in 2025

Here are a few more of the most popular guest posts from 2025:

You all loved this post about Easy Fall Sewing projects from Stacey Lee Creative

Monika from Penny Spool Quilts sharing about Scrappy Fabric Pulls Made Easy was another big hit.

Also learning about Using Stencils for Quilting on Your Home Machine from Melodie Harding

See ALL of the recent Guest Posts HERE. There are so many good ones!

New Quilt Patterns of 2025

I released 3 brand new quilt patterns in 2025 including:

A smaller scale version of a traditional half-square-triangle star quilt called Baby Sugar House Star.

My new Briarcreek Blooms pattern was released in conjunction with my Mary Catherine collection

And finally the Scandi Hearts quilt in December which has already become one of my most popular quilt patterns this year! Thank you!

What I loved in 2025

2025 was a year of many blessings and opportunities, but also some weird new levels of health issues. It was more stable that the crazy busy-ness of 2024 where I launched my youngest from the nest/home, helped my parents move out of a home they'd lived in for decades, so I was grateful for a little less going on there.

We're enjoying the empty-nester life, but also time with our adult kids as much as we can. One of those special times was a trip to London with my adult daughters.

Being empty-nesters has also made traveling more of an option and we were able to visit some beautiful places this year. Probably the biggest highlight for me was going to Norway, visiting a dear friend, discovering more about my scandinavian roots and being inspired by the traditions and textiles there.

It was also a lot of fun to be back at the Garden of Quilts event this year, to see a lot of you in person, and to be inspired by so many beautiful quilts. I also got to meet my childhood idol, Melissa Gilbert (aka Laura Ingalls on TV) in real life. 😉

Looking Ahead to 2026

As with every year past, life continues to change and evolve and so do my goals and plans, both business- and sewing-related. I'm still enjoying - and feeling super lucky - to have this online business in the quilt world. It's been a busy and productive year. But please don't compare yourself to what I seem to get finished. If it looks like a lot for one person to finish, you're right.

First of all, for me, quilting is more than just a hobby- this is also my full-time job. At the same time, even though I'm still mostly a one-woman show when it comes to running my business, updating my website and writing my newsletter, I am outsourcing other projects as much as I can including: long-arm machine quilting on every quilt and some of the piecing on my quilts as well. Not to mention graphic design for my website and patterns, and help with video shooting and editing.

I feel so grateful for all of the opportunities that I've received this year and also for that extra help! At the same time, I feel myself starting to slow down a little. I don't have the energy that I used to have. I'm figuring out how to best prioritize that time and energy.

One of my favorite things to do lately is travel, so I'd love to make more time for that. That said, working is what pays for that opportunity, so I'm not ready to quit working all together. 😆

Looking ahead to 2026

I looked back at past year's posts, and my goals for this year continue to be very much the same as years past.

For example, my biggest work goal for this year are to continue to find balance. I'm super proud of what I've built and I love what I get to do. My plan is to continue to create and share in this space and on social media, but also slow down and do more "just for fun" sewing.

The next few goals are ones I've had for the last decade, but they're still just as relevant so I'm keeping them on the list:

2026 Goals

• continue to clean-out and better organize my sewing supplies
• make more "heirloom" projects - i.e quilts that take more time or increase practice of more intermidiate skills
• continue to learn and develop new skills in this craft
• work on finishing old WIP's (Works In Progress) and UFO's (UnFinished Objects).
• consume less - use what I have on hand already, in otherwords: USE MY STASH first!

As I'm now in my 50's I'm realizing how many projects and how much fabric I have had around for decades now. And, as possibilities of retirement and downsizing start to get closer, I've decided I want/need to start paring all of that down now. So, I'm also really serious about the part of cleaning out, fininshing old projects.

Finally, my biggest goal, is (and you may have noticed the caps above): SHOP MY STASH FIRST.

After decades of working for a quilt shop, or various fabric companies, where I was often 'paid' in fabric, I have accumulated too much. So I'm really committed to stop stashing and start USING, whether its cleaning out, selling, donating, or using what I've got on hand.

My #1 goal is to cut my stash in half during 2026. 😅

This will include severely limiting bringing in new fabric this year. I've decided to not put a total freeze on buying - I like to support my local shops when I visit, even if it's just buying a few fat quarters - but no impulse buying. And I'm going to make myself a sign so that I really, really hold myself to it! I'm going to be serious about tracking what I purchase or bring in this year.

In order to take this one seriously, I'm planning to track any incoming fabric this year. I'll be sharing more about how I'll be doing this tracking in January.

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Excited to sew along with you more in 2026!