Fellow Quilters,

Welcome to 2025!  After a busy holiday, all the Christmas decorations got packed away yesterday for another year.  I like to keep them out until January 6^th (Epiphany).  The lights on our Christmas tree mysteriously went out a week ago, so Hubby and I bought some new strands 2 days ago at a post-holiday clearance.  We unstrung the tree yesterday when packing it away, checking each of the 10 strands of mini lights as we removed them. Every strand except one worked.  Hubby read the attached tag – “replace the fuses if the strand fails to illuminate”.  “Fuse?!?  Where is the fuse and do we have any spares?” he asked.  I dug out the bag of spare light parts, zipped into my sewing room for my screwdriver and seam ripper (to dislodge the tiny batteries) and emerged 5 minutes later with an fully lit strand – yay!  Mystery solved.  Maybe our replacement lights can be party lights in our summer screen room on our back deck!

As we roll into the new year (literally! – I ate far too many shortbread cookies), I have a fun new block for all the sports fans out there.  The theme for January’s Quilt Block Mania is “Sports” and I selected soccer for my block.  Soccer has been on my mind lately because Northcott is the licensee for FIFA 2026 and has designed a terrific collection of panels and coordinates shipping to stores in May.

One of my FIFA 2026 quilts

I designed 2 free patterns for this colorful collection and made them up last Fall for Northcott’s booth at our trade show.  One of my quilts has white circular appliques, which I quilted with pentagons to replicate soccer balls.  Well, guess what?!? Soccer balls are made with pentagons AND hexagons together.  The black shapes are pentagons and are adjacent to white hexagons.  A soccer ball has 12 black pentagons and 20 white hexagons and, when stitched together, they form a truncated icosahedron (trivia for your next cocktail party).  My block is a flat version of ½ of a soccer ball – it has 6 black pentagons and 10 white hexagons and looks like a chemical compound from my university chemistry classes (haha).  It is English paper-pieced.  I call it Soccer Gene .

Soccer Gene block by Patti’s Patchwork

I hope you like it 😊  You can download the Soccer Gene free pattern here.  Do you know someone who is a soccer player or fan?  Maybe they have the soccer gene and would appreciate this block.  Here is a link about the history of the soccer ball – did you know that they were made with a pig’s bladder at one time?

Most of the other 13 participating QBM designers used applique or foundation paper-piecing in their sport-themed blocks.  You can find them at these links:

Quilted Sports Jersey Numbers
Trophy by Appliques Quilts and More
Karate Gi by Crafty Staci
Girl Wrestlers by Scrapdash
Curling Stone by Patchwork Breeze
Soccer Gene by Patti’s Patchwork
Hockey Score! by QuiltFabrication
Ice Skates by Inquiring Quilter
Play Ball by Robin Kinley Designs, Etc.
Corn Hole by Memory Barn Studio
Sneaker Shoe by Patchwork River Quilting
Texas Football by Emerald Falls Quilts
Checkered Flag by The Quilting Room with Mel
Golf Nutcracker by Tourmaline & Thyme Quilts

So, here’s my EPP story.  At my local quilt guild meeting last week, we tried our hand at 4 different hand-stitching projects including – you guessed it – EPP.  I had never tried it before, so I got a fabulous lesson from EPP afficionado Jamilla.  I got the low-down on how to glue my fabric to my paper, how to do a proper knot at the end of my thread, which super-fine thread and needles to use, how to start and end each seam with a knot, and how to whip-stitch 16 (!!) stitches per inch without stitching through the paper.  Um, won’t 10 stitches be sufficient?  Ah, no, apparently not.  I have to admit that I really enjoyed it and, despite my penchant for speed-sewing, I can see myself working on some EPP projects in the future. In the Soccer Gene pattern, I included a link to a comprehensive “how to EPP” video by YouTuber Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts.  I invite you to check it out if you haven’t tried this technique yet.

What about you?  Do you EPP?  Share your favorite EPP tip in the comments below.  All comments posted by January 15 will be entered into a draw for some deelish Wild Abandon by Heather Bailey for FIGO Fabrics – perfect for EPP.

Congrats to Marie W for winning a copy of my PC145 Salt & Pepper pattern used for my son and DIL’s wedding “guest book”.

I hope 2025 brings you much joy, with plenty of time for your creative pursuits 😊

Cheers,

Patti