It took me two sewing sessions with Stacia and Deloise to get this one done. In our first session everything was going well until it came time to find fabric for backing. I had a fabric in mind from a project I made years ago and recently took apart to re-use the fabric. The piece was a bit too narrow so I knew I was going to have to piece it. Not my favourite thing to do but …

On our second session, a few weeks later, I pieced the backing then sandwiched and quilted it. I still had the binding from the original project and it fit perfectly. An evening of sewing finished the whole thing and I can now move on to the next one.

I’m currently five projects behind my sisters – they will finish the book in December just in time to start our 2026 sewing-together project.

April 12, 2025

As I worked on various projects for the past while I’ve been putting them aside for Madison’s shower if they seemed appropriate.

Place the turtle on the kitchen floor. Please don’t kick him out the door. He is there to help you with the task of mopping up that spill. So place your foot upon his back and push him around and around. When the spill is there no more, just leave him lying on the floor.

This little cleaning turtle was an idea that Gail wanted to make so we worked on it at our Friday sewing sessions. The back of the turtle is a towel (to soak up the spills). Not long ago Madison had a turtle as a pet so this seemed somewhat fitting.

These sashiko-inspired cat coasters were another patten that Gail found. She had never done any sashiko so was a bit slower. I had time to make a set of four.

These placemats were a Guild challenge project from a few years ago. They weren’t done in time to show them at the year-end party that year but all they needed was to be quilted. The challenge fabric was the little skunks in the centre.

And what kitchen is complete without some microwave bowl cozies and pot holders?

I attempted to make a table topper that would match a set of placemats. I didn’t have enough of the matching fabric but I thought that these ones would work. As it turned out the colours were completely “off”.

My first mistake was in the cutting. I didn’t cut those centre squares the right size but I thought I could adjust the rest of the pattern to make it work. I couldn’t so I ended up putting it together with my own pattern.

I like the results but I don’t have a need for another topper so I will offer it for sale at the quilt show.

This was my pattern for the March sew-along with Stacia and Deloise. Because they had both done this one before I had a few notes in my book regarding cutting errors. I tried to follow them but found even with the updated measurements mine wasn’t coming out the right size. I was almost finished when I realized I had completely missed one of the borders. Because I was so far along I chose not to correct my mistake. It finishes a bit smaller than it should have but I’m okay with that as it hangs in the stairwell as part of my collection of small projects.

The fabric I picked for the basket didn’t have enough contrast with the background so I outlined it with a blanket stitch. I’ll keep that technique in mind for another time. Most of the flowers were cut from scraps of fabric I’d used for my One Block Wonder project.