Loving Garden at Midnight Placemat

Squeaking in here with my favorite (only) finish for February. Probably one of my favorite placemats ever, but it was not without some dithering, head-scratching, messing up, and almost tears. But let's admire it first, and then I'll tell you about it.

This placemat started with a free pattern I saw on Bethanne Nemesh's White Arbor Quilting Instagram account around Valentine's Day. (She is an accomplished artist and quilter who you might know for her awesome, unique patterns for temperature quilt blocks among other amazing things.) As a distraction from recovery from hip surgery, she had made a nine-block quilt called Loving Garden with her gorgeous quilting, and then she wrote up a free pattern for just one block along with pictured suggestions for several layouts of multiple blocks to make a whole quilt. I was immediately taken with the pattern--and it was perfect as I only needed one block for my placemat. (The pattern is now available on her shop site for a nominal fee.)

First, I gathered up a bunch of possible fabrics. I wanted the colors to be light and airy, so I pulled all of my pinks, light blues/aquas, and yellow greens. 

I tried lots of combinations and narrowed my choices for the pinks and greens, but no matter how I laid them out, I just wasn't happy with the aqua. There just didn't seem to be enough of a contrast between it and the greens. (This is where the dithering part of the project came in.) Then sometime (maybe the middle of the night?) I thought, why not dark blue for the background? I would make a Loving Garden at Midnight block instead. And yes, I had the perfect tiny print, leftover from my miniature-making days in the 1980s. I laid it out and knew it was just what I wanted for contrast with the pinks and greens. And really practical, too, since it was for a placemat. (Can you imagine what that aqua would have looked like with spaghetti sauce or some other food spill on it?)

I got started sewing the heart blocks and the stem parts.

Oh, and time out to admire my sewing setup for this little project. My layout table was the ottoman in my living room.

And my pressing station was my couch. Nothing like sitting on the floor to work with fabric and press blocks. But the weather was frigid and the living room was the warmest place to work, so why not? (Ooh, looks like that ironing board needs a new cover.)

OK, back to the placemat. I dithered some more about the light greens. I was pretty limited in the range of fabrics I had without buying more. I thought I was really committed to the vine print you see second from the bottom. I tried it one way.

And then another.

And then, finally tossed it aside for a different green,

which meant I also had to change some of the stem greens around to balance the colors and values. But I finally got to an arrangement that I liked. 

After all of that, there was a bit of a problem. There were some discrepancies in the pattern that caused the head scratching I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Some of the pieces didn't quite fit. There were some size errors in the cutting instructions and graphics labels. I caught some early on, but did have to recut the last narrow sashing around the leaves. Not a big deal, but it could have been more of a problem if I had cut out fabric for multiple blocks. Anyway, after the head scratching was over, I had a block I was very pleased with. 

The next morning, I decided that I needed to contact Bethanne about the discrepancies. Before I got a chance to write her, I got an email from her with a correction for one of them. I decided to double check my measurements and the cutting instructions and drew them out on graph paper, and then I wrote her to let her know about the others. I felt kind of bad because I knew the pattern was a gift, and wasn't meant to be a formal full-fledged quilt pattern.  Bethanne was very gracious about it and said she would incorporate my corrections. I know that there are sometimes errors in quilt patterns. It just happens. 

I added three pieces of background to finish my placemat--a strip across the top, and two wide ones along the side--to get it to the size I wanted (about 14 by 18 inches after quilting). I had a piece of old fabric that worked perfectly for the backing, and since it was also dark blue, I decided to just do stipple quilting in dark blue as it wouldn't really show much. 

I used green thread to free motion quilt the leaves and stem, which turned out just OK as I haven't done a lot of free motion quilting besides stippling in quite awhile. Then, because I am an admirer of Bethanne's quilting, I thought I'd try some fancy free motion in the heart shapes. Oh, boy. Here's where the almost tears comes in. It was a disaster. So much so that I don't even have photos. There was a lot of picking out of stitches. And then, more disaster. When I  pulled a thread, it cut a couple threads of the fabric and made a tiny hole!!! Waahhh! (almost). Luckily, I have some experience with holes as I used to quilt/repair fragile antique tops for a woman who rescued them. I tucked some really thin fusible web through the hole and pressed it. Then I needed to figure out a way to quilt it to make sure it stayed secure. I abandoned the freemotion for walking foot plaid and made sure that multiple quilt lines crossed the fragile area. I'm happy to say it worked (even though burying thread ends was te.di.ous). Here is a close-up.

The problem area was near the V at the top of the heart. 

Oh, and one more thing I messed up on: When I cut the mottled navy fabric for binding, I cut it at 2 5/8" instead of my more usual, 2 1/2", thinking I'd make the binding just a bit wider. Then when I sewed it on, I used a 1/4" seam instead of the generous 3/8" I was planning, so now the back of the binding is super wide. Oh well. 

So that's the story of a more adventurous placemat than I had planned. I did tell Bethanne that I would write about my experience. I felt that I needed to do that because I wanted to share my enthusiasm for the pattern but also be upfront in my experience to ensure that if others use it, it will be reliable for making a quilt. In case you have downloaded the pattern, do check to make sure you have the corrected version. Here are things to note:

1. The large heart squares are cut at 3 1/2 inches.

2. The larger background squares on the stem section are cut at 3 inches.

3. The narrow background spacers along the largest leaves are cut at 1 by 8 1/2 inches and 1 by 9 inches.

  

I'm still enthusiastic about the design and think I may make another block--or maybe a whole quilt. Little did I know that I would make multiple mistakes moving forward in finishing the placemat. Quilting is always an adventure in one way or another. We all make mistakes and they are almost always fixable in one way or another. 

I'm linking up with Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl for Favorite Finish February and with Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap.

Keep quilting; keep being kind to yourself about your mistakes. It's all part of quilting life. 

(Just a reminder: I'm not affiliated with any company, so when I mention products, services, or stores, I'm just documenting what I used or liked, not officially promoting anything. )

Community Quilt Blocks

 If you read my last post, you'll know that I took a break from my January quilting to make some blocks.

These are for Many Hands and Many Hearts. Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework does block drives throughout the year (a new block design every three months). The blocks are used to make quilts for various programs in Oregon. There are several ways to support the program. (You can read more here.)

I have enjoyed donating to block drives over the years because it is a wonderful way to work in community with other quilters--even if we don't know each other. The blocks for the current drive are cool and warm 4-patches surrounded by black with white or white with black prints. You can see the directions here.

I thought I had a lot of black and white prints to choose from, but when I laid them out, some looked too dingy, so I narrowed them down to what you see here.

Picking out the cools and warms was fun but messy!

I was tempted to keep going and make a whole quilt top, but I want to emphasize the community aspect of the quilt while keeping the cost of postage down, so I will send just these. Maybe I'll use the pattern in another donation quilt for closer to home sometime.

Here are my blocks:

I'm linking this to Cynthia's Oh Scrap post on Quilting is more fun than Housework.

Be sure to check out other scrap projects there and get inspired to do some community quilting.

January Finish

Having thrown 2025 into the dumpster and hoping for a better 2026, I made myself three sort-of goals to get out of my funk. One was to make a quilt for donation. Another was to make blocks to contribute to the quilting community, and a third was to ramp up my placemat making. January turned out to be a dumpster fire along with a deep freeze, but I did finish a quilt (yesterday) and I made eight blocks for donation to a community quilt. This was more grief sewing than joyful, but it did feel satisfying to try to do good and to make some pretty things (do you understand what I'm saying here?) to bring some measure of joy and comfort to others. 

I hope you stick with me here. I got so involved in sewing, I forgot to take many pictures.

I knew that my preoccupation with heavy thoughts would not allow me to do anything requiring a lot of complex planning, so I chose an online pattern by Purl Soho for a quilt: Tiny Tiles. Simple design and easy sewing. The directions are VERY detailed so not much thought on my part. For the past few years, I have been collecting rich, chocolate brown fabrics. Browns don't seem to be real popular among quilters. In fact, a quilt store owner told me that in an "of course" tone of voice. But I persisted and now have a nice collection. I was determined to make a modernish quilt that combined brown with another favorite color of mine: turquoise.

My first task was to find a background fabric at a nearby store. White with a bit of gray. Yup, found it. (A change of mind about the size of the quilt left me a bit short on background fabric, but I was able to fix that as our grandmas did--I made a few of the blocks with a vertical seam down the middle. Can you see one here?)

After I sorted out my browns and turquoises, I decided to add some yellow green for a bit of sparkle. There are 120 blocks in the pattern with 480 small squares for sew and flip corners. To get the ratio of colors I wanted, I followed the suggestion in the comment section of the pattern to make half of the small squares in the dominant color (brown), 2/3 of the remaining squares in the secondary color (turquoise) and the rest in the sparkle color (yellow green).

To make the placement random, the pattern called for putting the squares in a bag and pulling them out without looking to make ten blocks at a time. 

To keep the mess down and ensure a good distribution of fabrics and color, I cut enough for 1/4 of the quilt at a time. Sewing was easy. But about halfway through, I needed a break to keep from getting bored, so I took an afternoon to make some blocks for a community quilt collection. (You can read about them in my next post.) 

After I put the blocks up on the design wall, I made just a few minor flips of blocks to keep long sides of triangles of the same fabric from touching each other, but I didn't make any other changes. Random is (almost) random.

I bought the backing for the quilt at one of my favorite fabric stores, challenging myself to find a clearance fabric (my way of saving money for donation quilts). When I got home, I realized that it was actually leftover Halloween stock--see the pumpkins in the selvedge? I never would have known. 

I followed the pattern guide for the quilting. It's much looser than my usual quilting, but I like how it added a diagonal element to the quilt. I did add some quilting in the end because there were 5-inch sections with no quilting, and that was a little too loose for me. I quilted around the colored tile in each section and the corresponding triangles along the edges. Quilt swinging (slinging? wrangling?) was a bit of a workout, but it didn't take long. 

This is truer in color.

I used excess backing to make the binding. I don't usually do that, but I had enough, and I like how it turned out.

I don't usually quilt my initials and date so clearly, but I had some leftover turquoise thread and put it to good use.

All in all, this was a good project to get me going again--not joyful, but satisfying, and the perfect way to spend a difficult month. I do like quilt making in January. I'm not a winter outdoors person, but I love seeing the snowy landscape and the winter light reflecting off of it in our house even on cloudy days. And sewing/treadling keeps me warm.

So here are the stats:

Pattern: Tiny Tiles by Purl Soho

Fabrics: A variety of mostly new collected, and some scraps

Dimensions: 120 5-inch (finished) blocks, set 10 by 12.

    Size after piecing: 50 1/2 by 60 1/2 inches

    Size after quilting: 50 by 60 inches

    Size after washing: 48 by 57 1/2 inches

Washed and cozy

Binding: Cut 2 1/2 inches, folded and machine sewn with 3/8" seam. Hand stitched to back.

Batting: Hobbs 80/20

Thread: Superior Masterpiece in Granite for piecing; King Tut in Temple for quilting; Treasure in Old Lace for hand quilting. 

Machines: Singer Featherweight for piecing; Singer 115 treadle with walking foot for quilting.

This quilt will be donated to a postpartum therapy program to bring comfort and a cozy hug for someone during sessions.

So I am on my way to meeting goals for a better quilting year (Don't forget to check out my next post for more.) I will continue to seek moments of joy, but failing that, I will still keep trying to resist cruelty by bringing comfort to others. Quilting is resistance and love. We need as much of that as we can get these days.

Keep doing good, keep making pretty things, keep quilting.

I'm linking up with Yvonne for January Favorite Finish at Quilting Jetgirl.

Best (All) of 2025 Linky Party

 It seems kind of silly to do this post. I only posted 6 times this entire year. But it's important to me to keep a record of the year this way, so here goes. You can click on the blue headings for links to my five projects.

Placemats 1 I made 7 placemats at the beginning of the year (donated to Meals on Wheels in the spring). I made them from Bear Paw blocks mostly constructed in 2020 during the pandemic.

Front Door Quilt Redux I made over a decorative quilt that I had made in 2022. You can read about how I changed the quilt and why if you wish.

Farm Quilt This was my favorite project of the year. I pieced it based on two photos I took in the 1970s. If I were to focus on just one type of quilt, this would be it. I love doing landscape quilts pieced with the methods of Ruth B McDowell, my favorite designer/quilt book author. 

Billie-inspired Quilt I made this quilt with a charm pack I bought on vacation supplemented with fabrics I had on hand. I donated it to an organization that provides therapy to mothers experiencing postpartum mental health challenges. It was inspired by a photo of the Billie quilt showcased in the Foundry section of the Quiltfolk magazine website. This photo--not part of my original post--was taken after washing it, which reminds me that I need to update the blog post with the washed dimensions of the quilt. 

Placemats 2 These three placemats are like bookends to match my first project of the year. I made them during autumn to start my batch of Meals on Wheels placemats for donation during the collection next spring. 

What a lot has happened to rock our world during the time between these two sets of placemats. This has been my least productive sewing year ever since I began this blog more than 11 years ago, and I am sure that that has much to do with my state of mind. While I have had many spots of joy, the year has felt heavy indeed, and sewing did little to distract me or build resilience. There was always that background of discouragement, and so, as much as I have always resisted goal setting, it is easy to see that my goal for the new year needs to be changing my mindset and working harder to use my hobby to build myself up and support others. 

I'm linking up to Cheryl's Best of 2025 Linky Party over at Meadow Mist designs.

I do wish you all a happy, healthy new year. Let us all hope for peace, mercy, justice, and love, and do what we can to contribute in 2026. 

Year End Bits and Pieces

Oh, my!! Please ignore all these blue words and search links. Blogger has come up with something new: inserting search links. Apparently, my pinkie finger keeps hitting the pencil thingie while I'm typing and all these links are appearing. It seems that I can't cancel them unless I notice them immediately. How ridiculous! Okay. Carry on. Here's the real beginning of my blog post... 

Whaat? I haven't posted anything here since the beginning of August. What's more is that I haven't done much sewing either. We did have many spots of joy this past fall--two vacations (one on Lake Huron and one on Lake Michigan), train trips to watch our grandkids' volleyball, and choir and band concerts, bike rides and hikes, a birthday shopping trip with one of our grands and then holiday fun. Those activities were just spread out enough that I didn't feel like starting new quilt projects in between.  And, to be honest, there were times when I just didn't have the motivation to create. I did more reading than usual--some to educate myself, but often for escape to try to distract from numerous discouraging and maddening events in the news. And--confession here--a little too much doomscrolling.

But I did make a few things and I want to make sure to record them here before the year ends. 

First up, three more placemats from the scrap bins. I made these at the end of August and beginning of September and brought them on vacation to stitch the binding on. No photos on location, but here are some I just took on the guest bed. They will be donated to Meals on Wheels in the spring. 

Closer looks:

This one has some favorite old floral prints along with green prints collected over many years. The back is strips of the same fabrics.

Such a quick way to use up scraps and make a two-sided placemat.

I had a bunch of pieces of blue, both modern and very old. This time I made a striped front. (I was really in a hurry because I wanted a take-along binding project and this was just a few days before vacation.)

The back was one of the final scraps of a quilt I made for a niece and her husband more than 24 years ago. Another way to speed up this little project.

The third quilt--maybe I made this one first before my need for hurry set in--was from leftover bits of a quilt I made for donation a few years ago.

And another quick backing.

Lighting is a bit dark here. I squiggle quilted all three placemats (because hurry, hurry). For this one, I used variegated rainbow thread. During the evenings on vacation I stitched the bindings down by hand. Each placemat is approximately 14 by 18 inches.

During November, I always make Christmas ornaments for my Grands based on their Halloween costumes. I have been doing this since my oldest was not quite 1 year old (She's 14 now), so it's definitely a tradition. I've made them in various ways, (tiny quilts, modeling clay, cross stitch) but my favorite is with felt, as I did this year. This year's batch is a penguin, Benny the Bull mascot, and Jack Skellington and the Pumpkin King from Nightmare Before Christmas. I used online coloring pages to help me make my patterns. Not quilting, but a fun sewing project. Unfortunately, the bottom two ornaments haven't been delivered yet because their owners had the flu and missed our get-together. Hopefully we'll see them soon. (I am confident that they don't read my blog so I'm not spoiling the surprise.)

 

A few weeks before Christmas, I heard that a nearby quilt/gift store was collecting handmade stockings to fill with PJs for foster children. They published a simple pattern online. With a quick browse of my fabric bins, I found a few pieces that would work to make three stockings, some with some extra piecing to make them fit, but it was easy sewing done in an afternoon. 

Here they are from one side

And here, showing the different other side of one of them.

They aren't quilted, but are from quilting fabric, so that also counts as a project, right?

Finally, I made a last minute project--a head rest cover and two arm rest covers to protect my husband's new dark green recliner delivered just before Christmas. We found the perfect twill fabric at a new-to-me sewing store. I quilted three rectangles onto batting pieces and then lined them with fabric from my stash. and shaped two of the rectangles with buttons to go around the arm rests. 

I was thrilled to find the fabric I was hoping for. The store is delightful--a small collection of quilting, garment and decorator fabric. A good upscale replacement for some of the things I used to buy at a certain big box store. The store apparently specializes in sewing lessons, which thrills me, as it is the greatest hobby that everyone needs to learn, amIright? And Gramma hobbies are going to save our sanity.

Speaking of which, my granddaughter asked her parents for a sewing machine for Christmas this year. Yay!! She took it with when visiting here and together we learned how to use it. She wanted to applique some flowers on a hoodie, so we did that too, all in an afternoon and a morning. I had to learn a lot right along with her. I had only minimal experience with fusible web and had never used a zigzag stitch. She caught on quickly to everything. We looked up manuals online and watched a lot of videos to learn about threading the machine and using it. She finished the whole project while she was here. L is an entirely different kind of maker than I am. I'm a planner, she's a free spirit. I followed her lead, and it was so much fun to watch her. 

Sewing with L was so much fun, it might just be the motivation I need to get back to quilt making again. Winter is a good time for that.

I was going to include some photos from our vacations (pretty scenery and barn quilts) but this is getting long, and I still need to do one more post of my end of the year wrap-up. So, I'll just leave you with this photo of Darryl the squirrel checking out our fake wreath (they are not impressed). Maybe I'll post the other photos in some future posts.

So with that let's say goodbye to 2025. Here's a little dumpster sketch I drew on my grocery list this morning to help us do that. May 2026 be a better year in every way. Keep hopeful, keep quilting.

I'll link up on Sunday with Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap.

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