Making progress on a new fabric stitch book

I’ve taken a page or two of my new fabric stitch book to work on while traveling. I am pleased with the good progress that has been made. 

New stitched iris composition using a stenciled print and painted fabric scraps.

Original stenciled image of the iris.

Back view of the iris composition.

Two stitched samples have been mounted onto fabric for book pages. The background fabrics for both are yarn dyed shot cottons.

Stitched landscape mounted on a background fabric.

A Dropcloth stitch sampler is mounted on a grass green shot cotton background fabric. 

A stitch sampler from Dropcloth Samplers mounted on a background fabric page

Back view of the mounted stitch sampler.

On this page (below), the painted cloth has been combined with hand embroidery and kantha running stitches. I haven’t decided if additional embroidery is needed to enhance more of the leaves.

Filling out the composition with embroidery and running stitches.

Still a work in progress… but coming along nicely.

Making the Sleeping Bunnies sewing project panel from Poppie Cotton

Do you ever want to retreat to your sewing room, make a fun little project requiring basic sewing/quilting skills and equipment, has minimal complexity or challenge… something that you can make for just the pure joy of sewing? Yes!

The “Sleeping Bunnies” project. A project panel from Poppie Cotton.

This weekend, I stitched up a sample of the Sleeping Bunnies project panel from the Rosy Cheeks collection from Poppie Cotton. It was a simple, fun project, requiring little effort and sewing know-how. From start to finish—including cutting out the pieces, sewing them together, stuffing, and hand-stitching the closures—it took me about 2.5 hours. 

Sleeping bunnies, bed and pillow.

Sleeping Bunnies 36” fabric project panel.

The 36” panel comes printed with the bunny and bed pieces in two colorways. There are four bunnies (two big bunnies and two baby bunnies), little beds and pillows for the bunnies, and both beds come complete with a patchwork quilt! 

Large bunny and baby bunny with the pillow and quilt.

Instructions for sewing and assembly are printed right on the panel, so there’s no fuss and no guessing. Just cut out each shape (the seam allowances are printed on each piece), pair the matching pieces, sew with a 1/4” seam allowance, then turn them right side out. Once stuffed, the bunnies come to life, are ready to play, or let them snuggle under their quilt.

Sewing and assembly instructions.

Sleeping Bunny—blue colorway.

Each of my bunnies was finished by hand with small ladder stitches at the opening. I added a thin piece of batting and also free-motion quilted the bed and the patchwork quilt—to keep the sleepy bunnies warm and snuggly. 

Sewing tips

Here are my tips for sewing and assembly: 

• reduce the stitch length to 2.0 to sew the pieces together.
• back stitch on either side of the opening to keep it strong while stuffing the pieces.
• I used pinking shears to trim the seam allowances, to reduce bulk. It was quicker than clipping the curves and just as effective.
• A walking foot was helpful for sewing the bed together—especially because two layers of batting were added.
• adhere to the recommended 2” opening (or slightly larger) for turning the bed right side out—especially if adding batting.
• trim the batting close to the stitching line for easy turning and to reduce bulk. 

Sleeping bunnies in their bed and under the patchwork quilt.

The Sleeping Bunnies panel is a wonderful choice for a quick, beginner-friendly sewing project that delivers maximum cuteness. It can be finished in an afternoon and the adorable family of handmade bunnies, tucked in their little beds, would be a delight for any child or nursery… or keep them for yourself.

Reimagining past projects to create a new fabric book

We all have them—the half-finished class projects, the forgotten stitch samples, the surface design experiments—that didn’t make it across the finish line. 

Fabric experiments and stitching samples.

In a conversation with a fellow fabric rep about our fabric stashes and collections of UFOs (unfinished objects), I decided to move forward with an idea we discussed to take some of my abandoned stitchings and make them into a new fabric book. A book project will incentivize me to finish the samples and revitalize them into a cohesive project—a tactile archive of textile experiments. 

Leaf print with embroidery.

Gathering the fragments 

I gathered several pieces—nature prints, stamped and stenciled images, painted and dyed fabrics, and other printed or stitched experiments. Seeing them all together was like flipping through a visual diary—loose, intuitive experiments, full of class memories—pieces that were waiting to settle into a more meaningful whole. 

Stitch sampler landscape.

Some of the samples were large enough to be—or fill—a single page. For the smaller samples, I paired them with other bits and scraps, a base fabric, and a plan to stitch them into new compositions. 

A garden of fragments begins to sprout 

As I laid out the pieces in this new collection… leaf prints, a stitched landscape, a stenciled iris, a chickadee perched on a branch… a theme began to appear. Among the pieces was an experiment with a thermafax screen print—a garden gate. Instantly, it felt like the gate was the missing connection between all the other pieces. It solidified the theme—Beyond the Garden Gate. Finding the gate was my invitation to begin the new book. 

Thermofax screen print. The garden gate.

Planning another book 

After completing the 100 Stitch Book and two other fabric books earlier this year, I’ve wanted to make another. I became enamored with the slot-and-tab binding through the previous books as it is the perfect technique for binding individual pages. It’s flexible and adaptive. Pages can be rearranged, added, or removed easily, allowing the book to evolve if I decide to add additional compositions. This is the perfect format for my new collection of individual samples. 

Leaf print with hand stitching and embroidery.

This project is another reminder that the creative process isn’t always about starting something from scratch, but about revisiting what you’ve already made and reimagining it with fresh eyes. It’s as much about revisiting the past as it is about beginning again. Each fabric piece holds a memory of learning or experimentation—a small story that might have been forgotten if not for its new context. My pile of “incomplete” projects has begun to germinate into something inspiring and cohesive.

Even a “healthy” scrap pile can use new spices

There’s something intriguing about working with someone else’s scraps in a project. What leftover fabric treasures do they have? What are their color and fabric print choices? Are they different or similar to what’s in my stash? How do they add spice to the scraps I already have?

Improv patchwork with new and old scraps.

With my Make Nine 2025 complete, I’ve come back to making improv patchwork and diving into the scrap piles… for kitty quilts and charity quilts… to scratch my fabric patchwork itch. 

Inspiration came from the new scraps

Even though I have my own [healthy] scrap collection, I picked up a couple of scrap bags at The Cherry Pit quilt shop a few weeks ago. Ooooh, baby! It’s like getting new crayons for your 120-color crayon box! Among the newly-acquired scraps were a few orphan quilt blocks, and pieced cut-offs. So I decided that these would be the impetus of a new scrappy kitty quilt top—including the color palette.

Strip pieced blocks and triangle units found in the scrap bag.
Additional fabrics were added to complete the unfinished blocks.

My improv process

Starting with the pieced units and adding triangle shapes to the partial units, I gathered other scraps to add to the “Autumn” color palette. A few scraps of bright pink and red violet pushed the red part of the color palette… but that’s because those scraps happen to be on the top of the pile. That’s how the improv process rolls for me.

Auditioning scraps for the autumn color palette.

The scraps were laid out as if putting together a puzzle. No two pieces are alike… a pumpkin print might land next to a batik or a contemporary print might sit comfortably beside a vintage-looking shirting. I don’t worry much about matching—just let the scraps and shapes find their own places in the improv ensemble. I find that’s the fun of it.

Finished quilt top. Approximately 28” x 25”.

The finished kitty quilt top is playful, freeing, and full of surprises—a lively mix of prints and textures, stitched from the leftover bits from other projects. I intentionally added a few blue fabrics because of the navy print that was already pieced into two of the orphan blocks. And the 45-degree angles of the pieced blocks were intentionally set in different directions to keep the eye moving around the quilt.

As in life, you never quite know what you’ll get in a bag of scraps. But scraps are a reminder that even the most humble pieces—or the most unexpected, wild prints—can be brought together with care and creativity to become something beautiful and useful. Everything will find a place.