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One of the unfinished projects that has been lurking in my sewing room has been oven mitts.

Long ago, I bought some Insul-Bright insulated wadding, and I set it aside with some kitchen print fabric with the intention of making mitts. More recently, I realised that I could also use up quilt wadding scraps and some heavy wool fabric remnants I had in my cupboard.

The Insul-Bright came with a pattern for oven mitts, so I used that pattern and some cotton upholstery fabric remnants for my first test mitt. I only had enough fabric for one mitt, so that ...

I decided that my May UFO would be the Splendid Sampler blocks that have been lurking in my cupboard since 2016. Having made a Dear Jane quilt and being someone who enjoys making tiny blocks, I thought it would suit me well, but life got in the way.

When I started it, I soon realised that I was not going to make a hundred blocks. and I reset my goal to fifty blocks, partly because of limited time and partly because some of the blocks did not inspire me. I chose to make it pink because I wanted to sew ...

I have not yet shared my May UFO because it is away being long-arm quilted. May’s UFO, a sampler quilt, was such a large project that I set myself a far more modest goal for June: finish a top that I bought the fabric for and cut out in January 2018. Since then, it has been variously draped over my dressmaker’s dummy, folded in a basket or on the desk in my sewing room. Since I finished it last month, it has been on a coathanger in my sewing room.

The top is a repeat of a Liberty ...

I have finished another UFO! This one dates from 2018.

My April goal was to turn this kokeshi panel into a cushion. I made it originally as a humidicrib cover with fabric remnants I had bought in Japan, but when the hospital advised that they did not want any more humidicrib covers, I changed the plan into a cushion.

I was so happy when I found the Japanese scrap packs.

I hand quilted it during April and early May, wearing a hole in my thumbnail in the process. Despite the wear and tear on my hands, you cannot easily see ...

I have conquered another UFO, a project that has been lurking in my sewing room since early 2017.

It started like this: my cousin was having a baby, so I thought I would make her a quilt. Without giving away my intentions, I asked her about colours and themes she likes. She replied, ‘I like yellow and cows’. I worried a yellow cow might be a bit tricky, so I was pleased when she added, ‘I like sunshine too’.

That short conversation inspired me to try to make a sunshine-themed baby quilt.

It is finished!

Here is what I did ...

I started this sewing case a little over two years ago. I was on leave before starting a new job in January 2018, and I thought I would quickly whip up this whimsical sewing kit in a weekend. I had everything I needed for such a little project already in my sewing cupboards. Too easy!

Instead of two days, it has taken me two years. As with so many of my projects, I stalled and it was forgotten.

The house front can be decorated in any way you like.

The back of the house is undecorated.

The pattern is the ...

I started this cushion last March. It happened because I was neatly folding my Liberty stash. We could say that Marie Kondo prompted this cushion. I was admiring the pretty blue fabrics as I folded them and was inspired to start cutting out hexagons. A cushion would not take long, I thought.

I used all of my blue and bluish Liberty prints in this cushion.

Machine piecing the 2-inch hexagons was easy and did, indeed, not take long, but finding the time to hand quilt the cushion front was another matter. I had a plan and had chosen the quilting ...