April PHD 2025 Update

Hi Quilting Friends,

April is in the books, and it was filled with adventures! You may have noticed that this post is a little later than usual, and that’s because I was out of the country until late Tuesday night.

The most important and happy April event was adding a daughter (Gaby) to our family.  Yes, my younger son and his bride tied the knot in Aruba on April 26.  Here’s a picture of the bride & groom!

And here are photos from some of our activities during April, many from Aruba –

Princess Nina was due for her spa visit this month, so I dropped her off before we left for the wedding.  She’s refreshed and ready for me to pick up from the quilt shop, and I’m ready for “Princess” to return to our Quilting Palace.

I feel that I’m ahead of schedule on my PHD in 2025, so I may slow things down on my stitching and tackle some DIY projects around the house and garden. I find that taking a short break from sewing can be a good strategy; I always come back to it with renewed energy and new inspiration!

Here’s my April update! As you’ll see, April has been another productive month.

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Project #4 – Autumn Throw Quilt

My “One Monthly Goal” for April was to embroider the leaf details on the 13 oak leaf & acorn applique blocks. Ta-done!

Stories from the Sewing Room April One Monthly Goal Finish Link Up

My “One Monthly Goal” for May is to stitch 11 more pieced blocks, like this one-

The plan is in place, and the pieces have been prepared for this project.  Ready?  Set, SEW!

Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal May Link Up

Project #5 – Christmas Place Mats

The new place mats are ready for quilting! I plan to visit Susan’s studio and have Rosie (her Gammill quilting machine) quilt them for me so they’ll match the other place mat sets. I’ll most likely wait until Project #10 is ready for quilting to continue this project. . .

I won’t share a photo today, since this is a new design for Ms P’s Pattern Shop. Stay tuned; you’ll see pictures as soon as the pattern is ready for release (probably in June or July).

Project #7 – Springtime Table Topper

When inspiration hits, I hit back hard.  It took about a week from developing my design concept through putting in the last stitch on the binding of the “Springtime” table topper, and I’m happy with the result.

Our Springtime table topper features a woven star block in the center, with a scrappy triangle border and flower garden applique blocks (with buzzy bees, of course) on each end. I used fabrics from the 10″ square pack (shown above), along with a cute plaid fabric from my stash to make the table topper.

I used variegated pastel thread for the quilting.  I couldn’t make up my mind about which design to stitch in the woven star points, so I ended up using four different patterns. I quilted a leafy vine in the green points, pebbles in the yellow points, spirals in the pink points, and feathers in the orange points. (I’m especially happy with the feathers!). I stitched a loopy meander in the backgrounds of the star and the appliques, and added walking foot triangles in the HST borders. The binding is a pretty Kona cotton from my stash, which happened to match perfectly.

The pattern for cheerful Springtime Table Topper is available right here!

• Finished Size = 12″ x 28″
• Includes instructions for the Woven Star block and HST borders
• Includes applique pieces and layouts for Flower Garden borders
• $11 USD

Project #8 – Scrappy Pinwheel Star Quilt

The RSC 2025 color for April was RED, so here are my two RED Pinwheel Star blocks for this month-

Project #10 – Christmas Tree Runner

I have decided to use leftover fabrics from Project #5 to create a coordinating table runner for Christmas. The new design is in my brain and on paper, so I’ll begin sewing soon.

Project #11 – Scrappy Rolling Stone Quilt

I’ve been stitching Rolling Stone blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge since 2023, and I’ll have 30 blocks made when October rolls around. That’s enough blocks for a quilt!  I’m starting to work out a design for it. Stay tuned!

Project #12 – Clothing Item from Stash

I used this fabric and pattern to make a sleeveless shirt.  I had to buy buttons, but everything else was on hand in my studio. Here’s a photo of me, wearing my new shirt while I hang out with Mr. Fix-It, his brother (Jeff) and wife (Joy) in Aruba. (I’m not great at selfies.)

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Ongoing Projects

I finished off my April RSC 2025 projects (in RED) with another Rolling Stone block-

And I made another cute Coffee Mug block-

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PHD Progress Update

Here’s my updated PHD list, with completed tasks shaded in-

Here’s my PHD tracker, updated for April-

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Linky Party

Your turn! Add your link, and then visit the others to comment and encourage.

https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

We’d appreciate a link back to this post. Here’s one to copy and paste into your post-

PHD in 2025 April Update

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Thanks for visiting! We hope that you’ll have another satisfying month of working toward your PHD in 2025.  See you at the end of May with another update.

Happy quilting,

Sharon