Squirrel had finished nearly all the patchwork panels for his giant balloon — the ones made of translucent dried flower petals and the ones made of mosaic pieces of abandoned cicada shells and insect wings, all stitched and glued together with cobweb threads … and the ones woven out of dropped feathers.

He was, though — truth be told — having difficulty with the crunchy yellow and brown leaves.

And so he decided to tell Mama Chipmunk about his plan, reasoning that she might let him borrow her delicate silver needles, and might even be able to teach him a few helpful quilting stitches.

(September 2023)

Story © Jennifer Singleton / Read+Purr

This is another vignette in my ongoing series of Tiny Garden Stories: peaceful 1-minute tales that let you read like a kid again. Click one of the first two buttons below to go to (or back to, if that’s where you fell down the rabbit hole) either the “Public Garden” archive page or (if you’re a Story Club member) to the members-only “Private Garden” page. Or click the third button to learn more about my Tiny Garden Stories. If you’re new to Tiny Garden Story-land and would like 10 days’ worth of stories from our first year, visit ReadPurrNewsletter.com.