Just a quick heads up that today is the final day my pattern store will be open. I will deactivate it tomorrow morning and process any remaining orders before it closes.
I hope to reopen next year, although nothing has been decided yet. It will depend on how things go with my health. I am working on new patterns, and I am hopeful that everything will come together.
Here is a pattern I came up with last year while I was making Christmas cards. The card design and the little blocks I had stitched felt like they wanted to become a full Christmas quilt, so I bought more fabric and stitched one up in no time. I did not manage to write the pattern earlier with everything that was happening this year, but I finally pulled it together, just in time for Christmas.
These are not my usual bright and bold colours, but there is something about the simple elegance of the black and white metallic fabrics that I really enjoy.
I have also created a discount code – enter YULE20 at checkout to receive 20% off. The code is valid until November 25, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PST and applies exclusively to the Yuletide Reflections quilt pattern.
As several of you have noticed and pointed out, I deactivated my online store in September. I wasn’t in any shape to turn on the computer and send out patterns, and since I wasn’t posting any BOM blocks either that seemed like the best solution. My plan was to close the store at the end of the year without ever reactivating it but I now realize that this won’t work. People missed the free downloads for various reasons and want to purchase the missing patterns. I have reactivated the store for now but please note that it will only be online until the end of this month. I will not be able to fill orders in December. If I will reactivate it next year depends on how I am feeling. So if you are missing any blocks or would like to buy any other pattern, please do so until the end of November.
Here are the finishing instructions for the Safari quilt. It will be a while before I finish the full pattern, I haven’t even quilted the top yet. But at least it is finished and looks great. Here is a digital image of the quilt, these are the actual fabrics I used for the sashing and border.
While writing the finishing instructions for the Safari Quilt I noticed that the placement guide for the elephant (Block #9) had a mistake. I am not sure how that happened as I printed the guide and used it for assembling my sample block, I should have noticed at the time that the flower stem would be on top of the elephant’s trunk, not behind it. Obviously I didn’t but I have fixed the mistake and uploaded the new version of the pattern. If you have already assembled your block, you probably notice (looking at you, Elaine :)). If you saved the download for later, please scroll down to the previous post and download the correct version of the pattern. Sorry for the inconvenience!
I am not doing great, so no chit chat today, only the missing block. Thank you for your patience.
EDIT: The period of free download is over, and the block has moved to the pattern store where it is now available for purchase.
I want to thank everyone for their kind words and messages of encouragement and also clear up one small misconception. Dancing and quilting are my two big passions. Since I cannot dance right now, quilting has become my happy place. So when I feel well enough to work on quilts or patterns, it is not out of obligation. I have always loved designing, but my brain has to be in the right place for it. Being able to return to that creative work is actually a good sign.
The August block is a fat, cuddly Crocodile. Well, maybe do not try to actually cuddle him, but I wanted him to be more cute than scary. His belly looks quite full, so hopefully he is not in the mood to attack anyone.
As always, the pattern will be available for free download until the end of the month and move to the pattern store when the next block is released.
EDIT: The period of free download is over, and the block has moved to the pattern store where it is now available for purchase.
I am still not doing well, but I have had a few better days and am now able to publish both the missing block and July’s block together. I do plan to release the final two blocks eventually, but I am not setting a specific timeline. I truly appreciate those of you who have waited patiently and offered kind words. I will not be responding to messages demanding to know when the next block will be released. These patterns are a free resource, and they will be available whenever I am able to share them. I did not choose to deal with serious health issues, and I certainly did not expect things to unravel so quickly. But now that they have, I am doing my best to manage the situation—and I ask that all of you respect that.
Last month’s block was a Rhino, and July’s block is a Zebra. I have a few words of advice about the Zebra block: if you have a zebra stripe fabric, please, by all means, use it and save yourself the trouble of cutting and stitching all those black pieces. I just could not find a suitable fabric, so I had to come up with a way to make the zebra look like a zebra—rather than a white horse with attitude.
EDIT: The period of free download is over, and both blocks have moved to the pattern store where they are now available for purchase.
I know many of you are eagerly awaiting the next Safari block, but unfortunately, I must ask for a bit more patience. If I could, I would be happily posting here, making quilts, sketching designs, and writing new patterns. But life has a way of interfering, and this time it has done so in a big way.
For the past eight weeks, I have been unable to do much, creatively or otherwise. I still cannot sit or stand for extended periods, nor walk comfortably. On top of that, a new medication is causing significant nausea. Finding the right treatment is a frustrating process of trial and error — everyone responds differently, and it is hard to predict what will work best. So I have no choice but to be patient, and I can only ask the same of you.
These past weeks have given me a lot of time to think, and I have made the difficult decision to close my longarm quilting business. It is time to use the energy I have more wisely. I have not yet made a final decision about my patterns. We will finish the Safari Block of the Month, but on a revised timeline. At this point, even I do not know exactly what that will look like, so I hope you will bear with me as I figure it out.
At the beginning of the year, I was open about my ongoing health challenges, and I did note that there might be times when I would need to step away without much warning.
With that in mind, I kindly ask that you do not contact me to ask about the BOM. The contact form has been disabled, comments on this post are closed, and emails will not receive a reply. Please know that I am doing my best to recover, and I truly appreciate your patience and understanding.
Unfortunately my sciatic nerve is still very angry and demanded another trip to the emergency room over the weekend. I have no mental bandwidth left for quilting, sewing and this blog at the moment, so I am taking a short break. Hopefully I will see you all soon. Keep your fingers cross that the stupid nerve will calm down!
