Welcome to April! I started a lot of seeds in March, most of them indoors because it is still too cold for many to survive outside. But my peas, radishes, spinach, and carrots are all in the ground, as they do not mind the occasional overnight frost.
My veggie beds are all in the backyard. In the front yard, I have the sunflower beds but not much else, so we have started turning the area into a rose garden. There was one very pretty rose there when we bought the house, a Peace Rose, with beautiful colouring and a wonderful scent. Then a friend came across a rose called Pumpkin Patch and just had to buy it for me. We added a few more, and they are doing really well, which gave us the idea to plant as many roses out front as will fit.
But roses are expensive, so this project will take multiple years. We have eight so far, and I have ordered four more, which I should be able to pick up any day now.
As for our Safari, it would not be a very satisfying experience without seeing a lion, would it? I fiddled around with his mane a lot, trying to keep it as simple as possible, but it needed to be a bit spiky to give it enough texture. I did not like the smooth variations I came up with, so be prepared to cut plenty of points. Overall, I am now very happy with the way he turned out, very majestic but still rather friendly-looking.
As always, the pattern will be available for free download until the end of the month and move to the pattern store when the May block is released.
EDIT: The month of free download is over, and the block has moved to the pattern store where it is now available for purchase.
It was a lot of work, but I am happy to announce that the pattern gallery on my website is finally finished. Pattern sales will continue through the Square shop, as this seems to be working well. However, organizing patterns into categories and adding tags on my website gives me better control, making it much easier for customers to find what they are looking for.
I have essentially recreated the old website shop while linking each item to the new Square shop. The main pattern list displays all patterns in numerical order, with the newest ones appearing first. I decided to bring back all individual blocks from previous BOMs, but to keep the main pattern list manageable, they and the pattern bundles are not included. Instead, there are links in the sidebar to view all individual blocks in numerical order, as well as the available pattern bundles.
When you click on a pattern, it takes you to its page on my website, not the Square store. There, you will find a detailed description, including measurements, required skills, and skill level. If the pattern is part of a series, all related items are listed at the bottom. The buttons link directly to the corresponding items in the Square pattern store.
All individual blocks from my BOM projects, starting with Tuxedo Cats, are available for purchase. They are listed in the individual block category but can also be accessed from the full quilt’s pattern page. Simply scroll down to the series list, where each block is linked directly to its item in the pattern store.
I have checked everything carefully, but with so many links to add, mistakes can happen. If you come across a link that does not lead where you expect, please let me know, and I will fix it as soon as possible. I hope you enjoy the new pattern catalogue. Happy browsing!
Mary, a local quilter and fellow guild member, purchased my One Fish, Two Fish pattern last year and recently sent me a picture of her finished quilt. I love seeing what people create with my designs. Mary used the fish pattern to bring her own underwater scene to life, and it turned out beautifully. Isn’t it just adorable?
If Mary’s quilt inspires you, here is a picture of my original design, along with a link to my pattern store where you can purchase the pattern.
Für die deutsche Version der Anleitung mit metrischen Maßen bitte dem Kauflink unten für die englische Version folgen und beim Checkout angeben, dass die deutsche Version gewünscht ist. Ich verschicke dann per email die Anleitung in der gewünschten Sprache.
If you have pictures of projects you have finished using my designs, I would love to see them! Feel free to send them my way, and I would be happy to feature them here as well. My email address is on the back of the cover page of every pattern.
And we made it to March! I should be able to start my garden outside soon, and I am hoping to eat fresh asparagus by the end of the month. My asparagus bed is well established now, and I am really looking forward to cream of asparagus soup. It is wonderful to have something to harvest this early in the season while everything else is just beginning to grow.
For this month, our Safari sighting is a meerkat. One of my cats often assumes a meerkat position when she spots something especially interesting or exciting, and it always makes me laugh. So when I was looking for African animals and the meerkat came up, I just had to include it in this BOM. His round face turned out a bit cartoonish, but it was too charming to leave out. I hope you like him too!
Für meine deutschen Leser: Das deutsche Wort für meerkat ist Erdmännchen. In Afrika gibt es auch ein Tier, das auf Deutsch Meerkatze genannt wird, aber das ist eine Affenart und nicht mit den Erdmännchen verwandt. Manchmal machen Übersetzungen/Sprachen echt keinen Sinn.
As always, the pattern will be available for free download until the end of the month and move to the pattern store when the April block is released.
EDIT: The month of free download is over, and the block has moved to the pattern store where it is now available for purchase.
I am still catching up on pattern writing, and here is a design I came up with in 2022. You might remember my Happy Hippo Hop quilt—the original was made for a friend who is a square dance caller and was expecting her first baby. It was inspired by the song I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, which she loved to sing during dances in December.
But her true love are Holstein cows. She has a huge collection of stuffed cows and cow-themed items, and for her birthday, the hall is usually decorated with cows while everyone wears black and white. So after her son was born, I said to my husband, If Heather ever has another child, I am going to make her a Holstein cow quilt.
In the summer of 2022, she announced that she was expecting again… and guess what? She was expecting twins! The Holstein cow theme was actually perfect for twins—black and white pair well with any colour. I ended up making two quilts for her and one for myself as a pattern sample, each with different feature colours. Her twins, a boy and a girl, received the turquoise and orange quilts, while I kept the purple one as my sample.
When I thought about a matching pillow, I could not decide whether I liked the full cow block or the smiling cow face with the daisy better. So, I ended up with two different pillow designs—and I love them both!
All three patterns are now available for purchase in the pattern store! I have created a discount code—enter MOO20 at checkout to receive 20% off. The code is valid until February 21, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PST and applies exclusively to The Moo Crew quilt, the A Whole Lotta Moo pillow, and the Blossom Belle pillow patterns.
Diese Anleitungen sind auf Deutsch nicht verfügbar, und auch zukünftige Anleitungen – einschließlich des Safari BOM – wird es nicht mehr auf Deutsch geben. Bisher habe ich zumindest für kleinere Projekte noch deutsche Anleitungen mit metrischen Maßen geschrieben, aber mit der Schließung von Makerist zum 1. April fällt mein Hauptvertriebsweg weg, und der Aufwand lohnt sich für mich nicht mehr.
If you would like all three patterns, I have also created a discounted bundle, which will be available until further notice.
The two pillows are also available as a bundle with a discounted price until further notice.
And we are back with the next instalment of the Safari Block of the Month! I hope you enjoyed working on the little giraffe in January.
This month’s block features an ostrich. Ostriches are the largest living birds. They cannot fly, but they can run incredibly fast. While they are farmed all over the world, they are native only to Africa.
Here is a fun fact I discovered while designing this block: ostriches have only two toes. I noticed their feet looked unusual when I was studying pictures, as I somehow expected them to have at least three toes. Before finalizing the design, I double-checked and confirmed that they indeed have just two.
I had the assembled block sitting on the ironing board for a few days before I found the time to stitch down the pieces. Every time I walked by, I could not help but laugh at the silly face looking back at me.
For this block, I decided to make the ostrich pink and purple because I wanted something more colourful than just black and white. Interestingly, the black and white ostriches I usually picture are males, while females have brownish-grey feathers. Huh, the things you learn while designing quilt blocks!
The pattern is available for free download until the end of the month—here is the link. Have fun with it! And if you have a picture of your finished block, I would love for you to share it with me.
EDIT: The month of free download is over, and the block has moved to the pattern store where it is now available for purchase.
While I usually sew my own designs, occasionally a pattern speaks to me, and I just have to have it. I have always admired McKenna Ryan’s beautiful and intricate designs but never ventured to make one of her quilts. About ten years ago, I came across a kit for a wall hanging from her And On That Farm quilt. This block, titled She Had Some Chicks, immediately caught my attention. Being a cat lover, I thought the design was absolutely adorable. So I bought the kit, and into a drawer it went.
I finally decided to make it last year, and the process was surprisingly frustrating. The kit, unfortunately, was not complete. It was missing all of the red fabrics and a few others, and one of the background fabrics was the wrong colour. Since this kit was supposed to include the original fabrics McKenna Ryan designed for the quilt, I found it a bit disappointing. However, this was not the designer’s fault, and luckily, I had enough batik scraps to find suitable replacements, and I bought a new background fabric that I thought matched quite well.
I knew, of course, that McKenna Ryan’s designs involve a lot of small pieces. You all know I love doing machine appliqué, but it turns out my designs do not have pieces that small after all. McKenna’s patterns include some incredibly tiny pieces that can only be handled and placed with tweezers. Thankfully, I have a Brother ScanNCut, so I didn’t need to worry about precisely cutting all those tiny curves. However, since I have never used the Brother for scanning—my own designs are converted into a file format the machine accepts—I discovered its scanning capabilities are rather limited. It recognized maybe half of the pieces, and I had to manually edit the rest. Still, I would much rather edit them on the computer than attempt to cut them out by hand.
I ran into another hiccup when I realized I had not thought things through properly. I should have reversed the pattern templates to match the way I cut my pieces with the Brother ScanNCut. As a result, my quilt ended up being a mirror image of the original design. There are worse things, though, so I didn’t overthink it. I simply flipped the placement guide and carried on.
Placing all those tiny pieces was a nightmare, and I absolutely hated it. I was so relieved when I finally finished. When I purchased the background batik, I had also chosen a backing fabric, so I quilted it right away. I started with some stitch-in-the-ditch around the borders, outlined the main design, filled the background with a swirly pattern and added a different swirl to the outer border. The rest of the quilting secured the appliqué with free-motion stitching along the edges of the pieces. It required many thread colour changes, but that is my favourite way to appliqué small, curvy pieces and, I believe, also the method McKenna Ryan recommends for quilting her designs.
I was contemplating giving the finished wall hanging away because I did not want to be reminded of how much I hated assembling it. But this was last summer, and it took me until December to actually do the binding. By now, the memory has faded, and I am quite happy with the result. I will probably keep it after all and even put it up on the wall once I find the right spot. That experience, though, has made it unlikely that I will try another of McKenna Ryan’s designs anytime soon.
In the middle of the Monkey Business BOM in 2021, someone left a comment on one of my posts, hoping for a cheeky monkey jumping on the bed. At the time, I was not familiar with the nursery rhyme and had no idea what they meant. Of course, that was not the motif for any of the blocks, as my BOM designs are always completed before I begin promoting them. However, their suggestion intrigued me, so I looked it up. The idea stuck with me, and I eventually created a quilt and matching pillow inspired by it. Both were finished quite a while ago, but I only found time to write the pattern this past summer. The monkeys can be boy or girl monkeys—or a mix—depending on your preferences. Customizing them is as simple as adding or leaving off a bow. Aren’t they adorable, having so much fun jumping on the bed? We will just imagine no one ever falls off or bumps their head!
When someone inspires me to create a specific quilt and write a pattern for it, I like to thank them by sending the pattern for free. Of course, there is no obligation to ever make the quilt. The Little Monkey projects were inspired by a comment left by Stacey B. in August 2021. I sent both patterns to the email address associated with the comment a few months ago, but I never heard back. It is possible the email address is no longer in use. Stacey, if you are reading this and have not received the patterns, please get in touch, and I will be happy to send them again.
Both patterns are now available for purchase in the pattern store. I have created a discount code: enter JUMPING at checkout to receive 20% off. The code is valid until January 17, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PST and applies exclusively to the Five Little Monkeys quilt and the One Little Monkey Pillow patterns.
Die Anleitung für den Five Little Monkeys Quilt ist auf deutsch nicht verfügbar. Für die deutsche Version des Kissens mit metrischen Maßen bitte dem Kauflink unten für die englische Version folgen und beim Checkout angeben, dass die deutsche Version gewünscht ist. Ich verschicke dann per email die Anleitung in der gewünschten Sprache.
If you would like both patterns, I have also created a discounted bundle, which will be available until further notice.
Happy New Year 2025! I hope it brings joy and creativity to you all. I am excited to introduce my brand-new Block of the Month project, Safari. This year’s format will be a little different from my previous ones. Instead of twelve blocks, there will be nine, running from January to September. In October, I will share the finishing instructions, and in November, the full pattern will be available. We will take a break in December, as it is such a busy time for everyone preparing for the holidays.
Safari is also different from my previous Block of the Month projects. Instead of one animal featured in different scenes, each month will showcase a different animal. All nine animals are inspired by those you might encounter on an African safari. While they will have a whimsical cartoon style, they will not display any human behaviours.
The layout will be similar to previous years, but this time it will feature a 3×3 grid instead of a 3×4. The finished quilt will measure approximately 52 inches square. The finishing instructions will be available as a free download in October, provided as a separate pattern. I always enjoy seeing pictures of your finished blocks! My email address is on the cover page of every pattern, in the lower left corner, so feel free to share them with me.
On the cover page, I have included an estimate of the amounts of background fabrics needed if you plan to use the same fabrics for all nine blocks. For the animals, simply dive into your scrap bin and see what you can find. The exact colours are not important—just work with what you have and, most importantly, have fun!
Our first animal sighting is a giraffe! Here is a picture of my sample block. Isn’t he just adorable with his big head, wobbly legs, and cheeky grin?
The free pattern will once again be available only in English with Imperial measurements. All other rules remain the same as in previous years, and here they are again as a quick reminder:
A new block will be published on the first day of each month at 9 a.m. Pacific Standard/Daylight Time. If any unforeseen circumstances require changes to this schedule, I will announce them here on the blog. Since I am in the Pacific time zone, it may already be the second day of the month for some of you. I kindly ask for your patience and request that you refrain from emailing me about the timing of the next block. I do not schedule posts to go live in the middle of the night, as this allows me to address any potential issues with the pattern files immediately rather than waking up to dozens of messages. If you do notice a problem, please do not hesitate to contact me so I can resolve it as quickly as possible.
Each block will be available as a free download during the month it is published. Once the next block is released, the previous block will move to the store section, where it can be purchased for a small fee. If you miss a block, you can buy it for just $2 CAD (approximately $1.39 USD or €1.34 at the time of writing—less than the cost of a decent coffee these days!). Please do not email me asking for a free copy, as such requests will be ignored. I also kindly ask that you respect my copyright and avoid sharing the pattern with others who may have missed the free download. Sharing patterns in this way discourages designers from continuing to offer free content in the future.
Thank you for taking the time to read through all this. Without further ado, here is the download link for the first block—enjoy!
EDIT: The month of free download is over, and the block has moved to the pattern store where it is now available for purchase.
Edit: Bedauerlicherweise muss ich die deutschen Versionen meiner Anleitungen mit metrischen Maßen nun endgültig einstellen. Schon seit einigen Jahren habe ich diese zusätzliche Arbeit nur in kleinere Projekte investiert, aber mit der Schließung von Makerist zum 1. April 2025 entfällt mein Hauptvertriebsweg für deutsche Anleitungen, sodass sich der Aufwand für mich nicht mehr lohnt. Die bereits existierenden Anleitungen biete ich weiterhin über meine Website zum Verkauf an. Bei Interesse bitte dem Link zum Pattern Store folgen, die englische Version bestellen und beim Checkout angeben, dass die deutsche Version gewünscht ist. Ich verschicke diese dann per E-Mail. Für zukünftige Projekte, einschließlich des Safari Block of the Month, wird es leider keine deutschen Versionen mehr geben. Ich danke für Ihr Verständnis.
If you are interested in my previous Block of the Month projects, they are still available for purchase here:
