Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish. -Jean de la Fontaine

Hey y'all! So I haven't blogged in a little bit but I have a pretty good excuse - I started my new job last week! If you've been with me for awhile you know that I have been looking for work for quite some time now; it has been a stressful few months and the last couple especially have been really hard. I am still settling in and getting used to my new routine, but so far everyone is really nice and I'm able to give recommendations and have a say in the library services.

Anyway, because I'm still getting used to having far fewer hours in the day to devote to my own work, I have only sewn one thing since I started my new job (although there is other crafty stuff going on that I can't talk about right now) and that had to be done by last Sunday.

At this month's TMQG meeting we held a little blind pincushion swap! I've really been enjoying making one colour, scrappy pincushions so I did it again. Almost all of these purple scraps came from a little scrap pack I bought from The Workroom.

I fussy cut the centre motif from Tula Pink's Birds and the Bees and decided to go with a rectangular log cabin so that I could use as many scraps as possible. I don't know the identity of many of the scraps but I do know that there is some Lizzy House, Anna Maria Horner, and more Tula Pink in there.

My pincushion went to Sally (who also brought each of us a bag of crushed walnut shells to use in future pincushions) and I received a pincushion back from Sandy which I have, unfortunately, not had a chance to get decent pictures of.

I'm really hoping to get some sewing in this weekend, especially since I need to finish the quilt I started for Alex - wish me luck!

Valentine's Heart - a Free Little Cross Stitch Pattern!

Hey y'all! As a way of saying happy Valentine's day I've got a free little cross stitch pattern for you.

This little heart is pretty simple and fast to stitch up (not having any half stitches) but looks fun with it's alternating colour bands and varying stitch motifs. 

After stitching, I starched and ironed, trimmed the piece down leaving a 1/4" on each side of the heart and sewed it down onto a pre-made blank card. I'm giving it to my mumma when I see her on Monday!

I'm sure that there are loads of other ways you could use this little motif - maybe use some waste canvas and stitch it on to a scarf or cardigan, or integrate it into another craft project such as a mug rug or tote bag. Do you have any other ideas? I'd love to hear them!

UPDATE: Unfortunately, this pattern is no longer available for free due to changes made on various platforms. It is now available for a minimal fee through my Etsy shop.

Orion Star

Hey y'all! First off I just want to say a big thank you to all of the people who have already purchased a copy of my Orion quilt pattern - you guys totally rock my world! On the first day alone, you guys managed to get it trending at #3 on Craftsy. I can not thank you guys enough and really can't wait to start seeing versions of the quilt popping up!

In the pattern, in the extras section, I mention enlarging one star portion and turning it into a baby quilt. Well, I decided to do just that on Friday and this little quilt was born.

Orion Star measures approximately 40" square and features prints from Denyse Schmidt's Chicopee, Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow, Oliver + S' City Weekend, and Laurie Wisbrun's Tufted Tweets. I just love the colours so much!

The backing features Kona Ash, a repeat of the print from Chicopee, and a print from Tula Pink's Parisville. The binding is from Lizzy House's Outfoxed and is the same print that I used for the interior of my Art Student Tote (I also have it in the yellow colourway) - just love those little triangles!

I love those little birdies in Tufted Tweets - they are way too cute! I quilted this one using a light grey cotton (almost an exact match to Kona Ash) using straight lines that form different sized rectangles. I finished this quilt in one day, other than hand sewing the back of the binding, and am super-happy with the way this turned out!

Since there are no little girls in my life right now or being born anytime soon (at least that I know of), I've decided to put this little quilt up in my Etsy shop - I really hope that it finds a good home!

Once again a thank you to everyone who has purchased the Orion pattern, and to those too who have left me some many wonderful comments here, on Flickr, on Facebook, and on Instagram - you guys are awesome!