Be bold, be bold, and everywhere be bold. -Herbert Spencer

Hey y'all! So I'm still settling in at my new job and getting used to my new schedule (the time change helped nothing here!) and I've been having a really hard time fitting crafting into my life right now. With the travel to and from work I'm out of the house for 10 to 11 hours a day and frankly, I am just exhausted by the end of it. It's been really not fun, and I know that it will become easier once I get used to it again, but does anyone have any suggestions in the mean time? How do you fit crafting into your already full life?

I did manage to get a bit of sewing done on Saturday since I needed to finish a birthday present for my friend Kim. I decided to make her a pillow and thought that it would be an excellent chance to try making some X and + blocks which have been all over Instagram lately.

The finished pillow was made to fit an 18" square pillow form so I made 4 blocks (which finish at 7.5") and then added a border. The pillow has an envelope back and I used my Not Your Traditional Log Cabin Pillow tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew to figure out all of my measurements. Since I wasn't quilting the pillow front this time around I added a piece of canvas the same size to give it a little more stability and to cover up the patchwork seams on the inside.

I used a bunch of different fabrics for this one and I just love the look! For the background of each block I used either the grey or white "sewing guide" print from Mama Said Sew; the added border around the blocks is black & white Sketch.

Most of the printed fabrics come from scrap bags I bought at The Workroom - I have blues, purples, and yellows (I also have greys but I didn't use any here). And I love how scrappy and fun it is! For the squares at the bottoms, tops, and sides of each plus I used a black and white print to set off the colours and bring everything together. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out and I think Kim is too!

I've got a couple of other backlogged projects to share but I'll wait for another blog post. But seriously, if anyone has any suggestions for crafting with limited time or for getting used to a new schedule, let me know!