Happy Pride Month!  I am excited to be able to offer these free paper pieced patterns for a variety of pride flags.  They were drafted with someone special in mind and I am planning to make one to go with the LGBT resource center our Girl Scout troop installed in a local teen center.  It is my hope that eventually a number of these will grace the walls of LGBTQIA+ resource centers, community buildings, or the walls of you or your loved ones around the globe.

The size of the completed wall hanging as shown will vary depending on sashing size, but should be in the neighborhood of 18" x 48".  Each flag is a couple of inches smaller than a piece of letter-sized paper.  You can print just the ones you need and combine the patterns as you desire.  All the patterns are very simple, beginner-style patterns.  Most flags piece out in a single section except for two that require only two sections.

This pattern is provided for free and I hope that you will use it for your own personal use and for the benefit of your family, friends, and community.  Please feel free to share it as desired, as long as no money changes hands.  The freebies in the shop were getting numerous and cluttered, so you will now access them via the "The Freebies Collection" link and find the appropriate sub-menu.  The pride flags are in the holiday freebies.

As a side note, I know not everyone who identifies as LGBTQIA+ has the support they need in their lives.  My inbox (you can use the "Contact Me" form) is a safe space if you feel like you are alone.  Please feel free to vent there.  If you want no response I will respect that, and if you do, let me know and I will do my best to get back.  Stay safe and know that you are loved.  <3

Nurses have a special place in my heart thanks to my grandma, and nursing school was one possible outcome that I considered as I was weighing my options for college majors.  At the birth of each of my children, the people beside my husband taking care of my needs and encouraging me throughout were the nurses.  During an unexpected hospital stay this week (so long, gallbladder!), the men and women on the nursing team were professional, helpful, and comforting.  Since my original designing and posting plans went out the window this week, I wanted to draft up this freebie as a thank you to the people who have gone into this line of service.

This is a fairly simple block and stitches up at 10 inches.  Any experienced beginner should be able to complete it.

I am opening up a new category in the shop called "General Freebies" and this will be available there momentarily.

Happy stitching!

The last of our Coraline blocks is up for testing, featuring Wyborn "Wybie" Lovat.  Die-hard fans of the book might choose not to include him in your quilt for the sake of staying true to the original story, but for those of us who enjoy both the book and film versions, he makes a nice addition to the set.  You can have some real fun with this piece in the texture of his hair and the way you finish out the skeleton gloves.  There is some embroidery to his face, but it really helps bring the expression to life and I highly recommend making sure to include it even if you aren't an embroidery fan.

Wybie is also a 10 inch block to match the other blocks in the series.  The lines for the skeleton glove bones are listed as embroidery lines in the pattern, but I really don't recommend embroidery for this particular section as it will be hard to get the look you are going for.  Instead, use these lines as guidelines for bone placement.  This is a perfect spot for textile paint or HTV.  Try adding little nubs at the ends of each line to represent the bone shape.

Let me know if you would like to test out Wybie!

No Coraline quilt would be complete without our hero's creepy antagonist, Other Mother (the Beldam).  This pattern comes complete with her button eyes, evil expression, and a bit of embroidery to bring it all together.

Like the accompanying blocks, Other Mother measures in at 10 inches when complete.  This one gets a hair tricky around the eyebrows, but you can also piece those in one color and use textile paint, HTV, or even embroidery to do the work for you.  The pattern includes suggestions for the embroidered Xs on the eyes.

She is still looking for at least one tester before she can officially be released, so let me know if you're the one!

I have a soft spot for black cats, and sarcasm, and children's books, and anything Neil Gaiman, so The Cat is pretty much the epitome of all my favorite things.  He was actually the first character I designed in the Coraline series but I did think Coraline herself should *probably* receive top billing.

The Cat is a 10" block.  There are lots of fiddly bits and sections that need matching up because he is such an angular character, so I would rate him close to the expert but not quite at the insanity level.  :)  As a bonus there is no embroidery, so when you're done, you're done.  Unless you want to add in a few whiskers for flavor, that is, in which case you can freehand them with embroidery thread or fabric paint.

​I do have this pattern listed in our Fandom in Stitches pattern tester group, but as there haven't been any takers yet, I'm opening it up to anyone else who might be interested.  Eventually I do plan on stitching this one for my black cat quilt wall, but that's a long way down the line.

Hit me up if you want to try stitching out this fantastic feline!  As soon as he is tested he can join the rest of our free fandom patterns in the shop.

If you haven't yet discovered Fandom in Stitches, you are in for a real treat.  It's an amazing pattern collection curated by Jennifer Ofenstein, full of nothing but free patterns based on beloved books, movies, TV shows, and more.  Any fandom paper piecer should have it bookmarked because almost anything can be found there and if not, the community of designers will jump in to make it happen.

That was the case for the Coraline block.  Someone mentioned there was no representation for the Coraline franchise and after watching the request go unanswered for a few weeks, I got back into the designing groove and popped out a small series.  I have designed Coraline, The Cat, Other Mother (the Beldam), and Wybie.  I don't anticipate designing more but it's not out of the question so if you have a specific request, please let me know!  While they are up for potential testing in our pattern tester group, I am opening these patterns up to anyone who can help get them tested and listed.

​

Coraline is a 10" block and moderately complicated.

I don't typically like adding embroidery to blocks, which is why mine tend to be a bit more complicated to piece, but some blocks really do call for it.  If you aren't an embroidery fan, you can also add the details with textile paint or heat transfer vinyl.  I left her dragonfly clip as a simple shape to facilitate the piecing, but you can dress it up with wings or even leave it blue and add a dragonfly embellishment instead, like a button.

​Enjoy!

Blessings this Mother's Day to all of the moms out there!  This includes everyone who wears the hat: traditional mothers; birth, adoptive, and foster mothers; bonus moms; households with two mothers; trans moms; mothers who have experienced unfathomable  loss; chosen moms; and more.  My own mom has been a huge inspiration to me and I wouldn't be the woman I am today without her guidance.  I hope that this free pattern captures the unconditional love that we have for our children, and the care and support that our moms provide to us.

This pattern finishes out at 10" and the pieces themselves are fairly easy to piece.  There are a few teeny pieces that can be left out if desired, but they help round out the pudgy little baby fingers.  The most difficult part will be lining up the sections.

Mother's Day can be a complicated day for some people, since the mother-child relationship can be a complicated (or nonexistent) one.  This pattern can also be used for a number of other occasions, like Father's Day, or for a grandparent in a nursing home, or in a large quilt for your favorite daycare center or library.

​You can find this pattern in the shop in the Holiday Freebies section.

Because we move so often, we have been a cat-only family since our dumb-as-a-rock-but-oh-so-sweet jindo mix passed away 10 years ago.  As we look toward the retirement (and kids' college) years ahead, though, I have been thinking about eventually rescuing a Bernese mountain dog to add to our craziness.  I have wanted one my whole life, but when I realized I had to be a responsible adult and research whether it was a pipe dream or if the breed qualities would be a good match for our family, I was surprised to find out the breed is exactly what we are looking for.  Their biggest flaws are a tendency toward shyness or separation anxiety, and sadly, a high chance of a shorter lifespan due to a number of medical conditions, 

It will be a while before we can start searching for the perfect addition to our family, so in the meantime I have drafted up Rascal to put in the shop as part of the Dog Breeds Collection.

Rascal comes in a 10" block and is of moderate difficulty.

I find this block to be so cheerful, with the giant doggy grin.  Anyone want to adopt this pup and give the block a test run?  Testers receive a free copy of the pattern in exchange for your feedback and comments, as well as a free copy of the revised pattern when it is released.

April is National Poetry Month, inspiring this set of patterns related to one of my favorite poets and literary genius: Edgar Allan Poe.  (Although no one holds a candle to Neil Gaiman; sorry, Edgar!)

One of my most cherished "poor young couple" dates with my husband was a spring afternoon walking through the small but fascinating Poe Museum in Richmond, VA.  We loved the bust that sits in the yard and I took many pictures of it.  The Poe profile block was drafted from one of the photos of the bust.

The block is sized at 10" and is moderately complicated.  Nothing too crazy, but quite a few sections to line up.  To go along with the Poe profile block, I drafted an inkwell with feather quill.  This one is a much simpler block to piece and a beginner with some experience under their belt could put it together.  These two blocks were developed to be a pair (a 2x2 block mini quilt would look really good with patterns reversed in opposite corners), but this companion block is very versatile and would go along with a number of fandom, fantasy, or literary quilts.

Both patterns will be released to the shop once they are tested.  If you are interested in testing, let me know!

As part of the US States collection, I am introducing patterns for Texas, Virginia, and South Carolina.  When included with my Washington and Germany blocks, these states represent our duty stations as we have moved throughout my husband's military career.  Many of our friends have signs, canvases, or other types of wall hangings showing their various duty stations, and my plan is to create a small quilt to commemorate all of our surrogate states to display in our final house.  I plan to use the larger Germany block as a center block and the rest of the states as cornerstones, although I'm not yet sure what I am going to do with the sashing.  And I definitely want to make sure we won't be adding Washington, DC to the list before assembling the quilt, LOL!

It will be a while before I get to these myself, so in the meantime I am looking for testers.  The blocks are sized at 10" and fall on the slightly more complicated side to make sure I could capture as many details as possible.  Let me know if you are interested!