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!

As I have been trying to plan out the remainder of the year's blocks, I went back to some of the old messages from people looking for specific things.  One of the most sought after patterns, second only to the Game of Thrones sigils pack, is everyone's favorite Christmas sourpuss.  People apparently want the Grinch, the Grinch, THE GRINCH!

When I pulled the pattern, though, I was unhappy with it.  It was an older pattern from my early designing days and definitely needed some TLC.  The updated block is somewhat more simplified, contains more expressive embroidery options, and has a more appealing pattern layout.  This is still a complicated block and contains a number of sections (22 compared to the original 27), but that is the nature of the beast when dealing with a detailed picture with lots of angles.  In order to help make piecing a bit easier, I have sized this block at 12".

For right now, you can find the free Grinch pattern in the shop in one of two categories: Free Fandom Patterns and Holiday Freebies.  But there's more in store for the 2020 holiday season!  I am going back to redraft patterns for Max, Cindy Lou Who, and some funky Whoville trees, and the set will release in early November in time to stitch up a fun Christmas quilt like this one.  This quilt mock-up does not include the embroidery so Max in particular looks a little off, but it should give you the general idea.

I hope people are excited to see the Grinch in his rightful home and are looking forward to the release of more Whoville characters this winter.  Enjoy!

The Prancing Pony inn sign has been tested and is available on Craftsy and Fandom in Stitches!  I think this is one of my top three favorite designs so far, right up there with the Dune and Game of Thrones quilts.

I have ordered my fabric out of the UK for this (I really wanted the same Makower Spraytime fabrics that I used in the computer mock-up) and I am excited to bring it to life myself after our move.  Eventually this will go on display with my hobbit meals list cross stitch in our dining room.  I am toying with the idea of using a straight plant hanger to hang it in the doorway like a sign.  This would be a great standalone wall hanging, or you can add it to a Lord of the Rings quilt for some flair.

There are a lot of sections (27!), but it is not actually that complicated to piece if you have some experience.  Because of the large number of sections, however, the block may measure a tiny bit short at the end depending on your piecing.  Be sure to remove your foundation paper from inside the seams as you sew to help with that.  If you need a square block, it is easy to add strips of the background fabric to the top, bottom, and sides to square it up.  While the embroidery is a large piece of the pattern, it is certainly not essential.  You could easily leave it off or use another method to add it, like paint or HTV.

As always, I am happy to reprint the pattern pieces in any size you need.  Contact me via the main page for requests.

I have had several testers work on this one for me (see the pictures below), and I have loved seeing them come to life.  If you make one, please share!

I am so pleased to announce that my Dune quilt is now available for download from the shop tab and Fandom in Stitches.

While I do have all my fabrics for this quilt pulled and I will eventually be making one for myself, I had to rely on a tester to get it out in a timely manner.  I cannot express enough appreciation for my tester, Angela Gross, who did a fantastic job pulling it together, making suggestions for corrections, and sending me photos as needed.  She was also a lovely person and a joy to work with.

This is the work of art she put together based on the pattern:

​The quilt pattern includes all the blocks below:

Angela added the entire Litany to her quilt, although the pattern contains only a few lines.  If you are interested in stitching the longer version, please contact me and I can walk you through how to get the fonts to add more to your quilt.

I should also express my intense gratitude to artist Mitch Hicks, for allowing me to base my Fremen eye block on his art piece, "The Fremen Child."  Any changes I made to his image were intended to facilitate the piecing of this block, but the idea and base image are entirely his.  This piece has been used by permission.  You can view it and more of Mitch's art here.

I hope that you all enjoy this quilt as much as I did designing it.  If you happen to stitch it up, please send pictures so I can share them here!

-Jessica