bean sprout | Night Quilter

Happy Earth Day! Earth Day is one of my favorite holidays since it’s a day when the rest of the world thinks a little bit more about how we can better sustain and protect our gorgeous home, planet Earth. A neighborhood clean-up, a hike, planting seeds for our garden, planting trees, writing to politicians… there are many things you can do to celebrate, though truly, Earth Day is every day. This year is quite different as we shelter at home, but I hope that more reflection on our daily practices and their impacts on the earth still happens, and that when we find our way back to socialization, we keep those in mind as we reshape society to be a more sustaining one, for all life. Earth is getting a much-needed breather while we as the human race face the coronavirus.

With a focus on hope and new beginnings, I thought today would be the perfect day to re-release my updated Bean Sprout block pattern, since there’s nothing like a freshly sprouted plant to celebrate spring, new life, and the wonder of discovery. As many of you likely know, I’ve been working with the amazing Lindsie Bergevin to convert some of my older patterns into fresher, more professional, and often more diverse versions and Bean Sprout is the latest to receive a make-over.

With a bit more pattern details, more professional layout, and an added block size (welcome, dear 4″x6″ block!), the newest Bean Sprout block pattern includes all of the great things from the original 2016 design, but in a clearer, crisper presentation. You can buy it now from my Payhip shop HERE. You can use code BIRTHDAY for 15% off it and all other patterns in my shop through the end of April, since I believe in celebrating birthdays all month long.

You can see a few other versions of this block I’ve sewn up in the past in its original release post HERE. It’s always fun to look back into the blog archives, isn’t it!?

I particularly love the idea of a pillow, and very well might be making another one of these someday soon. I’d love to see what YOU make with the pattern, so please use #beansproutblock and tag me @nightquilter on social media so that I can see your beautiful work.

Happy stitching, happy Earth Day, and happy spring. Be well.

The internet has been down for most of the week here at home, which translates to radio silence on this here blog. My goal for the year was “Balance”, after all, so maybe it was decided that I needed to take a blogging break. Either way, here’s a little peek at what I’ve been doing during the silence.

I mended my first pair of jeans. Yes, I know, it’s a little embarrassing that as an almost-34 year old, I have yet to mend clothes. I did try mending a hole in a pair of jeans a couple years back, but it was such an epic fail I can hardly count it. This time I used a patch cut from another pair of old holey jeans, zig zag stitched the edges to prevent fraying, and hand stitched it on with Aurifil floss. Many thanks to Dorie (@tumblingblocks on IG) for the inspiration and tips! The floss was gorgeous to work with, but I was later informed (thanks for the heads up, Sam!) that embroidery floss won’t be strong enough to hold up well as a jeans knee patch. I plan to supplement the stitching with a rainbow of perle cotton and hope for the best. At least it looks awesome, and these favorite post-partum maternity-esque jeans are ready to wear post-baby. It is so peaceful to sit and stitch while sitting next to my kiddos watching a movie. Balance, right?

I put my skinny strip scraps outside for the birds. I’ve never tried this before, but have seen that others save their fabric shavings to put out during nest-building season. I’ve been saving my skinnies all winter so I’m really hopeful that we see some colorful, soft nests around the yard this year!

I’ve been working on my Prismatic Medallion mini quilt for my Alison Glass Mini Quilt swap partner. I’m still waiting on a few fabrics, but I’m loving the progress so far!

I made a bit of progress on my newest foundation paper piecing pattern, Bean Sprout. Can you tell my mind is on spring?

We finally planted seeds. Today, April 3rd, we FINALLY got seeds into planters. It’s far too cold to plant seeds in the ground still, especially since there are still multiple feet of snow on top, but starting seeds inside is one of my favorite parts about spring. It felt so good to get dirt under my fingernails! Last year, we planted seeds in late February, so waiting until April is crazytown. This winter was just so brutal it felt wrong to plant seeds when the temperatures were in the teens and the snow just kept coming. I’m hoping the seeds still get a good enough head start to flourish once the garden is ready for them.

Back outside I go to enjoy this glorious day with my kids. The weekend forecast is for more snow (it darn well better not stick!), but I know that spring is near. Hope, balance, love. That’s what life is about!