Trinket Case

Those of you who follow me on Instagram know that our family has had a rough few months. My dad fell off a ladder at the beginning of March, shattering his wrist and injuring his knee. He finished three difficult months of recovery from wrist surgery and physical therapy last week, but had to begin the process all over again yesterday after undergoing a necessary knee surgery. On top of that, my oldest daughter Bunny had a terrible breathing attack two weeks ago, followed by trips to the emergency room and several days in the hospital. She's since been diagnosed with asthma and has been taking medicine around the clock. We capped off the week by having all three of my girls come down with a nasty cold. Put this together with sleepless nights, hours of grading to wrap up the school year, and the general stress of the past few months, and well, we're just a bit worn out over here. So when my dear friend Becca agreed to pick up a few goodies for me at Sample Spree last weekend, it was like a little ray of sunshine in the gloom.

Look at these gorgeous bundles of Trinket by Melody Miller and Les Fleurs by Anna Bond. The colors, the designs...they just make my heart sing. The ladies at Cotton + Steel continue to impress me with their skill in creating color stories and collection themes.

It seemed like sewing up a small colorful project would be the best kind of therapy right now, so I immediately broke open the Trinket bundle, which might just be my favorite yet of Melody's beautiful collections. These prints just seem to hum with happiness. I especially love the spools, but I'm just as fond of the whistles, phones, and those sweet smiling daisies. It was so much fun fussy cutting these squares to create the front of a boxy patchwork case.

I used one of the linen floral prints for the sides and back panel. The selvage was just too lovely to leave out, and I carefully trimmed it to fit along the zipper opening.

I added leather for the side tabs and zipper pull, making a wonderful contrast to the bright prints.

Between you and me, when I stepped back to look at the finished case, I was so happy that I almost wanted to cry. Because even though little joys may not solve our problems, they're sometimes just enough to help us find the strength to carry on.