🌸 Happiness – A Time Capsule Quilt Reborn
- Alaura
- Jul 25
- 5 min read
Before YouTube. Before PDFs. Before Pattern Poole, as you know it… There was a quilt called Happiness.
Monica designed it over a decade ago — and forgot all about it.
Until one day on Pinterest… she saw it had over 100,000 views on her old blog.
So we brought it back.🧵💫
The Happiness Quilt is finally available as a PDF — five simple fusible applique blocks, four stunning 14” FPP blocks, Monica’s QAYG technique, and a story you’ll love stitched into every seam.
The story is stitched below — but if you're ready to dive in, click the button to purchase the pattern and begin your own magical quilt journey.
Before YouTube, before PDFs, before we met you on screens around the world — there was Monica, with her suitcase full of quilts, teaching patchwork in bustling classrooms across Australia. She was already a name whispered between sewing shop counters and guild meetups, known for her refined eye, warm teaching style, and patterns that stitched joy into every seam.
But what you might not know is that Happiness — our latest pattern release — is not new. It’s a time capsule.
This quilt was born in early 2013, during a chapter of Monica’s life filled with paper patterns, fabric bolts, and teaching marathons.
Back then, all of her designs were hand-drawn and printed in bulk for shops. The digital world hadn’t yet woven its way into hers. Computers weren’t required for a fashion designer trained in the art of draping and drafting — but eventually, they became essential.
So in her 30s, Monica taught herself to use a computer (with a bit of help from Dad and a whole lot of persistence).
She built blogs. She built websites. And then, she forgot about them.
One day, while browsing Pinterest, she stumbled across a pin — an image of her Happiness Quilt construction method. The pin had over 100,000 views.
That “forgotten” blog was quietly rippling across the internet, keeping her legacy alive even while she wasn’t looking. Isn’t that just like joy? It lingers, even when we’re too busy to notice.
🧵 The Happiness Pattern — Reborn
We’ve finally brought Happiness into the digital age as a PDF, complete with Monica’s signature Quilt-As-You-Go method, five cheerful applique blocks and four stunning Foundation Paper Pieced blocks.
The Happiness quilt is a celebration of colour, intuition, and play. It’s perfect for those who’ve fallen in love with FPP and are ready to create something vibrant, soulful, and spacious — one joyful block at a time.
If you got addicted to FPP after making the Time to Bloom quilt, you'll be happy to know that these FPP blocks are the same size as the Time to Bloom FPP blocks. You can add them to your collection and mix and match them to create your own unique quilt design.
👜 A Legacy of Making
Many of you know Monica for her QAYG quilts, but her roots stretch far deeper — from elegant handbags to intricate appliqué, she was once approached by an Italian leather company wanting to reproduce her designs.
Overwhelmed by her busy life of shipping patterns and replying to endless emails, she never responded — a small regret that she remembered when standing in a leather shop in Almfi, on her recent trip to Italy.
But regret doesn’t weigh her down. That mountain of "too much" has since transformed into a beautiful rhythm: slow mornings, sweet cups of tea, a manageable to-do list, and the joy of working alongside her daughter (that’s me — Alaura 💕).
Together, we’ve built Pattern Poole into a place where we can share our work with new friends all over the world.
📜 The Lost Blog + Exciting News
We found Monica’s original blog — and it’s brimming with forgotten treasures. Beautiful patterns that never made it to PDF. Projects ahead of their time. Photos of fabrics now out of print but stitched into memory.
✨ And here's the best part: many of those gems are coming back — through our new digital magazine. Each issue will feature archived patterns, fresh projects, and community creations. You get to help us choose what comes next — tell us what you’d love to see reimagined.
So, if you are curious, feel free to check it out below:
Happiness — Reborn.
The Happiness quilt, originally designed by Monica for Australian Homespun Magazine’s 2014 Block of the Month, has now been lovingly reworked and released as a PDF for the very first time — 11 years later.
🌹 Monica’s Advice?
Never stop learning. Never stop creating. Whether you’re picking up a rotary cutter for the first time or uploading your hundredth quilt to Instagram — keep growing. You never know where things will go. That’s where the real happiness lives.
✨ If you love Monica’s unique Quilt As You Go designs, you’re going to fall in love all over again.
The Happiness Quilt — a radiant blend of joy and nostalgia, now available as a digital PDF for the first time.
This quilt features five simple fusible appliqué blocks, four striking foundation paper pieced blocks, and a lush floral border that ties it all together.
Designed to uplift and inspire, Happiness is perfect for those who find peace in stitching and joy in creating something truly meaningful.
🌸 Words from Monica:
"One of the biggest highlights of my career was designing the Happiness Quilt for Australian Homespun Magazine’s 2014 Block of the Month. Throughout my years of teaching, I’ve met so many wonderful people and made dear friends. And if there’s one phrase I’ve heard again and again, it’s this: ‘Quilting is cheaper than therapy.’ Being part of a sewing group gives people the chance to leave their worries at the door and step into a space of friendship, creativity, and pure happiness. The idea for this quilt came to me one sunny autumn morning while walking to a quilt convention with a friend. We passed a fig tree in the front yard of a townhouse. Its distinctive leaves and twisted grey trunk instantly reminded me of my childhood. I grew up in suburban Sydney on a quarter acre block. My father was a wonderful gardener, and our backyard was full of fruit trees, including two magnificent fig trees I spent countless hours climbing with my brothers and sisters. That memory became the seed of a quilt. A fruit tree themed design that would capture the feeling of those simple, joyful days, and I called it Happiness. The fabric collection I chose had nearly every colour I needed for the fruit trees, except for a rich purple. So in the end, the very fig tree that inspired the quilt didn’t make it in. But the feeling it gave me, that warmth and joy, is stitched into every block."*
Ready to sew your own kind of happiness?🧷 Download the pattern below and start creating something beautiful.
With love,
Alaura🌙✨
Dear Monica and Alaura:
I absolutely loved following each of the links and learning about your history! Every word made me smile, and I'm so glad to have "found" you both. I'm looking forward to your new digital magazine and learning even more about you, your creative talents, and your beautiful projects.
As always, thank you so much!
Jane Sprague
Loon Lake, WA, USA