Pippi

Being a part of the Cocorico Bee has been a wonderful and challenging experience for me.  Every month one member chooses a theme and the hive consisting of eleven artisan quilters creates an original block for that member.  This month Muriel chose Pippi Longstocking. 

I've always loved Pippi but I'll admit that coming up with a design was a bit difficult.  So I visited my local library and found a few books to help with the process.  One had this amazing illustration and I sketched a version I thought I could reproduce in fabric.

This is my version in fabric. I decided to add Pippi's head even though she is known to sleep with hers under the covers  : )

My favorite part was making the mini quilt!

Happy creating to you!

Progress

I hope you are enjoying your Monday.  It is President's Day here in the USA which means some folks have a holiday.  My hubby has the week off so I hope to make some progress on my long list of sewing "to dos"!

A winner!!

I'm excited to announce that Krisa of Poppyprint won Leila's Leaf Pattern and a custom leaf necklace.

Krista said:

I just love the idea of the leaf as a pendant on a chain! What a great idea! Reds for me, I think (I should jazz up my mostly grey/black wardrobe). Thanks for the chance...saw your pic in the mod fabric fans flickr group.

Congratulations Krista! 

Sew Out Loud Quilt Along Block #1

In case you haven't heard, Kirie and Julianna started a super fun quilt along.  Eleven  designers, including me, are designing Quilt Blocks with Sewing Themes.  The ideas is to use sewing and text fabrics to create eleven blocks.

Julianna designed the first block - "Zipper".  This is my version and you can find the pattern here.

Fat Quarter shop is sponsoring the quilt along and

generously sent each designer fabric to use for their block.

The fabrics used for my block are as follows:

Background - Mannequins by Anna Griffin from FQ shop

Red Scallop Stripe - Bonnie and Camille from FQ shop

Red Dot by RJR fabrics from FQ shop

Yellow Sewing Fabric from Suzuko Koseki can be found in BlijeOlifantje's shop

Blue measuring Tape Fabric by Kumiko Fujita can be found in Ayumills' shop  

There are some fabulous prizes and we have a contest at the end.  We are inviting you to design the 12th block!  The details to enter the contest are here on the Flickr group.

Our judge is the amazing and talented Suzuko Koseki.  She is a fabric designer and author of some of my favorite sewing and quilting books!

Like this one here!!

I hope you will join us!!!!

End of a Bee : (

Yesterday I finished my last block for the Patchwork Patterns 318 Bee.  Very sad day indeed : (  Tamiko had the brilliant idea of starting a Bee making Blocks from Kumiko Fujita's very popular and almost impossible to find book!

Tamiko asked for a garden theme.  This is the pattern I chose:

The flower and petals are Suzuko Koseki Fabric.  The stem is a Yuwa Fabric.  You can find both here.  The basket is DS Quilts fabric from Joannes.  The background is fabric I found at Joanne's too!  I love the 30's feedsack look of it!

 

It was a fabulous bee.  I learned so much making all these wonderful 6" blocks!

If you can't get a copy of Patchwork Patterns 318,

 I highly recommend Kumiko Fujita's  Patchwork Lesson ABC and From the Quilter's Studio.

 

 

 

Give Away!!!!

My friend Leila makes the most amazing quilted items.  She just released a pattern for these scrappy leaf key fobs in her Etsy shop!!  I am so happy to be giving away one of her patterns!  Trust me, it is a great pattern and if you are like me, and cannot part with your precious scraps, this is the pattern for you!!!

I also made a necklace from Leila's pattern.  I just reduced the pattern by 50% and added a sterling silver jump ring and chain.

Surprise - I'm also giving away a necklace!!

All you need to do is leave a comment on this post with your choice of colors for your custom leaf necklace. Give Away is open until Sunday at midnight PST. 

Be sure to check out Leila's Etsy shop.  She has some amazing items for sale!!

Curves

My latest project is a pillow for my partner in the Pillow Talk Swap 7.  I've been admiring the pillows coming from this group for quite some time and was able to get in on the fun this round.

My pillow is a pattern called Wheel of Fortune which was published in the Kansas City Star in the 1930's.  I love that the newspaper had a free weekly quilt pattern!

My partner likes blues, greys, greens and burgundy reds so I put this together.  I used some of my favorite Japanese fabrics and text prints for this one.  I'm not usually drawn to this color combo but I was surprised to realize it matches the colors in my living/dining room.

I'm not sure yet how I will quilt it but since taking these photos, I have added the border in a dark charcoal which sets off the block nicely. 

Apple and Pear and Paper Piecing Tutes

So I'm off to a pretty good start this month!  I just finished potholders for the potholder swap.  The apple is a free tute on my blog.  I'll also put the pear pattern and tute on my blog soon.  This one has "Y" seams but they are pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

My interest in quilting has been a life long one but I just actually started about a year ago.  I found my passion in paper piecing!  It was challenging at the start and still is, but with practice and reading some tutorials, you can master it, too.

Kerry at VeryKerryBerry has a list of tutorials.  Her tutes are wonderful and I highly recommend reading them before starting you project.  You can find them here.

Kerry is teaching paper piecing methods at the Fat Quarterly Retreat in London in June.  I wish I could be there!!

Have a wonderful Weekend! 

Sew Out Loud Quilt Along

Do you love text fabrics?  How about sewing themed quilt blocks?

I invite you to join the Sew Out Loud Quilt Along.  I'm fortunate to be one of the designers along with 10 incredibly talented sewists!

You can join here on Kirie's blog - Shape Moth.   And if you do there is a kick off give away. 

The two prizes are Electric Quilt Company software and a FQ bundle for Stoffsalon.  You have until February 11th to join the QAL and win these fabulous prizes.  


I hope you will join in on the fun!