
Coming Soon: Monkey Business Block of the Month 2021
I have been posting teasers for a while, and today is finally the day to reveal next year’s Block of the Month project called “Monkey Business”. Boy, was it ever difficult to come up with a monkey that I liked! Sometimes I know in my head what it is supposed to look like but it is really difficult to bring my vision to life on my computer screen. Do you remember Monchhichis? They were all the rage in the early 80s, and my early drawings looked a lot like them, and I definitely didn’t want that. It took me two months to finally come up with a monkey face that I liked and that made me laugh. It probably didn’t help that I decided to learn how to draw in Inkscape. All my previous designs were drawn in Electric Quilt (EQ) which is a great quilt design program but I hit its limits on the appliqué drawing table some time ago. I am really glad I persisted and managed to acquire some solid Inkscape skills, it is so much easier to manipulate digital drawings with all the additional drawing options, and now that I am familiar with it, it makes the drawing much faster.
There will be 12 blocks again in 2021, and once again it will be a cartoonish style quilt showing monkeys participating in all kinds of activities. Since the penguins were skiing and sledding, I thought it would be fun to do summer things this time. The first block featured above* is the only one that remotely looks like a monkey doing “normal” monkey things, the rest of them are more along the lines of ice skating penguins. Have you heard of the saying (apparently from Poland?) “Not my monkeys, not my circus”? It has become some sort of mantra for me, trying to keep myself calm in these crazy times. Well, these ARE my monkeys, and they made me laugh a lot while drawing them. I hope you will enjoy them too and will join me in looking forward to a brighter year 2021.
Edit: I forgot to mention that it will start on January 1, 2021 at 9 am PST, and the rules will be pretty much the same as before, I will post details when I publish the first block. The blocks will be available for free download during the month of their publication (in English/Imperial only).
* The green and yellow border is NOT part of the block/quilt, there just wasn’t enough room for the text on the plain block.
CATEGORIES: Block/Pattern of the Month
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Love that saying! Looking forward to this fun BOM.
I can’t wait for the monkeys! I have several people that will love them! Thanks
oh but this is adorable. I look forward to this hop. I like the idea of something summery for a hop. Thanks for doing these. I really love them and learn from them. Merry Christmas and see you next year.
Oh boy, you sure know how to keep us busy. Thank you for taking the time to do them. Too cute.
I love the monkey theme! Can’t wait for the blocks.
love it – great idea and they are too cute
Can’t wait – looks so cute.
How wonderful. This promises to be a fun series. Thank you in advance. This year’s penguins were a delight and the patterns greatly appreciated. P.S. I love that saying too!
Love the monkey theme. Can’t wait.
He’s so cute! Can’t wait to start!
Oh, I don’t usually like to do applique quilts, but I love your monkey and I think that will be an adorable quilt. 🙂 I want to join in. Hugs, Wanda
Can’t wait. Something different to try.
In tech support we used to say, “Same monkeys, different forest,” or “Same forest different monkeys,” depending on whether it was in-house or off site users who needed help.
Your monkey is cute.
Your patterns are always spectacular leaving me wanting to do every one of them. Thank you for your creativity.