This lovely quilt was made by June. She chose a modern, simple design called “Taj Mahal” for quilting which adds very nice texture. The colours don’t look right to me in the pictures, the quilt definitely had a summer feel, and this looks more like spring. Too much pink, I guess, but I am done fiddling around with Photoshop. It is a very pretty quilt in any colour.
And here it finally is: the finished Penguin Promenade quilt. I hope you had as much fun with the little guys as I did. I have sent the finishing instructions to everyone who has emailed me a picture of their finished blocks, and I will post the gallery of penguins in my next post, sometime this week. I enjoy looking at all this creativity and the different fabrics everyone picked and how it all comes alive. For those who have only collected the patterns and know they are not going to make the deadline for sending in their finished block pictures, the finishing instructions are now available as a separate pattern in the store section. And for those who missed most or all of the free blocks, the pattern for the full quilt with all nine blocks and finishing instructions is now available for purchase as well in both English/Imperial and German/metric.
Für die deutsche Version mit metrischen Maßen bitte dem Kauflink unten für die englische Version folgen und beim Checkout angeben, dass die deutsche Version gewünscht ist. Ich verschicke dann per email die Anleitung in der gewünschten Sprache.
Welcome to 2021! May the new year be better and brighter than the last one! Let’s start it off with some fun stuff, the first block of my brand new “Monkey Business” Block of the Month 2021. This year there will be 12 blocks once again, all of them featuring a monkey. The first block has a monkey that is doing something close to what we would consider “normal” monkey things. The other eleven blocks are all more cartoonish, with the monkeys doing all kinds of summer things and carrying accessories. Think along the lines of last year’s penguins, and you’ll have the general idea. The finished block size is 10″ again. I don’t particularly like going over 8″ because larger blocks won’t fit on a regular letter page but even though I don’t mind small details, there are limits, so 10″ it is.
The finished quilt size is approx. 52″ x 64″. I will provide the finishing instructions with the last block. They won’t be anything special, just plain old sashing and a border. Feel free to come up with something a bit more creative if you find that boring. I have decided to do the same layout for future BOM projects, it makes writing the finishing instructions easier and faster. I would still like to see your finished blocks though. I have already received a few pictures of finished Penguin blocks, and I will create a gallery for all of you to see them. Hopefully next week, so stay tuned. Remember that you still have three months to send me pictures of your finished Penguin blocks to get the finishing instructions for free!
On the cover page of the first pattern, you can find an estimate of the amounts of fabrics that you need if you want to use the same fabrics for all twelve monkeys. There is no need to do that, just dig into your scrap bins and have fun. The accessories will need a lot of small scraps in different colours, and the exact colours don’t really matter, so go with what you have and use some of those scraps. You know they will multiply anyway as soon as you turn your back 😀
The free pattern will only be available in English/Imperial again. There will be a German/metric version available for purchase later. The rest of the rules are the same as always, and I copied them from last year’s post:
A new block will be published on the first day of every month at 9 am Pacific Standard/Daylight Time. Any changes I might have to make due to unforeseen circumstances beyond my control will be announced here on the blog. Since I am in the Pacific time zone, it will already be the second day of the month for some of you. Please be patient and please don’t email me asking when the next block will be published. I don’t like to schedule posts to be published in the middle of the night. There can always be a problem with one of the pattern files, and I would like to be able to fix it within minutes instead of waking up to dozens of messages complaining about the bug. If you find an issue, then please don’t hesitate to contact me, so I can fix it ASAP.
Each block will be available for free download during the month of its publication. It will be moved to the store section when the next block is published. If you miss a block, you can still purchase it for a small fee. Please do not email me asking me to send you the pattern for free. I will ignore these requests. I only charge $2 per block (and that’s Canadian dollars – as I write this, this amount equals approx. 1.55 US dollars and a bit less than 1.30 Euros – you can’t even get a coffee for these amounts anymore!), and I will make bundle packs available again for three or six blocks, once we get there, that will give you an additional discount. Please respect my copyright and don’t pass your copy of the pattern on to your friend who might have missed the free download. This will just result in designers not offering free patterns anymore.
Thank you for reading all this, and without further ado, here is the download link for the first block. Enjoy!
EDIT: January is over, and the block has moved to the pattern store where it is now available for purchase if you missed the free download. If you just need the finishing instructions, they are still available for free download.
Für die deutsche(n) Version(en) mit metrischen Maßen bitte dem/den Kauflink(s) unten für die englische(n) Version(en) folgen und beim Checkout angeben, dass die deutsche Version gewünscht ist. Ich verschicke dann per email die Anleitung(en) in der gewünschten Sprache.
Wer nur die Anleitung zur Fertigstellung sucht, kann diese nun auch auf Deutsch kostenlos herunterladen.
I don’t know how popular Eric Carle and his books are in North America but I can tell you that especially “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” is a huge deal in Europe. I remember growing up with it in the 70s, and we bought it (and several other of his books) again for our son. Andover Fabrics created a fabric line with his quirky illustrations, and Jane made this adorable quilt for her grandchild. She wanted a bit of custom quilting, and I did a mix of pantograph and free motion quilting. Detailed quilting would be lost in the colourful fabrics but the caterpillar panel had a lot of empty space. I immediately thought of “Champagne Bubbles” as a background filler. I used the regular size panto version for the rest of the quilt and a much smaller version to fill the white background and added a bit of free motion texture to the caterpillar. I love how this quilt turned out, one of the cutest projects I have quilted so far.
“Toward The Sun” is a modern design by Robin Pickens, and this is Bonnie’s version of the quilt. She chose a pantograph called “Sun Scallops”, isn’t it just perfect for her project? A lovely wall hanging to brighten up any day!
Yes, I know that Halloween is over and Christmas is coming 🙂 But I am months behind in posting pictures, and I am not going to wait for October to come around again before showing this gorgeous quilt that I quilted in July. “Vintage Trick Or Treat” is a Crabapple Hill design, and this version was made by Maryanne. I was delighted to custom quilt it for her. I find Crabapple Hill quilts much more difficult to quilt than for example Judy Niemeyer designs. It feels much more natural to me to come up with designs for geometric shapes than trying to figure out what to do with the beautiful hand embroidery that only needs stabilizing but not really any quilting. If you are wondering about the border, the quilt is supposed to have scalloped edges which will be cut after quilting. Maryanne had already marked where she was planning to cut, and after stitching the piano keys, I stitched around outside her markings to make sure the threads were secure after trimming. This quilt is truly a labour of love!
And here we go: It’s December, and this is the last block of my Penguin Promenade BOM 2020. This last little guy is going down the mountain on his snowboard. I went with the brown fabrics that I used for the sled but you can use your imagination and give him all kinds of crazy board colours. Dig into your scrap bins! I hope you had as much fun with this project as I did. Remember that I will email you the finishing instructions if you send me pictures of your finished blocks until the end of March 2021. My email address can be found on the first page of every pattern. (Edit: As announced earlier, the finishing instructions will be available for purchase in January for those who can’t meet the March deadline.) (Edit 2: You can send me your pictures anytime, and you will receive a confirmation email. The finishing instructions will be mailed out in January when they are published.) As for the new BOM, it’s coming along nicely, and I am almost ready to announce it but not quite yet. Stay tuned, it shouldn’t be long. I am also quite confident that I will be able to publish the first block in January. Probably on the first of the month, as usual, or if I need a bit more time, I’ll switch it to mid-month and publish all blocks on the 15th. Either way, I will announce the details soon.
Don’t forget that the Virtual Cookie Exchange Blog Hop also starts today. I am going to post on the last day which is Friday. Head on over to Carol’s blog Just Let Me Quilt to see the schedule and visit the participants’ sites for yummy recipes and lots of fun stuff. And please come back on Friday for my recipe (lots of chocolate!) and a giveaway.
The last Penguin block will be available for free download until the end of the month and move to the pattern store in January.
EDIT: The Penguin Promenade BOM is now finished. Any patterns you might have missed are available for purchase in the store section, including the last block #9. I have also created another pattern bundle at a discount price. The finishing instructions are available separately for those who are not going to make the deadline for sending in pictures of their finished penguin blocks. And of course the pattern for the whole quilt is also available for purchase as of now. Don’t forget to check out my new BOM for 2021 “Monkey Business” and download the free patterns every month.
Für die deutsche(n) Version(en) mit metrischen Maßen bitte dem/den Kauflink(s) unten für die englische(n) Version(en) folgen und beim Checkout angeben, dass die deutsche Version gewünscht ist. Ich verschicke dann per email die Anleitung(en) in der gewünschten Sprache.
When Sharon’s son got married last year, she prepared some muslin, cut it into heart shapes, embroidered the couple’s names and the date of their wedding and had the wedding guests write their good wishes for the bride and groom on it. For their first wedding anniversary, she turned the wedding wishes into this colourful quilt. What a great gift and keepsake! The heart panto I used for quilting it is called “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”.
A while ago I mentioned our guild’s “Cynthia Challenge”, named after one of our members who had donated a lot of 2″ squares. Gail’s “Scrappy Chains” was the first project I quilted that was made from Cynthia’s squares. Naida was also up to the challenge, and this lovely quilt is her result. This is another great pattern to keep in mind for using up scraps. I especially love the scrappy border, it pulls it all together nicely. The pantograph I used is called “Ginger Flower”.
