Storybook Challenge

On the first Friday of every month, I get together with quilting friends. I don’t know of any quilting friends close by so the lovely women of Modiin have allowed me to join their group. We meet at a different house every month and show off what we are working on and talk quilting. What could be more fun than that?

Every year there is a different challenge that is run. Everyone agrees on a specific theme and whoever wants to participate it in can. This year’s theme was children’s stories.

There were so many beautiful interpretations of different books and fables. It was really a lot of fun to be a part of. Some of the stories I recognized, like Bah, Bah Black Sheep and The Princess and the Pea. There were others that I didn’t recognize, like Benzi the Elephant and Everyone is Special.

When I first heard about the challenge I thought to base my quilt on the Hey Diddle Diddle rhyme. I started sketching it out and looking for fabrics.
Then we spent Shabbat at my father-in-law’s house with our kids. One of the books there was The Three Billy Goats Gruff. My grandson must have asked me to read it to him 10 times that Shabbat so I switched over to using that instead.

I started with a picture and enlarged it. The first thing was to piece background. After the base was done, I cut out pieces for the rest of the quilt. I used my bay window and a lightbox, pasted up the image and used tracing paper to create the templates for cutting the fabric. I then cut them out and glued them on with a wash away glue stick. I put batting and backing on it and took it to the machine. I sewed it really close to the edge with monochrome thread so that the stitching wouldn’t be noticeable. Once everything was tacked together it was time to have fun with the quilting.

I used the monochrome thread for the quilting too. I wanted to give it texture, but I didn’t want to change thread every time I switched the section. For the sky, I quilted elongated swirls. For the rocks I quilted pebbles. For the water I quilted ripples. For the grass, I quilted up and down lines. For the trees, I quilted loopy, round spiral, to give the trees fullness. I followed the lines of the ogre to quilt the ogre.

I did not quilt the goats. I wasn’t sure what to quilt them so I left them alone. The nice part about not quilting them is that they become the center of the piece because they are not mushed down with thread. 

The quilt was really a lot of fun to make. It now lives on my grandchildren’s wall in their bedroom. I can’t wait until next year’s challenge!