March 6, 2018

Once Upon a Rhyme Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the Riley Blake’s Once Upon a Rhyme Blog Hop!

I was so excited to see this new collection, Once Upon a Rhyme, and the timing could not be better! Has that ever happen for you? You have a wonderful life event to sew for and the perfect fabric seems to have been created at the exact right time… at least that’s how it feels to me.

My sister is about to have her first child, my soon to be nephew. She lives across the country from me and I knew I wanted to make some handmade baby things for her to use as she starts her parenting journey. She’s my youngest sister and she used to babysit my kids when they were babies, toddlers, and pre-schoolers. She is really their favorite, so we are all very excited for her and her husband.

I visited my local quilt shop and looked online for months…nothing felt special enough. I kept searching for the perfect fabric to make a baby quilt to give her. So when Riley Blake invited me to join the blog hop for Jill Howarth’s new nursery rhyme themed fabric, well, I was over the moon!!

Jill has illustrated many children’s books and I adore her style. Her illustrations and her collection are just delightful. Perfect for baby, don’t you think?

Once Upon a Rhyme fabric collection by Jill Howarth for Riley Blake

Here’s the little quilt I made for my sister.

Fabric: Once Upon a Rhyme (Riley Blake) Quilt Pattern: Picnic Patches by Mary Hickey

I chose a quilt pattern that allowed me to fussy cut all the nursery rhyme characters for the focus blocks. Jill included many traditional nursery rhymes–many I sang to my own children: Hey Diddle, Diddle; Humpty Dumpty; Three Little Kittens; Hickory Dickory Dock; Jack and Jill; Simple Simon; Baa Baa Black Sheep; Little Boy Blue.

The fabric really makes the quilt special.

Jill’s collection really brings back so many fond memories. In fact, while making this quilt, my 16-year-old daughter began searching for her old nursery rhyme books. She wouldn’t stop until she found them all, asking me if I remembered how she would sit for hours reading them?

Yes, I do 🙂 I remember listening to her quietly sing them to herself and to her teddy bear, whom has been her dear friend since her first birthday. The best memories ever! Now it’s my sister’s turn to build loving memories with her baby.

The coordinates also feature these familiar characters. The colors are great and I love the nostalgia.

I found many happy accidents throughout, even though I didn’t fussy cut these pieced blocks. I took a couple quick photos of these little happy accidents as I sewed the rows together.

Happy accidents are so great, aren’t they?

The nursery rhyme verses print is great, too… sprinkled with characters in between the nursery verses. It has been a joy to sew with these prints.

I quilted a simple straight line stitching design, so the characters could still be highlighted. I used Denim Mini Hashtag for the binding (also by Riley Blake).

I used the Once Upon a Rhyme Village print in green for the backing –what a fun playtime print! It’s perfect for tummy-time or when he learns to sit up on his own. I can just picture him as a toddler playing on this quilt, under a shady tree, at the park in summertime, with the hustle and bustle of the playground noise in the not so far distance.