Bedtime

 

Quilt No. 155

March 2025

I admit it. I like a challenge. Sometimes I may arrive at the race long after the challenge has ended, but I still give myself a hearty round of applause for participating. The long-departed crowd does not seem to mind.
 
One year my guild did a workshop on quilt from patterns from Amy Bradley Designs. These are invariably wildly whimsical, featuring humorous animals and humans – usually quilters. I was pretty familiar with how the technique works, but I used the workshop as an excuse to buy one of the patterns.  Since I was already waist deep in projects mired in various stages, I wanted something that would be achievable but not a torturous commitment.  I picked the Sleepy Acres pattern, since it had several blocks. I could just do one block and still be part of the workshop.  The workshops come with a free pizza lunch so they are, to my way of thinking, mandatory.
 
When the workshop day rolled around a couple of months after I had bought my pattern, I was sweating my way to the deadline of Hope, a quilt I would be submitting for that year’s Cherrywood Challenge - Poppy.  I could not even think about starting another project, let alone losing a day’s quilting with that deadline looming over me like an anvil in a Roadrunner cartoon.  I went to the workshop and worked on Hope. They let me get in on the free pizza anyway.  My guild is filled with stellar people.
 
Several months later, my burden of unfinished projects had almost lifted and I thought I would do just one block from the Sleepy Acres pattern. It would be just like I was doing the workshop, only on a different day. Five months later. I knew if I was going to do only one block, it had to be that happy pink pig.  The original pattern has him holding a flashlight, but I wasn’t too sure about that. If pigs are nocturnal, it’s not well known. Perhaps has was going to hunt for truffles. There are none of those where I live, so I crafted him a cob of corn. This took as long as making the block, but if anyone ever asks me if I ever quilted a cob of corn I get to say yes. So worth it.
 
The block was more fun than I had expected.  Maybe I would do just one more. Of course, the frog had to be next, since I am extraordinarily fond of quilting frogs (The Pond at Old Tranquility Farm, Acute Frog, Lost on the Ocean) despite being less enamored with the real live jumping around type frogs.  By the end of the frog block it had happened.  I was hooked.  I merrily worked my way through the remaining ten blocks, dipping into my overflowing scrap box for bits to make their blankets and accompanying objects, and changing the pattern to suit myself, since I always advise quilters to “make it your own”.
 
So, a big thank you goes out to Amy Bradley Designs for always coming up with fun ideas that keep quilters happy and quilt viewers amused. And an even bigger thank you goes out for the free pizza. It keeps me coming back.