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.

Lost on the Ocean

Quilt No. 107

August 2015

Frogs.  They keep showing up in my quilts.  It’s not so much that I love frogs.  It’s pictures of frogs that I love.  I have frog calendars, and frog stationary, and more than one Kermit the Frog hanging around the house.  I have a frog cookie cutter, frog salt and pepper shakers, and a plastic frog next to the kitchen sink that dispenses soap.  With the exception of the dispenser, I did not buy any of these froggly items.  People see frog stuff and they immediately think of me.  It’s pretty humbling.

I do admit that I have allowed the inspiration of frogs to guide my purchases more than a few times – and all of those purchases were fabric.  So, whenever I can, I like to add a frog or two into my quilts.  Sadly, this does not happen nearly as often as I’d like.  So my collection of frog fabric is growing in leaps and bounds.

In Lost on the Ocean, a particularly exotic frog is sailing on his lily pad.  The sun is blasting down on him.  The ocean is swirling.  A mildly frantic concern is starting to nudge at his consciousness.  The heat penetrates his skull and unleashes a psychedelic vista.  He begins to long for the comforts of home...or maybe even just a bit of sunscreen... 

Reach for the Stars

Quilt No. 94

August 2013

There’s nothing quite like frogs when it comes to frolicking. Even a little snow won't slow them down.

Reach for the Stars was entirely inspired by fabrics I liked, leading me to buy them at different shops with no particular quilt in mind (which describes 99% of my fabric collection).  This is the very best way to buy fabric – the possibilities remain infinite.  Eventually these favoured fabrics came together to give a sneak peek at what frogs do when we’re not looking.

When the quilt was finished I figured I’d conquered the daytime world of frogs...but what kind of things did they think about after the sun went down?  Did frogs have aspirations?  Did they have their own way of reaching for the stars in the dead of night?  In The Frog Who Jumped to the Stars Franz tackles these very struggles in his own froggly manner.