Tag Archives: book

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I'm excited about the announcement for this week's Project QUILTING challenge: A Novel Project. The one big rule is that our projects need to be inspired by a book we've read. Easy peasy! So many options. (I hope you'll consider playing along and making a quilt between now and Sunday!)

In the challenge theme announcement post Trish shared a number of her book inspired projects. It got me thinking about which quilts I have made inspired by books. Here's a wrap-up of those projects.

***click on the photos to read more about each project***

The first thing that came to mind is Very Hungry Caterpillar. I adore the children's book and when the Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric came out I admired it but had no reason to buy it... until I found out it was pregnant with my first. I think Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric was the first baby-related item I purchased once I knew I was expecting.

My son's crib quilt was the first project I made with those fabrics (back in 2010). It was probably the first thing I pieced improvisationally, starting with the panels and building around them until it was the size of a crib mattress (odd dimensions, I know now).

I had purchased *a lot* of the Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric, which resulted in at least three more quilts, the last of which was a twin-sized bed quilt for my son which took me way too long to finish. Oh, and the pillow case on there, too!

In 2016, when my sister was expecting her first, the baby;'s room had a Wizard of Oz theme which inspired me to make a Wizard of Oz baby quilt. I absolutely adore this quilt. It was designed as I went. The Emerald City is appliqué and the yellow brick road is reverse appliqué.

In 2021, I used a Willy Wonka inspired fabric pull for a Project QUILTING challenge.

One of the very first quilts I made was from a book was from Quilts from The Quiltmaker's Gift with patterns out of the delightful children's book The Quiltmaker's Gift.

The last reference I could find to books on my blog was not a project, but a fabric pull. Fiction and Fabric was a fun activity using a book as inspiration for pulling together a small palette of fabric.

Now to decide what I will make this week!

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Yesterday I shared my improv hammock quilt block. The second block I made for Chris was a book.

The book block was less tricky. I started by cutting book page shaped pieces out of the blue fabric. Then I added borders of white on three sides. I used the blue and white book pages as my template for cutting the background. These strips are about 5/8" wide. Rectangles were cut for the sides and I used the curve edge of the blue fabric as my template to cut the curves white strips.

Next, I cut out the book shape from my background fabric, starting with the diagonal cut that aligns with the spine of the book.

I used my rotary cutter to follow the curve of the book along the top and bottom of each side. Since these are fairly gentle curves this technique works pretty well. (If these were more precise or sharper curves like a Drunkard's Path, it becomes more important that the two curves that are cut are actually different curves so the stitching falls along the same curve on both pieces. This is why Drunkard's Path templates or rulers have an inner and an outer template piece.)

Last cut was to trim along the straight sides of the book.

Here's what my background looked like when it was all cut up. (Of course, I oversized the starting piece of fabric to account for seam allowances and extra wiggle room.)

I removed the two yellow pieces in the center and replaced with the blue and white book pages. First I sewed the seams on the straight outer side edges of the book. Then I added the improv curves to the top and bottom of each section. Finally, my last seam was the central seam along the spinoff the book.

This block also finishes at a little larger than 12" square. If you missed the other block I made for Chris, I shared about it yesterday.

You can see more blocks that were made for Chris as well as other blocks for the Quilts Unscripted Bee on Instagram.

Fun fact: It's been just about 6 years since I sewed my very first improv curve.