It's always about this time of year that I wonder.... Will winter ever end?
This is the Teenie Weenie Bikini quilt, which I first blogged about at the beginning of February here. I was already thinking of spring then. And in an effort to banish the snow and cold, I got this finished top out and was determined to quilt it up the first weekend of March break.
I used 20 pieces of my "Pie Making Day" stack of 10" squares with some solids from my Kona stash. Champagne, Putty, Ice Peach, Pink, Maize, Mocha, Coffee, and Brown were used for the flesh tones and Silver was chosen for the background.
It's more of my favourite wavy line quilting, performed using my walking foot using a grey thread on top and plain white Gutermann thread in the bobbin for the back.
The binding is a Sun Print print called Endpaper in Azure. I used it for one of the bikinis and this print was last used in the making of my Flowers quilt.
It feels good to have this quilt finished and ready for some summer fun. But it didn't make the snow go away.... But what a fantastic backdrop!
This "Teenie Weenie Bikini" quilt finished at 48" x 72"
and was the 25th use of my 2nd edition of 100 labels
This new pattern is called Teenie Weenie Bikini and you can find it listed here in my shop. This pattern is Layer Cake friendly. You can use a stack of 10" squares or two pieces @ 5" x 10" of any piece from your stash to make the bikinis.
4 block mini quilt finishes at 25.5" x 30.5"
Each block finishes at 9.5" wide by 12" tall. Using 2" sashing and 2" borders:
Yesterday's post was a bit of a teaser.... And I am not a big fan of secret sewing. Or waiting.... Don't want to leave a quilter hanging, so today I am taking you all for a trip to the BEACH!
I was struggling to come up with a fun idea for using 10" squares in a quilt design. After all the Christmas themed quilt blocks I've been working on, I guess my mind wanted to get as far away from winter as possible. Or it may just be that I've come down with a case of cabin fever.
It was an itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini. That she wore for the first time today.
Whatever the case may be, I was excited when I came up with something that I was really happy with and I couldn't get making this fast enough! I paired up the "Pie Making Day" stack of 10" squares with some solids from my Kona stash. Champagne, Putty, Ice Peach, Pink, Maize, Mocha, Coffee, and Brown were used for the flesh tones and Silver was chosen for the background.
To add to the simplicity of the piecing, there are no matching points to pin. As you can see, in the photos below, the background triangle pieces that have been added to the "waist" do not meet at the top when the "bra" portion of the block is added....
And when the "panty" portion of the block is add to the bottom of the "waist", the points will end up within the seam allowance....
This allows those of you who are a big fan of trimming your finished blocks, to trim to your heart's content. And when you add the sashing strip to the side, the "hip" will have a small portion overlapped by the sashing. I briefly considered "correcting" this to make the angles match the points, but I really liked the look of the block, just the way it is. And there is no pinning of points so this is a nice, relaxing, fun and fast block to make. I love it!
This next block is for my friend Anja of Anja Quilts. She is a BIG fan of orange. I don't know how she feels about bikinis though.
You don't have to use a Layer Cake or a stack of 10" squares to make this quilt. You simply require either a 10" square (or two pieces @ 5" x 10") of any piece from your stash per block. And a fat quarter of the flesh colour is enough to make three bodies. Speaking of flesh colour....
Did you know that Robert Kaufman, maker of Kona Cotton Solids, recently renamed two of their colours. One of them was named "Flesh" and is now called "Bellini". Coincidentally, did you notice how close that is to Bikini!!!???? Well it rhymes, anyhow. The other one was named "Pale Flesh" and is now called "Shell". I became aware of this change through reading a post where Yvonne of Quilting JetGirl was sharing her beautiful Oh Happy Day quilt she made for the MQG as November's Quilt of the Month. You can see that quilt here. AND if you are a relatively new quilting blogger, I highly recommend you check out her post calling on New Quilt Bloggers to sign up for the New Blogger Hop here. I took part in this event a number of years ago and it was the most fun! Such an informative learning experience and it helped me to get involved with the quilting community and grow my blog. I also must give a quilter credit where credit is due. I have NO doubt that this post on Instagram by Melissa Teeters Bonier must have had a huge influence in the renaming of these shades....
A photo posted by Melissa Teeters Bonier (@melissabonier) on
Bravo to you Melissa! And thank you to the Kaufmann crew for acknowledging this was a problem and for acting on it to quickly rectify this issue! This was handled in an appropriate way with everyone behaving as they should - as adults. This makes me that much more proud to be a part of the quilting community - a community that is inclusive! Speaking of promoting inclusiveness... Also seen in my Instagram feed was this post by my friend Lori of SewPsyched!
A photo posted by Lori Landenburger (@sewpsychd) on
This post really shocked me because of the timing. I had just that same day shared a photo of this new pattern with my daughter to make sure it was easy to recognise that these were indeed gals in bikinis. This type of design is not typical of what you would see coming from me. Most of my designs are of animals, not people. Granted these people have no heads, arms or legs.... But.... They are people.
Lori's use of the hashtag #differentmelanin caught my eye. Turns out there is some designer named Isaac West out there doing a project using all these models with different skin tones. I'm not a fashionista.... So I can't really explain what his project is. But I think the intent is obvious enough....
We are all beautiful. It has nothing to do with skin colour. Or even how you spell colour.
This new pattern is called Teenie Weenie Bikini and you can find it listed here in my shop.
4 block mini quilt finishes at 25.5" x 30.5"
Each block finishes at 9.5" wide by 12" tall. Using 2" sashing and 2" borders:
Single block mini quilt finishes at 14" x 16.5"
4 block mini quilt finishes at 25.5" x 30.5"
9 block baby quilt finishes at 37" x 44.5"
16 block lap quilt finishes at 48.5" x 58.5"
20 block beach blanket finishes at 48.5" x 72.5"
25 block single bed quilt finishes at 60" x 72.5"
16 block lap quilt finishes at 48.5" x 58.5"
25 block single bed quilt finishes at 60" x 72.5"
Single block mini quilt finishes at 14" x 16.5"
Are YOU a fan of Layer Cakes and stacks of 10" squares?
If you missed my Giveaway post, I strongly encourage you to give it a read.
