Madrona Road Challenge

How long ago was the Modern Quilt Guild's Madrona Road Challenge?  I must really be a quilter to let a project languish, unfinished for such a long spell and then revive it in a whirl of activity.  I actually have more ideas and plenty of the fabric left but here's what I've gotten to so far:

First off, the latest project for the Zakka 2.0 sew along on Flickr. The block pattern is "Books for Baby" from Ayumi Takahashi's book Patchwork, Please!  I enlarged it slightly but left out the sashing and made a 17-inch pillow sham (for a 16" insert.)

The open pages of the books read: "Good night," "Sweet dreams," "She tied," and "Loose threads."

For the back of the books pillow, I used two text prints I had on hand and appliquéd the hexies I learned to English-paper-piece at the MplsMQG summer Sew-B-Q.  Underneath the flap is a pink zipper.  It's machine-quilted.



Next up is my long-dormant challenge project.  No longer an Unfinished Object!!!  The center block is a foundation-pieced pattern by Cyrille of BubbleStitch.  You should check out her patterns; they are my favorites!  This one is from her Goldilocks set but I call her, Madrona.

You can see more of the house blocks on the back of the pillow.  They are a pattern called "Circus Tents" from Kaffe Fassett's book, Glorious Patchwork.   They are very easy to piece.
This pillow cover is about 21 inches square; the insert is a 20" duck down pillow from IKEA.

Underneath the flap is an orange zipper and a little label I made out of the selvedge.

I just love Violet Craft's Madrona Road fabric collection.  It was the first fat quarter set I ever bought (of any designer fabric.)  Later on, I couldn't believe my luck when the Modern Quilt Guild created the challenge and I got another fat quarter set (the blues and yellow solid) for free!

Originally, I planned a twin-sized quilt to go with this pillow.  It would have more houses and two girl blocks.  I still think about finishing that quilt idea but then again, I'd like to close out this Work-in-Progress.  It feels good to be finished.

Here's my next WIP.  Do you recognize the fabric?

See you on the flip side.

-Kristin