Meet the Maker Quilt & Giveaway!

Hey friends, I’m excited share a quilt pattern I’ve been playing with called Meet the Maker. It’s a darling pattern by Riley Blake Designs – you can find more information about it here. Riley Blake hosted a fun quilt along for the pattern and all the details and tutorials are available to help you start anytime. You can get lots of inspiration from other Riley Blake designers that also created blocks or the quilt here and on Riley Blake’s social media. Today, I am so tickled and honored to be a Meet the Maker featured artist on the Riley Blake blog. I’m sharing some fun things over there and there’s a beautiful recap of all the recent Bluebirds on Roses creations, my newest fabric collection! Plus – don’t miss the Bluebirds on Roses fabric giveaway on the Riley Blake Instagram page!

From the darling Meet the Maker pattern, I started with Block #1 and turned it into a fun tote using Bluebirds on Roses fabric. A photo of the entire finished quilt is at the end – in the gorgeous Riley Blake Confetti Cotton colors. I enjoyed playing with this block. You can view a tutorial for Block #1 (and for every block) on the Riley Blake YouTube page.

If you look closely at the book in the bag – I have a fun bit to share with you! Years ago when my kids were babies, I went on a hunt for a book I remembered my dad reading to me all the time. It was the story of The Night Before Christmas that I begged him to read all year round. I had the book memorized. To this day, I can recite most of the story. I wanted the exact book he read to me because I remembered that it had a scratchy 3d type photo on the cover and that the images inside were photos, not illustrations. Not to mention the book has enormous sentimental value to me having lost my father at a very young age. I had faint memories of the cover other than it was “scratchy.” I hunted and hunted. I never could find it.

Fast forward just a few years ago, I came across  a vintage book of The Three Little Kittens. The cover was “scratchy” and it was a photo book. I knew it must have been published by the same book from my childhood. I googled the publisher and discovered there was an entire series of these precious books – A Puppet Storybook. You guys – this was a great day! From this information, I was able to find a copy of The Night Before Christmas circa 1969 published by Grosset & Dunlap. This was the book my dad read to me. What!! Isn’t it funny how things work.

The sweet little details photographed for these books makes my heart swell! I photographed just a few pages from The Three Little Kittens so you can see – it’s like peeking into a dollhouse with dresses and pom pom puppets and tiny crocheted mittens, even a real pie! I melt ….. This is way before the days of photoshop and fancy technology. Someone was dressing and photographing and creating sweet little scenes for this book. They are treasures to me! I’ve been on a hunt to collect the series.

Here’s that gorgeous Meet the Maker quilt in the Riley Blake solids. Isn’t breathtaking! Like I mentioned, there are fabulous video tutorials available for each block and so much inspiration on the Riley Blake YouTube Channel, Blog and Instagram page. A wonderful quilt to make or even just a block or two for a gift, tote or mini. And, please join me over at the Riley Blake blog today to say hi … sharing a few fun tidbits about myself and all the details about the giveaway are over there too! Happy weekend to you all. Much love, Elea