Good morning!
My name is Mette Brown, designer of the Truffula Forest Quilt Pattern. I’ve been sewing since I was old enough to operate my grandmother’s hand-cranked Husqvarna sewing machine, and I began seriously quilting in 1999 (when I met Fat Quarter Shop’s Debbie Taylor). I've done lots of sewing, a little designing, made tons of samples for Fat Quarter Shop and I’ve never met a pattern I couldn't tweak in order to make it my own – except, of course, when I’m testing patterns for FQS!
Last summer, Kimberly invited me to design a quilt pattern for her new endeavor, It’s Sew Emma, using a brand new line of Dr. Seuss fabrics that wouldn’t be available until January, 2012, and I jumped at the chance! I had been messing around with a layered pinwheel star block for a couple of months – these things get stuck in my head and demand to be made – and this was the perfect project. When I received the Lorax fabrics – WOW! Beautiful, super-saturated, bright and crisp colors! I couldn't wait to get started… And can I just say that it’s a little bit intimidating cutting into this fabric? It's SAMPLE yardage which is code for: if you mess up, there isn’t any more!
After carefully making samples with fabric from my stash, figuring amounts, double-checking my math, making another sample and thinking about it overnight, I pulled up my big girl panties and got started. And it’s so much fun to make the first block when it comes out the way you’d imagined, or even better, which was the case with these great fabrics. This pinwheel star begs for a stripe to give it some movement and the Bright Thneed Stripe with the irregular color placement is perfect. And don’t you love the Red Truffula Trees peeking out from behind? I want the Truffula Trees yardage in every color for my stash!
Now if you are looking at this quilt and wondering if you really want to tackle mitered corners, I say go for it! They aren’t hard, the instructions are really good, and it looks awesome when you are finished! But if that doesn’t float your boat, you can just cut straight borders – the quilt police won’t come looking for you, and there’s always plenty of fabric in a Fat Quarter Shop quilt kit to make those little tweaks that sometimes have to be made!
These photos are for mitering inspiration rather than specific instructions!!
And if you are wondering, like I was, what the heck is a Lorax or a Thneed or a Truffula, find a copy of the Dr. Seuss book. It was written in the early 1970s, but it’s still a timely story. I bought a copy to give to my grand-daughter along with this quilt and as soon as she finishes teething on the corners I’ll read it to her!
This is my sweet baby grand-daughter Lizzie and she asked me to mention that she’s made some progress since this photo was taken – she now has some hair and two teeth! This bundle of joy comes to my house every day which has greatly cut into my sewing time but I don’t care!
Truffula Forest was a blast to design and sew, and I sincerely hope you enjoy it too! Happy quilting from Huntsville, Alabama!
Oh wait, one last thing, let's do a giveaway! Kimberly has two Lorax Fat Quarter Bundles she is itching to donate to some of her readers.
To enter leave a comment on this post in a Dr. Suess style poem. You must include the word "Truffula" somehow in the poem.
Good Luck!
Labels: Quilt Patterns, Robert Kaufman Fabrics
