This is why you buy big prints 😁

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Anna Maria’s Zinnia print first came out years ago and since then it has been reissued in different colors. I love them all! Not sure which one I bought first, but it could have been this one:

Each flower is 3 3/4″ wide by 3″ tall if you count the stem. The spacing is tight in all the right ways. but I do wonder if some people shy away from it because the flowers are larger than your typical “small” print. Personally? I don’t mind one bit. As I said… I LOVE this fabric and have it in every color.

I haven’t pieced with it yet, but I will. I even have a stack of Kaffe stripes that would be perfect with these zinnias—later. When I have time. Right now I’m deep into Buttonwood Village and have already found three perfect places for a flower to sneak in.

The flower becomes a tree
Is that a pineapple bush?
The flower is a palm tree!

One flower becomes a tree. Another becomes a pineapple bush? And the third one could be a palm tree!

That’s the thing about bigger prints: if you avoid them, you miss out on so much fun. I encourage you to give them a try—you might be surprised where a big, beautiful print can take you 🌸.

Find Buttonwood Village BOM at Piece O’ Cake: https://pieceocake.com/products/buttonwood-block-of-the-month-digital-pattern

Find Buttonwood Village plus the the Live monthly class on Creative Spark: https://ctpub.com/products/3324756?ref=BECKYGOLDSMITH

Wednesday Giveaway!

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Samples are great! We love them and we love to pass them on to you in the form of Giveaways! This week, it’s a container of Maker Bee Lotion Bar from Twisted Bees!

According to the packaging, it’s made from All-Natural ingredients, such as shea butter, beeswax, avocado and rose-geranium oils and aloe vera gel.

Leave a comment/reply on this blog post to enter the drawing. (To leave a comment, click the icon that looks like a ‘thought bubble’ at the top, right, of the post.) A winner will be chosen by the random number generator tomorrow.

I’ll be back with another Giveaway next Wednesday. Until then you can shop for all sorts of sewing notions, books, and other fun stuff at pieceocake.com!

Show and Tell… Winter Bird!

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Regina Grewe sent this cheerful little bird for us to enjoy! Thank you, Regina!

Regina, the big berry in the lower left corner is a nice touch! It balances the block in a very subtle way. Well done!

This is one block is our Backyard Birds pattern pack—click here to find the digital pattern.

Coloring Buttonwood Village…

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Welcome to Buttonwood Village—my newest Block of the Month! I hope you are excited to get started and the place to begin is with fabric :-).

The first decision to make is your background, because everything else is built on top of it. I pieced my backgrounds from more than one fabric, but you may prefer to use just a single fabric—and either choice works beautifully. I chose a light, almost-solid off-white with tiny slubs of color woven in. From there, I added light blue prints (because… sky!) and a few light tan prints to give the background a little more visual weight.

For the border block backgrounds, I switched things up just a bit. I’m using a cotton/linen blend in a slightly darker tan. Since there isn’t an inner border strip in this quilt, that change in value—and texture—helps visually separate the border from the interior of the quilt. It’s a subtle shift, but an important one.

With the backgrounds settled, it was time for the fun part: coloring the village. I raided my scrap bins first, pulling out all those small, lovely pieces that I just couldn’t part with. You’ll notice there’s a little bit of almost every color in the mix—that variety is exactly what gives the village its charm.st colors.

Next, I visited my stash to fill in a few gaps and expand my color palette. I won’t use everything you see here, and I may add more as I go. This part is meant to be flexible and playful. Gather the colors and fabrics that you love, see how the colors talk to each other, and remember—you can always adjust along the way.

Once you have assembled the fabric, your village will be ready to come to life, one block at a time.

Find Buttonwood Village BOM at Piece O’ Cake: https://pieceocake.com/products/buttonwood-block-of-the-month-digital-pattern

Find Buttonwood Village plus the the Live monthly class on Creative Spark: https://ctpub.com/products/3324756?ref=BECKYGOLDSMITH

Where does inspiration come from?

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Houses have shown up in stitched work for hundreds of years, and that really isn’t a surprise. We live our lives inside houses. The people we love are part of our household. When we stitch houses, we’re often stitching feelings too—memories of homes we’ve lived in, homes we’ve loved, or maybe homes we’re still dreaming about.

Buttonwood Village is a happy place, built with a whimsical attitude and lots of color—and it truly feels like home to me :-). You might notice that the houses are small. Steve and I have never lived in big houses, so small just feels right in my bones.

And those giant flowers and trees? My yard doesn’t look exactly like that, but it is full of plants, flowers, and trees. This photo was taken last spring—by summer everything had grown taller, bushier, and a little bit wild. Just the way I like it :-).

Find Buttonwood Village BOM at Piece O’ Cake: https://pieceocake.com/products/buttonwood-block-of-the-month-digital-pattern

Find Buttonwood Village plus the the Live monthly class on Creative Spark: https://ctpub.com/products/3324756?ref=BECKYGOLDSMITH

Wednesday Giveaway goes to Rebecca!

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Something whimsical and something practical in the same Giveaway! Fun Moda stickers and a 20″ X 20″ piece of bamboo felt.

I use this bamboo/rayon blend felt in my applique caddies. What is an applique caddy? It’s a folder used to carry or store your applique blocks once you take them off the design wall. Your applique pieces stay flat and pristine until you are ready to stitch them to the block.

I’ll be back with another Giveaway next Wednesday. Until then you can shop for all sorts of sewing notions, books, and other fun stuff at pieceocake.com!