Welcome to the opening day of the Once Upon a Story Row along - thanks so much to Marian of
Seams To Be Sew for putting this together! This is the fifth year of the Row Along, and the fourth year I have participated. This year the row along has changed up a bit, we have several different sizes and shapes of rows, including squares which is kind of fun. Marian is going to have some ideas for layouts, so no worries about that! And our theme this year is Fairy tales and Nursery Rhymes. I can't wait to see all the great designs that come from this inspiration! As always, there are FREE patterns and
great giveaways, so do not miss checking out all the
participants. You will find my free download immediately below the instructions.
I wanted to choose something a little different for my block. I've become quite interested in European history, and I have found many Nursery Rhymes are rooted in historical events, some not very child-friendly. I found
this article to be highly informative and a good read on the subject. The Rhyme I decided to interpret is "I Had a Little Nut Tree"
I had a little nut tree,
Nothing would it bear,
But a silver nutmeg
And a golden pear;
The King of Spain’s daughter
Came to visit me,
And all for the sake
Of my little nut tree.
Her dress was made of crimson,
Jet black was her hair,
She asked me for my nutmeg
And my golden pear.
I said, “So fair a princess
Never did I see,
I’ll give you all the fruit
From my little nut tree
You can read the
Wikipedia article on it for more information, and I will tell you about how I chose to interpret it.
I like to do mostly pieced blocks because that's my particular love in quilting - and at first I thought I would do a tree block. But then I found the Prickly Pear block and an idea was born. Because there are so many triangles in this block I decided that one large block would do the trick, and then I would add a bit of applique to the top of it for the finishing touch!
First of all you have to sew all the triangles. Four large one and 20 smaller ones. Aren't you glad it's just one block?
The next step is to assemble the center using the four large triangles and squares. Aren't the fabrics lovely?
Northcott Fabric generously supplied the designers with fabric for our projects! These are from the basics - I chose a gray instead of white for my background so it would have a little softer look. Love those wavy lines! Northcott's fabrics have their famous soft and silky feel and are always a pleasure to sew with. Their colors are always rich and gorgeous, too! I chose red and black because those are the colors in the rhyme, and I love both of these fabrics.
Next you sew all the small triangles into rows. They all face the same direction, so be careful on this step! Then add a black square to each end of two of the rows.
Now sew the small triangle borders to the center. Make sure your light triangles face toward the center, then add the small strips on the outside to bring the block up to 30 inches. Now you can add the pear applique. I've already reversed the templates, so just trace onto fusible web and you are ready to go.
That was pretty easy, right? The placement isn't too important, as long as it looks good to your eye!
And here you have the finished block. Normally I quilt up my design so you can see it finished, but I am planning on making more of the other designers patterns to make a larger quilt because I loved the theme so much! Make sure you follow along to collect the patterns and make your own "Once Upon a Story" quilt! My pattern will be available at no charge through October 8.
Download my free pattern by clicking the picture below:
Did I mention giveaways? I have a bundle of 4 Northcott fat quarters to give away! These are lovely Banyan Batik fabrics - love these colors. The winner will need to pay postage for shipping, and the value of the bundle is $20.00, so make sure you understand that detail before entering, international entries are welcome, but you'll have to decide if it's worth paying shipping to do so.
We are so thankful to Northcott for their generosity in sponsoring this event - make sure you look for their products in your local quilt shop and support them as well.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Make sure you visit
Marian at Seams to Be Sew and
Carol at Just Let Me Quilt today for more blocks and giveaways - including an EQ8 giveaway! This giveaway will run for the entire Row Along, so you will have lots of opportunities to enter. EQ8 is a fabulous quilt design tool and I use it extensively in my quilt designs, including this one. In fact, the first graphic you see in this post was created using EQ8, so you can see how handy it is. As an added bonus EQ has made a coupon code that is good on ALL their products! Use ROWALONG20 to save 20% in their
online shop (I hear the roll of printable fabric may come in handy in a later row....hint, hint)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
If you are new to my blog, thank you for stopping by! I've been doing a free Quilt Along - Seashore Splendor and it's not too late to get started, all block patterns will be free until the end of the year.
Click here to find out more...
I'm also starting sign-ups for next years Quilt Along - Stepping Stones Sampler. You can sign up for that here:
to purchase PDF Patterns for half price until October 8!
Only regular priced PDF and Charm Pattern PDF patterns are eligible for this discount.
I hope you have enjoyed my contribution to this event and will follow me on my social media links at the end of the post!
Now just a few legal items to take care of - Marian has provided us with the rules and guidelines for our giveaways, just so we are all clear! You can read them below, and thanks for joining in!
Rules and Guidelines For Giveaways
Please take the time to read it.
Rules and guidelines are also listed on the Rafflecopter window of each blog’s giveaway entry on there featured days post.
Giveaways offered by sponsors are assigned to the various blogger/designers for their featured day.
There are no prior announcements on who is doing which sponsor except to the sponsor and blogger/designers themselves.
You’ll have to visit the blog or the featured blog to enter the giveaways.
All giveaways can also be entered at Seams To Be Sew. You must have commented at each of the blogs post to enter at Seams To Be Sew,
Winners who win from entering at Seams To Be Sew will be checked for the comment. When you enter a give away that asks you to answer the question asked on the entry form, you do need to fill in that box. No answer means your winning entry will be ignored and cancelled.
You are only allowed to enter once at each of the featured day sites. Giveaways are different at each site, thus you can enter those giveaways. On the Electric Quilt giveaway, you can enter once each day of the row along, new sites to click on are assigned to this giveaway you need to visit each site to be credited for the entry.
I will start announcing winners on September 10, 2019, and finish announcing winners on October 13, 2019
You must give a valid email address when you enter the giveaways, any email returned to me, loses the ability to win automatically.
All giveaways run for 1 week with the exception of the Electric Quilt giveaway which runs the full course of the event.
You are given 3 days to answer the email, if you do not answer within 3 days a new winner will be drawn. Check those spam/junk mail folders, you may miss that winning email if you don’t do so because there are no exceptions to this rule.
If you are notified that you are a winner, in all cases except for the Fat Quartershop, and C&T Publishing winners, you will need to provide your name, address, city, state, zip code, country, telephone number, and email address.
No purchase whatsoever is necessary.
You must be 18+ in order to win a gift.
You are responsible for claiming and paying any tax owed on the value of any gift that you win. Prizes valued at $500.00 should be claimed.
All winners are chosen at random.
All winners will be announced on the blogs via the Rafflecopter entry form and/or post by the blogger at the site where they won and here at Seams To Be Sew. All winners must allow for their first name and first initial of their last name to be announced on this blog.
Odds of Winning a prize are based on a total number of rafflecopter entries during each week and in total for all giveaways.
This giveaway is void where prohibited by law.
Participating bloggers/designers may enter any of the giveaways.
The word giveaways in the rules and guidelines are also known as sweepstakes.
Additional Notes About Giveaways From Our Sponsors
I am not rich and I do not ask sponsors for money, they provide prizes only.
If they shipped the prize to me, you will be asked to pay for shipping.
All giveaways will be shipped that are in my home on each Saturday of the event.
An invoice will be sent to you via Paypal, and shipping will take place via Paypal, so your Paypal email will be needed to send the invoice. You will receive a tracking number except for overseas shipments. Depending on the weight of the prize, first class is always my first choice, but priority mail will be done where needed. Paypal fees are added to that amount to cover that fee.
Please note, every effort is made to protect the prizes. They go into a plastic bin when I receive them, and it is covered by an airtight cover. I have a dog in my home and I have a smoker in my home, so I do everything possible to protect the prizes.
Most companies are very good about getting prizes off to customers quickly also, but some companies are overseas, so please allow all sponsors a 2-week time period before you report to me that you still haven’t received your prize. When the company is overseas, it can take 6 weeks to 90 days for an item to also arrive.
