Getting the opportunity to create with Jill Howarth’s latest collection with Riley Blake was such a wonderful honour and it was hard to choose which prints to create with. The Little Red In The Woods collection is a combination of larger illustrations celebrating Little Red Riding Hood and tiny smaller prints featuring tiny florals, bows and fruit. What’s not to love! Jill Howarth is a wonderful illustrator and surface designer creating nostalgic designs of sweet characters and has worked on numerous beautiful books and Riley Blake fabric collections.
While not a Christmas collection the mint, white and red colours are perfect for any handmade Christmas gifts you plan on making!
I used the free tutorial from Lindsay from Primrose Cottage Quilts Instagram page to make 4.5 inch tiny present blocks. By adding another strip of fabric to the block I was able to make a perfectly sized heat/cold pack. Once you’ve decided on your size you just need cut a same sized backing piece of fabric and with right sides together stitch around the edges using a ¼ inch seam and leaving a 1 ½ inch gap. The gap will then enable you to turn the rectangle out and you can then fill it using either dry rice or wheat. If you do use rice you will need to add a cup with water in the microwave so the rice does not dry out.
The next project I made was a mini quilt using drunkards path blocks. I hadn’t made this type of block before but I wanted to showcase the larger beautiful scenes and twirling curved blocks seemed the perfect accompaniment (You can follow a free tutorial on the Love Patchwork and Quilting website) I then hand quilted the blocks using 12 weight aurifil thread and then used a Riley Blake Basic print, 1/8 inch striped print in Sweet Mint, for my binding.
My final project was a cushion for my youngest daughter’s bed. I choose to use the Mandolin English Paper piecing pattern from Tales of Cloth. The block features lots of opportunities to showcase the Little Red in the Woods illustrations.
I fussy cut my pieces using the acrylic templates and then hand quilted the pieces together. I also hand appliqued the block to the Riley Blake striped print and used Aurifil 12 weight thread in 1148 to keep with the pretty aqua tone of the prints.
I was so excited to create with Jill’s collection and am looking forward to making a few more Christmas gifts with these sweet collection!
Happy Sewing
Ange
A Little Patchwork 