Monday, February 7, 2022

Busy City - Row by Row blog hop (plus giveaway!)

Welcome to my stop on Island Batik's Row by Row blog hop!  Our challenge was to create a row by row quilt, with the following prompt: Row by Row quilts are quilts made up of rows of quilt blocks or components with each row distinct from the others. The Row by Row quilt can be any theme, any combination of blocks, and can include appliqué. I was sent the collection Citified, designed by Kathy Engle for Sherry Shish of Powered by Quilting. Citified is a beautiful mix of oranges, blues, purples, and whites.

 

The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik, Schmetz, Hobbs, &Aurifil,

 


I was inspired by the name Citified to make a city. The first row I thought about was a construction site. Every growing city has lots of construction! I knew the wide variety of oranges would be perfect for construction trucks. I used printable coloring sheets to get the basic shapes I wanted. I have a Crayola light-up pad that I use whenever I need to trace anything and it was really helpful! I can't trace or cut a circle to save my life, but luckily my Accuquilt train die has circles; I used those for the wheels of my construction equipment.

 

Cities also have traffic, so I made a row of cars! I got the Cute Car die for Christmas (Thanks Mom!) and this was a perfect time to use it! I love this die and know I will use it lots in the future.


Of course, people live in the city, so I needed some houses. There are lots of house patterns out there. I used the Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial for Jenny Lane, but only made enough houses for one row. This was my only pieced row; the others are all applique.


A peek into the process

Those first three ideas for rows came pretty quickly, but then I wasn't sure what else to add. After thinking about different options, I decided my city really needed a park!  There was a really great light blue with dots that would make a fabulous pond, and I could put fish in the pond. And of course the park needed trees and a playground. I kept thinking of things I could add, like kites and dogs. I traced or free-handed most of the park elements, though the trees were cut with my Accuquilt. 

 

Pond with fish

Every park needs a playground!

Doggies!
 

The sashing is my absolute favorite part of this!  I knew a city would need roads.  I also assumed this would be a kid's quilt, so roads would make it a perfect play quilt.  I used my son's Matchbox cars to decide the width of the roads!  I saved one of the orange fabrics from the collection, Cheerios in Cantaloupe, for the dashed line in the road and paired it with the dark gray solid.

I'm told that the top row is experiencing rush hour (not a traffic jam)

I named this Busy City, inspired by Richard Scarry's Busytown.  We read a lot of Richard Scarry books and a family favorite is Cars and Trucks and Things That Go.  In that book, Goldbug, a small yellow bug, is hiding on each page for readers to find.  In a further homage to Richard Scarry, I added Goldbug to each row.  Can you find him??


All twenty fabrics from Citified are in Busy City, plus several of the the always-available Foundations fabrics.  The background is Sky, Goldbug is Mustard, there are trees of Chameleon and Pine Needles, Large Netting in Sand for the dirt piles at the construction site, and there are wheels of both solid gray and black on the various vehicles.


Busy City measures 45" x 48".  With so many different fabrics in the applique rows, I used a lot of different Aurifil threads!  I count twelve different colors, not including the 2615 Aluminum used for piecing and 2770 Very Light Delft used for the quilting.  Schmetz super nonstick needles are fabulous when I've used fusible web, which I did for all of this, because they slide right through the fabric and do not get gummy at all. The batting is Hobbs bleached 80/20.

Regular readers will not at all be surprised to learn that Fire Monkey, my 8-year-old son, has claimed this quilt.  He frequently plays with his cars & trucks after bed time as a way of quieting himself down for sleep, so Busy City will get lots of use!


To celebrate the Row by Row hop, I am hosting a giveaway.  I have three Stash Builder Rolls to give away.  Each roll has four strips of 5" by WOF beautiful Island Batik fabric.  That's a total of 1 2/3 yards of fabric! Leave me a comment to enter.  Comments can be anything, but if you need a prompt, tell me what in your city or town you would add to Busy City.  Entries accepted through the end of the day February 24th.  Additionally, Island Batik has a giveaway each week of the hop, check out their blog for the most recent, and check back each Friday for the new one.  

 
Be sure to check out Quilted Delights today to see what my fellow ambassador Leah made with Citified! And you can find the full hop schedule on this post.  


48 comments:

  1. Busy City is a great play quilt for a child, and I'm sure your son will love it! The roads between the different sections are genius!

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  2. Good quilt to play on! My son loved Richard Scarry books. petuniakr@aol.com

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  3. This is awesome. All the rows are fantastic, and the road sashing is suberb!

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  4. I knew the Fire Monkey would love that quilt as soon as I saw the construction trucks! Love the road sashing, inspired!!

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  5. Love your town! Making the washing work as roads was a great idea! I would have to add one of two of the historical sights around my city, such as the Gateway Arch or the Zoo sign!

    Sandy A

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  6. That is the cutest quilt! I almost choked on my breakfast when I saw you put Goldbug in your quilt! My now 17 y.o. son had me read that book to him every day when he was a preschooler. I have read it literally over 1000 times, as my other two boys liked it too. I could probably recite most of it from memory. Ma and Pa and Pickles and Penny Pig are going on a picnic.....I'm sure your son will get lots of fun time with that quilt.

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  7. This is my favorite quilt in the hop, so adorable. Wish there was a pattern or the quilt was for sale because I would be all over it. So glad it has a good home though and will be cherished. Great job Emily.

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  8. This is great, Emily!! I am definitely NOT surprised Fire Monkey has laid claim to it!! I really love the addition of Goldbug in all the rows. So creative and fun!

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  9. I would add an airport and airplanes.

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  10. Boys and their cars, construction vehicles, busses, and fire trucks (red would have stood out too much). You have captured a lot of a little boys love. Well done!

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  11. Hi Emily! I have a daughter with the same name!
    This is just the cutest quilt! If I made one about our town (it's small), it would have to include a row about the river front and the Christmas lights each year. For a small town, they're pretty awesome!

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  12. Oh but this is fabulous. Such a fun row by row. Looks like your son loves it. My son would have been on top of it like yours. I love the little details and the little aliens. Thanks so much for sharing and inspiring. quilting dash lady at comcast dot net

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  13. Such a cute quilt -- perfect for a little boy. Nancy A: SewingGranda@gmail.com

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  14. Beautiful quilt! I can see why your son is already in love with playing on it. I might add a row of little shops like on the main street of the town I grew up in. A fire house, a pharmacy, a flower shop, a Ben Franklin variety store, and a little grocery store. I would make them simple buildings because the rest of the quilt is simple and not to busy.

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  15. What a darling quilt! I live near the ocean and we have a beautiful fountain called "turning about" that is a lot of sails all lined up and they rotate as well. It's really lovely and I would definitely include that in my busy city!

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  16. Best Row by Row Quilt so far. Love everything about it, especially the interactive aspect. I found Goldbug everywhere. I am slightly jealous that you have a fabulous model to show off the quilt :-)

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  17. What a fun quilt to play with and just admire! All the details and adventures are a treasure to look at. I live in Iowa, just along the Mississippi River, so I'd add a river row with barges and boats floating along!

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  18. I absolutely love your quilt!!! The town I grew up in had a town clock which was actually the steeple of the church we went to. The clock was the tallest structure in town and could be seen anywhere in town. It lit up at night and rang every hour on the hour, one ding for each hour (eg. 2 dings meant it was 2 o'clock). I would add a town clock to the quilt.

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  19. Very cute quilt, prefect for your son and his cars. You add a few sky scrappers, bridges and highways and you have New York. 24Tangent@gmail.com

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  20. Way to go, my creative friend!!!

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  21. One of the biggest draws to our local park is the gnome trail. They’re made by one of my former student’s family and kids (of all ages) just love searching for them. So I’d have to add some gnomes!

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  22. Emily, your quilt is just sooo cute! My grandsons would love it. And I wouldn't add a thing. It is perfect just the way it is. Thanks for the giveaway.

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  23. Such a creative quilt! I'm not surprised that your son loves it. I really like the park with kites, fish pond, swings, etc.

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  24. This is adorable, and so much fun to find your hidden friend. I would have added a pool, school and quilt shop, and maybe a church. Great quilt, and I'm happy to see that your son enjoys it, too.

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  25. I love your quilt. If it were my quilt, I would have added the capital building (since I live in Olympia, the capital of WA) and an inlet with some boats.

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  26. I love your quilt. I live in the country so we would need some tractors. We do have a lot of bicycle trails around me so maybe some of those.

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  27. This a cute pattern. I am happy to see that has already been put to good use!

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  28. What an adorable quilt and not surprised at all by FireMonkey's reaction. I love the raodway, I did that once for stitches on a block and it was so satisfying. I think the city I would include is NY, maybe because I stashed some NY fabrics that still have no particular purpose.

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  29. The border, what an amazing way to frame the city landscape.No wonder it has been claimed so quickly. As I live down here in New Zealand, I will not need to add another town, and the fabrics, a grand way to showcase every single one.

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  30. Your little cars are especially cute!!

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  31. What a fun quilt! I definitely need to add a couple horses to represent our town.

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  32. Oh so cute and fun! I would had a library as my daughter is a librarian!

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  33. Your row quilt is gorgeous and I am sure will get a lot of use over the years. I live in the country so I would add some paddocks and cows

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  34. I love this quilt so much! Apparently your little boy does too.

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  35. Such a fun quilt! I can't pick a favorite row, they all worked out so well. It's always fun when a family member claims a quilt and even better when you know how much they love it.

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  36. Ooohhh, I LOVE your quilt! I wish you had a pattern for it. Too cute and great quilt for your son and his cars :) I think I would add a Wal-mart and an animal shelter and a zoo :)

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  37. What an adorable quilt, Emily!! Your son was sweet to pose with the cars. Thanks for the chance to win a fabric bundle!!

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  38. What a creative way to make a row by row quilt. It is more than a city, it is a play mat quilt too!

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  39. What a great quilt and love how you built it! We are rural so I would add some soy bean or corn fields to your quilt, maybe even cows!

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  40. A beautiful quilt with LOTS of work. I think I would have added a train museum to my quilt. We can take rides on the train (especially fun with the Santa Train) and it sits next to the main road through town.

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  41. What a fun quilt! I love each row! Maybe I would add a school bus. My kids are loving "The wheels on the bus" right now.

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  42. What a cute quilt. I live in the country, my town doesn't have much, a gas station,Post Office, Bank, and an Cattle Auction Barn. I would have to add some pasture land for when you are heading into the city.

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  43. Emily Busy City is gorgeous! The quilt showcases the IB fabrics so well. I’m going to keep going back through your photos to see if I can choose a favourite row but can’t so far. Fire Momkey will get hours of enjoyment from this treasure. 😉

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    1. And I live on a golf course so that’s the only thing I’d add to Busy City. 😉

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  44. Your quilt is so much fun! Thanks for sharing about it, and thanks for this beautiful giveaway! In my tiny town, the most distinctive building is the grain elevator, so I would put that on a row.

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  45. Sweet quilt with promises of so much fun! My city would need the Mississippi River and the Gateway Arch. (I live in the St. Louis area.)

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  46. Love your quilt! I would add a library and church to my town.

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  47. Emily. - this is wonderful!! I love each row and the border is awesome - especially love how you featured Gold Bug in the rows. That brings back fond memories of reading Richard Scarry books to my kids.
    Please don't enter me in the giveaway. I am packing for our move and it isn't a good time for more fabric!! Love your quilt so much though.

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