The Pearson Tree Farm Quilts

Pearson Tree Farm Quilt #1 - quilted by Jaki Soper of QuiltStudio55

I've hemmed and hawed on writing this post because this quilt was never meant to be such a public "worldwide" project where I shared all my backstory feelings regarding it. However, it became bigger than me - and so many people helped so I felt I should share the whole story as a way to show how amazing this quilting community is and to show in some small way, my gratitude to all of you that participated. 

Back in December 2019, a local family in my town, lost their husband, father, grandfather, friend, in a very tragic and horrific way. It was weeks before Christmas and where there was once hope and joy, there was immediately sadness and fear. I live in a big town and word got out quickly that a man was on the run and had brutally stabbed this dear man outside his home and headed north. Many talked about the tragic situation but no one knew what to do. I felt a tremendous amount of sadness for his wife who found him while he was still alive. I wanted to do something to help her, remembering my own Granny that lost her husband to natural causes but was there beside him. I didn't feel anything I could ever do would help take away that sadness she was likely feeling and everything that went along with the terrible situation. 

A week passed and I continued to think of her. After seeing many news stories about Jim Pearson and his family's Beech Ridge (Tree) Farm, I got this image of a (Christmas) tree quilt with a red heart on it. I pushed it out of my mind thinking a quilt won't help, however, I wanted to help change the narrative going on in the town/world. There are good people here. Evil will not win. We can do something, anything to show we care, and that we are here for her, even those of us that didn't know her personally and she didn't know us. The image kept coming back, so I sat at my computer one day and designed a bunch of different "Christmas Trees" in my EQ8 program to see how it would look. 

The process of designing the blocks and the quilt helped me and so maybe this quilt could help Nancy, but I knew this was not something I could sew on my own with a quick turn around. Since I knew others in my town were feeling as I was feeling, I reached out to the local town "mom fb group" and asked if anyone else wanted to help make a block. So many people signed up to sew a block - some offered monetary donations for supplies - some were willing to learn to sew in order to be a part of it - while others forwarded the info to local sewing groups and police stations (as one of the adult children was a soon to retire police officer) and news of the quilt project began to spread.

I quickly had enough people signed up to make a queen size quilt, from people in my town, state and even a few from out of state. Someone in the mom fb group suggested we make two more quilts for the adult children, that also lived in town, and was only sorry she didn't know how to sew. Knowing I only had enough blocks coming for 1 quilt, I knew I needed a new source for 2 more quilts worth of blocks, or three quilts weren't going to be possible. My only option at that point was to reach out to all of you, my @kidgiddy community on IG and the response brought me to tears. Without hesitation you all signed up, showed up and shared the post. Within 24 hours I had to shut down the sign up form, before I had more blocks than I knew what to do with. I felt like I closed a door with more people knocking outside. You all are so amazing!

The local Scarborough Public Library offered their public space for me to have "sew-ins" so I could teach folks how to sew the foundation paper piecing blocks, or how to sew the patchwork or applique versions. If someone wasn't there to learn, we were able to use that time to start sewing blocks together for the first quilt as the packages started coming in early January. Everyday at mail time was so exciting and always turned into tears of gratitude. Some of you sent letters and some also included the coloring page that your kids colored in (that were gifted with the quilts). 

February and March brought more of the same but by mid March our last sew-in happened just in time to make the quilt backs before Covid shut everything down. I had a couple of volunteers that helped piece the last blocks for two of the quilts together in their homes, while I finished the first quilt. With all the quilt tops and backs done, a local friend, Jess, began helping me search for local longarmers willing to give their time to quilt them. Other friends shared my posts and tagged their friends too which resulted in offers from as far west as Seattle and as far South as Florida and Texas to quilt the quilts, but I became hesitant mailing anything out with Covid taking over the news. 

Pearson Tree Farm Quilt #2 - quilted by Tammy Johnson courtesy of Alewives Fabric Shop

We finally secured 3 local quilters within driving distance that were willing to quilt them for this cause (Jaki Soper - Quilt Studio 55 in Maine, Alewives Fabric Shop quilter Tammy Johnson also in Maine, and Patty Sciacca from Massachusetts. Covid slowed down the finishing process, but eventually everything was done.

Pearson Tree Farm Quilt #3 - quilted by Patty Sciacca Crafts

When the quilts came back they were trimmed up and sent right back out to my local volunteers Leslie and Jennipher for binding and all the hand stitching needs. These quilts were truly a community effort that I was honored to be a part of. It was not just this local community, but a worldwide community of quilters that want to do good with their skills. In total, I received 235 blocks from approximately 75 quilters in the US, Canada and the UK. 

You can see everyone that helped in some way or another listed on the labels that my husband and I created. Jess, a friend of the Pearson family, also made pillows for each of the grandkids so they would have something as well. Each pillow and all three quilts have a tree or two pieced from Jim's clothing. The quilts have 1 or two blocks with his work shirt and one t-shirt tree from the clothing provided by the family. You can see in one of the images above, I made two tree blocks for Nancy's quilt using one of Jim's work shirts that had his name on the left side above the pocket and the farm name on the right side above the pocket. We were sure to use as much of the shirts that we cut into so as not to waste any of the material. Not even the buttons.  

While the quilts (and pillows) were being made, we had many folks wanting to donate so much funding to the quilts, which would've been more than needed. Eventually the family was able to set up a memorial education scholarship in Jim's honor, and the first recipient this year was recently awarded a scholarship for his freshman year at college. For more information about the Beech Ridge Farm, or to support the Pearson Family Memorial Scholarship, you can visit their websites (links highlighted). If you would like to purchase the #PearsonTreeFarmQuilt blocks pattern, please know that I am in the process of working with them to offer it on their website or a dedicated Etsy shop, with proceeds going to the Pearson Family Memorial Scholarship. I will update that info here when it becomes available. 

I truly want to thank everyone that helped make these quilts happen. It was a lot of work to put together and thanks to Covid took way longer than anticipated, but the process was made easier with the help and love of so many others. The Pearson family was grateful for the outpouring of love from so many strangers worldwide and really enjoyed looking at the variety of trees and hearing how they all came together. I never could've done this myself...certainly not 3 quilts (or the 9 pillows Jess also made), but not even the one quilt. Thank you again!

Disclosure: Although this is not a sponsored post - I did receive the EQ8 software previously which helped to create the blocks and quilt layout, but the opinions and comments provided are always my own. There are no affiliate links. Thank you.

The Lobster Quilt Block

I've lived near coastal waters most of my life and lobsters and buoys have always been a part of the scenery. I designed a stuffed Lobster (named Pinchy) for my book Sewing Tales to Stitch and Love back in 2013. A year later in 2014 I began designing foundation paper piecing patterns, I sketched out this Lobster as my second block (the Anchor was my first), but I never finished developing it through all these years. There was just something about it I didn't love, but as I revisited it, I easily changed the tail and head in my Electric Quilt EQ8 program file and fell in love. So to say this #LobsterQuiltBlock has been years in the making, is no joke.




The Malibu and Ruby + Bee Fabrics I used in the block above and are shown with the quilt layout below were such a perfect fit right for this ocean loving girl (me) and this Lobster block. I actually grew up going to Malibu Beach every summer in New York when I lived on Long Island. These adorable fabrics are available from Windham Fabrics. I reached out to Windham and they provided me with the fabric swatch files so I could easily import them into EQ8 and whip up a fun layout. If you have fabrics you want to use for a project, but have never tried this, here's a quick video tutorial.

You can get a copy of my new #LobsterQuiltBlock by visiting my Kid Giddy Etsy shop. Want to Learn to Design and Sew Foundation Paper Piecing patterns? You can find the ebook in my shop as well. Visit the Electric Quilt website to learn how to convert your designs into the EQ8 program to make designing and printing your patterns easier. Please share your #LobsterQuiltBlocks with me on Instagram @kidgiddy #kidgiddy.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Disclosure: As a Media Partner with Electric Quilt, I may receive compensation for this post. I also received the Malibu and Ruby + Bee Fabrics from Windham Fabrics to help create my block, but the opinions and comments provided are always my own. There are no affiliate links at this time. Thank you.

The Splendid Sampler 2 - My Grandfather Clock

Happy New Year! I am so excited for all the fun we are going to have this year, who's with me? To get this party started we have this "Grandfather Block" I was asked to design for Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson for their Splendid Sampler 2 book. It was so much fun to design this foundation paper piecing block in Electric Quilt using the EQ8 program, and then add some embroidery and needle turn applique. So if you have ever wanted to try a little bit of everything in one block, I'm sharing some of my tips below...so here you go! 

These are the fabrics (all fat quarters) I was sent from Moda Fabrics along with some Aurifil threads. I wanted to share with you my process for selecting the fabrics so as you are considering fabrics for your Grandfather Clock, you'll have the best outcome.

As tradition calls for it, I used a pure white for the face of the clock and built it out from there. I selected the two tones of beige for my "wood" coloring. One as a lighter color as if it has light shining on it and one darker for shadows. I did the same for the blue. The darker blue allows the clock to have the "inside" feeling while the lighter blue helps the pendulum to sit forward. The red helps the face to pop but I added the tiny touch of blue in the center with the fussy cut tulip to balance out the blue in the lower half. So as you select your colors, know that using two tones for wood and two tones for the blue areas would work best.

To transfer the face of your clock onto a large piece of white fabric, use a strong light source (like the Daylight Company Wafer 2 lightbox) and a water soluble marking pen (mine is from Prym/Dritz).

Place your white fabric into a hoop to embroider the face. I used the 8782 Blue Wool 12 thread from Aurifil so it would be thicker and only require a single stitch per line. Because I used Roman Numerals, it made stitching it so quick (because no curves!), but feel free to change yours to numbers if you prefer.
Be creative with the "time" that you stitch on your clock. This can be a personal number or memory with a date or time reference. There are 4 members of my family (hubby and 2 daughters) and I have 8 siblings so I have my 'arrows' (hands) pointing at the 4 and 8, which would be 4:40.

When putting your clock face together and attaching it to your foundation paper pieced block, be sure to use a pin in the center of each pattern piece to align them properly. These center points are marked on the pattern pieces specifically to help align them. Transfer those center points onto your fabric and use the pin technique shown above.

When your Grandfather Clock is all put together, you can then flip over your block and carefully cut out the excess fabric to reduce the bulk if you choose to do so.

My Paternal Grandfather had 6 Grandfather Clocks in his house. I think my uncle now has them all in Connecticut, but I will always remember them scattered about and chiming throughout the home he built in Maryland for his family. The block we designed was supposed to represent "I'm living my best quilting life when....", and for me that is when I am spending time with my family and living a balanced life. Time passes so quickly and it's so important to not miss what is in front of you at any given time. So I designed a clock. But not just any clock, a Grandfather Clock, to add in that important element of family and history and making memories. Do you have a Grandfather Clock memory or story? I'd love to hear it. Please feel free to share it below or find me (Kid Giddy) on Instagram and Facebook to share your story there.

You can get a copy of the Splendid Sampler 2 book by clicking through to the Splendid Sampler website. Thanks so much for visiting!

Disclosure: I received the fabric and thread to help create my block and also received a copy of the book for having made my block, but the opinions and comments provided are always my own. There are no affiliate links. Thank you.

Making Quilts in Electric Quilt

This just might be the last official Electric Quilt Brand Ambassador post of the year. Not only is the year coming to a close, but my computer is very much out of room (literally only 22gb remaining). Somehow I was able to delete enough "stuff" to get this post put together for you. I've had so much fun experimenting with the Electric Quilt Company Block Spotlight each month and decided this time to screen record it. This month is the Amaryllis Block which is perfect for the Christmas season, but also works great for the spring time too, especially when Easter rolls around.If you haven't tried making a quilt and uploading it to the EQ8 Block Spotlight post, you really should give it a go!

When I am working with a block and trying to figure out a quilt layout, I treat it the same as sketching in a notebook. I just start and keep going to see where I end up. Remember though, it's so important to save each quilt as you go along so you can go back and look at them all, and select your favorite to sew together when you are done.

The first picture I posted above is actually the last quilt I designed. It feels super modern and geometric for a flower, but also directional and sharp which was very different than my first below.

I was trying to stay away from symmetry, but my ambidextrous self has a hard time doing that. I added some rows and columns and made it symmetrical and also rectangular. Here you can see with rotating the blocks, the star really pops and become the focus of this design.

When you start playing with color and even the oh so fun "Randomize" button, you get a whole entirely different looking quilt, with a very different focus.

Experimenting further but now as a more pictorial quilt, I tried using the Amaryllis block to look like the Amaryllis plant with it's long thick stems.

Once I had this layout, I wanted to try the other colors most typically seen with the Amaryllis plant, of white and yellow. It would make a beautiful Easter wall hanging I think. Perfect for spring decorating in your home. You could easily add one more Amaryllis block in a smaller scale in that very center square that is created with all four corners.

Now that you've seen all of the blocks, watching my video below (or on YouTube) will allow you to see the steps I took to get to each design. Be sure to subscribe to my Kid Giddy YT channel for new videos in the future.

What do you think? Do you have a favorite layout? Have you tried experimenting with the Electric Quilt Block Spotlights each month? It's a great exercise and great practice to get to know the program, so if you haven't already, I highly recommend you challenge yourself to give it a go!

I just want to add before signing off, that I am truly so grateful to be able to work with great companies like the Electric Quilt Company, especially while being one of their Brand Ambassadors this year. I have been using their product for many years now, and still find something new when I break out of my own box and pick a new tool I haven't used before. (Which reminds me - while visiting the EQ website, if you want to add anything to your stash, you can use the code "EQ8Kerry" to save 20% off your purchases before the code expires at the end of the year).

With that said, I am also truly so grateful for each and every one of you that has supported me in my pattern making and design work. I appreciate when you give me credit for the patterns of mine you are using, because it allows me to see how you interpret them and how much fun you are having with them. It also further supports me by helping your friends know where they can get the pattern too. Thank you from the top and bottom of my heart for every time you've read a blog post, every like or comment on social media, every purchase and share of one of my patterns. You all inspire me every day with your excitement and enthusiasm. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, a belated Happy Chanukah, or Joy in the holiday you celebrate. May you all have a wonderful, safe and prosperous Happy New Year!

Disclosure: As a brand ambassador for Electric Quilt Company, I have received the EQ8 product for free, but the opinions and comments provided are always my own. This is not an affiliate code. Thank you.

EQ8 Block Spotlight of the Month

Have you tried playing around with the Electric Quilt Company EQ8 Block Spotlights? I've been playing with them and it's super fun. It's a great exercise and can help to open yourself up to come up with a different quilt with each block. I can't say different coloring, because I've been finding myself stuck on some specific colors, but different colorings would be great too.

This first one, the July "Arrowheads" block just might be my favorite. I wanted to keep it large scale (as I've done with the others) but wanted it to also keep it simplified. I used a simple fall palette (despite it being the July block) as I thought about cuddling on my sofa in our Cozy Away room with the wood stove burning. The quilt design was created as a Custom Layout with two full blocks down the center, and four partial blocks along the sides. 

This next quilt is the August "Pyramid Kite" block. I added in the blue and white colors to lighten it up a bit but also kept this quilt design symmetrical. This quilt was designed using the On-Point layout in order to create a much larger On-Point layout block to focus on the X in the center.

This last one (for now) is the September "Metalwork" block. I had a hard time with this block, only because it isn't symmetrical - lol. Never the less, I always love a good challenge. I reverted back to the warmer fall color palette, and used two full blocks and two simplified stretched blocks in the Custom Quilt layout.

If you haven't had a chance to try out their block spotlights, I highly recommend it. After you come up with a fun quilt design, you can link it up on their blog with each block post. You can see other designs others have posted as well.

Remember while visiting the EQ website, if you want to add anything to your stash, you can use the code "EQ8Kerry" to save 20% off your purchases.

Disclosure: As a brand ambassador for Electric Quilt Company, I have received the EQ8 product for free, but the opinions and comments provided are always my own. This is not an affiliate code. Thank you.

The Tonga Block - Aurifil Designer of the Month

I can't believe it's halfway through June already! That means I am the Aurifil Designer of the Month and my new Tonga Block has been posted! Last year (Quilter) Pat Sloan invited me to be a part of this years Designer line up and I couldn't have been more excited! Naturally I picked June (because it's the best month = summer) and created for all of you the free Tonga Block in EQ8. I had a lot fun making various color combos and playing with potential layouts in EQ8 and you can too. EQ8 makes it so quick and fun!

As I was playing with the colors in EQ8, I was looking at some of my Aurifil threads and using some of those colors in the layouts. I figured the brown could easily replace the black, but I was leaning more towards black in the end anyway. I'm still trying to figure out which color combo I love the most to sew into a quilt. Here's the Tonga Block in just 2 colors not including the binding.  (Turquoise and White)
Here's the Tonga Block in 3 Colors, not including the binding. (Turquoise, White and Black)

And the final combo, the Tonga Block in 4 colors. (Turquoise, White, Black, Rust)

I think my fav is the 4 color combo. Do you have a fav? I ended up using the same layout, but wanted to show that with various color combos, it can look very different.

Do you want to know what inspired my Tonga block? You can read more about it on the Aurifil blog. And when you are done printing out your free Tonga Block, head on over to Pat Sloan's blog to see some Tonga Block Sewing Tips she shared. When you finish sewing your Tonga Blocks, please share them with me on social media by tagging me @KidGiddy, #kidgiddy and AurifilDOM2018!

Thanks so much for stopping by, please be sure to sign up for the Kid Giddy newsletter by clicking the link below....

Disclosure: As a brand ambassador for the Electric Quilt Company, I received EQ8 program for free, but the opinions and comments provided are always my own.

New EQ8 Foundation Paper Piecing Patterns

I've been rather quiet here on my website, because I've been so busy in the studio with tons of secret sewing and designing, that I haven't shared with you some fun new patterns I've created in EQ8 yet!

I could sit and design patterns in EQ8 all day because it's so easy. Getting those designs sewn up and formatted into a PDF for you is the harder and more time consuming part, but worth it in the end...right?!

Well here are some new patterns I have listed in my shop.

First up is a collaboration I did earlier in the year with AnnKelle (Kelle Boyd). She had these cute giraffes and owls prints and I just had to make them into paper piecing blocks. I wanted to keep them relatively simple - so I stuck with her designs instead of going crazy detailed. I'm only offering them in my Etsy shop (to control the VAT tax purchases), but after all the etsy and paypal fees are taken out, the rest of the money from each set sold, will go to a Backpack program that puts food into children's backpacks on weekends, during school vacations and summer. I'm so excited to help this cause and ask that you help contribute where you can as well. Food insecurity leads to learning difficulties as well as many other issues. Kids should never go hungry.

My next quilt is more of a personal design. I'm going to be making various Martial Arts animals for a quilt of my own, and started with the Tiger Tiger Quilt, as a gift for my former Sensei that moved down to Texas. He felt the Tiger was his Martial Arts animal, but I was also born in the year of the Tiger. I included the character for Tiger up above the face of the tiger. Each animal I design, will also have it's Mandarian/Kanji character above it so I can learn a little of the languages as I go. I also find Chinese and Japanese calligraphy to be beautiful and couldn't leave it out of the design.

I finally sat myself down and mapped out the Vintage Photo Album Quilt blocks. I've had this idea for well over a year, and kept pushing it further to the back, silly me. It's one of those really quick and easy mix and match patterns that you can fussy cut to your hearts content. There are so many options and the results are super cute! I'd love to print some of my family photos onto fabric and make a genealogy quilt that shows my family tree. It would make a great memory quilt too. There are so many blocks and options (just two shown below), but please know - no quilt instructions or measurements are provided because of the mix and match - make your own concept.

I'm excited to share that Electric Quilt has come out with a new EQ8 Designing Quilts book where you can learn all the tricks and tips from EQ8 designers. Myself included. See that Sailboat Ship block on the back cover of the book? I teach you how to design the block and quilt using my very own photo, step by step! You can grab your copy at Electric Quilt (and make sure you use the code "EQ8Kerry" to save 20%).

There's a few more new blocks coming, but those are still a secret. Hopefully these can keep us all busy sewing for a bit until I can release the others. Do you have a favorite? Is there a design you are pulling for? Maybe it's a new block I've got in the works, or can add to the future list?!

Thanks so much for stopping by, please be sure to sign up for the Kid Giddy newsletter by clicking the link below....

Disclosure: As a brand ambassador for the Electric Quilt Company, I received EQ8 program for free, but the opinions and comments provided are always my own.