Well before he was even 18 months old, my first son would
point and hoot at every truck or digger he spotted through the window from his car
seat.
By three, he could distinguish
backhoes from front end loaders and correct me on the finer
points of cranes and forklifts.
When he
was ready to move to a big boy bed, I knew I had to make a construction themed
quilt for him.
I found there to be so little on the market for boys and definitely nothing
that would appeal both to his interests and my own modern aesthetic.
I'm pleased to say that Busy City, a pattern I created as a licensed designer for
Empty Bobbin Sewing Studio, does just that. It is inspired by
the quilt I designed and
made for my construction crazy four year old.
It includes so many of the things little people notice all around them in the busy city.
The pattern shows you how to create paper pieced vehicles, buildings,
trees, and more arranged in various ways to create unique, customized quilts and pillows.
It includes 35 block
patterns which are the same size, so they can be used interchangeably, allowing you
to personalize every project in the book.
The pattern includes instructions for a twin sized quilt, a baby quilt, and two pillows. (Thanks to Shea for letting me use her photos.)
Each project is designed to be customizable in a number of
ways.
Not only can they be made with
just the blocks you choose, the blocks are grouped by level of
difficulty.
Quilters who are less
experienced with paper piecing, have no fear! Detailed paper piecing instructions are included, and you can begin with the simplest blocks or choose to use only those blocks in your project.
Those more comfortable with paper piecing can
tackle the more detailed blocks, although all the blocks are suitable for intermediate
quilters.
The baby quilt and pillows are quick projects that use
just a block or a few blocks, and of course the heirloom twin
quilt uses 35 blocks.
All the block patterns are included on a CD, so you can print out just the ones you want to use in two size options. There is no need to photo copy or trace patterns. Yay!
The projects are so easy to
tailor to your child’s specific interests.
If your little one is into farming, you can use the tractor, pickup truck, and barn
blocks.
The house becomes a farm house and
the trees an orchard.
If he is
interested in race cars, you can make a pack of cars in different colors and
include the tow truck and ambulance on the sidelines.
You can make a charming little neighborhood of
houses and trees with a school bus.
The possibilities are as numerous
as the children for whom you sew, both boys and girls! I made this 12 inch pillow cover for my new niece.
Each block pattern is paper pieced, with additional
templates to create wheels and treads which are appliquéd onto the completed
block.
By using black fabric with white
polka dots, you can mimic the look of tires while using a single piece of
fabric for each wheel.
I used fusible
web and machine appliqué, although you can pick the appliqué method of
your choice.
I'm so excited to partner with
Empty Bobbin Sewing Studio to publish this pattern. It is especially fitting because Shea was the one who first encouraged me to create a pattern for this quilt. My response was, "No way." Ha! But that seed of an idea stayed with me, and once I had the pattern writing experience and the appropriate software, this pattern grew. Here is
a list of places you can purchase Empty Bobbin Sewing Studio patterns. Busy City is shipping to stores now and is already available at
Pink Chalk,
Superbuzzy,
I Don't Do Dishes on etsy,
Hyggeligt in Canada, and locally at the
Bernina store on Metcalf and Sarah's Fabrics in Lawrence, KS.
Update: Busy City is now available for purchase as a digital download from Empty Bobbin. Download the pdf here.
As always, I would absolutely love to see what you make with my pattern. You can email me or upload a picture directly to
the flickr group.
Those of you who are still reading definitely deserve a shot at a free pattern. Leave a comment, and I will choose a winner, at random, Saturday morning. Does someone come to mind when you look at this pattern? What blocks do you think he or she would like best? For a second chance to win, hop over to Shea's blog where she is also offering a giveaway. Giveaway now closed.
1. Raw Edge Circle Quilt top, 2. Redbud Blossoms Quilt, 3. Tickertape Doll Quilt 3, 4. Camera Case Wristlet, 5. Hexagon pillow, 6. Summer Sunshine, closeup, 7. Pure Baby Boy, 8. Summer Sorbet, 9. String Pieced Pillow, 10. Voile and Linen Sewing Machine Cover, 11. Neptune Quilt, closer view, 12. Out for a Walk #2, 13. Plume Sails, 14. Quilted French Press Cozy, 15. Be Merry mug rug, 16. tickertape doll quilt, 17. My First Bee Quilt, 18. Scrappy Squares Baby Quilt, 2, 19. Coordinating Bunting, Pillow and Quilt, 20. tickertape mini quilt, 21. Around Town, 22. Busytown Quilt, 23. Ruffled Wristlet Keychains, 24. whirligig doll quilt - close up, 25. Monogram Pillow
There a lot going on around town in this quilt, namely construction but some other things too :). After washing, it ended up being approximately 35" x 47".
I used a largish meandering stitch on this quilt and outlined the vehicles, etc. Thanks to Jaime and the new table and tips she's turned me onto, my free motion is much improved. It's still something I'd like to get better at though.
Well, I already had six blocks made, from the tutorials. Why not whip up a few more for this cute baby quilt? You can do it easily enough too!
You can see with all the blocks together that the vehicles are slightly larger than in the original quilt. I did this to make photographing each step of their assembly easier. I think I prefer the teeny trucks of Busytown, but this is fun too.
By the way, you can find pdfs of instructions for these vehicles, as well as all of my most recent tutorials, here.
This excavator is the last in this series of improvisationally pieced vehicles. It requires a few more steps than the other vehicles, and it's a little finicky. The results are pretty fun though, if I do say so myself. 
The next vehicle in my installments of improv piecing tutorials is the bulldozer. In the next few days I'll share the final tute - a digger. Then we'll be returning to our regularly scheduled, non-vehicle related posts :).
I heard from several of you whose little boys love tractors, so here's my attempt at piecing one. I'm going to do just a couple more vehicles in this series of tutorials, so let me know if there is one you're dying to see. Otherwise I'll pick a couple of my faves from this quilt.
I started making this quilt, for my son, way back in the fall when I saw this quilt on flickr. I took that inspiration in a new direction for my construction crazy little boy. Busytown is 60 x 80. The quilt is my own design. It was not paper pieced, aside from the barrel of the cement mixer, which I just could not get right any other way :) . I pieced each block improvisationally. The wheels of the vehicles are applique.
The quilt was custom machine quilted by Angela Walters. You can see the fantastic details she added. My favorite is this swirly tree!
I just need a little project to hold me over until I pick up my Busy Town quilt. That's the name I decided on for the quilt for my son's birthday. The fabulous Angela Walters has quilted it, and I can't wait to bind it and share it with you all!
The top is finished! Now I just need a name for it.
These are numbers 31 and 32 in my pieced vehicles, houses, and trees quilt. Only three more to make!! I clearly need a better name for this quilt. Ideas?
I'm going to place the yellow house to the right of the crane I made earlier, so hopefully it will look like the crane is going to lift the roof into place.
That means nine more to go. I don't think I'm going to make it in time for Christmas. Oh well, there is always his birthday :). The 26 finished blocks seem like quite a stack to me at this point, having sewn on sashing two nights in a row. I like the negative space, but boy have I used a ton of Kona white!
