Hive 4 November Tutorial Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Hi, I'm Velda at the Freckled Fox Quiltery and this is my Queen Bee post for 2019 in Hive 4.

Let me just say before I go any further, OMG where did this year go? How could it possibly be November already?   Was there a twist or warp, or perhaps even a bend in the Space/TIme continuum? ....sigh....yes, I watched every single episode of "Voyager", Deep Space 9 and Star Trek--New Generation.  But thats a story for another day.

2019 has been the year of "Text" for me. I've been involved in planning and piecing three quilts for entry into the QuiltCon 2019 Charity Quilt Challenge. The theme is of course "text" and OMGoodness the options are infinite.  Without giving away too many details, the PEIMQG(of which I'm a member) is piecing a beautiful quilt  inspired by Sam Canon Art.  I'm so excited to see it come together and promise I will share it with all of you when the time comes.  My Bee Inspired Friends recently finished piecing our "You Got This"  entry and in September, I committed to working with another individual member team (Peace Around the World) to make another texty quilt which is loosely based on a design of mine.

All of this is simply preface to me asking you to help me finish another texty quilt that has been prancing and pirouetting around in my head and on my IG feed since early this summer.  I call it  "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and here is where its at right now.

Cute and Quirky, just like you, right?  Cindy Lauper must be pleased to see that her 1983 Anthem still inspires and encourages girls to have fun.

So this is where you come in....I need at least a dozen more girls to make an appearance on my quilt top.... sew I want you to make one.  And I don't just want you to make any generic girl, Nope of course not.  I want you make one that represents you.”

So how do you do that?  Click here to pop straight to the recipe that I found on Stash Bee Hive 1 in February of  2013 (thank you Stash Bee Administrators for keeping all the old posts on the blog archive).  The block is called Pippi Longstocking and I think its fabulous.  It was created by Jude of Just Jude and she is an awesome blogger who I love to visit every once in a while.

So after you go and read Jude's tutorial, I'd like you to consider how you can make Pippi a bit more like you.... Are you taller than average? perhaps you can make the legs a bit longer and the  dress a bit shorter....or possibly you are vertically challenged, Pippi says that's okay too.  Has it been 20+ years since you wore a mini skirt? Make her dress a bit longer, or give her trousers...Is your hair white/brown/purple ...hers can be that colour too.  Do you love to dance?  Give her a little shimmy/shake with a different leg position. LOL.  Or perhaps you want to make Pippi your alter ego. Tall, if you are short, Blonde if you have darker hair,  etc. etc. etc.  Thats the beauty of an Improv block, you can easily modify it by making the pieces a bit bigger or a bit smaller.  So very cool!  Just to give you an idea, here is my version of me.

Me - Velda 

For the purposes of my quilt, I only want you to make the Pippi portion of the block.  DO NOT add the checkerboard portion of the tutorial around Pippi.  This means that the block you will be sending me measures approximately 8.5" x 8.5" unfinished. A little more or less is no big deal.  This is improv after all!

The only other thing I'd like you to consider is the background fabric.  I've used mostly very light prints or white tone on tone fabrics.  Please take a look at the girls (or the word backgrounds) on my examples for ideas of modern low-volume fabrics that will play nice with the girls I already made. If your stash is low on modern LV backgrounds, then any white on white is fine.  If possible stay away from white solids tho.  I'm fine with any modern BG print fabrics as long as it has a white rather than cream base.  Here are some close ups of the other girls I've made.

Kate

Elsie and Abi

Janey

Jean and Annie

I cannot wait to see all you guys cavorting in a conga line on my quilt top! If you want to see a few more examples of how cute these Pippi's can be, click right here to see the Hive 1 February, 2013 post from Tanya. Then let your imagination go wild.  See you on the dance floor.

And, I betcha you have the song "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" playing over and over in your head all day today.   Sorry--not sorry!