Favourite things

Leila chose 'Favourite Things' for her 'Ringo Pie' queen bee month.  There was a lot of freedom in this theme, the block needed to reflect something about us.  I recently bought this inspirational book, 163 Patchwork Blocks and Quilts.  There is a Flickr group about this book and you can find out more about it there.  You just know looking at the cover that this book is fantastic- sorry to be such a temptress.  It is hard to find- The Workroom stock it when they can and are great at mail order.  Pomadour24 on ebay and etsy sometimes has copies.  Warning: it is expensive!   You need to be prepared to draft with this book, it is all in diagrams in the usual Japanese style and many of the blocks use intersecting Y seams- just saying...

 As soon as I saw this spools block I just knew this was the one.   I love spools block, conquering the Y intersection seams in my first Ringo Pie block was part of my quilting journey and my love of paper piecing.

I knew I wanted my favourite Kumiko Fujita ruler print, ( you can find some here).  I have it in 4 colour ways- one for each spool and I wanted vintage prints for the spool centres- many of these came from swaps with the lovely Chase.

Leila wanted 6" finished blocks for a sampler quilt she is planning so this block is small but it was intricate with 16 Y seams!  I drew the block on freezer paper- you can see the book diagram which gives block proportions and also a picture of the assembled block reverse side which is most helpful.

I am using the same book to inspire me for Pillow talk 9 swap.  I have an amazing partner, and I am hoping that this block will do the trick.  I plan for 9 of these and you can see, Y seams again so I need to get on with it!