Mad City Mama
Posted By drsao on January 27, 2010
I love Bonnie Hunter’s new book LEADERS AND ENDERS. I looked at every page and as I did I realized that I wanted to make EVERYTHING that I saw – but the one quilt that REALLY REALLY REALLY grabbed my attention was MAD CITY MAMA. I have to make this one.
You see, I have this absolute PASSION for 1 1/2″ squares – ever since I made my BIRTH OF A SAMPLER QUILT in 2008 with Sherry Whitford! So, as a diligent Bonnie fan, for the past two years, I have been cutting all of my tiniest scraps into 1 1/2″ squares or 1 1/2″ strips in anticipation of a new project and now I have a WHOLE BOX full. TA DA…..Mad City Mama just screamed at me – PICK ME – and so I have been sewing 1 1/2″ squares and strips together for 3 days. Tonight I decided to put some pieces together so that I could ooh and ahh over my first block.
Mad City Grandmama
Pretty cute, huh – and it only took me three days!!! LOL. I renamed mine MAD CITY GRANDMAMA because my block is a variation of Bonnie’s Mad City Mama – I am not putting the 2 1/2″ square on the outer corners of the strip blocks to form a complete SNOWBALL BLOCK – I am just putting mine on the inside to make the STAR POP.
OK – so that is my excitement for the day – I am LOVING THIS !!!! It was SO HARD for me to make my first scrappy quilt – but now it is my favorite. There are so many STORIES in this block – left over twosies and four patches from my Birth of a Sampler and blue and white Piece and Plenty quilts – bits and pieces from Thimbleberry and Moda BOM quilts and some from leftover fabric that I used to make quilts for my parents, brothers and grandangels too. There are 129 pieces in this ONE BLOCK and every fabric represents an sao memory – now that is what I call FUN!!!
I decided to make this into a MATH PROBLEM for my grandangels – so I asked them HOW LONG they thought it would take me to make this quilt if it took me 3 days to make one block. The conclusion – at least two months!!! 🙂 STAY TUNED!
129 pieces – oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh but you make my wee head spin round and round and round!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND you already have Bonnie’s new book, how incredibly cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To be able to look back on a single block and be immersed in such wondrous memories is simply magical, you ARE my hero!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love the block. What a great memory quilt that will be. I say you have it done by the end of February. I haven’t gotten my book yet.
WOW!!! Great job! I haven’t decided what to make first out of Bonnie’s block.
Great block, but even more, I like your enthusiasim! How could anyone not become an instant quilter after reading your blog?? Thanks for sharing!
I love that block. I’m not crazy about using the really small pieces but they look fabulous. It is sure tempting.
I LOVE your version of the block. I got Bonnie’s book yesterday and I’m still at the ‘drooling’ stage!!!!! I like how you’ve used the red for the star points because they really pop 🙂
I much prefer your version of the block. Did you finish the quilt? I would love to see it.