I was needing a little color

One of my goals for something like the last three years has been to piece a Kim Diehl quilt.  I own every book she's published but just never found the right pattern at the right time to go with the right fabric, until now.

The quilt on the cover just caught my eye, it's Pie in the Sky.  A great pattern for my stack of Bonnie and Camille leftover fabric.

The pattern has 8 rows of 6 blocks, but I'm still in my square quilt phase so I went with 7 rows of 7 blocks.  

I ended up using a little over 100 different prints.  It was really fun mixing up the different families of fabric by Bonnie and Camille.  This is my favorite block, 

a little Happy Go Lucky, with a little Hello Darling and some Vintage Picnic,.

It's very rare for me to piece a quilt with no background fabric, but this pattern just suited me.

This is Lifetime Quilt Number 181

It finished at 76" x 76"

The pattern is Pie in the Sky by Kim Diehl from the Simple Graces Book.
I've named it Wild Child.

The fabric is all Bonnie and Camille for Moda

It has approximately 1,629 pieces.

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Simple Charm . . . . .

I missed the Kim Diehl Simple Charm book tour!  Did you miss it too?  I just love book tours, a chance to win a book, to see all the neat projects in a new book, there's no downside to a good book tour.

So this book, Simple Charm, by Kim Diehl was released in May and somehow I just now lucked into knowing about it.  I have all of Kim's other books in my bookshelf with pages and pages marked with post-its of the quilts I want to make.  Now that I enjoy appliqué I'm guessing there are even more.

So in case you missed the book tour too, (maybe there wasn't even book tour?) I thought I would share a few patterns from the book.

There are 13 projects in the book and I love them all, even the cattywampus cat.  I picked my most two favorite pieced and two favorite appliqué projects to blog about today.

First up Four and Twenty Blackbirds.

This is a deceptively big quilt, it measures 72" x 72"!  It doesn't look that big in the picture, aren't pictures deceiving sometimes?  What's not deceiving is this quilt's cuteness.  

I love pie, so naturally I love this pie block but I really love those points in the border.

Like they are so big they just have to pop into the next row of fabric, they just can't help themselves.  Sort of like me after eating pie, I just have to pop into a bigger pair of pants, I can't help myself.

This is Spice Pantry.

The colors are great, but I think this pattern would look great in any assortment of colors and prints.

This project is 55" x 64", it looks bigger to me but I like this size.

Next up, Fresh Cut Flowers.

I like the simplicity of this pattern.  But what I like even more are the yo-yos in those flower buds!

How cute is that, and I know how to make yo-yos,  believe me do I ever!

And finally, Short and Sweet.

This project finishes at 33" x 33".  It looks bigger to me!

All the projects deserve a mention but here's a nice shot of a little bit of all the projects.

If you like this style of quilts, you will love this book.  I bought mine from Amazon.

For the record Kim Diehl and I have never met, I have never received an email or postcard from Kim Diehl.  If I showed up on her doorstep she would not open the door, I am a stranger to Kim Diehl.  (OK so maybe Kim Diehl is the sort of person who opens her doors to strangers, maybe I would get in, but not because I blogged about her books!)

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