Lectures and Workshops

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Busy Town Quilt

When my kids were little (we're talking 15+ years ago) and we had our very first PC, they had a game with the Busy Town characters on it. I'm pretty sure the graphics and the animation were very primitive, but at the time it was quite extraordinary! They all loved that game, Steve would play for hours building roads.... I think Leigh Anne liked the bakery best. They sorted recyclables, collected trash... and all the while this crazy little song played in the background... I can hear it in my head even now. Yikes!

Anyways, I have a photo somewhere of friends of ours who came to visit often. Their daughter was our primo Ohio babysitter (she lives near us in Texas now!) and their son was probably about 14 at the time? Anyways, in the photo, he is sitting at our computer playing the Busy Town game and my kids are standing nearby, begging for a turn. I remember it like it was yesterday!

Well guess what? That teenage boy, now a grown man, and his wife are having their first baby in a couple of months! And when I heard there was new Busy Town fabric coming out, I pretty much stalked the Fat Quarter Shop until it was available. Seriously, I had ordered the fat quarter bundle within minutes of their adding it to the shop!

But here.s the deal. Busy Town fabric is pretty boyish. Lots of blues & greens. Lots of trucks & bulldozers. And, you guessed it, the baby is a girl. Well I pulled some oranges, purples & pinks out of the fabric, left out the most boyish vehicles and this is what I came up with...
I really love the layout, inspired by a couple quilts I spotted on Pinterest (much bigger & more elegant quilts! But I loved the layout). Here's a closer shot.... don't you remember the little Apple Car with Lowly worm inside?
So the top is done! I just need to put together a backing and ship it off to be quilted. What did you make today?

5 comments:

  1. Love it! Definitely girlie now with the purple and orange. Do you still have BusyTown on TV? It is showing again here in Australia and now my kids have been watching it.

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  2. No I have not heard of " Busy Town"
    Ellyn but I do love the quilt top.

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  3. Lovely quilt top Ellyn. What a great idea to change up the color scheme so it wouldn't be too boyish.

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  4. We loved everything Richard Scarry when my kids were little. I know I saved all the books since we read them daily. Love the quilt!

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  5. Hi Ellyn! Kathy sent Jon and I the link to the Busytown quilt story on your blog. Just wanted to let you know we are loving it. We use it for tummy time and it is the only flat surface Julia has rolled over on. We also get it out every night for story time before bed... this includes many Busytown books, and even some stuffed animals too. Thanks again -- it is already something so special and we know Julia will love it as she gets older.

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