Mushroom Quilt Block
What's your favourite thing to spot on a woodland walk? I have to say I love mushrooms. Not on my plate, mind you, but I love spotting them in the forest. Some are hidden under rotting tree trunks, and others stand tall and proud in the middle of the walkway.
And now, some will be popping up in our sewing rooms ;-)
This month's quilt blocks are mushrooms, as we're taking a woodland walk with Quilt Block Mania.
I loved this prompt so much that I actually designed two mushroom quilt blocks. The first one is a beginner-friendly one with just a single large mushroom, and is available here.
And the second one is for slightly more advanced paper piecers and includes a little trio of mushroom. The Woodland Shrooms block is available in the pattern shop right here.
Fabric Inspiration
I used Kona solids in a red and tan for my sample of the Mushroom block, and decided to go for prints that imitate the white dots on fly agaric mushrooms for the Woodland Shrooms sample. I love how it turned out with the prints, since those are not normally colours I have a lot of in my stash and I had to do a bit of digging to find something suitable.
If you don't want to use prints, I also love the idea of using some big stitch embroidery on the mushroom caps if you're going for the same look.
And of course, no need to stick to reality here. You could go with all sorts of funky fabric prints, from polka dots to plaid to stars, in whatever colour strikes your fancy (the movie Trolls comes to mind).
Did you know?
When I was looking for colour inspiration for my samples, I came across this interesting little tidbit: The name toadstool is usually used to refer to fungi with a stem and cap, or to those that are poisonous. The word Mushroom is generally used for the edible kind. Although that's very generalized and a loose definition, as there isn't any biological difference between toadstools and mushrooms.
Foundation paper piecing
Both the Mushroom and Woodland Shrooms quilt blocks are foundation paper pieced. The patterns themselves don't explain the technique, though, so if you're new to foundation paper piecing and want to give it a go, I wrote an FPP tutorial for the Clover blog to help you get started with this fun technique. The tutorial has photos for the visual learners and comes with a free, simple pine tree block to make as your first project.
If you've done FPP in the past but want to gain a little more quilty confidence, I have a few patterns in the shop that make perfect starter blocks to warm up with before diving into some of the more complicated blocks. Check out the Twisted Log Cabin, Popsicle, and Ice Cream Bar blocks to dip your toes in, or the Festive Forest table runner. And the Mushroom quilt block is itself a good starter for the Woodland Shrooms, too.
Resizing the quilt block
The pattern includes full size templates for a 12" x 12" quilt block. If you need smaller or larger Mushrooms for your project, you're in luck because it's super easy to resize a paper pieced quilt block. Just pop over to this blog post where I teach you how to easily change the size of an FPP quilt block on your own printer or on a photocopier.
Get the Woodland Shrooms and Mushroom quilt blocks
The Woodland Shrooms and Mushroom quilt blocks are available in the pattern shop.
*Quilt Block Mania blocks are free to download for the duration of the month they were designed for. After that, they are available in the pattern shop.
Don't forget to check out all the other Woodland blocks this month and join us in the Facebook group!
Owl by Carolina Moore
Silent Witness by Inquiring Quilter
Forest by Inflorescense Designs
Forest Tree by Scrap Dash
Bear Paw by Epida Studio
Snowy Forest by QuiltFabrication
The Grove by Patti's Patchwork
Mushroom by Penny Spool Quilts
Reindeer by Crafty Staci
Christmas Tree Farm
Enchanted Forest by Sew Worthy Mama
Wolves by Paleofish Designs
Fat Bear Week by Sallys Sewing Circle
Chipmunk by Katie Mae Quilts
Fox by Appliques and More
Heart of Oak by Flowerdog+Co
Snowman by Colette Belt Designs
Mountain Forest by Oh Kaye Quilting
Starry Sky by Patchwork Breeze