Gingerbread Men Shenanigans

Hello Friends!  Happy Monday, and Happy Week to you!  I hope you are well.

A nice weekend for me always involves a little bit a handwork.  Here is one that I am currently working on – using Aurifil cotton embroidery floss.  If you are curious about this project — check out my Instagram feed under handle ivory_spring!  It is a fun little stitch-along I am doing with famed quilt designer Susan Ache!

I am also very happy to show you the last gingerbread man block I made for my for-sale pattern You Can’t Catch Me!

Click HERE to purchase the pattern pdf download.

I have made all 24 gingerbread man blocks — and here is the 24th block!

And here is the entire line-up!  You will notice almost most of the browns I used aren’t Christmas-related.  Point is, these gingerbread man blocks will work with ANY brown, tan, or orange fabrics you have in your stash.  So often, the brown stash isn’t considered for main fabrics for quilt blocks — the gingerbread man blocks are for your browns, tans and orange to shine!

So —- here are a few tips to make your quilt even more personalized if you are making it!

1.  Notice that all 24 blocks use 24 different brown/tan/orange fabrics.  You can certainly do that, or you can use 12 FQs to cut for (2) blocks each.
2.  Instead of using the same background as stated in the pattern, I decided I wanted to make my quilt as scrappy as I can.  So, I actually use 24 different fabrics for the background.  You can easily do that by just cutting what you need for each block from each fabric.  So for my 24 blocks, I used 48 different fabrics – how’s that for scrappy?
3. I found it much easier to keep track of things grouping the pieces according to the head, arm and leg sections.

4.  The blocks go really quickly — EXCEPT you need to pay attention to the pieces for the leg sections.  You make the leg sections mirror-imaging each other!   Ask me how I know. :)

You might find it helpful to jot down what pieces go where on this bonus block diagram.  Download the block pdf HERE.

5.  And who says you have to make all the blocks suggested in the pattern?  Make fewer blocks to make a wallhanging or tabletopper!

I look forward to seeing your version of You Can’t Catch Me!

Now it’s time for me to teach the gingerbread men to get along by making the heart blocks!

Visit my etsy shop HERE.  Thread collections always ship free.

Follow me on Instagram HERE.

And — Karen Miller and I are having our second Free Motion Quilting Retreat this year in Hamilton, MO!  Click HERE for details!