Retro Kitchen

Sometimes I think I've spent at least a third of my life in the kitchen. When I was a little girl, I loved watching my parents prepare meals for us, and they passed on everything they knew to my sister and I. "There's not a bad cook in the family," my dad always says proudly, and he's right. Even my husband loves to make his own pasta and sourdough bread from scratch when he has the time. Now that my three girls are no longer babies, they want to be part of the action too. I love seeing them standing on stools at the counter making lemon bread with Nana or juicing oranges with Daddy, and I tell them often that I look forward to teaching them how to cook when they get older. I have always found tremendous pleasure in creating food that others will enjoy, and all my hours in the kitchen over the years -- except perhaps those spent doing dishes -- have been happy ones.

Out of that comes this mini quilt: Retro Kitchen. When I started working with two packs of Hello Luscious charm squares a few weeks back, I was taken with the perfect retro vibe of the prints. Having seen so many incredible examples of intricate piecing online, I wondered if it would be possible to piece together a kitchen. With a lot of trial and error, this kitchen was born. The quilt is 23.5 by 16.25 inches in size. The basic blocks of the kitchen are pieced, and the details were attached by applique. There is also a small amount of embroidery in here too.

I tried to allow the prints themselves to suggest some of the objects in the kitchen like the clock, plant, and teapot (I just had to feature one of these cute little hearts on something).  Only a few extra prints were added to create this; it's almost entirely made from the charm squares. I really wanted to include the radio also since I've always loved listening to music while I cook.

The cake and cookbooks are a nod to my love of baking. Just seeing that layer cake makes me crave a slice!

My husband suggested putting the branch with the little bird in the window. I love the sheen of the solid prints in this fabric line; they worked well for the main window as well as the appliance windows and refrigerator. And I could not resist putting a little mini quilt on the wall above the window.

This quilt was such a joy to make. I'm thrilled to submit it to the Ellison Lane Quilts Modern Mini Challenge.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday, Sew and Tell Friday, and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.