Little Kingdom – Anja’s quilt

Today I would like to tell you about the the very first Little Kingdom quilt I made and why it is so special to me.

As long as I can remember, I have needed to make things. And recently, my main obsession has been quilting. I just love everything about the process and there is nothing sweeter than cuddling with a hand made quilt. And because I always find it hard to follow instructions when it comes to the creative process, I have started to stitch my own designs.

Well, I have to admit: the first seed for my Little Kingdom pattern came from someone else. When I first saw Lindsey’s (aka Pen+Paper Patterns) Tiny Town quilt (get the pattern here), I instantly fell in love. I mean, look at this adorable neighbourhood!

But as much as I liked the original version, somehow I thought: “What if I replaced the houses and bungalows with castles and watchtowers to make it a fairy tale themed quilt?” And after a surprisingly quick session with pen and graph paper, I knew what I wanted those two blocks to look like. And soon after I had my first test blocks sewn up.

I was sooo excited to share my idea with Lindsey and completely blown away by the response my first blocks got on Instagram! The decision to write my first quilt pattern could not have been easier! 🙂

I decided that the quilt was going to be for my daughter Anja and although she’s only one, I didn’t want to make yet another baby quilt but went for a twin size. With the instructions of the Tiny Town quilt pattern, you can make a large throw measuring 62 1/2″ x 70 1/2″. For Anja’s quilt I stuck to the random placement of the different blocks and the width of the original pattern, but added a row to make it just about long enough for a twin bed, 62 1/2″ x 80”. And as I didn’t want my quilt to be as densely populated as the original neighbourhood (I prefer a peaceful kingdom with enough space for everyone), I nearly doubled the number of trees and flowers and limited the number of castles and towers to one of each per row. I made four sets of towers and castles, two of each being identical, and I find that they look equally great with light and dark fabrics!

Once the quilt top was completed, I decided to quilt wavy lines. I marked all my lines as I find that I can’t otherwise get gentle swings without abrupt changes in direction.

And I think the result speaks for itself!

I went for a solid navy binding and added this special quilt label. (Update: A pattern for the foundation paper pieced crown is now available in my shop.)

Can’t wait to see Anja snuggle with this quilt once she outgrows her crib!

At least she can already cuddle with this matching unicorn which I couldn’t resist making along with the quilt!

I essentially copied a very similar unicorn that I had found on Pinterest. The design is by Nata Patterns (the link lead to an expired Etsy listing but there are many more adorable creatures and patterns to be found). I’m so happy with how it turned out! 💛

Anyway, this quilt marks the beginning of my journey as a quilt pattern designer. Or trying to become one. 😀 We’ll see how this adventure goes!