Penny finished sewing her Black Susan block this afternoon, the second and final block to accompany the Little House in the Big Woods book.  We are a couple of chapters into Little House on the Prairie and will be back with more blocks when we are done reading it.  There has been some controversy within our house over the order of the books in the Little House series.  The books that I have from my childhood list Farmer Boy after Little House on the Prairie.  The new set that Penny got for Christmas, lists Farmer Boy first.  We decided that it doesn’t really matter because Farmer Boy stands on its own anyway.  So we are readying Little House on the Prairie next to keep going in the same order that I read the books with Lily.  If you are sewing along, do what works for you!

We didn’t have a lot of black fabric in the house so we decided to use this more loosely woven black fabric.  It reminded me to mention that it’s so much easier to keep to tightly woven quilting cottons when you are sewing with kids.  They stretch more and can be more frustrating for the beginner sewist.  Also, always check how much fabric you have before your child gets her heart set on it!  Penny chose this butterfly print from Lizzy House and then we realized that I only had a 12 1/2″ high piece and it needs to be 14 1/2″.  We couldn’t make the butterflies sideways so we pieced the strips.  She was happy with that solution because she really wanted to use the purple.  We also talked a little about fabric selection. She really wanted this block to be purple but I pointed out that it would be next to her red and aqua log cabin block in her quilt top. I suggested looking for a print that was purple but had a touch of one of those colors to help make it work.

Please remember that all the block tutorials and information about this sew along can be found by clicking on the Little House on the Prairie Sew Along link in the header of my blog.