Remember the Little Golden Book series?  Whenever I see one it brings me right back to sewing class with Winky Cherry.  Why?  I have no idea.  I advanced quickly through the Winky Cherry system- I made stuffies, embroidered pillows, and was soon put to task quilting a fabric panel.

I was staying at my father’s house while working on the panel, and he was not the crafty type.  I remember that everything was going well until I had a thread issue.  Something happened with the thread and I was stuck.  The class had finished and I was working on completing the project myself.  I had no one to go to.  Crap.  I remember hiding the quilt in my closet and hoping that it would just go away.

I found solace in “Mister Dog: The Dog Who Belonged to Himself” by Margaret Wise Brown.  I felt a lot like Crispin’s Crispian- on my own and belonging to myself.

I have never forgotten that early sewing failure and have always wanted to redeem myself.  I found an amazing kit on ebay with sashing around storybook panels.  While they are not Little Golden Book illustrations, they are very evocative of them and I feel that by completing this Storybook Quilt, it will help to eliminate the demon of the failed “quilt in the closet.”

I began the quilt tonight and am completely enchanted by the storybook fabric.  Here is the initial layout with the first layer of borders:

My favorite panel is a rather trippy Mondrianesque picture with Scotty dogs.  Check it out:

I can’t wait to finish this one!