In case you haven’t figured us out yet, we love anything that charms us or makes us chuckle. Emily’s newest book, Pixel Play (C&T Publishing, 2012) is a two-for-one tickle as we chuckle charmingly over her delightful kid-inspired pixelated quilts.
It’s not that Emily’s re-invented the wheel; pixel quilts have been around more than a century at least, and are more commonly known as “Postage-Stamp Quilts.” But, as with most of what Emily does, these quilts have her take on design. Strips where possible in place of all squares. Solid fabrics. Fun images. Flexible sizing and colors. And even though the cutting and piecing needed for these quilts require precision and accuracy, she’s already provided our quilting fail-safe in the patterns–an extra strip precut for mistakes and additional yardage just in case. Emily has also provided a TON of great tips for organizing your materials as you work your way through these patterns. And for quilts like these–precision and accuracy mandatory–being organized will be the difference to either making the quilt or breaking you!
We especially love the pirate quilt, Deception Cove (we’re still not over Johnny Depp!) and the Georgia O’Keefe-turns-mod quilt Zinnia. This book is worthy of your plunk-down. We promise.
Now, as Station 2 on Emily’s Pixel Play Blog Tour, we’ve got more to offer besides our highest praise. Yep. It’s GenQ Bribe Time.
Here’s what Emily is offering:
It’s a mystery! All winners get a copy of Pixel Play, but there are SEVEN different boxes (one for each stop along the tour). What will your box include? Maybe a Robert Kaufman color card? Or some Aurifil 50wt thread for piecing your pixelated world? Or maybe C&T Publishing’s Ultimate 3-in-1 Color Tool? Or maybe some Carolina Patchworks patterns? Every box will be a suprise — just like Christmas when you were a kid!
Here’s what WE’RE offering:
Issues 1 and 2 of GenQ in print (if you already have them, then share, People, share!) and three fat quarters from the GenQ closet.
All winners will be announced on Oct. 17. To enter, tell us what your favorite image/scene/memory/photo is that you’d put into pixels if you could? We’ll pick randomly, which usually means we have a GenQ Junior Editor close his or her eyes and point. Then we’ll email you and announce the winner here and on Facebook.
Open to U.S., Canadian and International winners. (International peeps: We’ll need your phone number for the shipping forms and please don’t comment “Anonymously.” After all, doncha want us to find you?!?) FRANTIC DISCLOSURE: Nothing will be sent out UNTIL AFTER QUILT MARKET. That means mid-November.
For more chances to win, check out the other stops along Pixel Play’s blog tour:
Schedule:
October 2 (Tuesday) — Pat Sloan
October 3 (Wednesday) — Generation Q Magazine
October 4 (Thursday) — Fat Quarter Shop
October 5 (Friday) — Jaybird Quilts
October 8 (Monday) — Robert Kaufman Fabrics
October 9 (Tuesday) — Blue Nickel Studios
October 10 (Wednesday) — Angela Walters
{ 171 comments… read them below or add one }
What a fun concept! I love the trend that I’ve been seeing of making pixel quilts based on 80′s era video game characters. (Especially a genius space invaders quilt!) I’d have to do some serious snooping with my brothers and husband though to make sure that I matched THEIR favourites before tackling something so finicky.
Thanks,
Sarah
What a fun concept! I love the trend that I’ve been seeing of making pixel quilts based on 80′s era video game characters. (Especially a genius space invaders quilt!) I’d have to do some serious snooping with my brothers and husband though to make sure that I matched THEIR favourites before tackling something so finicky.
Thanks,
Sarah
Ohhh I love all of this stuff! I actually plan to make a quilt like this of Stephen Fry. I found a photo online from when he was filming the UK TV series Kingdom and he’s holding a fish, I want to make that into a quilt and call it Fryed Fish. I’ve even thought that far ahead!
I’ve always wanted to do a pixelated photo of my kids. Thanks for the giveaway — this book looks so fun!
I grew up just a couple miles from Niagara Falls, and I really miss them. I’d love to pixellate them into a quilt!
Hot air balloons. Thanks for the giveaway!
I am not sure what I would make….but I am thinking it would be fun to do something from one of Nintendo’s Mario games……like the egg blowing dinosaur boss.
I would love to pixel my garden.
Shawn
I would put into pixels a scene from one of Grant Wood’s paintings of the Iowa countryside.
I have a picture of my daughter at the age of two sitting on our long-suffering black lab, JP. JP was a VERY LARGE lab (he could rest his head on the kitchen table without stretching), and we had had some concerns about how he would do when we brought Bonnie home from the hospital. We should have found better things to worry about. JP took one look at Bonnie, and decided that it was his job to watch over this funny looking hairless puppy.
And he did. He slept on the floor near her crib, sat on the floor by her high chair, and taught her proper puppy manners. And despite the many times Bonnie would sit on him like he was her own personal bean bag, he never did anything more than look at her and sigh.
Sadly, we had to have JP put down two years ago when his hips got so bad that he could barely walk, let alone navigate stairs. Bonnie still sleeps with his collar under his pillow “so she can dream about him”, and talks about what he must be doing in Dog Heaven.
I saw a pixel quilt at the quilt show in Jacksonville a couple weeks ago, and was impressed by how much detail you can get in one. One of these days I will take the time to convert this picture of Bonnie and “her” JP to a pixel quilt so she can wrap herself in her memories.
I would have our wedding photo pixelated
How about pixelated donuts and candy bars? You can see where I’m going with this. I haven’t had breakfast and am already thinking about snacks.
Love the giveaway. Hope I’m a lucky one.
It would be a pic of my kitty, Twinkles. Thanks!
i’d pixel my dggs who has the sparkling eyes and impish grin of his uncle and great uncle at that tender age. they were all real sweeties and still are today.
I too like the old video game characters. They were pixelated to begin with, so they look ‘natural’.
Haaving never thought of this before, I am totally stumped. But i’d probably settle for a beautiful scene from my home state Hawaii – maybe Diamond Head!
My husband has been wanting a “manly” quilt for a while. Maybe a baseball or hockey player. Or for me – a blue heron. They are fascinating birds and I think they look so elegant.
I’ve already pixeled up my gravatar photo, just need to piece it together!
I think I would either love to make a picture of my kid or some kind of video game character- his favorite thing.
I think I would like to try one with my cats. Thank you for the opportunity to win!
I would like to make a quilt from a closeup photo of an iris – reduced to pixels. If not that…. then pac-man which I began playing with the first desktop computers and later on the very first DOS IBM Personal Computer from IBM’s Boca Raton factory. Yes, I’m geeky that way.
I would love to make a pixel quilt. It would be of my 4 grandchildren together. I have a picture from Christmas that is super
I would love a pixelated quilt of a sunset or beach scene.
I would love a pixelated eye – specifically the iris and pupil.
I would do the pic I have of me and my 2 boys on a mt. taken in Utah. I love it…good memories! Thanks for the giveaway!
I would pixelate a photo of my childhood home. Thanks for the chance to win.
If I could put a photo into pixels, it would be one of my sons together. I sure do love my boyz!
I’d love to make a pixel quilt of my son and daughter when they were little fishing at the tank! Another fun, fun idea is to make a quilt using the Pacman and Miss Pacman! It was my favorite as a child!!
I would love to pixelate a picture I have of my son when he was 3 at the beach, standing in front of the waves with his arms stretched out wide, taking it all in.
I’d make a pixelated picture of my first cat, she was a faded tabby tortie.
I’m thinking maybe I’d like to pixelate a pic of my friend Jim, who is already something of a cartoon character at times! It would definitely serve him right!
Thanks for the chance at a cool prize box!!
I would pixillate Stonehenge. We visited there in 2006 and it’s probably the most wonderful, mystical places I’ve ever seen.
I live on a cattle ranch in a valley between two mountain ranges, so I think a view from my porch would look pretty cool!
I would have to pixelate some dinosaurs or some whales for my grandson. Love this giveaway!!
I would have to pixelate a photo of my husband’s truck, or his dream truck. I keep looking for it on fabric (it’s a classic) but have yet to find it! Never thought of this as an option!
I’m thinking some chickens would be cool
on my list of quilts to make is a pixelated Hello Kitty for my massage therapist. She is obsessed with Hello Kitty!
I would use the picture of my husband throwing our daughter in the air at the beach. The tide was out, so a very flat foreground, and the mountains looked really close that day. The colours were amazing that day and her purple fleece snowsuit would look awesome pixelated!
Great giveaway!
I’d like to pixelate some of my chickens!
This is so interesting! I’d like to do some monkeys with bananas–maybe one up in the branches of a tree and one swinging low.
I think it would be fun to make something to remember our trips to Kauai – maybe a hibiscus, or a sunset?
Love to win!
I love surprises if I should win.
What a fascinating book. I would love to pixelate a photo of my dog.
It would be fun to do a quilt with our wedding date and info on. Maybe the inviation. Today is our anniversary so the idea just popped into my head.
I have two dachshunds and I think this would be an AWESOME way to have them in quilt form, might even do it tiny and use it to cover them up at night. Yes, they have to have a blankie!
lisamcgriff@hotmail.com
Such a cool idea! I have one idea that I am keeping to myself because I might actually get it done – ha ha! I love Monica’s (HappyZombie) pixelated Ron Swanson quilt so much! I think a pixel quilt of the Atlanta Braves logo might be great for my son, too. Thanks for the chance to win!
A picture of my gran smiling at me would be wonderful but I am not sure I could get the detail. other favourite things include elephants, owls and chocolate cake. Thanks for the chance.
How fun! I would love to make a Mario quilt. I’ve seen a few around the internet and they look like so much fun! Thanks for the chance to win!
HI! I THINK BALLOONS WOULD BE SO FUN!
THANKS FOR SHARING!
I have a favorite picture of Yellowstone Nat’l Park with a moose eating in the lake. It is such a serene picture.
I think it’d be amazing to pixel a photo of our house!
How fun! I think if I want to do a seen off of a pretty christmas card as a pixilated quilt! Either that or be super nerdy and do the Tardis from Doctor Who series as a fun quilt for our rec room!
Thanks!
Kallie
Images. ..Super hero insignia quilt! Possibly a little boy’s dream. . .superman, ironman, batman, Wonder Woman. . .or maybe a learning quilt of countries’ flags. Something a little larger for the first attempt, than pixelized profiles of my two kids, maybe throw in Zapka our dog (3rd kid), I think that would make a gorgeous keepsake. Scuse me, gotta get my sketch book – thanks for the inspiration!
I’d like to make a Christmas tree into pixels.
Well, if I had the talent, I would love to pixelate a photos of my daughters. Given that my skill level might not be up to the task, I might pixelate our 2 pet bunnies. Thanks for the chance to win.
I’ll probably pixelate a sewing machine and other sewing notions.
I would Pixel ” Exit Glacier” in AK
thanks for your great giveaway
I would love to make pixelated quilt of my sisters and I!
I love video games especially old school video games. I have made several pixel quilts of my favorite games, but I haven’t made one from Maniac Mansion yet. It is sort of an obscure game from the 80s, but it was awesome and I played it A LOT. I would love to make a quilt from one of my favorite scenes.
I would probably do something Halloween related! Maybe Harry Potter too!
I would love to pixelate and piece a quilt of R2D2!
I would pixelate a rose because that is my favorite flower
I would pixelate a rose because it is my favorite flower…
I would pixelate a picture of each of my 5 children when they were young.
I’m picturing the Eiffel tower in pixels, surrounded by paper pieced blocks of cute cafes and boucheries. Maybe with the Moulin Rouge too.
I think I would pixelate my cat…a cute , large brown and white maine coon…
I’d pixelize a photo of the pig we had when I was a teenager. In the photo he is eating some fruit that had fallen off the plum tree, and he is smacking his lips and looks like he is laughing with joy! We’ve had quite a few pigs since then but I will always love Otis.
I would love to make a pixel quilt of my shelties, Mandy and Kolby! They are such beautiful dogs and I think that they’d make a beautiful quilt, too!
I want to pixelate my favorite cartoon character – Hello Kitty!
Thanks!
I have a great photo of my kids when they were little (2 redheads) in a pile of yellow, gold, brown and red leaves. My sister-in-law was going to do a watercolor of it, but I bet it would look amazing as a pixel quilt. I think I’m most excited to win the magazine because I haven’t been able to find it around here! Thanks for the amazing giveaway and have fun at Quilt Market.!
This sounds like a FUN book! Great giveaway and I hope I win. I’d like to pixel flowers, and landscapes, and clouds and robots. Wow. So many possibilities.
The major tourist attraction in my town is a giant fibreglass banana. I’d love to make a pixelated Big Banana quilt!
My kitties of course!
I think I’d pixelate the memory of going skiing every spring break when I was younger. Having grown up in Hawaii, the getaway was the opposite, snow!
Pixel quilts look like they would be lots of fun to make.
All of these goodies sound so fun!!! If I could, I would like to put the Eiffel Tower into pixels!
I am not quite sure, i have some really pretty pictures of the leaves changing up here where I live in Maine, those colors are stunning together.
Love the idea of pixel quilts. I would like to see a sunflower in pixels. I like there cheery color and free spirit.
wow love it would love to win
hugs chrissy o
xx
Oooo, I would have to pixelate the lagoon here (Nouméa, New Caledonia), the colours are so bright and I’ve been thinking about how to capture them all.
Campfires from summer camp…complete with marshmellows and Kum-ba-Yah!
I would love to make a construction site or a farm site, thanks for the great giveaway
I know I would love the Georgia O’Keefe quilt! I have created a couple of her paintings using fabric. Thanks for the chance to win!
There are so many images – I’d choose a photo I took in Fla. of a double rainbow at the beach. The range of colors was beautiful! It would be a challenge but your book would be a wonderful help.
The memory of holding my first granddaughter soon after birth would be the the moment, memory and the one thing I would love to put into pixels if I could.
Emily is good! I have her first book. I’d love to have her try an October forest and the changing trees. Something with wonderful color.
Looks like a really fun book!
I like the idea of flowers… just like on the cover!!
I think I would do flowers first.
I’d love to make a pixel quilt out of one of my pictures from family vacation in Hawaii. Such an amazing place and so many great memories there of spending time with my family–to have one of those moments captured in a quilt would help keep the memories alive even longer.
I would love to see a Fall Aspen grove picture from Colorado in pixels – just splendid. Thank you for this opportunity to win. Judy C
We just visited Niagara Falls this summer, and I think it would be interesting to try a pixel quilt of a waterfall. Thanks for a fun giveaway!
Maybe a flowering tree, like a magnolia or dogwood, with interesting shaped flowers.
I’d like to pixelate one of my daughter’s drawings from when she was little. Maybe some day she’ll have a little one I can give it to.
I live contests! The pixelated quilts are so awesome!
For myself I would pixelate a picture of my first cat, Katrina Louise (Kitty Lou for short). For my husband I would pixelate the New York Giants logo or a helmet or jersey – I think he’d get a kick out of that.
I’d love to see fall colors…maybe some tree scenes?
I love fall, I love the colors of leaves and I think I would put a fall leaf scene into pixels including reflections off a lake. What a lovely way to commemorate my favorite season.
The newer Star Wars fabric has a fighter scene on one of the fabric pieces. I wanted to pixellate a large version of that for my husband. That would be one quilt I would never get questioned about buying fabric for.
I would love to see my back yard in a pixel quilt, my garden this year rocked, tomatos,pepers, beans, berries!!
This seems like a really fun book! I would love to duplicate a favorite picture my son drew for me when he was 4. He’s 21 now. I would love to make a wall hanging of it.
I would pixelate a day from fall the lovely colors the lovely leaves and hills and valleys
this is an awesome win, and I love the book.
If I could pixelate my cabin surrounded by the beautiful reds, oranges and yellows of fall leaves. Gorgeous. Thanks.
What a neat concept! I would love to pixelate a photo of my children, it would be fun to find the perfect fabrics to bring the piece to life.
Thank you for the chance to enter
*hugs*
Tazzie
I think it would be fun to pixilate a photo of our house. Fun idea!
My favorite memory is when I first saw the Tahquamenon Falls in upper Michigan. To date, those are the biggest falls I have ever seen, and they are beautiful!
I think if I could, I would like a picture of all 7 of my kids in a pixel quilt! It would be tricky, but cool.
I would love to make one of Elmo and 123 Sesame Street for my granddaughters. Thanks for the chance to win. I really like the pirate map too!
What a very kewl book!!! How fun it would be to own this little bundle! thank you!
I would pixelate a picture of my daughter and grandson…. my only child and her only child…. wonderful gifts from God! Our grandson would love to see himself in a quilt…. how fun would that be! Great fun, thanks…. Collleen
I think one of my favorite memories is my daughter catching her first fish when we were camping. Great time being with parents and grandparents at the lake.
I think it would be fun to do a Pixel quilt of the tulips in Denmark, all of the colors, I went there as a kid and still remember it. Thanks for the chance to win, I live in Greece.
I would probably pixelate a barn scene.
I would love to pixelate Hello Kitty!! I would make my Goddaughter a quilt and of course myself. Thanks for the giveaway!
This concept opens up so many ideas. I want to learn more.
Thank you for sharing.
Loving these Pixel related quilts. Love the bright colors and designs. Wish I would have thought of this many years ago when we did my son’s room. Pixelville would have been perfect for his bed. Thanks for the chance!
I would like to put together a pixel project, highlighting our trip to the ocean and the redwoods.
This is a great idea! I think my choice would definitely include my grandbabies!
I have a few photos that would be interesting to enlarge and pixilate. I have to look for this book. Thanks!
Very cool! I would love a pixelated picture of some of our past Halloween get ups. I love the old school Mario pixel quilts too though. Bet my son would go gaga over one if I tried it. Many thanks!!!
Would love to see GenQ as I’ve never seen it & it sounds so interesting! What I would put into pixels is a picture of my grandparents under an apple blossom tree. Its simple beautiful & would make a lovely quilt of pinks, peaches & greens, with a bit of creams, blues & yellow!
Most definitely I would put a photo of the Chicago skyline into pixels if I could.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to win!
- Erin
I would pixelate a floral design.
This concept just makes me giggle. One could have so much fun. I would love to do our kitten Charlie. He is big and fluffy with a really big tail and would look really funny.
Thank you.
sandyb720 at gmail dot com
I would love to do a quilt of our organic veggies and berries garden, and the strawberries would be the star! Thanks.
I guess I would have wanted a horse on a pixel quilt. I loved them but we were city people and a horse was not in the cards.
I would pixelate my cat, Oliver.
Thanks for the giveaway!
Mine would have to be the view driving to Portland. I’m English and the original Portland is an island that you reach by driving along a road in the lee of an enormous shingle bank (Chesil Beach). There is part of my heart that is captured by the scene as you drive closer to the island. I’d like to see that pixellated and quilted. Makes me homesick every time I think about it
I love the idea of this book and I am intrigued by the mystery boxes!
I have a photo of my 5 girls, all wearing denim pants and different coloured plain t-shirts and the matching colour socks…that would be fun to have “pixeled”
Oh that is very hard – to pick just one. I think it would be cool to have my house, or my favorite photo of a Japanese garden.
I would like to do a pixel quilt of a giant sock monkey for my grandson. Oh and luv your magazine I share it with all my quilter friends.
My dogs would be great to try with this technique.
I love, love, love the pixel quilting! I would do moonlight over the ocean. Thanks for the entry.
I would use a memory of a colorful summer sunset over Lake Michigan to put into pixels.
I don’t know what I’d like to pixellate – maybe the book could give me some ideas? Thanks for the chance to win!
If I could put something in a pixel quilt, it would be a picture of my granddaughter. She’s so adorable and so has such a sweet smile!
My favorite place is a little trout fishing farm (Smith Trout Farm) off the backroads between Napa county and Sonoma county, calif. It is incredibly serene, and the owner is so sweet and kind. We’ve been going there probably for the last 15 years with our kids and friends.
I would love to do a sunset. The colours are so beautiful and I think pixelating it would allow a really nice blend of colours.
Thanks for the chance to win. I would like to pixellate an image of Chopper from the anime One Piece and make something for my son. He loves Chopper!
I would like to make a pixelated quilt of the photo of The Beatles that is on the cover of “Meet the Beatles”.
That would be so awesome!!!!!!!!
I would like to pixelize a caricature of me playing tennis.
fav scene(s)–my kids walking along the beach, playing in the pool, playing in the snow, playing with the dog–yep those are the things I’d pixelate!
I’d love to use a picture I took of St. Basil’s in Moscow. The onion domes are so pretty and colorful. I think it could be rather difficult to execute though!
I think I would love to see a quilt with sewing notions/tools in pixels. This includes the sewing machine, chair, table, but also things like a needle, thread, siccor etc.
Oh, how fun! I would do a pic of my Prissy (cat). She loves attention….Thanks for sharing…Judith, Texas
I would make princess peach.
My grandmother loved to collect elephants. I would like to take an elephant image and have it put into pixels. That would make a cute guilt for a child or a wall-hanging for me, depending on fabric choices. Someone in our modern quilt guild, just finished a cute pixelated Hello Kitty quilt for a niece.
a pic of aoraki (a mountain) in new zealand, from my honeymoon! gorgeous photo and such good memories!
I’d love to do an outback landscape, lots of red and orange for the ground, and a range of blues for the open sky.
I would pixelate the gazebo where DH and I were married. Thanks for the giveaway!
Love this! And who doesnt mind a bit of fabric bribery?!
A favourite photo to be immortalized in pixels would have to be one of my kidlets asleep – because don’t they look the sweetest then? Thanks for the giveaway!
I think I would do some flowers! this is great!
My daughter takes some really lovely photos, what fun it would be to make a quilt of one!!!!
I’d would love to do a pixel of my son Jake!
I would love to do a beach scene
I would love to try a mountain side in fall
I have a great picture of Yosemite Falls (in Yosemite National Park, CA) that would look great pixelated and on a quilt. I’ll have to look into how to make that a reality!
As soon as you mentioned Georgia O’Keefe’s Zinnia, an image popped into my head of her poppies painting and I’d absolutely love to see that pixelated.
What a neat book!!! I would like to make the Crazy Horse memorial as I think my husband would really like that.
I’d love to pixelate and sew my sweet black lab, Seamus!
Let’s pixelate a palm tree. I absolutely love palm trees… all of them. Thanks for the chance to win.
I’d like to do a pixelated quilt from one of the amazing photos that my husband took of the murals along Route 66. It would be a very special quilt for him.
I have so many that I’d love to do; it’s difficult to pick just one. I do have this fantastic photo from a little zoo on the California coast that I love. It’s of a funky, little house…not functional, but it’s always captured my imagination. I think it would translate wonderfully into pixels. Thanks for the giveaway!
I once saw a sunbow (rainbow all the way around the sun). That would make a great image.
I’d make a quilt of my favorite summer memory. The view of the lake from summer camp in Lake Wenatchee, WA I spent 13 summers there and it still lives close to my heart.
I would do one of 2 first….probably first the lake house (read tiny cottage) that my family owned for nearly 60 years that ended mid 80′s when it had to be sold and was demolished to build something big and hideous in its place. The other would be my sister’s house that she has just had to move out of b/c of structural issues. Though the ideas just keep coming to me as I think about it.
I’d pixel a sunset over Lake Michigan! Just love the idea and it really has a new twist to postage stamp quilts. Thank you!
I have an amazing picture of my Grand daughters sitting on one of my quilts!
Something to look like Legos for my granson
Pixelating is a very interesting concept. I would love to win the book and of course one of the boxes. Thanks so much.