Paper Piecing Design Challenge!

Image from HP Paper Piecing

Announcing, Beedle The Bard Paper Piecing Design Challenge! This is for Harry Potter fans who love to quilt. Contest starts May 20 and is being hosted by HP Paper Piecing (HP = Harry Potter).

Challenge description:

Design one new Harry Potter-themed paper pieced pattern using the stories from Beedle The Bard as your inspiration! The pattern needs to fit on one piece of 8 1/2? x 11? paper for easy printing. I find that 7? x 10? works well for a 5? pattern, which makes it easier for our International quilters to print. Anything beyond that tends to get cropped when printed.

You have until June 23rd, so get out your paper and start drawing. Go here for more information.

Via Sew Hooked

Are you hosting a Harry Potter party? Check out these DIY Harry Potter crafts on Craftbits.com that we made and take a look at them in our very own Harry Potter Party we hosted. We also created these Harry Potter cupcakes and share the tutorial here. Check out the Harry Potter Cookbook too for fun party food.

If you are looking for Harry Potter gifts check out these on Etsy.

As if Diwali weren’t colorful and fun enough, The Festival of Lights: A Lift-the-flap Diwali Celebration by Namita Moolani Mehra, illustrated by Darshika Varm, makes it even more fun to read about with flaps and things to lift and pull to see more information or details in the illustrations.

The book is a story about a family getting ready for Diwali and what happens on the different days of the five-day celebration. There’s cleaning, shopping, crafting, food preparation and getting the home altar ready for the big day.

It covers decorating the outside of the house with rangoli, diyas and lanterns, buying sweets to share with family and friends, the sights and scents of the mandir (home temple), getting dressed up in new fancy clothes, the story of Diwali and celebrations with relatives.

Flaps (there are more than 140 in all) give you vocabulary words for different foods and definitions, as well as fun things like what’s inside the shopping basket or where the cat is hanging out. They also help illuminate the story of Diwali, which is the triumph of good over evil as Lord Ram defeated the demon Ravana to save his wife, Sita.

This pretty and colorful book helps kids understand what Diwali is and how it is celebrated, regardless of whether they practice it at home. This would be a nice book to keep in a classroom (it’s rated for kids ages 3-7) or to have at home to teach kids about Diwali even if it’s not something you celebrate. Where I live there are a lot of people from India so we are probably exposed to Diwali more than some other regions of America, but it’s a nice holiday to know about wherever you live.

Combine with the book Diwali and check out some fun lantern crafts and printables for kids to round out your experience.

About the book: 24 pages, hardcover, published 2025 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail prices $22.99.

Have you read?