Wednesday, November 20, 2019

A Piece of ... Island Batik Blog Hop



Today is the last day of the "A Piece of ..." blog hop, hosted by Island Batik fabrics, and I am excited to show off my creation.


 The hop has been showcasing the new Island Batik fabric lines that will be hitting quilt shops now and in the next couple months.



I was sent the Tweet collection earlier this year and of course that made me want to sew something  bird related.


I also wanted a pattern that would show off as many of the the 32 different fabrics I was sent.



I went with the Arctic Feathers pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.  She also has a brand new pattern called Pretty Birds that I am want to use my left over Tweet fabric with.  I want to make the full version of Pretty Birds which requires 40 different fabrics, so I will have to supplement some Island Batik Basics to go with my Tweets.  Look for that project near the beginning of 2020.



For the pieces of these feathers, I used all the fabric I was sent except for four of the blacks.
One of the blacks I used for binding and the last three will have to go in another project in the future.


  For the background I used the solid gray which was also sent in the Ambassador boxes that came this year.  I had been waiting for the right project to use this solid gray batik and these feathers were perfect. The gray is just right for the dark prints and perfect for the light prints too.  It blends well with all the different colors.



I quilted it using Aurifil 50wt grey thread. 
I used this thread on my last ambassador project as well.
It runs super smooth in my machine.



I also love how the thread has a tiny shine to it.  Not super shiny like embroidery thread, but just enough to make the quilting look fabulous.



For the batting I used the Hobbs Heirloom Premium 80/20 Bleached Cotton Blend Batting that came in my Ambassador box.  It is good for white or very light colored fabrics to keep them nice and bright. A lot of the Tweet fabrics are already bright or darker, but I wanted to make sure the light grey background and the lighter yellows would stay nice and bright.

Make sure to check out  Jennifer Thomas today as well. She will also be showing off her Tweet project.  And if you missed any of the others check them out below.  They have all shown off some fantastic quits the past two weeks!




Monday, November 4:


Tuesday, November 5:


Wednesday, November 6:


Thursday, November 7:


Monday, November 11:


Tuesday, November 12:


Wednesday, November 13:


Thursday, November 14:

Monday, November 18:


Tuesday, November 19:


Wednesday, November 20:



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Posted by at 12:05 AM 16 comments
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Friday, November 15, 2019

Stitch It Gift It Blog Hop

I am happy to be rounding out the Stitch It, Gift It Blog Hop hosted by Carla of Creatin' in the Sticks.
I have two quilty gifts I have been working on. Both of them are Holiday quilts.  The first one you may have already seen as it was part of the Halloween Blog Hop of 2018, but it was only a top then.


It is the Halloween One Block Wonder I had been working on.  I had fully intended to keep this quilt for myself, but as I was posting photos about this on Instagram, my brother kept making comments about how much he liked it.

 Usually he will comment one time, but this time he mentioned several times that he really liked it.  So I decided it needed to live with him when it got quilted.

This was the first one block wonder quilt I had made with a panel and I didn't want to loose any of the picture, so I bordered it in black then surrounded it with the hexagons.
I love this panel so much and knew I would really miss it when I finally sent it off, but I also felt it belonged in Washington state with my brother.  

A couple weeks after I made the decision to let it go I saw the same panels on sale at 50% off.  I figured that was sign and bought 7 more panels to make another one for myself.  

I was hoping to have my brother's version quilted and ready to go by Halloween this year, but as most UFO's do it hovered around a little longer than I anticipated.  But it is done now and ready to go.  He is expecting it and is excited to have it ready for next Halloween.


My version above omitted the black border and I ended up trimming the panel a little on the sides. Mine needs a small top and bottom border and some quilting and then it will be done. Both of these Hallowen One Block Wonders are on my 4th Quarter Finish-A-long list so the goal is to finish mine by the end of the year.



One thing I like about these two quilts is that when mine is finished, there will be two similar versions of this quilt, one on each side of the country. When I look at mine, I will think of my brother and when he looks at his, he will think of me.  Two quilts connected across America through Halloween stitches and sibling love.  What could be better than that.




The next quilty gift I am working on is a Christmas Quilt.  Yep, I am one of those people who go from Halloween right to Christmas.  I love getting all the red, green and gold out.


I have four siblings and have made a Christmas quilt for all of them but one. My oldest sister has yet to have receive a festive quilt from me for the Holidays.  So this year it is her turn.


Since my sister lives across the country, also in Washington state, I don't always get to see her Christmas decorations. For her quilt I was debating on going with aqua, red and green, or traditional red and green, but wasn't sure which one would fit her current style, so I decided to go right to the source and ask. Traditional red and green won out.


I used some red 2.5 inch strips from a pre-cut I had and some greens from a fat quarter bundle I had been holding on to.


For the pattern I wanted to do something with with Trees.  My Sister lives in the Pacific Northwest right on the edge of the forest with lovely tall trees surrounding her.

These trees aren't necessarily the Douglas Firs or Western Hemlocks of the area, but with a little imagination they might could pass for them.  The original pattern comes from a book called Make Room for Christmas by Nancy J. Martin.


This one is still a flimsy.  My original plan was to do a small lap version, but my husband convinced me to go big this time.  He mentioned she couldn't cuddle with her hubby at Christmas time under a small quilt.  So I made more red and white blocks and more trees.



 Since this will be her first Christmas quilt from me I want to do a little custom quilting and make it fancy.  Since I spent a little extra time on the piecing I didn't have the time I wanted to quilt it like I want in time for the hop. 


But the backing is sewn together and batting is picked out and the plan is to have this quilted and mailed after Thanksgiving.



This has been a fun hop that inspired me to get my gifts finished and it has been fun to see other gift inspiration, from from large to small, from all the other bloggers. There is something to inspire everyone.  

Make sure to check out all the other posts.   If you missed any here is the full list of all the hoppers.  Make sure to visit their site and see what inspiration they may have for you.


Stitch It and Gift It Blog Hop Schedule





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Posted by at 12:01 AM 33 comments
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