Friday, January 31, 2020

Let's Get Scrappy - January Island Batik Challenge

I am super excited to be an ambassador for Island Batik again in 2020!
On Monday I showed off all the goodies Island Batik and their partners sent me to work with and today I want to show you my first finished Island Batik Quilt of 2020.


The January challenge of 2020 is "Let's Get Scrappy".
Good thing there is 31 days this month.
I worked on this a little bit at a time all month and put the last stitch in the binding last night.


I love scrappy quilts and definitely have lots of Island Batik scraps to play with.  When I first saw the theme, I was envisioning a rainbow of scrappiness for this project with some possible stars or paper pieced diamonds and then....



I came across these cute little turtles Turtle Tots by Southwind Designs at the Loving Stitches quilt shop in Fayetteville, NC! The shop had the table runner version hanging on their wall and I immediately wanted to have the pattern.  I asked one of the ladies who worked there and she showed me a whole display of  Southwind Design patterns, but they didn't have the Turtle Tots in stock.  Ack!  I did end buying two others though.



When I got home I went to the SouthWind Design website and luckily they had the Turtle Tots pattern in stock, so I got the pattern!



These little guys are perfect for small scraps.



I cut the shell pieces from a left over 2.5 strip but you can also cut them from charm square scraps.




The head and legs also came from a left over 2.5 inch strip.

 

The pattern calls for 5 Turtle Tots, but I made six and altered the layout a bit to get the 6th one to fit.


What I really like about this pattern is that it has curves without having to sew curves. The process is similar to making a Cathedral Windows quilt by folding the fabric back on the bias to create the curve and stitching that down.


I used left over scraps form some Island Batik strip sets to make the water sections as well and I quilted it using White and Teal 50wt Aurifil Thread from their color builder collections.



The quilt measures approximately 50 x 40.



The only thing that wasn't scrappy was the white background.  For that I used Island Batik Neutral called Sprinkles.  It looks white far a way, but when you get a little closer you can see light gray dotted swirls.  It is one of my favorite neutrals!


I hope you enjoyed seeing my scrappy Turtle Tots and if you want to make some for your own or just want to see what other curvy patterns they have check out Southwind Designs they has some cute curved patterns.

And check out Island Batik and Aurfil websites. They are so colorful and full of inspiration.



=^..^=






Monday, January 27, 2020

Island Batik Ambassador for 2020!

Hey all,  I am excited to officially announce I get to be an Island Batik Ambassador again for 2020!



My fellow ambassadors have been showing off all the wonderful fabrics and tools they get to play with this year and today is my turn to show off what came in my Island Batik Box. Check it out.  These Fabrics will be used for projects for the first half of the year.




Stay tuned later this week I will show off my first project using some Island Batik Scraps.

And follow along with the other ambassadors this year to be inspired with all things Island Batik!




Carolina Asmussen ~ Carolina Asmussen Designs
Megan Best ~ Best Quilter
Pamela Boatright ~ Pamelaquilts
Jennifer Fulton ~ The Inquiring Quilter
Vasudha Govindan ~ Storied Quilts

Joanne Hart ~ Unicorn Harts
Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania For Quilts
Carla Henton ~ Creatin’ in the Sticks
Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs
Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood

Denise Looney ~ For The Love Of Geese
Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights
Sally Manke ~ Sally Manke, Fiber Artist
Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack Made Mine
Carol Moellers ~ Carol Moellers Designs

Gail Renna ~ Quilt Haven Threads
Sharon Riley ~ Sew Riley Designs
Michelle Roberts ~ Creative Blonde
Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail
Jennifer Strauser ~ Dizzy Quilter

Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations
Alison Vermilya ~ Little Bunny Quilts
Sandra Walker ~ mmm! quilts
Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt
Janet Yamamoto ~ Whispers of Yore


Happy Quilting!


=^..^=

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

The Winter Blues Blog Hop


Welcome to day two of the Winter Blues Blog Hop hosted by Carla of Creatin in the Sticks. For the next few days you can fight off those winter blues by hopping from blog to blog viewing some fantastic blue creations.


Today I am showing off my dutchman's puzzle quilt top done in blues and white.

For the flying geese in each block I used leftover 2.5 inch strips from an older Island Batik strip set and I used solid white Island Batik fabric for the background.


Leftover strips are perfect for making flying geese and this little quilt has 72 of them.

  Each block is made up of 8 flying geese. I sewed them together in sets of 4 and they actually sewed up pretty quick.  The quilt top finished out around 41 inch square.

Now I just need to quilt it up and it will be on its way to a sweet little boy.

Make sure to check out the other hoppers today to see what they came up with to fight off the winter blues.

Tuesday, January 21st