For the past few weeks Island Batik Ambassadors have been showing off their nature inspired creations using the new fabric lines coming out from Island Batik.
I got to play with Tropicana Twist designed by Kathy Engle.
These beauties should be hitting your shops in December.
These beauties should be hitting your shops in December.
This fabric line reminded me of big bright flowers and tropical beaches. I could see yellow and orange tropical flowers with an array of green leaves, and of course the blues of the ocean.
It is bright and colorful, right up my alley.
My design started out with a simple drawing with a lot of two and half inch strips.
But as I played around with layout designs in EQ8 I finally settled on this one.
My kids said it looks like a background you would see in Bikini Bottom, the home of SpongeBob Square Pants.
The flowers were paper pieced. Same for the small leaves, well if you want to call them leaves.
When I sketched it out it looked like a leaf, but when I sewed it up it looked more like an asterisk. Either way I was already committed so I sewed up 26 of those little asterisk leaves.
I was taking my time in the beginning of the month paper piecing everything, enjoying the process, and watching the flowers and leaves develop one piece at a time.
But, the the end of the month was coming closer and I still had a lot of little leaves and a few more flowers to sew. I timed myself and it took me 20 minutes to sew just one small leaf.
It was definitely time to start chain piecing. I took some time to cut out all the pieces I needed and put them in order to sew. I sewed all of piece one and then moved on to the next numbered piece. It actually shaved off lots time this way. When I chained pieced 14 leaves at once it only took 3 hours. I saved myself about an hour and a half.
As I was sewing them, I realized how practical it was for Henry Ford to come up with the assembly line for production. Sew a piece on all 14, iron all 14, prep for the next piece on all 14, sew the next piece.... Repeat. I didn't realize how much time is used picking up and putting down the rotary cutter each time for each individual piece. If you keep the rotary cutter in your had and cut all 14 at once, you have saved time, and when you are trying to beat the clock, every second counts.
And of course I used some Hobbs Natural Cotton Batting. It is some good stuff.
And I don't get far without my Schmetz Needles. They are my go to needle for everything. I am still using the microtex needles for these Island Batik projects. They stitch up batiks super nice.
This is a fun quilt lap size quilt. It measures 48 x 56.
Make sure to visit Vasudha Govindan of Storied Quilts.
Today she is also showing off her creation using the Tropicana Twist Fabric Line.
Today she is also showing off her creation using the Tropicana Twist Fabric Line.
And stop by the Island Batik blog for a chance to win these fabulous Island Batik Bundles.
And if you missed any days, make sure to go back and see all the wonderful creations made by my fellow Island Batik Ambassadors as they were inspired by nature with these fabulous fabric collections.
November 9:
Carla Henton, Creatin’ in the Sticks
Jennifer Fulton, Inquiring Quilter
November 10:
Carolina Asmussen, Carolina Asmussen Designs
Denise Looney, For the Love of Geese
November 11:
Janet Yamamoto, Whispers of Yore
Alison Vermilya, Little Bunny Quilts
November 12:
Megan Best, Bestquilter
Jennifer Strauser, Dizzy Quilter
November 16:
Joanne Hart, Unicornharts
Maryellen McAuliffe, Mary Mack Made Mine
Jennifer Thomas, Curlicue Creations
November 17:
Gail Sheppard, Quilting Gail
Mania Hatziioannidi, Mania for Quilts
November 18:
Sharon Riley, Sew Riley Designs
Sandra Walker, mmm! quilts
November 19:
Carol Moellers, Carol Moellers Designs
Emily Leachman, The Darling Dogwood
November 23:
Connie Kauffman, Kauffman Designs
Suzy Webster, Websterquilt
November 24:
Pamela Boatright, PamelaQuilts
Michelle Roberts, Creative Blonde
November 25:
Vasudha Govindan, Storied Quilts
Leah Malasky, Quilted Delights
November 26:
Sally Manke, Sally Manke Fiber Artist
Gail Renna, Quilt Haven Threads
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I love these fabrics and your quilt! So fun that your kids thought of Sponge Bob when they saw it. ☺
ReplyDeleteVery cheerful quilt! I love the batting used, also. It is my “go to” batting.
ReplyDeletewow this is gorgeous. I love how the flowers and leaves are offset. Thank you so much for inspiring. I can see a table runner with these. I really like your leaves. Even leaves on the same tree are not all the same. So these are perfect. I love paper piecing also. Right now I am making a table runner for our son and daughter in law. It is Nefler, Bowtruckle and the suitcase from Fantastic beasts. quilting dash lady at comcast dot net
ReplyDeletePretty tropical flower quilt.
ReplyDeleteSo pretty! What a great use of all the great colors in this line. I think your leaf looks very tropical. I typically really like assembly line style piecing but I have not been able to use that method for paper piecing. Could be that I don't do a lot of paper piecing and am just not super comfortable with it. Love this!
ReplyDeleteThis is just delightful! And thanks for sharing the tips about speeding up your process! I love your asterisk leaves!
ReplyDelete