The February Challenge for Island Batik Ambassadors was to create a quilt to donate to any cause we wished. I started out with this Turnstile quilt and I had so much extra time on my hands due to covid that I made a few more. Since I had to wait several weeks to go back to work, even though I was feeling better, I spent a lot of time in my sewing room.
I will be saving a few of the quilts for a fund raising auction done by our local youth group. When they are allowed to group again, they will need to raise money for their summer camps. The other quilts I will donate to Project Linus. Project Linus' mission is to: "Provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer “blanketeers.”
I was given an Island Batik half yard bundle of Summer Fields designed by Kathy Engle to play with.
I wanted to be able to show off as many of the prints as I could so I played around in EQ8 and picked out a block called Turnstile and put it on point with some sashing.
The Turnstile block ended up being 8 inches so I checked the Quilt in a Day book that came with my Accuquilt Ready.Set.Go! Cube and this block was in there!
I only needed two dies from the cube set to make the block.
Die #3 for Half Square Triangles
And die #4 for Quarter Square Triangles.
I love how the Accuquilt dies cut off the dog ears. The triangles come out perfect. No need to trim them down after sewing. Everything fits together so nice.
I quilted this one using Hobbs Poly-Down batting.
I haven't used polyester batting in a long time, but this one was a surprise. There was no bearding and the fabric didn't slip around like I am used to with other polyester battings. It was actually quite nice to work with and the quilt came out nice and fluffy.
Again, I used Schmetz Needles for the piecing and the quilting.
Those microtex needles are fantastic!
When I was cutting my triangles for my Turnstile Quilt, I had some left over 5 inch strips, so I decided to whip up another quick quilt. I cut triangles from the left over strips and added them to some triangles from some background fabric called Moo Milk. Moo Milk is part of the Island Batik Foundations and goes well with all the colors in Summer Fields.
These triangles sewed up super quick.
I used left over pieces of Hobbs Heirloom Premium Batting for this quilt and the last three little ones.
Again, I had a lot of time on my hands. So I cut out even more fabric from the Summer Fields bundle. This time I cut bricks.
I cut a lot of 4 x 8 inch rectangles and made two small kid quilts and one small baby quilt.
To cut the sashing, I used my 1/2 inch finished strip die from Accuquilt.
I have cut lots of 1 inch strips in the past, but sometimes they get wonky so this die was nice. It cut each strip precise. No wonky strips and it was super fast. I cut enough bricks to make two small kid quilts.
I hadn't planned on making the smaller baby quilt, but I had some left over blues and yellows that didn't fit in with the other two brick quilts, so I decided to use them up in another smaller quilt. I used a little wider sashing in this one to help get some extra width to it.
I quilted all five quilts with some light yellow Auriful thread.
The yellow was perfect on the darker blues/greens and blended right in with the off white background.
The Brick Quilt pattern and the Half Square Triangle quilt are some of my favorite quick quilts to make and give away. You can sew them up in an afternoon and with some swirly quilting or meandering they quilt up super fast and look great. They also showcase off lots of different fabrics, perfect for scraps.
I used a lot of the Summer Fields bundle making these, but I still had enough fabric left over to cut some 2.5 inch strips for a strip tube quilt. I ran out of the blue yardage though for a border so once I get a good color to go with Summer fields I finish it up and show it off.
What are your favorite quick quilt patterns to sew up for charity quilts?
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