IBA April Project - Summer Breeze I and II

This month, Island Batik Ambassador's got to make what ever they wanted.  Sometimes having no theme is harder because there are so many choices to choose from and narrowing it down to one is so hard!

I decided to stick with making quilts and some quick quilts at that.  Sometimes you just need a quick finish.  These two quilts were just that.  Well, they were until I decided to custom quilt them.  It ended up taking longer to quilt them than it did to sew the tops together, but it was worth it.  I love how they came out.

In my January Island Batik Ambassador box I was given a whole half yard bundle of Summer Fields collection designed by Kathy Engle.  I used most of the half yard bundle for the blog hop we did on February,  but I had some big strips left over and decided to use it up. 

These fabrics shipped to stores in February this year. You can probably still get some in your local shops.   

I had enough fabric left over to to cut two 2.5 inch strips of each print using my Accuquilt cutter and the 2.5 inch strip die.  I used to have my reservations about the 2.5 strip die, I felt I could cut those strips faster myself, but I was wrong. It was so nice to put six layers on and roll it right through.  They came out just as fast as I could cut and didn't have any bowed strips.  Super nice.

 I also cut out an equal amount of Island Batik background fabric, Moo Milk, which was also given to me in my Island Batik Box.  Moo Milk is a slightly off white foundation print you can get all the time.  I decided to combine the prints and the Moo Milk to make a strip tube quilt. 

There are so many different variations and strip sizes you can use to come up with totally different strip tube patterns, but the one I went with was based on the tutorial from MSQC called Summer in the Park. You can watch the video to get a visual on how to make the tube and how to cut it. You can also search strip tube quilt patterns on YouTube and get all kinds of different ideas.

Basically, for this one, I sewed three strips together.  The first set has two prints and one background.  The other set has two backgrounds and one print. Then I sewed those two strips together on both sides creating a tube.

I cut the tube into triangles using my 45 degree ruler and when I opened the triangles I had Square blocks.   It's pretty fun to see them all come together.  

 

I had enough strips to make two quilts. The first one is bordered with a lovely Island Batik blue from the Summer Fields Collection. 

The second version has a green border. I used a green from my personal Island Batik stash for this one.  It is a tortoise shell print from the Magical Reef collection that came out in fall of 2019.  It plays perfect with Summer fields and pulls out the darker green prints of the line.

I used the last of my yellow Aurifil thread for the quilting.  It blended perfectly on all the prints.

And of course, pieced and quilted it with a Schmetz Needle.

 

I already trimmed it off in the photo, but I used Hobbs Heirloom Natural Cotton batting for both quilts. It quilted up so nice and fluffy.

 

The quilting is similar on both quilts,

These strip tube quilts go together so fast and look pretty fancy.

I am naming these two Summer Breeze I and II.  

I took them to the State Park to get some pictures, but it sure was windy down at the beach.

I ended up getting them to stay straight when we got away from the ocean and into the wooded area of the park.

They did sit nice for me on this bench though.

Happy quilting!

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