Quilted Delights: Aurifil African Penquin and Island Batik

This months Island Batik Ambassador Challenge was a thread painting challenge with Aurifil Thread and of course Island Batik fabrics.

Each Ambassador received an Auriful Color Builder set. Each set contains three colors of 40 wt thread and showcases colors from an endangered species. I got the African Penguin color group.

I didn't know much about African Penquins so I googled them and I was surprised by their habitat. They live on sandy rocky beaches, not the cold artic icebergs I was envisioning.

With that in mind, I started out with the background.

I pulled out some sandy colors from different fabrics I have received for being an Ambassador. Most of these are from the Island Batik Foundations lines you can buy all the time.

I did the same for the ocean and sky. Again, most of these are Island Batik Foundations.

I cut a 1.5 inch strip from each print.

I used twenty strips to make sure the quilt would fit in the 20 x 20 challenge guideline.

After I had the background sewn, I cut out the penguin shapes in Island Batik Black and White solids and started stitching.

For the stitching and quilting I used a Schmetz Chrome Microtex needle. It went through everything like butter even all the overlapping of threads.

This quilt has Hobbs Inside.

I used two layers of Hobbs Heirloom Natural cotton batting.

One layer when I did all the thread work on the penguins and then added a second layer when added the backing and quilted the sand and the sea. That second layer hid all the threadwork of the penguins on the back of the quilt.

I added some extra Aurifil colors for quilting the background and for the penguins pink eyes.

You'll notice they don't have feet. That is because the stock image I used to get the shape of the penguins had them standing in water, so their feet were covered.

I knew I couldn't create that too well on my own, so I figured their feet can be buried in the sand instead of water.