Thursday, December 15, 2022

Island Batik Lone Star Blog Hop




We are on Week Two of the Island Batik Ambassador Lone Star Blog Hop.






Today I am showing off the Heartland fabric collection by Kathy Engle 




Heartland is also one of the bundles Island Batik is giving away this week! 
I am also offering a small giveaway today. Details for both at the end of the post!



This collection has fun barns, chickens, fences,  chicken wire, and more all in red white and blue.  It definitely makes me think of the Heartland of America. Perfect prints for a patriotic quilt.

Mix in in the Lone Star pattern and this fabric really sings!



You can kind of say I created this quilt in rounds.
The first round was the Lone Star in the Center.  Made up of 8 diamonds.





The next round is 8 Lemoyne star blocks.  Since these ended up bein an odd finished size in the quilt, I decided to use templates and sew them up using the traditional way.  I even used Y seams.  Call me crazy, but I actually had a good time making these.  Every time the Y seam came out good I got all excited! 




I was super glad to have the the wool pressing mat provided by Prairie Spirit Alpacas. It came in handy for these blocks,  sew, press, sew press.  Everything came out smooth.


Round three is another set of 8 diamonds.  With these additions, the quilt top was now an octagon.


To make everything square I added Round four.   Four half Lemoyne Stars in each corner.


I had a piece of left over Hobbs Heirloom Premium Cotton Batting that was the perfect size.
Softness approved by Sheen, the Senior Quilt Inspector.




I used the Schmetz Chrome Microtex needles to piece and quilt it.  They fit perfect in both my regular machine and my long arm and work great with batiks.





I did some custom quilting on this little quilt.



I like to use the shapes to help guide where I am going.



I used some of the extra fabric pieces for the back. It is a fun way to show off the chicken fabric and some of the other pretty reds and blues.



Be sure to check out my fellow Island Batik ambassador Andi Stanfield of True Blue Quilts.   
She is also showing off her Lonestar today using the same Heartland fabric line.


Now for my giveaway!




I had some left over strips from this project and cut them up to create these little Island Batik Stash builder rolls.  Each one is similar to the regular Island Batik Stash builder rolls you can find at your local quilt shop.  They have four prints five inches x WOF.  To be entered to win them both, leave a comment below about Lone Star Quilts.  Have you ever made one?  Do you want to make one?  Or do you just appreciate looking at ones others have made?  I'll announce a winner here over the weekend.


**WINNER UPDATE**

Congratulations Tracey H.! The random number generator picked your comment! You won my little giveaway! I sent you an email.


**WINNER UPDATE**


Island Batik Giveaway!

You can also enter to win the Island Batik Giveaway.  They are giving away two fabric bundles.  One of Heartland and one of Emperor's Treasures.  You can use the Rafflecopter below to enter or visit their blog post HERE. 

This giveaway ends on December, 16th at 11:59 pm PDT. Two random winners will be notified by email on December, 17th and announced on the Island Batik Facebook page on December, 20th.



a Rafflecopter giveaway





Happy Sewing!


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Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Virtual Cookie Exchange Blog Hop

 

What a fun year it has been!  I've been able to play along with all the blog hops hosted by Carla, Carol, and Joan this year.  It has been so much fun and full of inspiration all year long and this month's hop hosted by Carol of Just Let Me Quilt is no exception!  Everyone in the hop has shown off some fun and fantastic treats so far, both of the fabric and eating variety and we still have one more day to go!




Today I am showing of a fabric treat.  I am calling this one Peppermint Cookies.  


The inspiration for this quilt actually came last year when I went to my Brother's house for Christmas.  He had his house decorated in red and white with a little bit of silver.  No green anywhere. It was pretty cool.  I noticed the only thing missing in his décor was a red and white Christmas quilt to drape over his white couch.  

I went home and looked up red and white quilts and came across a blog post by Barbara Brackman about red and white quilts.  You can see it HERE.  Halfway down the post is her version of this quilt and she even gave sizes.  Her snowballs were 12 inch blocks.  I wanted something smaller so I opened EQ8 and drew up blocks and sashing half that size. I also added some Square in a Square cornerstones and an inner border to finish up the stars on the edges. 





During the rest of December last year and throughout 2022 I snatched up some red and white prints. Some Christmassy and some just red and white.  I  ended up using 24 different prints for the snowball blocks.  The star points are more of a solid red without any white.  I contemplated using scrappy prints for these, but decided to go with one darker print to help bring everything together.



I even found the perfect fabric for the back.  Some red and silver ornaments.

I had the intention to make some white chocolate chip peppermint cookies to show off with this quilt, but alas, I feel more at home in the sewing room lately than in the kitchen, so that part didn't make for this hop,  But I can give you the base recipe for this Peppermint Cookie Quilt!


Yardage Needed:

Red: About Three Yards.  Can be a total of Scraps or one print for everything.
White:  About 2 3/4 yards.


Ingredients for a quilt that measures approximately 58 x 74 inches:

Use your favorite method to make each specific block,
or click for either a free Paper Piecing PDF or a Template PDF option for some of them. 


48 Snowball Blocks:  6.5 inch unfinished
Paper Piece PDF,   Template PDF

110 Rectangle Star Sashing:  6.5 x 2.5 inch unfinished
Paper Piece PDF,   Template PDF

28 White Rectangles:  6.5 x 2.5 inch unfinished 

32 Triangle in a square blocks:  2.5 inch unfinished
Paper Piece PDF  

31 Square in a Square blocks:  2.5 unfinished
Paper Piece PDF

32 Red Squares: 2.5 inch unfinished

4 White Squares: 2.5 unfinished


2 Border Strips: 2.5 inch x 70.5 unfinished
2 Border Strips: 2.5 inch x 58.5 unfinished.


Instructions:



  1. Layout the snowballs in a grid of 6 across and 8 down
  2. Fill in with rectangle star sashing.
  3. Add cornerstones from top to bottom, starting with a solid red squares and alternating with a Square in a Square block.  
  4. Use the White Rectangles, White Squares, and Triangles in a Square to make first inner border.  The Triangles in a Square blocks make the final outer star points. 
  5. Add the white outer borders:  Sew on the side borders and then the top.
  6. Quilt, Bind, Snuggle under and eat some real homemade peppermint cookies.







Be sure to check out the other blogs today. 

You are sure to see some great recipes and fun decorating ideas!

December 5



Happy Sewing!


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Sunday, November 20, 2022

Christmas Stocking - Island Batik Style


This month Island Batik Ambassadors are making Christmas Stockings!  We were asked to show off creations from fun and funky to traditional.








I opted for Traditional colors. I love red! So I tend to lean toward that color most.  Throw in some green and gold and I'm hooked! 




 This stocking used up some of the last of my Island Batik Winter Wonders collection by Kathy Engle.  I threw in some other red and green Island Batik scraps to finish out the stocking.  




My diamonds were cut from 2 inch strips.   I laid them out in alternating reds and greens.


Once I had all the diamonds sewn together I used the used the Large stocking pattern from LearnCreateSew.  I liked the shape of her Easy Christmas Stocking and used the large size pattern.  It is a free pattern you can get here.  I altered the cuff a bit too to have bit of green peek out after you turn the cuff, but the base pattern is a good starting point.



This stocking has Hobbs inside!  I had a nice rectangle piece of leftover Hobbs Heirloom Natural Cotton Batting just perfect for the two sides of the stocking.  










I quilted the top using red Aurifil Thread and Schmetz Needles.
I love how the red thread pops on the green fabrics!









Click the Ambassador image below to be taken to the Island Batik webpage for links to see all the all the fun Christmas Stockings this month.





Happy Sewing!


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Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Music Blog Hop


Welcome to day three of the Music Blog Hop. Today I am showing off my newest quilted tote bag!




It's getting close to that time of year when Christmas Carols are played all the time around here.  I'll admit I even play them from time to time through out the year.  Some of them are just so great you can't go a year without hearing them.  I myself am not musically inclined, but I sure like to surround myself with it and encourage my children to develop their own musical talents.  




Not too long ago I found a panel that had these festive music prints.  The panel was laid out kind of odd and I had to buy a little extra to get five complete sets, which also gave me a few extra squares.  


When Carla announced the Music Blog Hop, I knew I wouldn't have time to work on a full size quilt, but I would have time to use one of the extra blocks in small project.




 At Christmas time I always end up transporting little gifts in reusable grocery sacks, but this year I will have a festive bag to tote my little treasures. 




And check out these paper flowers made out of sheet music.  They were a gift to my son from a class mate of his when he was at the South Carolina Governor's School for Arts and Humanities.

SCGSAH is a boarding school for high School Juniors and Seniors who specialize in the arts.  Any child who auditions and gets selected can go, it doesn't matter their financial situation.  I love that!  The school recruits the best young musicians and artists across the state and gives anyone who auditions a chance at a fantastic education that focuses on what they love to do. My son got accepted for Music.  

It was a little hard to have him gone his last two years of high school, but he was only three hours away and got to come home once a month for a long weekend.  So that helped.  It was an opportunity he couldn't pass up.  The school really helped him get ready for College and get a scholarship for Music.  Next Spring he will graduate college with a degree in Commercial Music.





Boonky, my quilt inspector in training, was falling asleep on the job again, but he was wide awake when I was trying to take photos.  He and Carl can't resist jumping into the light box when ever I get it out.




Make sure to check out all the blogs and get inspired by the music themed creations  this week!



Monday, November 14th


Tuesday, November 15th

Wednesday, November 16th


Thursday, November 17th



Happy Sewing!


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