Quilted Delights: June 2023

Friday, June 30, 2023

Fly Away - Island Batik June Ambassador Challenge

This month Island Batik Ambassadors were asked to create a project using Flying Geese blocks and an Island Batik Precuts we received in our Ambassador box.

I used the 2.5 inch strip pack "Celebrate" by Kathy Engle and paired it with Island Batik solid Black.
If you need to get your hands on these prints you can find them in these shops:

Hancocks of Paducah, KY
Stitch Therapy, AL
Nine Patch Fabrics, VA
Sew What Fabrics/Batiks Etc., VA
People, Places, & Quilts, SC
Creekside Quilts, OR
A Royal Quilt Shoppe, LLC, SC
EQuilter.com, CO
Kapaia Stitchery, HI
Sew Together Quilt Shop, MA
Bob's Variety, AZ
Mulqueen Sewing & Fabric Centers, AZ

You can cut 15 Geese from one 2.5 inch strip of fabric. That's a lot of Geese from one strip pack! 600 to be exact!

I needed 294 so I used half the strip pack. The other half was used for my binding.

I only had a vague idea of what I wanted to do with these geese at first.

I knew I wanted them to be somewhat curvy, but still wanted to stick with traditional geese blocks.

Once I figured out the motion I wanted, I played around in EQ8 to get exact sizes for the black background rectangles.

I was happy to have a bag of Hobbs Heirloom Black batting in my Ambassador box.

It is so nice for quilts with lots of black.

The piecing and quilting were done with a 90/14 Microtex Schmetz needle.
I use these needles all the time and have never had any trouble sewing with Batik fabrics.

The colorful binding is the icing on the cake! I cut a bunch of 8 inch strips from the other half of the strip pack and sewed them together to create all the pops of color around the edge. And a 2.5 inch strip makes a nice wide binding when turned to the front of the quilt.

The thread looks grey or white on my monitor, but it is actually an aqua color. It really pops on the black!

The quilting pattern in the black background is what ever came to mind as I was moving the needle along. Some spots make me think of water.

I thought of naming this quilt Geese in the Night.

Or Geese Passing in the Night, since some geese are going the opposite direction.

With some of the quilting giving off a water vibe, I thought about naming the quilt Geese Passing in the Night Over the Lake...

But that is pretty long.

I guess I'll stick with Geese in the Night.

Happy Quilting!

=^..^=

@QuiltedDelights

Follow me on Instagram

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

When Pigs Fly - June Sew It, Show it Challenge

This month's Sew It - Show It challenge is all about PIGS, UFOs and WIPs.

Hosted by Joan of Moose Stash Quilting

Well, I don't have any PIGs (Projects In Grocery Sacks) Those get moved to bins right away, so I guess I have PIBs. Haha! I have a few of those, but not too many. I classify those as patterns and fabric purchased, but not yet cut into.

Now when it comes to UFOs, UnFinished Objects, I have a plethora. And if WIPs technically count as UFOs, I have even more. Let's just say I have enough UFOs to keep me busy for a year or more. How did I get so many you ask? Well, there are several reasons why my projects become UFOs:

Projects get set aside for deadlines of other projects.
I messed something up and don't want to pick it out just yet.
The project turned out uglier than I thought, but I still think I can save it, maybe.
A pattern was on sale.
Fabric was on sale.
I saw something cool on Instagram I just had to try.
I get bored with a particular part of the project - not enough to never finish it, just enough that I want to do something else real quick and then I'll come back to it... eventually. Quilters ADD I suppose.

Each of my UFOs is listed in a Google Sheet showing what stage it is in and what else needs to be done to complete it. Today I am happy to put an X in each box for my Twisted Log Cabin quilt and move it to the finished list!

This project officially became a UFO in February of 2020. The fabric was given to me by Island Batik as part of their Ambassador program and I had the assignment to make some type of log cabin quilt out of it. The fabric is Island Batik Ancient Etchings by Jackie Kunkel and came out in 2020.

I was short on time that month, so I showed off just the top. Then it got set aside while I finished a different project with an upcoming deadline... and then it sat. All it needed was to be quilted and bound. I even had the backing made and hanging with it in the closet.

The deadline for this challenge is what finally moved this beauty to the top of the to do list.

I guess I just have to give things deadlines and then they get done.

As far as WIPs, Works In Progress, I have a couple that I am currently working on, but they are secret sewing and I can't show them off till later in the year.

Question, when does a WIP become a UFO? How long to you have to not work on it till it slips into the UFO category? I have a WIP on the sewing table that has been sitting there for about a month, untouched. It's not in a bin yet, and I think about it some, but I haven't sewn on it lately. Does that make it an official a UFO now? Is it time to add it to my Google Sheet?