The Economy Quilt

When I was making my Snails Squared quilt, I made some boo boo's and cut the wrong color fabric for the wrong sections. This left me with some extra triangles just floating around. 

Well, I didn't want these triangles to get lost in the scrap pile so I decided to make a baby sized quilt using 6 inch economy blocks and the rest of the 10 inch precut of William's Garden, an Island Batik signature collection by Kathy Engle for Deb Tucker of Studio 180 Design.  Precuts are available now, yardage is coming September/October.

I wanted at least 30 blocks, 5 across and 6 down, to get a usable sized quilt, so I had to get a little creative with my piecing Since I had used some parts of several squares from the precut in my previous quilt. I ended up sewing two smaller pieces together to get all the triangles I needed.

Some went together perfect...Have to be really searching to find them.

others ... You can definitely see the two pieces if your looking close.

Once all the squares and triangles were cut it was time for chain piecing. 

By chain piecing and using the Square Squared ruler from Studio 180 Design  I was able to sew these thirty blocks together in one evening.  The Technique Sheet for the Square Squared ruler shows you how to easily make Economy Blocks.

I originally wanted to butt all the blocks next to each other, I love that look, but then the quilt would have been super small at 30 in x 36 in. 

So I sampled some sashing and took a vote with family and friends. 

To Sash or not to Sash? That was the question.

Sashing won, 100%.

The Sashing finished at 1 1/2 inches making the quilt 39 in x 46.5 inches.

This was a nice size as I didn't have to piece the backing and could use a 45 inch wide piece of fabric.

Another good thing about this one being so small is that it quilted up super fast. It was getting close to bedtime and I had just thrown in a load of laundry and needed something to do while I waited, so I put this one on the quilt frame and it was done before the laundry. 

I quilted and an allover design of swirls and curves using 50 wt Aurifil Thread number 1148 Light Jade.  The Light Jade looks perfect over the green, blue, and purple fabrics.

I had the perfect size scrap of Hobbs Heirloom Natural Cotton Batting for this one. I am telling you the stars aligned perfect for me to finish this one up so quick.

And as always, I used a Schmetz Needle. The Microtex needles that came in my latest Ambassador box have been wonderful with the Island Batik fabric.

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Make It Modern with Island Batik and Hobbs Batting

This month's challenge for Island Batik Ambassadors was to make a modern quilt and use any of the Hobbs batting that was sent to us. 

 I went with the Hobbs Heirloom Natural Batting with Scrim Binder.  I love how this batting sticks to the batik fabric, I never have to worry about it bunching and puckering on the back while quilting.  

For this quilt, I really wanted to use the Snowberry Strip Set that was sent to me from Island Batik, but I had a hard time deciding on a pattern.  I couldn't decide if I wanted to go super modern with improv pieing and lots of negative space or just a tad modern with an altered traditional block. 

I really wanted something to show off all the fabrics.  I looked at all kinds of patterns on the internet (there were so many good ones to choose from) and even drew some of my own, but time kept ticking away and still couldn't settle on a pattern.  It was getting close to the end of the month and I hadn't even cut one strip for this project! Ack!

Is there a word for Excessive Quilter Pattern Choosing Indecisiveness??

If so I suffered from it big time this month.

As the end of the month drew near, I ended up having to go with a pattern that could be sewn up in a couple of days so I went with my version of a Strip Tube Quilt.

I used all but the lighter colors from the strip set and added some of the gray mini dots yardage from the same Snowberry collection for the larger strips.  My Strip sets ended up being 6.5 inches wide.  This made nice size blocks, which made the quilt come together even quicker.

I am totally in love with this color scheme of Snowberry and the gray Aurifil thread I used for the quilting blended well with all the different colors of the fabric line. 

 The gray thread disappeared on the gray fabric and wasn't too over powering on the dark purples and blacks. It was the perfect color for this project.

I like how the placement of the squares created some fractured square diamonds. 

This quick quilt has turned out to be one of my favorites.  I see different patterns depending on the angle it is placed.  It measures approximately 50 x 67

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