Inspired by Nature Island Batik Blog Hop - Tropicana Twist

For the past few weeks Island Batik Ambassadors have been showing off their nature inspired creations using the new fabric lines coming out from Island Batik. 

I got to play with Tropicana Twist designed by Kathy Engle.
 These beauties should be hitting your shops in December.

This fabric line reminded me of big bright flowers and tropical beaches. I could see yellow and orange tropical flowers with an array of green leaves, and of course the blues of the ocean. 

It is bright and colorful, right up my alley.

My design started out with a simple drawing with a lot of two and half inch strips. 

But as I played around with layout designs in EQ8 I finally settled on this one. 

 My kids said it looks like a background you would see in Bikini Bottom, the home of SpongeBob Square Pants. 

The flowers were paper pieced. Same for the small leaves, well if you want to call them leaves. 

When I sketched it out it looked like a leaf, but when I sewed it up it looked more like an asterisk. Either way I was already committed so I sewed up 26 of those little asterisk leaves. 

I was taking my time in the beginning of the month paper piecing everything, enjoying the process, and watching the flowers and leaves develop one piece at a time. 

But, the the end of the month was coming closer and I still had a lot of little leaves and a few more flowers to sew.  I timed myself and it took me 20 minutes to sew just one small leaf.

It was definitely time to start chain piecing. I took some time to cut out all the pieces I needed and put them in order to sew. I sewed all of piece one and then moved on to the next numbered piece. It actually shaved off lots time this way. When I chained pieced 14 leaves at once it only took 3 hours. I saved myself about an hour and a half.

As I was sewing them, I realized how practical it was for Henry Ford to come up with the assembly line for production. Sew a piece on all 14, iron all 14, prep for the next piece on all 14, sew the next piece.... Repeat. I didn't realize how much time is used picking up and putting down the rotary cutter each time for each individual piece. If you keep the rotary cutter in your had and cut all 14 at once, you have saved time, and when you are trying to beat the clock, every second counts. 

I quilted an all over flower swirl design using a nice bright yellow Aurifil Thread number 2120 - Canary Yellow.

And of course I used some Hobbs Natural Cotton Batting.  It is some good stuff.

And I don't get far without my Schmetz Needles.  They are my go to needle for everything.  I am still using the microtex needles for these Island Batik projects. They stitch up batiks super nice.

This is a fun quilt lap size quilt.  It measures 48 x 56.

Make sure to visit Vasudha Govindan of Storied Quilts.
 Today she is also showing off her creation using the Tropicana Twist Fabric Line.

And stop by the Island Batik blog for a chance to win these fabulous Island Batik Bundles.

And if you missed any days, make sure to go back and see all the wonderful creations made by my fellow Island Batik Ambassadors as they were inspired by nature with these fabulous fabric collections.

November 9:

Carla Henton, Creatin’ in the Sticks

Jennifer Fulton, Inquiring Quilter

November 10:

Carolina Asmussen, Carolina Asmussen Designs

Denise Looney, For the Love of Geese

November 11:

Janet Yamamoto, Whispers of Yore

Alison Vermilya, Little Bunny Quilts

November 12:

Megan Best, Bestquilter

Jennifer Strauser, Dizzy Quilter

November 16:

Joanne Hart, Unicornharts

Maryellen McAuliffe, Mary Mack Made Mine

Jennifer Thomas, Curlicue Creations

November 17:

Gail Sheppard, Quilting Gail

Mania Hatziioannidi, Mania for Quilts

November 18:

Sharon Riley, Sew Riley Designs

Sandra Walker, mmm! quilts

November 19:

Carol Moellers, Carol Moellers Designs

Emily Leachman, The Darling Dogwood

November 23:

Connie Kauffman, Kauffman Designs

Suzy Webster, Websterquilt

November 24:

Pamela Boatright, PamelaQuilts

Michelle Roberts, Creative Blonde

November 25:

Vasudha Govindan, Storied Quilts

Leah Malasky, Quilted Delights

November 26:

Sally Manke, Sally Manke Fiber Artist

Gail Renna, Quilt Haven Threads

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Snails Squared - August Island Batik Ambassador Challenge

I was super excited for this month's Island Batik Ambassador challenge. For August, we all got to play with specialty rulers by Deb Tucker of 180 Studio Designs. I was sent the Square Squared ruler to play with and I couldn't have been happier!

The Square Squared ruler lets you make a basic Square in a Square block with the same precision as paper piecing, but without all hassle of the extra paper. I made 12 of these for the cornerstones in my sashing. 

The inner blue fabric comes from part of the new fabric line William's Garden by Island Batik created by Kathy Engle for Deb Tucker of 180 Studio Designs. You can get precuts of this line now. Yardage will be available around September. The outer triangles is from Island Batik Blenders and is called Cherio - Bermuda

It was super nice to use this ruler instead of paper piecing, which is my usual method for these blocks.  The ruler helps you cut the perfect center square and triangles for sewing and then helps you trim it down for an accurate precise block. And one of the best parts is that I did not have to mess with any paper for these! Such a time saver and I still have perfect units!

If you get the Technique Sheet that goes along with it the Square Squared ruler, it gives you all the math to make the Economy Block, and even the Snails Trail (aka Monkey Wrench) block. I used the Technique sheet to make the 13 Economy Blocks I needed for the alternating cornerstones. For these I pulled some fabulous prints from the William's Garden precut I was sent.

I used the Technique Sheet and the Ruler to also make 16 Snails Trail Blocks. 

The Technique Sheet lets you know what size square to start with, so I made my 4 patches the size needed for the center square. From there on it was easy peasy cutting triangles sizes from the technique sheet, sewing them on, and trimming down.  

Notice the blue triangle in the picture above is not the same as the one below. The blues in the block were supposed to go from dark to light, and I started out light to dark instead.  Had to fix that.  Best to always look at your pattern, even if you made it yourself.  Haha!

I had to add a wee bit of blue from the Tweet collection to go in these because I botched up the color placement, but it fits in perfeclty. 

The Square Squared ruler lets you make blocks up to 6 inches. Well, my snail trail blocks were 8 inches. What's a quilter to do. I thought about re-designing the quilt to have 6 inch snail trail blocks with 3 inch cornerstones, but I wanted a bigger quilt this time.

I sat for a while thinking how I wanted to tackle my 8 inch blocks. I knew I could start out using the Square Squared ruler for the centers, but that would leave me to use my own basic rulers and trial and error to  trim the right triangle sizes for the next rows. That did not sound fun since I knew how easy it was to use the Square Squared ruler because I had already used it to make 25 blocks so easily. 

I decided my best solution was to go out and purchased the next size up Square Squared ruler. It makes blocks up to 12 inches and is called Large Square Squared.  

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Once I got that ruler I finished up my Snails Trail blocks.  

While I was buying rulers, I remembered 180 Studio designs has a Diamond Rects Ruler. I have 40 Diamond Rectangles in this quilt. After seeing how nice it was to make the Square in a Square, I did not want to paper piece these 40 units, so another ruler arrived on my doorstep.

 What can I say, the rulers are so nice. It makes quilting and trimming up so easy and all the pieces fit together perfect, and no paper to remove afterwards. If you want accurate piecing and don't want to mess with paper piecing, these rulers are the way to go.

So basically this entire quilt, was cut out and pieced using Deb Tucker 180 Studio design rulers.

The fabric for the purple diamonds is an Island Batik Blender called Dandelion - Wisteria.

The triangle corners are the Cherio - Bermuda and a deep Purple

Block sizes are:

Snails Trail = 8 inch finished

Diamond Rectangles  = 8 in x 4 in finished

Economy blocks and Square in Square blocks = 4 in finished

If you notice above, the Snail Trail block has a dark purple triangle in the bottom corner, but not in the finished quilt. When I started putting all the pieces together  the dark purple in the Snail's Trail block was too dark next to the purple in my diamond rectangle and I lost the look of the star points I was going for.  So I swapped it out to match the Wisteria in the Purple diamond rectangle.

Simple Square in a Square, Economy Blocks, Diamond Rectangles, and Snail Trails blocks make quite an intricate pattern when all put together.

I quilted it using Hobbs Silk Blend Batting from their Tuscany Collection.  

This quilt measures 57 x 57 so this package was the perfect size! 

As always Hobbs batting quilts like a dream.

For the quilting, I used two different colors of Aurifil 50wt threadThread.

1148  Light Jade and 2420 Fleshy Pink

And of course I used Schemtz Needles.  The Microtex Needles are perfect for quilting Batiks.

Looks great on the porch swing.

The cream colored fabric comes from Island Batik Foundations.  It is called Cake Batter.

I had fun playing with the rulers from Studio 180 Design this month.  I can't say enough good stuff about them. I was generously given the Squared Squared and loved it so much I purchased two more rulers to finish the quilt and I will definitely use them again for other projects!

Some weird lighting in the backyard, gives the colors a whole new look.

Make sure to stop by the other Ambassadors websites this month to see what Ruler they got to play with and what they created!

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Christmas in July - Island Batik Ambassador Challenge

I love sharing my love of quilting and this month Island Batik and Accuquilt are letting me do just that in a big way!

For the July Challenge, Ambassadors were sent a an Accuquilt GO! Me Fabric Cutter Starter Set, a small version of their GO! Fabric Cutter that includes a GO! Half Square Triangle-3” Finished Square and GO! Quarter Square Triangle-3” Finished Square.  

We were challenged to make a project using only the dies that came with the starter set and give that project and the Go Me Starter Set to someone.

I chose to give it to my friend Catrina. She came to my beginner quilt class over a year ago and has really taken off with quilting.  A month before class she had never even opened her sewing machine and now her goal this year is to finish nine quilts for her relatives for Christmas. She is almost done with all the tops! She said the next quilt she is going to make is a pinwheel quilt so this cutter set is perfect for her! 

I wanted to make a throw sized quilt for Catrina and asked her in advance some of her favorite colors. She gave me a lot to play with: Blue, green, teal, ocean colors, and sunset colors. 

I went through all the fabrics Island Batik sent me ended up using the last bit of my blues from River Valley fabric line - created for Deb Tucker of 180 Studio Desings by Kathy Engle, a wee bit of orange from the Ancient Etchings line - designed by Jackie Kunkel of Canton Village Quilt Works, and several pieces from Island Batiks foundations: Pumpkin, Cornmeal, Lagoon, Wavy Dots Cherry, and Sprinkles for the white background,

I cut strips wide enough to cover the die, layered them up and ran it through the Go Me.  I cut out my Half Square Triangles within 15 minutes the first night and cut out the Quarter Square Triangles the next evening. Cutting was super quick.

This quilt is made by alternating two different variations of the Ohio Star Block, each block is made with only HSTs and QSTs.

Block A

Block B

Block B.   I like to sew one block and then chain piece the rest.  I stack the finished squares in the layout I want them and then start sewing.  

These are the pieces for the Quarter Square triangles for Block A.

Again, I put all my pieces in the layout they should be in the quilt.

Then turn them slightly so the seam I want is facing the way they will go under the sewing machine.  That way I know I am sewing on the correct edge.

All my Block Bs with one block A.

Working on Block A. I stacked these as well and eventually made one big pile of unpieced A blocks then chain pieced them together in rows.

These blocks show off a lot of the River Valley blue fabrixs.

 

I wasn't sure how to quilt this until Catrina commented on one of my instagram photos this block reminded her of Hawaiian Lava, then it hit me to quilt some all over flames.  I used a lovely soft yellow Auriful Thread for this, #2130 and in the middle of the quilt sandwich is Hobbs Nautical Cotton batting. 

 

And of course I quilted it with a Schmetz microtex needle.

I seldom think to take a picture of the needle, but these needles work great with my projects!

Some of the Quilting

This one ended up being border-less.  And goes slightly over throw size by a few inches.

It measures 45 x 63.

Make sure to check out all the other Island Batik Ambassadors to see their Christmas in July projects and their recipients.  Happy Quilting!

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