Quilted Delights: island batik

Showing posts with label island batik. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Island Batik Pieced to Perfection Blog Hop

I have been itching to show off this new quilt I made for the Island Batik "Pieced to Perfection" Blog hop! There is also a giveaway by Island Batik. Keep reading to see how to enter.

I got to play with the Island Batik fabric line called Park Avenue, a Claudia Pfeil Design Original, which is should be arriving in quilt shops next month!

The challenge for this blog hop was to use either Foundation Paper Piecing or English Paper Piecing in our projects. I went for the Foundation version and fiddled around in EQ8.

I tried out designing blocks using the curved drawing options. They turned out pretty good, but I still have some learning to do to get all the blocks to line up perfectly and to have the actual paper piecing pattern print out with curves.

Some printed correctly and some printed half curvy and half blocky, I do believe it was the way I drew out the shapes but I'm not 100% sure what I did. I will have to go back and watch more You Tube vidoes and play around some more.

After getting the layout done, my next challenge was dispersing the colors and fabrics to keep my yardage under half a yard for each print. All the colors in this line play so well together it ended up being easy to mix and match the prints to make everything flow.

I used 15 of the 20 prints that came in the Bundle.

I opened a package of Hobbs Heirloom Premium Wool batting for this one. It quilted up fantastic and has such a nice fluffiness to it.

I used a Schmetz 90/14 needle for the piecing and the quilting.

I had enough white Aurifil thread for the quilting and the perfect blue for the binding.

I did some free motion quilting on this one using the points of the blocks as my guides. I don't enjoy marking my quilts so I am glad there were lots of points on this one.

This was a fun project from beginning to end. I really enjoy paper piecing and had a good time sewing out each unit. I didn't even mind taking the papers off the back. There is something fun to me about tearing perforated paper.

Make sure to check out my fellow Ambassadors who are also showing off this fabric line today:

Mania Hatziioannidi, Mania for Quilts

Pamela Boatright, Pamela Quilts

Now for the Giveaway! Island Batik is giving away two fat quarter bundles!

Two fortunate winners will each receive one of the two Fat Quarter bundles, featuring new Island Batik collections highlighted this week – Pin Dot Floral by Kathy Engle or Park Avenue by Claudia Pfeil

To enter for your chance to win one of these these stunning batik bundles, please follow the easy-to-use prompts on Rafflecopter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can also visit the Island Batik blog post to enter if the Rafflecopter is not showing g properly here.

Happy Sewing!

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@QuiltedDelights

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Thursday, January 14, 2021

Island Batik Medallion Quilt - Holiday in the Woods

When I first read the theme for the December Island Batik Ambassador Challenge, I knew I wanted to make a a huge Christmas quilt. I got started on it right away because I wanted to have time to finish it before December ended.

I was doing great, I had the pattern created in the first couple days, started making all the blocks and had the top ready to go a week before Christmas.

I started quilting it with the intention to show it off on Christmas Day and then Corona hit. Bleh. I was down for the count for 15 days, couldn't even stand up at the quilt machine. But I am finally feeling better and now it is time to show of my December challenge quilt. I call it Holiday in the Woods.

This was my center block. Everything revolves around the evening star.

I had a lot of fun pulling different reds and greens to create all the different blocks.

I used several different fabrics from different Island Batik lines and fabrics from the foundations collections.

The Season Splendor line by Kathy Engle that hit stores in May had lots of greens and reds that fit perfect.

For the background I used Island Batik White fabric.

I pulled a scrap out of my personal Island batik collection for the roof of the houses.

I used a bit of green from the American Frontier Collection as well.

The yellows were also from the scrap bin.

Pinwheels, candy, and Stars all ready to be put in rows.

I used EQ 8 to get my rows the perfect size to fit each block. I started with one center block and kept adding pieced borders to get the look I wanted.

Everything was sewn together using Schemtz needles. Even the quilting was done with Schmetz. That's what I love about my Bernina longarm. I can put what ever needle I want in there.

I quilted most of the quilt with White Aurifil Thread #2021.

I also used some Aurifil Yellow # 2120...

And Aufifil Red #2260.

This quilt is huge just like I wanted, it measures approximately 84 x 84 inches.

I needed two quilt holders to hold this beauty up.

I am also happy to announce I will be an Island Batik Ambassador again for 2021. Stay tuned to see what fun Island Batik projects I will be creating this year.

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Wednesday, November 25, 2020

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: