Aurifil African Penquin and Island Batik

This months Island Batik Ambassador Challenge was a thread painting challenge with Aurifil Thread and of course Island Batik fabrics.

Each Ambassador received an Auriful Color Builder set. Each set contains three colors of 40 wt thread and showcases colors from an endangered species.  I got the African Penguin color group.

I didn't know much about African Penquins so I googled them and I was surprised by their habitat.  They live on sandy rocky beaches, not the cold artic icebergs I was envisioning.

With that in mind, I started out with the background.

I pulled out some sandy colors from different fabrics I have received for being an Ambassador.  Most of these are from the Island Batik Foundations lines you can buy all the time.

I did the same for the ocean and sky.  Again,  most of these are Island Batik Foundations.

I cut a 1.5 inch strip from each print.  

I used twenty strips to make sure the quilt would fit in the 20 x 20 challenge guideline.

After I had the background sewn,  I cut out the penguin shapes in Island Batik Black and White solids and started stitching.  

For the stitching and quilting I used a Schmetz Chrome Microtex needle.  It went through everything like butter even all the overlapping of threads.

This quilt has Hobbs Inside.

I used two layers of Hobbs Heirloom Natural cotton batting.

One layer when I did all the thread work on the penguins and then added a second layer when added the backing and quilted the sand and the sea.  That second layer hid all the threadwork of the penguins on the back of the quilt.

I added some extra Aurifil colors for quilting the background and for the penguins pink eyes.

You'll notice they don't have feet.  That is because the stock image I used to get the shape of the penguins had them standing in water, so their feet were covered.  

I knew I couldn't create that too well on my own, so I figured their feet can be buried in the sand instead of water.

And of course, Carl  had to join the photo shoot!

Check out the other ambassadors to see what Aurifil Endangered Species they played with this month!

Happy Stitching!

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@QuiltedDelights
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Halloween Chevron Quilts

I am happy to say I finished these two quilts in time for Halloween! 

They did not get stuck in the UFO pile. Yay! 

There were some spooky decorations downtown to take some photos with!

Where do you even find a spider this big?!

They make a nice couple sitting on the bench together. 

I made this top first...

And this one second.

The backings were made in the opposite order.

I was going to use this back with the first top I made, but after I sewed it together, I felt this back needed a little more green in its top, so I made the second top just for this backing.

Then I pieced this backing for the first top.  It fits a lot better with the orange and black top.

When piecing my backings, I find one print in my stash that is long enough to stretch the length of the quilt, then I cut it in half right down the center, or sometimes a little off center.

I fill in the middle with different strips.  The width of  the quilt will determine the size of the strips and how many strips will go in the middle.  These two quilts are small, so only had to cover about ten extra inches.  For this one, two 2 inch black strips and a 6 inch orange strip for the center fit nicely.

This Hobbs Black batting was fun to use.  It is always strange butting black batting on the machine at first since I don't use it as often, but I must say, it made it even spookier when quilting it up and when I was adding the binding. It was fun to see black peaking out instead of white. 

I quilted them both quilts the same way,  wavy zig zag lines that followed the zigs and zags.

Was easier and quicker than trying to do straight lines and keep them straight.

I'll be taking one of these to the family Halloween party. Who ever wins the the Halloween Party games I have planned will win the quilt!

At the family Fourth of July party this summer I brought a jar full of red, white, and blue M&Ms.  Who ever guessed the closest to the number of M&Ms in the jar won a 4th of July Quilt.  

Later on at the party, I was thinking it would be fun to have a challenge at each family get together and give a quilt away.  I wasn't the only one thinking it either,  my brother-in-law mentioned it would be a fun tradition for someone to win a quilt at each party.  He suggested "feats of strength" for the next get together, but I think I might go for something more like "minute to win it" this time around.

Happy Haunting!

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@QuiltedDelights
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Ghastly Ghouls Blog Hop

 

Welcome to day two of the Ghastly Ghouls Blog.  Thanks to Carol of Just Let Me Quilt for hosting!

I love playing along with the Halloween Hop each year.

This year I knew my October would be super busy but I still wanted to play along and create something fun for Halloween and use up some of the good Halloween prints I have, so I decided to go with a quick quilt pattern, and one I have made before:  The Chevron quilt aka Zig Zag Quilt.

  The top was super fast to put together and I had plenty of orange and black Halloween prints to choose from.  From fabric selection to the last row stitched together, I had the top together in about 4 1/2 hours.  

There are two really good tutorials on the internet you can use if you want to make your own.

Crazy Mom Quilts' Version

and 

The Little Fabric Blog Version

When the top was done I picked out some spooky fabric for the back: some cute bats with a hint of green in the moon light.  With the back done I knew the quilting would only take a few more hours and I could have a nice quick project done in a weekend.

But I kept staring at the newly pieced back and decided it wasn't the right fit for the black and orange top.  I felt like it would go better with a different color version of chevrons.

So instead of loading this on the machine to quilt the top I just made, I picked out another batch of fabrics for a new top that blends better with the my newly pieced backing.

Something with a few more greens and a touch of orange.

I'll be cutting these out tonight!

Who makes a backing first and then picks fabrics for the top??  Me I guess.  Haha!

Be sure to check out the other hoppers today and see their Ghastly Ghouly projects.

OCTOBER 19
 
Just Sew Quilter
Quilted Delights  (me)
Websterquilt
Patchouli Moon Studio

Happy Haunting...er Quilting!!

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Island Batik and byAnnie Round Trip Duffle Bag

Island Batik Ambassadors have been busy making bags this month with patterns, notions, and hardware supplied from byAnnie com.

And of course using lovely fabric supplied from Island Batik. For this challenge we got to pick the bag pattern and fabrics we wanted to play with.

 I chose the Round Trip Duffle Pattern and fabrics from the new Butterfly Blooms fabric line by Kathy Engle hitting stores now.

I had the perfect person in mind for this bag and her favorite color is purple so I went for a couple different shades.  

The fabric for the lining of the bag comes from the Island Batik Foundations line and is called Bubbles in Periwinkle.  The bottom cream fabric is housing an acrylic stabilizer which was also provided from byAnnie.com.  This helps keep the bottom of the bag nice and firm.

Annie provided the turquoise zippers which pop against the butterfly print.

I originally picked four different Aurifil threads for the bag, but ended up using only three. A darker turquoise thread turned out fantastic as top stitching on the cream contrasting fabric and the lining fabric, so I saved the yellow for another project.

I usually don't get a photo of the needles, but I wanted to show them off for sure this time around. These Schmetz Microtex needles handled all these layers with no problem.

I really enjoyed making each part of the bag from start to finish. It was fun to see the little pieces come together. And that Soft and Stable interfacing is some fun stuff. Perfect for bag making.  I made the carrying strap and pad first and was super excited how it turned out and the rest of the bag was just as fun, watching it grow from piece to piece. 

And here are more photos taken outside just because I liked the bag so much I took a lot of photos.

Front

Side

Back

Inside

Cats 

When I got the light box out to take pictures of the fabric the cats thought I got them out a new play place.

It was a bit of a struggle to get a photo. The thread was just too much fun for them.

And they were just too cute to kick out of the box.

But eventually they had to go because I needed a photo.

Happy Quilting!

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