Star Light Star Bright - Island Batik August Challenge

This August, half the Island Batik Ambassadors were Showcasing the newest collections in the Beat the Heat Blog Hop.  If you missed any, you can still go back and check them out HERE and see beautiful inspiration for all the new Island Batik lines coming out right now.

The other half of the Ambassadors, those of us with fabric lines coming out a little later, were given our own challenge to create a Star Light, Star Bright quilt.  The quilt had to be lap size or larger and showcase any star block we chose.

I had lots if different Star blocks and patterns pop in my head and then I thought, let me go see what kind of Star dies there are on the Accuquilt website.  

As part of the first Island Batik Ambassador box, I received the Accuquilt Go Cutter with a cube set of dies and I figured I might as well add more dies to go with it, specifically some with odd angle cuts, like stars.

I did a search for "Star" on their website and several popped up.  When I saw the Blazing Star by Elanor Burns I fell in love and it was shipped to my house in a couple days.

This die comes labeled so you can easily know which pieces are which. It also gives cutting instructions for strips if you want to cut out different colored A, B, or C sections.

I cutout the cut peices in no time at all.   I love the notched corners on these dies.  That means no dog ears to trim and clean up.

I also used the accuquilt to cut out the pinwheels in the sashing. The pinwheels measure 2 inch finished so I used the 1 inch finished Half Sqaure Triangle die, another die I purchased for myself. I love tiny pieces and this die cuts these small triangles out nicely and with no dog ears to cut off later!

For the colors of this quilt I started with this orange and pulled pieces to match. I got another piece of this lovely orange in my second Ambassador box and I just love it.

 It is from the Foundations collection and is called Large Netting. They have other colors in this pattern, but I really love this orange. I could have a whole bolt of this and be one happy lady. It has hints of yellow and several shades of purples. 

I quilted it using Hobbs Cotton Batting with scrim binding.

 I pieced together some of my left over batting pieces from my previous projects and it quilted up fantastic and the quilt has a nice fluffy feel to it.

I took the quilt with me on my vacation this week to get some photos of it out in nature.

We were in the upper part of South Carolina visiting one of my favorite places, Lake Jocassee.  The water is super clear and I love the mountains rising up in the background.

On the way to our next destination we stopped by Looking Glass falls in the Pisgah National forest. We love this waterfall.

I found out it sure is hard to get the quilt to hang straight with all the wind that comes off the waterfall. 

Even this far away I needed two quilt holders and it still caught the air making the top puff out like a quilted sail.

This quilt had some great adventures before being dropped off at its final destination in Asheville at some relatives.

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Jelly Roll Race - 4th Finish Q3 2019 FAL

I'm on a roll!  I finished the quilting and binding on this Jelly Roll Race quilt the other day. 

It is now ready for snuggling under. 

This makes my 4th finish for the third quarter of the 2019 Finish-A-Long.  

I started this one in June when I was showing some quick quilting ideas to the class I teach. 

I knew this one would be a quick finish since I had the top done at the beginning of the quarter.

With a plan to quilt a quick all over design on it, I put it on this quarter's list hoping it wouldn't turn into a UFO sitting on the pile year after year.

I am happy to have this one finished and so quick.  It is colorful and bright and makes me happy to look at it.

I used some of my older fabrics from my stash for the backing.  These Sea Turtles make the perfect companion for beach photos.

This one measures approximately 57 x 64.

You can see all my Q3 hopefuls here.

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Half Sqaure Triangle Quilt and 3rd finish for Q3 FAL

This quilt is the second quilt I taught in the beginner quilt class I teach. This is the version I sewed along with the students.

I wanted the class to be able to tackle Half Square Triangles since they are used in so many different quilt blocks.

What better way to learn them, than to make a whole bunch of them and turn them into a quilt.  We used 5 inch squares and the two at time method to create our HSTs for our quilts.

I like splitting my yardage in half for backings and adding a coordinating strip in the middle or slightly offset. I feel like I have less left overs when I do it this way.

Making a quilt with just HSTs also gave the class a chance to fiddle around with their own design layouts, which was fun.

Below are a few of the layouts the students came up with.  It is fun to see all the different color ways and layouts everyone came up with.

Catrina's

Derricka's

Miyako's

Sherryll's

  

This quilt is also my 3rd finish for the third quarter of the 2019 Finish-A-Long.

This one just barely turned into a UFO when I put it aside to work on a couple other projects.

I didn't want it to stay on the UFO pile though, so I added it to the list this quarter. All it needed was some quilting and binding and now I have another completed quilt.  Yay!

Check out my full Third Quarter list of UFO hopefuls here.

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July Box from Island Batik - Island Batik Ambassador

It's Christmas in July for Island Batik Ambassadors! 

We all received our second boxes full of goodies to complete the rest of the Island Batik Ambassador challenges for the year and I am super excited to get started on these next projects!

Check out what came in my box.  

Here is a close up of the neutral fabric that was sent, it was hard to see the small dots in the video.  I am excited to work with this one.

This next set is the Kaleidoscope 10 inch stacker and the coordinating fabric.  Look at those spots on that yardage!  In the video I said they remind me of lizard skin or dragon scales.  I really love this one!

I am also excited to use this Sand Bar set.  This coordinating fabric also reminds me of dragon scales.

I must have dragons on the brain.  

Another item I am really excited about is the Block on Board die from Accuquilt.  It has all the shapes I need on one die.  Can't wait to run this one through the machine.  Come back in September to see what I create with this one.

And check out these gears! They remind me of Steampunk.

There was so much good stuff in the box! Thanks again to Island Batik, Hobbs Batting, Aurifil Thread, and Accuquilt.

Let the quilting commence!

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Artsy Fartsy Island Batik Ambassador Challenge

The July challenge for Island Batik Ambassadors is titled Artsy Fartsy and we were challenged to use three different weights of Aurifil thread to create a fabric work of art.

This was a fun challenge that focused on the threads first instead of the fabric.  It is like buying a cool pair of shoes and then searching for the perfect outfit to go with them.

I was sent some dark purple and peach Aurifil thread in my first Ambassador box and then I received a light purple and an orange a little later.  I must say it was a struggle to come up with something that coordinated with these thread colors.

My mind eventually drifted to a sunset scene, with purples and oranges and I added a spool of Yellow Aurifil thread from my stash to finish off the colorway.

For the fabric I went to the stash builder rolls we were sent at the beginning of the year.  These are fantastic.  I love all the different colors that come in them.  I used up several more of the pieces from these rolls to make my skinny strips and I threw in some left over scraps from the other projects.

I wanted the piece to be mostly purple, to go with the purple threads, so I opted for purple water, sky, and clouds. Check out those 1/4 inch strips!  I tried adding red, but I liked the pinks a lot better for this one so I stayed with that.

I really wanted to use the peach and orange thread I was sent in the center of the sun, but the thread was a heavier weight, 12 weight, and was a little too thick for the look I was going for.  I wanted the rays to have more of a halo look. I will have to save that nice thick peach and orange for another project.

On a side note. I did try the orange in a small section and had trouble with it in my machine at first. So I went to the Aurifil website and they tell you what size needle is recommended and even what size thread is reccomended in the bobbin for each thread weight. It helped me out when trying to get the heavier weight thread to place nice together.

I ended up using:

• 40 weight in light purple for the wisps in the sky and the reflection in the water. I used every last bit of that spool thread. That is why it is now just a green spool.
• 50 weight yellow was used for the sun rays.
• 28 weight dark purple for the water and inside the clouds.

I quilted it using Hobbs Theramore Batting and it quilted up beautifully.

The final peice measures approximately 22 x 30 and my smallest strips finished up a 1/4 inch. My largest strip finished at 1 inch.

Make sure you take some time to visit the other Island Batik Ambassadors to see their Arsty Fartsy projects. Most have posted for July already and there are still more to come before the month ends.

Carolina Asmussen ~Carolina Asmussen

Gene Black ~ Gene Black

Pamela Boatright ~ PamelaQuilts

Connie K Campbell ~ Freemotion by the River

Anja Clyke ~ Anja Quilts

Tina Dillard ~ Quilting Affection Designs

Becca Fenstermaker ~Pretty Piney

Jennifer Fulton ~ Inquiring Quilter

Barbara Gaddy ~ Bejeweled Quilts by Barb

Dione Gardner-Stephen ~ Clever Chameleon

Sarah Goer ~ Sarah Goer Quilts

Vasudha Govindan ~ Storied Quilts

Lori Haase ~ Dakota City Quilter II

Joanne Hart ~ Unicornharts

Mania (Magdalini) Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for Quilts

Carla Henton ~ Creatin’ in the Sticks

Stephanie Jacobson ~ Steph Jacobson Designs

Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs

Joan Kawano ~ Moosestash Quilting

Kim Lapacek ~ Persimon Dreams

Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood

Leanne Parsons ~ Devoted Quilter

Bea Lee ~ BeaQuilter

Toby Lischko ~ Gateway Quilts & Stuff

Bill Locke ~ Studio Bill Locke

Denise Looney ~ For the Love of Geese

Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights

Sally Manke ~ Sally Manke

Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack’s Blog

Kathleen McCormick ~ Kathleen McMusing

Carol Moellers ~ Carol Moellers Designs

Karen Neary ~ Sew Karen-ly Created

Lisa Nielsen ~ Lisa Lisa and the Quilt Jam

Jackie O’Brien ~ If These Threads Could Talk

Laura Piland ~ Slice of Pi Quilts

Michelle Roberts ~ Creative Blonde

Vicki Schlimmer ~ Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail

Sherry Shish ~ Powered by Quilting

Anita Skjellanger ~ Quilt in a not-Shell

Laticia “Tish” Stemple ~ Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland

Jennifer Strauser ~ Dizzy Quilter

Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations

Terri Vanden Bosch ~ Lizard Creek Quilts

Alison Vermilya ~ Little Bunny Quilts

Sandra Walker ~ mmm! quilts

Suzy Webster ~ Adventurous Applique and Quilting

(Debora) Anne Wiens ~ Seams like a Plan

Geraldine Wilkins ~ Living Water Quilter

Janet Yamamoto ~ Whispers of Yore

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Pink Bricks - 2nd Finish for Q3 FAL

My second finish for Q3 of the 2019 Finish-A-Long.  Wow, I can't believe it! Two finishes already this quarter.  I have already doubled last quarter finishes.  Haha!

I think it helped my sew-jo by putting small, almost completed projects on the list.  This one had been a top waiting for quilting.  It is about 34 x 40 inches. Once I got it on the machine, it only took about 35 minute to quilt using this all over quilt design.  

I started this one sometime in 2018.  I think in the spring.  

This is one of the few that I don't have an actual start date for but I do remember having a lot of pink "bricks" cut out so I whipped this little top together to have a gift ready to go in case a baby girl ever comes around.

Now it is finished and ready for gifting.

You can check out my full Q3 list here.

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