See Ya Later, Alligator Blog Hop

 Its been a great week so far of quilty travel ideas for the "See ya later, Alligator Blog Hop" and today is my turn to show off my projects.  We were supposed to create something inspired by travel for the hop.  Anything from places to go, to how you get there, and anything in between.

Well I was inspired by anything in between.  Let me explain how it relates....

Today is my husband's 50th birthday and we traveled to Raleigh, NC for his big 50th birthday party.  His parents will be there, along with five of his siblings and all five of his adult children.  

It's a mini family reunion!  That is definitely something to travel for.

In the past I have given away quilts to some of  my husband's siblings on their 50th birthdays so a quilt for my husband on his 50th birthday only seemed right, but the more I thought about it, the more I started thinking like a hobbit.  

After all this was a big birthday party, and people were coming from all over....

Plus my husband has always been a giver and he would rather give than to receive...

So instead of  making a quilt for my husband, I decided to make 8 jelly roll race quilts for my husband to give away to the families that traveled so far to see him on his 50th birthday.  

Making these quilts for him to give to his family is a way better gift for him than having him open up only one for himself.

When this idea came to me I only had a couple months before the party so I had to use a pattern I could sew up pretty quick.

 I also wanted the quilts to be extra special and have some meaning behind them, after all it's not everyday someone turns 50.

So I cut out 50 strips for each quilt. 

Also each quilt, from front to back, has 50 different blue prints, my husband's favorite color. 

Each family now has a special quilt to take back home with them to always remember the fun we had together during my my husband's 50th birthday party!

Make sure to click on the links below to be taken to all the other hoppers showing off what inspired them for this hop!

Monday, August 22nd

Just Let Me Quilt

Days Filled With Joy

Samelia's Mum

Karen's Korner

Quilt Schmilt

Beckys Adventures in Quilting and Travel 

Tuesday, August 23rd

MooseStashQuilting

Quilt Doodle Designs

Quilting Gail

Just Sew Quilter

Lianne Makes Stuff

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Wednesday, August 24th

Inflorescence

Karrin's Crazy World

Ms P Designs USA

Allthingzsewn

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Words & Stitches

Thursday, August 25th

Creatin' in the Sticks

Quilted Delights

Food For Thought

Scrapdash.com

DayBrook Designs 

Just Because Quilts

Happy Sewing!

=^..^=

@QuiltedDelights

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Accuquilt Tree of Life and Island Batik

 
This month Island Batik Ambassadors were asked to create a project using the Tree of Life die by Accuquilt and then gift the project to someone in need of joy this month.

AccuQuilt’s mission is to bring joy to everyone – especially when they need it. That is why, this month, we were encouraged to make Christmas come early for someone who could use a little joy.

We were all sent the die in our second ambassador box of goodies. This die is one of Accuquilt's Block on Board dies (BOB) in which you can cut out all the shapes for the block with one pass through the cutter.

There are a lot of pieces in this one so at first I was going make a pillow, but the pieces cut out so fast and sewed together so nicely I decided to cut out a few more blocks along with some extra half Square triangles for the corners.

I used mostly Island Batik Foundation Prints in this one.  The white is part of their neutral foundations and is called Sprinkles.  The dark blue is called Navy.  The lighter blue is called Dots - French Blue.

I ran out of the darker blue for the final border so I took a swatch of the Navy fabric and pulled out a piece that matched from my personal Island Batik stash. This one happened to have bear paws it. Perfect for these Winter Trees. I could call this quilt Bear prints in the woods.

This was pieced together and quilted with Schmetz microtex needles.
They always work so nice with Island Batik fabrics

.

I am loving this new pressing mat sent by Prairie Spirit Alpacas.  It fits perfect on my mini iron station. It makes quilting quicker when I can press the smaller pieces right by the machine.

I did some free motion custom quilting on this one.
Continuous Curves
Feathers in the borders
and swirls in the center dark blue.

Hobbs Batting is inside this beauty.
I used their premium cotton batting.

For the back I pulled some snowflake fabrics from my personal Island Batik stash that went well with the colors on the front. The quilt measures approximately 52 inch square and will be going to a dear friend who has had a rough month.

Happy Sewing!

=^..^=

@QuiltedDelights

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UFO Blog Hop - Flowery OBW

 

I was excited to join the UFO blog hop this month hosted by Joan of Moose Stash Quilting. It inspired me to finish up this One Block Wonder that has been in progress since 2019.  It is made from seven different panels, six cut up and one left as is for the center.

I have a long list of UFOs... not sure I'm ready to announce the actual number here yet. Lol, let's just say I suffer from Quilters ADD. I'm easily distracted by new ideas and projects. 

I will say as of now I have 7 more One block Wonders in different stages of progress.

Some are still waiting to get their hexies sewn and another one is waiting for quilting. 

There are also a few more waiting to be cut up. What can I say, when those awesome panels go on sale super cheap I can't pass that up.

I went through several different layout ideas till I found the layout I loved.  There was a lot of late night sewing for this one, hence the different lighting in this photo.

I like to take pictures as the layout comes together so I can see if anything looks off. 

That is one of the most fun parts for for me, trying to decide what goes where.

Once everything is in its place its time to sew the rows together.  

I like to sew two rows at a time to save thread.

Sometimes I will sew another project in between to have less thread clipping.  That is another reason I have more than one One Block Wonder going.  Sometimes I like to sew hexagons of another OBW while piecing the rows of another one.  

This part usually goes pretty fast when I do two rows at a time.

I tried three at a time once, but then I forgot what pile I was on and messed everything up.

With two piles I seem to do pretty good.

I like to press all my seams open for these.  Makes it easier to quilt later on.

Fitting the panel in is sometimes tricky. I always have to cut a wee bit of it off, but after all is said and done I can't remember which part is gone.  I appliqued half of some of the hexies that overlapped the panel to help everything blend in.

I use lots of pins when sewing the rows together.  It helps keep the points somewhat matching.

I love these thin tulip pins. They are my favorite!

I made the back for this one a while ago and together the top and the back have been sitting in the UFO pile just waiting to be paired with some batting and quilted.

This month, thanks to the UFO hop, it was time to get it out of the closet and into the light of day.

I quilted it with pink thread.  I didn't want a dark color over the pink flowers, so I decided pink would be good.  I did wonder if it would be ok for the black, but as soon as I started it looked fantastic.  I quilted a meander swirl and feather.  Just what ever came to mind at the time.  For the panel in the center I did try to follow the lines of the leaves and flowers, but it was very loose.  

I pulled some older floral prints for the back of this one.  Again with the stripe backing.  

Stripes help me use up the left over scraps and smaller pieces I have in my stash.

This is my ninth completed One Block Wonder.

Be sure to visit all the other blog hoppers today to see what UFOs they are showing off!

Could be real spaceships with aliens or loved UFOs finally getting their time to shine.

Monday July 25

Just Let Me Quilt

Lianne Makes Stuff

Karrin’s Crazy World

Ms P Designs USA

Time4Stitchn

Scrapdash

 

Tuesday July 26

Creatin' in the Sticks

Quilted Delights  (Me)

Days Filled With Joy

Kathys Kwilts and More

Food For Thought

 

Wednesday July 27

Stitching Farm Girl

BeaQuilter

SelinaQuilts

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Quilt Doodle Designs

Quilting Gail

 

Thursday July 28

Patchouli Moon Studio

Quilt Schmilt

Lynns Blog

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Home Sewn by Us

 

Friday July 29

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Inflorescence

Words & Stitches

Just Sew Quilter

MooseStashQuilting

Happy Sewing!

=^..^=

@QuiltedDelights
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Island Batik Ambassador July Unboxing

 Its that time of year again,  Time to see what fabrics and tools I get to work with and show off as an Island Batik Ambassador for the rest of the year.  Check out the video below to see a close up of all the goodies that came in my July Ambassador box.

Check out the Island Batik Website to see all the other fabric lines coming out this season.

And a big thanks to all the industry partners who sent items as well.

AccuQuilt

Deb Tucker's Studio 180 Designs

Hobbs Batting

Prairie Spirit Alpacas

Happy Sewing!

=^..^=

@QuiltedDelights

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Stars and Stripes 2022

 

The family fourth of July party was today and I brought another flag quilt to give away.  I made two last year for the fourth and ended up giving both of them away, so I needed one for myself this year.

Pattern is Stars and Stripes by Thimble Blossoms.

This pattern sews up super quick with 15 large flag blocks.   I actually made them both in less than a week.  I spent Wednesday and Thursday night after work cutting out the flag fabrics.  I used several different Island Batik Fabrics for the top and the binding.

On Friday night after work I sewed up the flags.  I sewed up the first set and thought it went super fast, so I timed my self sewing the second set and it took one hour and 7 minutes to sew 15 flags together.

Quality Control test halfway through by Boonky and Carl.

Saturday I had a lot more time to sew, so I had time to cut out the sashing, sewed the tops, and prepared the backs.  My plan was to make one for the party and only make two if time allowed, which it did.

Sunday I did the quilting and the Binding.  The long arm really helps speed this up.  No more rearranging furniture and crawling on the floor to baste quilts.  

I really like the navy sashing.  I made one like this last year and loved it and gave it to my neighbor but this one is staying here with me.

I did some wavy quilting on both of them using blue thread.  I wanted something that wouldn't look too stark on the navy sashing and would also go well with the white strips.  Blue worked perfect.

I used up a nice patriotic print I had in my stash for the back.

I like the sashing on this one too.  It is a little brighter than the aqua the pattern calls for.  It reminds me of pool water.  

I used a lighter baby blue thread to quilt this one. 

I found some cute 4th of July gnome fabric for this one.  I was walking by it in the store and couldn't pass that up.  It makes the perfect backing.  This quilt went to the winner of the balloon cup challenge at the 4th of July party.  

Carl wasted no time testing the quilts out.  Cat tested, Cat approved!

Happy Fourth!!

Happy Sewing!

=^..^=

@QuiltedDelights
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