Child's Play - Island Batik September Challenge

The September challenge for Island Batik Ambassadors was to make a child's quilt using one of the dies sent to us by AccuQuilt.

AccuQuilt has dies that cut a whole quilt block on one die, they are called Block on Board dies or BOB for short.  I was given the Crossed Canoe die to play with.

This 10 in stack of Kaleidoscope fabric came in my ambassador July box from Island Batik and it is the perfect fabric line for a bright cheery kid quilt.

I cut a 6 inch square out of each 10 inch square and ran it through the AccuQuilt go cutter.

I also used some of the Sprinkles neutral fabric that came in my July box for the other half of the canoes. It looks white, but there are some grayish dots all over it it.  It is part of their Batik Foundations Neutrals. 

Not only did these pieces cut out super fast, they sewed up super fast.  The notched edges saved me a lot of time by not having to trim off any dog ears.  The notches also helped each piece line up nicely.

I love all the colors in this line.  I particularity love the orange and blues.

A pile of half canoes sewn together.

I used the leftovers from the 10 inch squares to make a piano key boarder.

Hobbs seams to be my go to batting lately, even for non ambassador projects.  I really love their cotton batting with Scrim Binder. Its so soft, yet a wee but fluffy.  The quilts feel so nice quilted up.

The batting was also provided in my July box.  It was for a queen size, but I cut it in half and will use the other half for another small quilt.  I even sew together smaller pieces from time to time to get a whole piece.  No need to waste good batting!

This was a fun color pallet to work with.  It makes the inner kid in me happy when I look at.

Make sure to visit some of the other ambassadors and see what die they got to play with for their September creations.

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  (me)

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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My Favorite Quilt Block Blog Hop

When Carla of Creatin' in the Sticks asked hoppers to join her Favorite Quilt Block Blog Hop I signed up right away. I love playing along with blog hops and challenges.

I create some of my favorite projects during these events and I loved having an excuse to work with one of my favorite quilt blocks.

I have several favorite blocks and wasn't sure which one to pick at first, so I asked my husband, "What is my favorite quilt block?"   He answered within seconds,  "The nine patch."

Later I asked my daughter the same question, she also said, "The nine patch."

That solved my dilemma right away of which block to choose.  The nine patch is such a great block.  It is cute by itself, it looks great in other blocks, and even makes some pretty spiffy corner stones in sashing.

For this hop I new exactly which quilt I wanted to make. I had been eyeing a nine patch pattern I found on Pitnerest.  I am not sure the name of this pattern or where it originated from but it was captioned Scrappy Stars.  I clicked the link to find more info but it lead me to one of those weird sites that have nothing to do with the picture.  If anyone knows the pattern let me know!


I wanted to have it all quilted before today, but Hurricane Dorian had other plans.  We didn't have much damage here.  Just a little rain and wind and few branches fell, and we did not loose power this time.  Yay! But I did loose a couple days of sewing due to hurricane prep, so it is still in the flimsy stage.

*Update* Ack! Yes that is one of my triangles is turned the wrong way in this photo.  Good thing I haven't quilted it yet, that one will get turned around. There are actually three turned the wrong way this one and two more at the bottom. And I thought I had them all going the right direction. Ah well, things were bound to get turned wonky with this many blocks.

Since I didn't know the dimensions of the pattern online, I decided to come up with my own and I wanted to go small. I chose 3 inch finished square for my nine patches and Triangles in a Square blocks and a lot of them. The top measures 69 x 81.  Its a biggy.  I did 23 rows across and 27 down.

That ended up being 311 nine patch blocks and 310 Triangle in Square blocks (another one of my favorite block builder pieces).

I started out sewing the nine patches in groups of 50 at a time to break it up. 

I pulled the colors from my scrap bin.  I cut some colors into 1.5 inch squares and sewed a few nine patch squares together individually.

For the majority of the nine patches, I cut a 4.5 x 1.5 inch strip and sew an identical white strip to it.  Then I trimmed off 1.5 inches and added a 1.5 inch white square to that section to make the middle row.

That left a 3 x 3.5 inch section.  I sewed a three inch colored strip to that and then cut that in half to get my bottom and top rows.    Then sewed the nine patch rows together.

This method seamed quicker than cutting 2799 individual 1.5 inch squares and sewing them together one at a time.

Next I needed 310 Triangles in a Square.  I love these little blocks.  They are usually seen as parts of other blocks, most notably in the 54-40 flight block and its variations. I opted for the darker blues for the triangles.  I wanted the blue triangles to stick out a bit. The nine patches have some blue in them, but I kept those on the light blue or teal side.  I didn't want to have any of the triangles fade into the nine patches.  Once all 310 of those were done it was time to sew everything together.

Laying the quilt out was fun.  I loved playing with these small nine patches, they are just so cute!
The quilt was so big it didn't all fit on the design wall. I had to put the last two rows on the floor.

I am lovin' this nine patch quilt!

If you want more nine patch inspiration check out some of my older projects.
You can click the label Nine Patch to see them all.

For even more inspiration, check out all the other favorite blocks posting today,
and follow along all week to see even more!

Monday, September 9th

Just Let Me Quilt

Words & Stitches

VroomansQuilts

PamelaQuilts

Songbird Designs

Days Filled With Joy

Quilted Delights  (Me)

Tuesday, September 10th

Quiltscapes

Melva Loves Scraps

Stitchin At Home

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Mary Mack Made Mine
Just Because Quilts

Den syende himmel
Selina Quilts

Wednesday, September 11th

MooseStashQuilting

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Kathleen McMusing

Karrin's Crazy World
April Grace Quilts
Hazel’s Daughter
Seams To Be Sew
Limeleaves

Thursday, September 12th

Websterquilt

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Nutz 4 Redwork
Quiltsbyjoanne
Ms P Designs USA
Pampered Pettit
Hill Valley Quilter

Friday, September 13th

For the love of geese
Life in the Scrapatch

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Alycia Quilts - quiltygirl
Domestic Felicity
The Joyful Quilter
QuiltFabrication
Creatin' in the Sticks

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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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