Monday, September 30, 2019

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
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
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
(Debora) Anne Wiens ~ Seams like a Plan
Geraldine Wilkins ~ Living Water Quilter
Janet Yamamoto ~ Whispers of Yore

=^..^=


Posted by at 5:50 PM 5 comments
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Monday, September 9, 2019

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


Wednesday, September 11th


Thursday, September 12th



Friday, September 13th






=^..^=





Posted by at 12:05 AM 49 comments
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Friday, August 30, 2019

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.




=^..^=


Posted by at 10:55 AM 5 comments
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