It's in the Bag - Island Batik Blog Hop

Welcome to my day of the hop! For this blog hop, Island Batik Ambassadors are showing off new Island Batik fabrics lines hitting shops now or heading that way super quick and to show them off this month were were challenged to make bags! And not just any bags. Bags by byAnnie.

I got to choose the bag pattern I wanted to make and Annie graciously sent all the items needed to make it. I was super excited for this project.

I chose the Divide and Conquer pattern because I was really wanted to make those mesh pockets on the inside and also thought it would be fun to have a cool quilted over night bag.

To make the bag, I was sent three fabrics from the Mandala Magic collection by Jackie Kunkel of Canton Village Quilt Works. Check out all the prints in this line, each one is fabulous! 

This pattern comes with an add on video, which I highly recommend watching. It helps oodles when trying to make this bag. Particularly on nights when your tired and the words on the pattern start to blur. The videos are your new best friends.

When I first picked the pattern I didn't think about all the work that would go into this bag. Later when I watched the ad on videos and saw all the steps and tough parts, I thought, "What did I get myself into!" But in the video at one point Annie tells you to take a break if you need to and to take it slow. Best advice ever, specially for those tough binding sections.

At some points I thought this bag would conquer me, but I came out victorious and it was worth it. I do have some boo boos in this but they will stay. My major boo boo happened when I started putting the bag together. After I made all the pieces for the bag I was so excited to sew the bag pieces together, that I didn't realize I sewed the mesh pocket on the back side of one of the vinyl pockets, so the zipper is on the inside of the pocket.... ugh.

While I was making it, I didn't think anything of it because I could open and close the zipper the whole time, that is until I put the front panel on and then I realized what I had one....oh boy, I wasn't about to take all that out. I can still open the zipper though so I am good.

The saying measure twice, cut once should go along with double check your layout twice before sewing. Haha! Even with my boonked up zipper placement the bag still looks fantastic and I have a one of a kind over night bag.

I used a nice peach Aurifil thread and a nice bright purple to put all this together with.

And of course a schmetz needle. I only broke one needle during this whole project, and it wasn't even when I was sewing through all the layers. By a fluke I hit the teeth on the vinyl zipper in just the right spot and snap, the needed was a goner. My machine and needle handled everything else super nice. It even went through all the layers of everything no problem. Of course, I did go super slow as suggested in the videos.

Check out all the patterns at byAnnie, and her supplies. I really liked using the zippers by the yard. They were fun and easy to work with. 

Go visit Connie today too to see her Mandala Magic bag.

You can also check out all the other bags being made for the hop by stopping by the Island Batik Blog. Also this week Island Batik is giving a chance for someone to win their lovely Island Batik fabrics. Use the Rafflecopter to enter. If the Rafflecopeter is not working on my site, you can enter on the Island Batik Blog site as well. It is the same Rafflecopter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Sewing!

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The Economy Quilt

When I was making my Snails Squared quilt, I made some boo boo's and cut the wrong color fabric for the wrong sections. This left me with some extra triangles just floating around. 

Well, I didn't want these triangles to get lost in the scrap pile so I decided to make a baby sized quilt using 6 inch economy blocks and the rest of the 10 inch precut of William's Garden, an Island Batik signature collection by Kathy Engle for Deb Tucker of Studio 180 Design.  Precuts are available now, yardage is coming September/October.

I wanted at least 30 blocks, 5 across and 6 down, to get a usable sized quilt, so I had to get a little creative with my piecing Since I had used some parts of several squares from the precut in my previous quilt. I ended up sewing two smaller pieces together to get all the triangles I needed.

Some went together perfect...Have to be really searching to find them.

others ... You can definitely see the two pieces if your looking close.

Once all the squares and triangles were cut it was time for chain piecing. 

By chain piecing and using the Square Squared ruler from Studio 180 Design  I was able to sew these thirty blocks together in one evening.  The Technique Sheet for the Square Squared ruler shows you how to easily make Economy Blocks.

I originally wanted to butt all the blocks next to each other, I love that look, but then the quilt would have been super small at 30 in x 36 in. 

So I sampled some sashing and took a vote with family and friends. 

To Sash or not to Sash? That was the question.

Sashing won, 100%.

The Sashing finished at 1 1/2 inches making the quilt 39 in x 46.5 inches.

This was a nice size as I didn't have to piece the backing and could use a 45 inch wide piece of fabric.

Another good thing about this one being so small is that it quilted up super fast. It was getting close to bedtime and I had just thrown in a load of laundry and needed something to do while I waited, so I put this one on the quilt frame and it was done before the laundry. 

I quilted and an allover design of swirls and curves using 50 wt Aurifil Thread number 1148 Light Jade.  The Light Jade looks perfect over the green, blue, and purple fabrics.

I had the perfect size scrap of Hobbs Heirloom Natural Cotton Batting for this one. I am telling you the stars aligned perfect for me to finish this one up so quick.

And as always, I used a Schmetz Needle. The Microtex needles that came in my latest Ambassador box have been wonderful with the Island Batik fabric.

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Snails Squared - August Island Batik Ambassador Challenge

I was super excited for this month's Island Batik Ambassador challenge. For August, we all got to play with specialty rulers by Deb Tucker of 180 Studio Designs. I was sent the Square Squared ruler to play with and I couldn't have been happier!

The Square Squared ruler lets you make a basic Square in a Square block with the same precision as paper piecing, but without all hassle of the extra paper. I made 12 of these for the cornerstones in my sashing. 

The inner blue fabric comes from part of the new fabric line William's Garden by Island Batik created by Kathy Engle for Deb Tucker of 180 Studio Designs. You can get precuts of this line now. Yardage will be available around September. The outer triangles is from Island Batik Blenders and is called Cherio - Bermuda

It was super nice to use this ruler instead of paper piecing, which is my usual method for these blocks.  The ruler helps you cut the perfect center square and triangles for sewing and then helps you trim it down for an accurate precise block. And one of the best parts is that I did not have to mess with any paper for these! Such a time saver and I still have perfect units!

If you get the Technique Sheet that goes along with it the Square Squared ruler, it gives you all the math to make the Economy Block, and even the Snails Trail (aka Monkey Wrench) block. I used the Technique sheet to make the 13 Economy Blocks I needed for the alternating cornerstones. For these I pulled some fabulous prints from the William's Garden precut I was sent.

I used the Technique Sheet and the Ruler to also make 16 Snails Trail Blocks. 

The Technique Sheet lets you know what size square to start with, so I made my 4 patches the size needed for the center square. From there on it was easy peasy cutting triangles sizes from the technique sheet, sewing them on, and trimming down.  

Notice the blue triangle in the picture above is not the same as the one below. The blues in the block were supposed to go from dark to light, and I started out light to dark instead.  Had to fix that.  Best to always look at your pattern, even if you made it yourself.  Haha!

I had to add a wee bit of blue from the Tweet collection to go in these because I botched up the color placement, but it fits in perfeclty. 

The Square Squared ruler lets you make blocks up to 6 inches. Well, my snail trail blocks were 8 inches. What's a quilter to do. I thought about re-designing the quilt to have 6 inch snail trail blocks with 3 inch cornerstones, but I wanted a bigger quilt this time.

I sat for a while thinking how I wanted to tackle my 8 inch blocks. I knew I could start out using the Square Squared ruler for the centers, but that would leave me to use my own basic rulers and trial and error to  trim the right triangle sizes for the next rows. That did not sound fun since I knew how easy it was to use the Square Squared ruler because I had already used it to make 25 blocks so easily. 

I decided my best solution was to go out and purchased the next size up Square Squared ruler. It makes blocks up to 12 inches and is called Large Square Squared.  

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Once I got that ruler I finished up my Snails Trail blocks.  

While I was buying rulers, I remembered 180 Studio designs has a Diamond Rects Ruler. I have 40 Diamond Rectangles in this quilt. After seeing how nice it was to make the Square in a Square, I did not want to paper piece these 40 units, so another ruler arrived on my doorstep.

 What can I say, the rulers are so nice. It makes quilting and trimming up so easy and all the pieces fit together perfect, and no paper to remove afterwards. If you want accurate piecing and don't want to mess with paper piecing, these rulers are the way to go.

So basically this entire quilt, was cut out and pieced using Deb Tucker 180 Studio design rulers.

The fabric for the purple diamonds is an Island Batik Blender called Dandelion - Wisteria.

The triangle corners are the Cherio - Bermuda and a deep Purple

Block sizes are:

Snails Trail = 8 inch finished

Diamond Rectangles  = 8 in x 4 in finished

Economy blocks and Square in Square blocks = 4 in finished

If you notice above, the Snail Trail block has a dark purple triangle in the bottom corner, but not in the finished quilt. When I started putting all the pieces together  the dark purple in the Snail's Trail block was too dark next to the purple in my diamond rectangle and I lost the look of the star points I was going for.  So I swapped it out to match the Wisteria in the Purple diamond rectangle.

Simple Square in a Square, Economy Blocks, Diamond Rectangles, and Snail Trails blocks make quite an intricate pattern when all put together.

I quilted it using Hobbs Silk Blend Batting from their Tuscany Collection.  

This quilt measures 57 x 57 so this package was the perfect size! 

As always Hobbs batting quilts like a dream.

For the quilting, I used two different colors of Aurifil 50wt threadThread.

1148  Light Jade and 2420 Fleshy Pink

And of course I used Schemtz Needles.  The Microtex Needles are perfect for quilting Batiks.

Looks great on the porch swing.

The cream colored fabric comes from Island Batik Foundations.  It is called Cake Batter.

I had fun playing with the rulers from Studio 180 Design this month.  I can't say enough good stuff about them. I was generously given the Squared Squared and loved it so much I purchased two more rulers to finish the quilt and I will definitely use them again for other projects!

Some weird lighting in the backyard, gives the colors a whole new look.

Make sure to stop by the other Ambassadors websites this month to see what Ruler they got to play with and what they created!

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Baby Blue Dutchman's Puzzle

My latest July Finish a Baby Blue Dutchman's Puzzle.

This one started as a quilt top in January for the Winter Blues Blog Hop.



I quilted it in May. 
I  was having issues with my long arm when I quilted my May Ambassador project and wanted something small to quilt to see if I had fixed the issue.

Turns out the issue was the quilt was pulled too tight on the frame.  

Once I loosened it, no more skipped stitches.

I put the binding on this morning before work and now I have another finish for the month.  Yay!

Happy Quilting!

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