Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Island Batik Marvelous Mini

 


 Is it Christmas yet?  🎄 

It's getting pretty close! The last four months of the year always go so fast. But this year I'm ready! I already have a new Christmas quilt for the season and now I have a nice mini quilt to go with it.



This month Island Batik Ambassadors were challenged to create a Marvelous Mini Quilt. Mini quilts are marvelous for many reasons:

They make great decorations, they can be used to test hard blocks, they are small enough to practice different Quilting motifs, and they help use up the last bit of scraps from another project.


(I'm loving this new wool pressing mat from Prairie Spirit Alpacas)


For my mini quilt I decided to use up the left over Winter Wonders scraps from my New York Beauty project from June. You can find this fabric line in stores now.

These Christmasy fabrics by Kathy Engle are right up my alley and I had just enough to make a small lonestar.

I still had a little more fabric left over so I decided to add some triangles and borders as well. The size of each shape was determined by how much fabric I had left.  This really was a design as you go project. 



I even had the perfect sized scrap of Hobbs Heirloom Premium cotton batting for the middle.





For the quilting I used some red, green, and yellow thread from Aurifil and used a Schmetz Microtex Chrome needle.  They play together perfectly.








I did some simple custom quilting in each section.




This Marvelous Mini measures approximately 23 x 23 inches. 


Are you following along with all the other Island Batik Ambassadors?


Follow this link to check them out:

2022 Island Batik Ambassadors 



Happy Sewing!


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Thursday, August 25, 2022

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



Tuesday, August 23rd



Wednesday, August 24th



Thursday, August 25th



Happy Sewing!


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Sunday, July 31, 2022

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!


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Tuesday, July 26, 2022

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.









Happy Sewing!


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