Thursday, January 25, 2024

Island Batik Ambassador January Box

 

January is always a fun month for Island Batik Ambassadors as we get our first box of goodies to work with.  Check out the video below to see what came in my box.  

In the video, I do a quick look inside at all the items and then go into more detail and show close-ups of each item.




Be sure to also check out the links below to visit the web pages of some of the industry partners that have generously sent items to help us with our projects!



















Happy Sewing!




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Wednesday, January 24, 2024

White Rabbit Blog Hop


Welcome to my day on the White Rabbit Blog Hop, hosted by Carol of Just Let Me Quilt.  For this hop we were challenged to create something with white fabrics, rabbits, or rabbit fabric.  My thoughts for this challenge kept going to cute white bunnies and Easter.  So I opted for a cute Easter tote.

The blog hop challenge idea came from a tradition of saying “white rabbit” on the first day of the month. The phrase is supposed to bring good luck for the rest of the month. 

I had not heard of this tradition, but it sounded good to me, I can always use more luck.





Spring flowers and a cute bunny tail are just what I need to help fight the winter blahs. 



The weather has been unreasonably cold for the south this past week, 18 degrees at night is way too cold for me.  These fun spring colors sure help warm up the place.

Luckily we will return to our regular winter weather and be back in the high 60s by the end of the week.

Be sure to check out all the other white rabbit creations hopping around this week.






 Happy Sewing!




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Friday, January 5, 2024

Majestic Mountain - Speakeasy Version

 


Majestic Mountains - Speakeasy Version

This is the version I made when I was testing my newest pattern, Majestic Mountains.   The top was finished last year, and I had time to quilt it up this past week.

I even made a video that gives some tips on how to make it.  Check it out on my Quilted Delights  YouTube Channel.





You can get the pattern in my shop:



The pattern was on sale till the end of this week, but I am extending the sale for another week in honor of the video release, so go check it out!




For this version I used an older Island Batik fabric line called Speakeasy.  Island Batik strip sets usually have two of each print, which make them perfect for this pattern as you need to sew two identical panels for this the project.





Boonky always lets me know when its time to take a break.




The video gives tips on how I make my strips,






And how to make sure all the seams nest together nicely when sewing rows.




It also shows a wee bit of footage of my furry quilt inspectors.




Avi is having a hard time learning to stay off the quilt while it's on the frame. He knows its the perfect cat hammock, if only he could just get on there...





In the video, I also go over a little on how I start my free hand feathers for quilting.




I am loving the colors. 




 I had some great beige Island Batik foundation prints on hand that matched the fabric line.




I used a tan thread for the quilting. It blends in with the neutrals and isn't too bright on the dark fabrics.





It was a cloudy day at the park for photos.




All the leaves and grass were brown,





but it matched the quilt perfectly.




If you make the pattern tag me on your social media! I'd love to see it!
 



Happy Sewing!



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Sunday, December 31, 2023

Majestic Mountains Quilt and Pattern


 Check out my newest Bargello quilt made using Island Batik Playful Purples!   I made one earlier this year using some Island Batik blue fabrics and thought it would be fun to try other colors.  


I am calling this one Majestic Mountains and this time around I wrote down all the instructions on how to make it. The pattern is now available for purchase in my pattern shop.

Quilted Delights Patterns




This is a strip set-friendly pattern.  The main purples come from one 2.5-inch strip set.  Just need to add a little yardage for the neutrals and skinny border and you are good to go.



One of the things I like best about this pattern is that it uses up the entire strip pack with minimal scraps left over, just crumbs really.   Those don't hurt nearly as bad when I toss them out.  



Okay, I will admit I did save some of the 1.5 inch pieces, but that is my limit.

If you want to make your own this pattern will be on sale for the rest of the month!


Here is the same pattern using Island Batik blues.


Happy Sewing!




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Thursday, December 21, 2023

Faux Cathedral Christmas Pillows

 


December is all about Celebrations for the Island Batik Ambassadors.  This month's challenge was to create something for a holiday that is special to us.  I picked Christmas.  It is one of my favorite holidays and I just had to make more faux cathedral window pillows, this time with Christmas colors.





These only take a few scraps to put together.  I gathered various greens from different Island Batik projects over the years.



And some lovely Island Batik Scrappy reds.

For the white, I had just enough yardage leftover of this Island Batik pinecone holiday print.





I like to make pillows in pairs.




One for each side of the couch.




Both pillows were pieced with an 80/12 Schmetz Microtex needle.
This needle had no trouble going through several layers of fabric when sewing down the white curves.








I found this fun Island Batik Christmas Print on my shelf for the backs.



Be sure to check out all the other special holiday projects made by my fellow Ambassadors.  They have been posting some great things! and Merry Christmas!


Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs
Renee Atkinson ~ Pink Tulip Quilting
Pamela Boatright ~ PamelaQuilts
Susan Deshensky ~ Lady Blue Quilts
Brittany Fisher ~ Bobbin with Brittany
Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts
Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for quilts
Reed Johnson ~ Blue Bear Quilts
Victoria Johnson ~ Forever Quilting for You
Randi Jones ~ Randi’s Roost
Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs
Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood
Denise Looney ~ Quiltery – For The Love Of Geese
Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights
Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack Made Mine
Anorina Morris ~ sameliasmum.com
Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa’s Quilting Passion
Sarah Pitcher ~ Pitcher’s Boutique
Claudia Porter ~ Create with Claudia
Lana Russel ~ Lana Quilts
Elita Sharpe ~ Busy Needle
Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail
Sandra Starley ~ Textile Time Travels
Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations
Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt






Happy Sewing!



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Wednesday, November 8, 2023

It's in the Bag Blog Hop!

 


Welcome! Today I'm showing off the Ultimate Travel Bag 2.0 for the "It's in the Bag!" Blog Hop.




For this hop, Island Batik Ambassadors were asked to pick a pattern from byAnnie.com and Annie generously sent the pattern along with all the extra items we needed to make the bag.

Fabric was provided by Island Batik from their newest fabric lines.  I used three prints from the Island Batik fabric line called Limerick, a signature line by Raija Salomaa of Quilters’ Treasure Chest. 

For the outside I used the purplish blueish Celtic knot print. To brighten up the inside, I choose the bright green Celtic knot print.  The dots in blue turned out to be perfect print for the coordinating handles and pockets.


You can find Limerick in these shops:

Lori's Country Cottage, AB  CANADA

Ocean Quilts, CA

Quilter's Dream, CO

Close To Home-Southington, CT

Jambearies Quilt Co, FL

Calico Cat,  HI

Red Roxy Quilt Co, IA

Treasured Quilting, IA

Hancocks of Paducah, KY

Laural's Fabrics and More, LLC,  MN

Quilt Haven On Main, MN

KC Maker Studio & Fabrics, MO

Cary Quilting Co, NC

Sierra Patchworks, NV

Creekside Quilts, OR

Quilter's Cove, OR

Connie's Collectibles, PA

Quilting Divas. WI

The Sewing Basket, WI

Falky's Treasures. WY

Lickety Stitch Quilts, WY

Sew Ewe Quilt Shop, WY




I had some helpers with this project right from the beginning.  Boonky had to test out the quality of the fabric before I cut into it,




While Carl was in charge of cutting accuracy.




Avi just wanted to play with the elastic.




I love byAnnie's patterns, they are very thorough with clear easy instructions and the labels provided in the pattern make it super easy to know what piece you need when putting everything together, particularly when there are a lot of pieces with similar sizes.






The Soft and Stable that goes inside the bag is fantastic.  It helps the bag stand up all on its own and as you can see above, creates nice soft bag parts for sleeping on.




For me, the most intimidating part of making the bag is the last few steps: attaching the front and back  to the side unit and adding the inside binding.  Mainly because there are so many layers to get through, including some with zippers, and I have to sew through it three times: once to attach everything, once to add the binding, and once to tack the binding down.

I took it slow as suggested in the Add on Video and to my surprise, it actually wasn't as stressful this time around compared to when I made my first By Annie bags.  Perhaps I knew what was coming and mentally braced myself, or perhaps I have just gotten better at the technique after doing it several times.  





It also helped that my Schmetz Microtex needle handled it like a champ.  I didn't even come close to breaking the needle.   






I took the bag down town Lake City for a photo shoot.



I wasn't sure which setting was my favorite, so I added them all. 




Downtown Lake City has several murals and some lovely decorated alley ways that lead from parking lots to Main Street.  Perfect for photo shoots.




The bag was fun to make from start to finish.




I will definitely be taking this one with me for our Thanksgiving trip.




There is plenty of room inside for a long weekend and I like the mesh pockets to help keep thing separated.





 The pattern gives instructions to use fabric for these inside pockets, but I like the stretchy see through mesh.




My neighbor has been enjoying the hop and has hinted that she needs a By Annie bag of her own. I will have to ask her which one is her favorite when the hop is over. 






Be sure to check out Emily of The Darling Dogwood and Maryellen of Mary Mack Made Mine to see what bags they made with this fabric line!


And last but not least,  Island Batik is giving away two fat quarter bundles and one of them is Limerick!  You can enter using the Rafflecopter below.  Visit the Island Batik blog post for more details.




Happy Sewing!



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