Churn Dash Mix-Up - Vintage Reimagined

As an Island Batik Ambassador, I have been provided with some of the items mentioned in this post, including Island Batik fabric, Aurifil Thread, Hobbs Batting, and Accuquilt Go! 

Welcome back!  It's been a little bit, but I've been super busy with life stuff like applying for a job, interviewing for a job, getting an offer for that job, and then finally starting that job!  Whew!  It's been crazy, but I think I'm finally catching up, and I have a fun quilt to share with you!  

When I learned that the March challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors was Vintage Reimagined, I knew exactly what to do --- pull out ALL the vintage quilts in the house for some inspiration!  I'll share the story of these quilts and some close-up shots in another blog post. In short, they were part of the package when we purchased our very first home in 1989.  While I didn't know the maker of these quilts personally, I did know that we were now responsible for taking on the "job" of using these quilts just as they were meant to be used -- to provide warmth and love. 

I chose this red, white, and blue churn dash quilt as my inspiration for this challenge.  It's one of my favorites and this is one of the quilts that we used and loved until it fell apart. 💓 

Our challenge quilt needed to be a minimum of 36" square, so I got out the graph paper and started drawing churn dash blocks and coloring them in with my colored pencils.  I went online to search for 12" churn dash blocks because I was sure that someone had already done the math for me :) and I was right!  I found this tutorial by Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life.  But I needed to add a little more...something to mix it up...a churn dash reimagined.  Hmmm.....So I did a little more online searching and found several variations AND also discovered that there were different names for the same block!  Who knew???  I did some more coloring on my graph paper and eventually came up with a plan!  This pic also includes my original quilting design, which changed just a little ;) 

That took WAY longer than I thought it would, and they're not even complicated blocks!  Decisions, decisions.....🙄


I got out the Accuquilt Go! (one of the many awesome benefits of being an Island Batik Ambassador!) and started cutting the pieces needed.  This is just a small set of the pieces I cut, and it all went so fast!!  I used the 4.5" die, the 5" die, and the 2.5" x 4"5 die.  Super fast! 

I used the Island Batik white solid, several of the 5 x WOF strips in shades of blue, as well as the 2.5" red strips of text fabric in the Soul Song collection.  Some of the blues - the rain drops and the trees - were perfect to represent the Pacific Northwest, where I've lived for the past 26 years.  I used Hobbs 80/20 bleached batting and Aurifil 40 wt thread, #2024 for quilting.

My dude (aka quilt holder) and I walked around downtown to find just the right spot for taking a good pic, and I think this is the perfect one!  Our downtown has some spectacular murals!  

I went with a "simple" quilting design with some stitch-in-the-ditch and echoing.  All of the quilting was done on my domestic machine -- Husqvarna Viking Scandinavia 300 -- using a walking foot. This is the first decent-sized quilt I've quilted since closing my longarming business, and I enjoyed every single minute of it.  Yes, it takes much longer, but that's okay as long as I make my deadline ;) 

I opted for a fun binding technique - matched binding.  I used this on my dude's birthday quilt a few years ago.  You can find a tutorial from A Quilter's Table here.  

There are some pretty amazing quilts from the other Island Batik Ambassadors this month!  Check them out! 

Carolina Asmussen ~Carolina Asmussen

Gene Black ~ Gene Black

Pamela Boatright ~ Pamela Quilts

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 ~ Create 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

Sally Manke ~ Sally Manke

Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack's Blog

Kathleen McCormick ~ KathleenMcCormick

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

Suzy Webster ~ Adventerous Applique and Quilting

(Debora) Anne Weins ~ Sweetgrass Creative Designs

Geraldine Wilkins ~ Living Water Quilter

Janet Yamamoto ~ Whispers of Yore

Magnificent Mini

As an Island Batik Ambassador, I have been provided with the fabric and batting in this post, but not the M&Ms :) 

Who doesn't love a quick mini quilt?  When I saw that my first challenge as an Island Batik Ambassador was to make a "Magnificent Mini" quilt for February, I knew exactly which one I was going to make! The LOVE quilt in the Keeping Cursive Alive mini series by Kelli Fannin Quilts.  

While it's a perfect pattern for making with scraps because it's made out of really small pieces, I decided to really challenge myself and use just four prints.   I used one of the 2.5" strips of Soul Song and three of the stash builder strips which are 5" x WOF (width of fabric).  While I didn't use all of that fabric, I did take the pink floral and the low-volume rain dot all the way down to some seriously tiny scraps!  And I got pretty crafty using up of those scraps to make this all come together!! I'll share a tip sometime soon on what I did with one of these pieces 😉 

Check out these tiny triangles left over from trimming! They measure 3/4" from base to point!  I'm trying to decide what I'm going to do with these.  I just can't throw them away!!

I used Hobbs 80/20 batting and Aurifil 50 wt. thread, #2026 which is pretty much my go-to color for piecing.  I used my walking foot to quilt wavy lines.  Easy peasy! Since this is a mini quilt, it didn't take long at all!  

For my mini quilts, I don't use a double fold binding like I do with larger quilts that will get a lot of use.  I just cut strips 1.5" wide and the length that I need, then machine stitch them to the front, then flip over and handstitch it to the back.  Again, super easy because it's just a mini!  

If you're ever in a funk and need to sew a little something to bring you out of it, try making a mini, even if it's just a mug rug, and I guarantee you'll feel better!  

Be sure to check out the other Magnificent Minis from all of the Island Batik Ambassadors

Carolina Asmussen ~Carolina Asmussen

Gene Black ~ Gene Black

Pamela Boatright ~ Pamela Quilts

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 ~ Create 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

Sally Manke ~ Sally Manke

Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack's Blog

Kathleen McCormick ~ KathleenMcCormick

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

Suzy Webster ~ Adventerous Applique and Quilting

(Debora) Anne Weins ~ Sweetgrass Creative Designs

Geraldine Wilkins ~ Living Water Quilter

Janet Yamamoto ~ Whispers of Yore

Island Batik Ambassador

That's right! I'm an Island Batik Ambassador!

I'm so excited and I can't wait to show you more!  

Check out my video to see what I've received from Island Batik and their industry partners!

Disclaimer: I'm not a professional movie producer and have no idea what I'm doing here!  You are definitely going to want to open this to full screen on a laptop (or bigger!) screen.

Check out some of the beautiful prints!

Thanks to Island Batik, Hobbs Batting, Aurifil, and Accuquilt!

This is going to be a great year! 

Check out Island Batik's latest blog post for a list of this year's ambassadors!

Be sure to follow me here, on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, as well as Island Batik on their blog, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for all the latest news, blog hops, and giveaways!

Y-Seam Hexies?? Nope!

I'm doing my best to finish up projects that I started years ago, but new projects just keep popping up!  I'm sure if you're a quilter reading this blog, you know exactly what I'm talking about!  I finally got this quilt top finished recently. It's not quilted yet, but I'm okay with that.  

It sure helps to have a tall person (aka my dude) to help with holding up my quilts ;) 

If it looks like a hexie quilt, but not quite, there's a reason for that!!! I cut out a bunch of hexies using my Hex n' More ruler FOUR years ago.  I knew there would be Y seams involved and I was mostly okay with that, even though I hadn't attempted Y seams. However, when I sewed my columns together, I neglected to leave 1/4" at the end of each seam.  I know...you're probably thinking "If you knew you were doing Y seams, why would you sew all the way to the edge?"  🙄

After about two years, I finally started removing the threads 1/4" on every single hexie.  Every. Single. One.   And then I was done.  I put them all back in their container and shoved it back on the shelf.  

Fast forward to 2019, when I was finally in the mood to finish it! And then I attempted a Y seam, and said NOPE!  I figured it would take me six months to do it, and I wanted it done now!  I'm not afraid of Y seams, but I didn't want to spend that kind of time for this particular quilt.  So I got out the Hex n' More ruler again and decided to do half hexies.  I didn't want to waste too much of this beautiful fabric (Bijoux by Bari J) by using the next size down marked on the ruler, so I decided to make my own template.  NOTE TO SELF: Measure twice (or more!), cut once!!  They're really, really close to hexies.  Close enough for me anyway.  Or, as my father-in-law used to say....."good enough for who it's for."  

The backing will be the lovely floral brown print in the picture above.  I'm so glad I bought that at the same time that I bought the bundle!  Stay tuned for the finished quilt, sometime in the next four years :)