Beat the Heat Blog Hop

Who's ready to Beat the Heat?  It's a little warm here in the Pacific Northwest, but I'm loving every minute of it!  For those of you who would rather be inside scrolling on your phones, checking out all the fun quilty stuff, just sit back and relax and start hopping to the Island Batik Ambassador blogs for a look at the new fabric lines coming out and for a chance to win some fabric of your own, including one at the end of this post! 

You may remember my box opening video in February where I shared everything that Island Batik sent to me in my first of two boxes, and I showed some "surprise" packages that I couldn't share until a later time.  Well, it's finally time!  

This is the Clockworks line by Kathy Engle.  Just look at all these fun designs!  The blues are my favorite!  

I had so many ideas for what to make with these fabrics, but so many of those ideas involved cutting it into small pieces, as most quilts do :)  I wanted a design that showed off each of the prints, so spent a lot of time (probably too much, as usual) going through all of my quilting books, looking for THE one to jump out, and I think I found it! 

I used the Checkerboard Dots pattern in the Skip the Borders book by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts.  This is a fun quilt to make, and I think it shows off each of the prints so well!  

I used this old compass of my father-in-law's to cut out all the fusible circles.  It's  pretty handy.  I think I'll keep it in my sewing room now :) 

The pattern calls for 32 different prints, but I didn't have that many, so I cut out one of each print and then chose my favorite prints to use more than once :) 

I used Hobbs Heirloom Natural cotton batting with scrim, which is really nice, and I LOVE the weight of it!  

I quilted randomly spaced horizontal straight lines and then two vertical lines down the center(ish) of each circle using Aurifil 50 wt. #5020 (light military green) and the walking foot on my Baby Lock Jazz.  

I used my favorite binding technique (seen in pic above and below) - matched binding - using the excellent tutorial by Debbie at A Quilter's Table.  

Be sure to check out the Island Batik website for a chance to win some amazing fabric, and there you'll find links to all the other ambassadors' websites where there will be even more giveaways!  

And here's what you can win from me! These are my leftovers from making this quilt - over 2 pounds of fabric! 

All you need to do is leave a comment here on this post telling me what you're doing this summer to beat the heat.  That's it!  U.S. residents only.  

The blog hop ends on August 30th, so I'll keep my giveaway open until September 7, 2019.  That gives you a few days to catch up and get through all the blogs to enter all the giveaways :)  Good luck!  

Artsy Fartsy

Artsy fartsy.  

THAT is the theme of July's challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors, using three different weights of Aurifil thread.

What in the world was I supposed to do with this prompt?  I am NOT an artsy fartsy quilter by a long shot.  My favorite quilts to make are not difficult, my quilting is fairly simple, and I don't ever do anything artsy fartsy.  But I thought, "Oh, I'll just make a small item with some embroidery on it, and it'll be so cute!"  Yeah....no.  Embroidery is hard!  In my 50+ years on this earth, I've fallen in deep with cross-stitching, crocheting, knitting, sewing, quilting....but I've never seriously tackled embroidery.  

I got out this book that my mother-in-law bought for me SO many years ago because it has everything about needlework in it, and I learned how to make a blanket stitch.  

After stressing about it for way too long, I decided to just be myself. I got out my colored pencils and drawing pad and started playing before I started cutting.  

I got out a Dresden template and some summery fabric and just played. This was actually my third attempt after the first two projects just didn't feel right.  

I used three different weights of Aurifl thread:  50 wt #5024 & #2021, 40 wt #2024, and 28 wt # 2150.

I used Darlene Zimmerman's EZ Quilting Easy Dresden Ruler to cut out 10 orange and 10 yellow wedges using the 5" mark.  I used my handy dandy Olfa 28 mm rotary cutter because it's my absolute favorite cutter!  The fabric pictured here is Island Batik Ogee Petal Sunshine.  Isn't it bright and summery?

I used Hobbs Thermore batting again this month because it really is the perfect batting for a wall hanging or, as the packaging shows....quilted clothing, which I just might get around to one of these days! 

I used a Clover Hera Marker to make grid lines, which did NOT come out as planned, but that's my own fault for marking it when I should have been in bed sleeping, but I wanted to be ready to start fresh in the morning, when everything would already be marked!  ha ha! 

Just check out my hand stitching around the edges and my blanket stitch!  OK, it's not perfect, but that's okay.  It really does look handstitched, and that's exactly what I was going for! :)  This is about as artsy fartsy as I could get.  

I was second-guessing my decision to do this the entire time...even up until I was writing this blog post, but I'm actually quite happy with the result, and it will really brighten up my new sewing room!  The real flowers are from our front yard, grown by my dude.  

Finished dimensions are 18x20.  

Try it! You'll like it!

The items mentioned in this post were provided to me by Island Batik, Hobbs batting, and Aurifil thread.  

I thought this month's Island Batik challenge was going to be easy - Just try a new technique!  Not too difficult, right?  Well, ideas kept popping in my head and I just couldn't make a decision.  You know how that goes! 

I finally started going through my Pinterest boards.  I've never gotten into Pinterest like so many of you have, but I've definitely created a few boards when I've spent some time browsing.  One of those boards was for 3-D quilts, so I decided it would be fun to make a mini (15.5" x 19.5") shadow quilt aka floating block quilt!  

How cool is this?  I used the Soul Song collection, which is probably my favorite of all of the fabric I received from Island Batik.  

All it took was a 2.5" square of each print to make this mini quilt! I used the tutorial from Studio Dragonfly Quilts.  She used a 3" square, but I was working with 2.5" strips so adjusted for that. 

I swear I couldn't see how in the world this was going to eventually look 3-D as I was piecing it.  

I even sent pics to friends & family asking if it looked 3-D to them.  Ha ha!  They assured me that it did.  

I used Hobbs Thermore batting.  As you can see, it can be used for quilted clothing, wall hangings, miniature quilts, and other small quilting projects.  This is a very thin batting which was perfect for this small project!  

I used Aurifil 2026 50-wt thread for piecing because it's what I have on my machine 99.9% of the time :) and Aurifil 2024 40-wt thread for quilting.  

Have you made a 3-D quilt?  I'd love to see it if you have! Just post your link in the comments so I can take a peek!  

Be sure to check out the projects from the other 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

Make it Modern with Hobbs

The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik and Hobbs Batting. 

Welcome back!  I can't believe how fast time is flying this year!  Our spring here in the Pacific Northwest has been really nice, but I'm really looking forward to the summer months -- My favorite time of year! 

And it's the last day of May, so it must be time (just in time!) to share my Island Batik project with you!  

This month's sponsor for the Island Batik ambassador challenge is Hobbs batting.  The theme is Make it Modern.

Hobbs provided us with SO much batting to use for our monthly projects (Thank you, Hobbs!), and this month I chose the Tuscany Silk batting, which is lightweight, 90% very fine imported silk filaments and 10% fine polyester. If you're looking for a drapey batting, this is it!

For my modern quilt, I decided to use some bright colors (not in 🌈 order😜), some negative space using a solid gray fabric, a modern font/text pattern, and walking foot quilting.    

 The bright colors are from the 5"x40" stashbuilder strips; the gray background fabric is one of the solids available from Island Batik (**Island Batik solids are amazing and do not fray!); and the pattern I chose is a new font/text pattern called Curfont from Jen Carlton Bailly

I used the book Walk by Jacquie Gering to get some ideas for quilting.  I quilted two 18" square blocks using the "shattered quilting" technique and made a smaller strip between those two blocks using just straight line quilting.  I then did some outlining and straight line quilting on the text panel.  All of the piecing and quilting was done using Aurifil 50 wt thread, #2600 using my Baby Lock Jazz sewing machine that I recently purchased. 

I used Leah Day's technique for joining pre-quilted blocks together.  If the thought of quilting a big quilt on your domestic sewing machine is overwhelming, this is a great way to start! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I'm planning on getting a headstart on next month's challenge using a new technique.  I have a few ideas already....now I just need to decide which one! 

Don't forget to take a peek at the modern quilts made by the other 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

Ready. Set. GO!

It's April!  I'm not sure how this month flew by so fast, but it did, and I somehow managed to finish a quilt even though I was without a sewing machine for a week!  I'm excited to show you this fun quilt that I made for this month's Island Batik challenge.  

I used my walking foot on my new-to-me Baby Lock Jazz to make "organic" wavy lines using Aurifil 50 wt #2021 (one of my absolute favorite because it blends with everything!) and Hobbs 80/20 bleached batting. 

Our challenge was to make a baby quilt (40" to 48" square) using Accuquilt dies.  

As you may recall from a few posts back, the Island Batik Ambassadors received an Accuquilt Ready. Set. GO! package that was AMAZING!  This included the 8" GO! Qube set of dies AND the Quilt in a Day GO! Qube book full of awesome block patterns! 

Check out how the Accuquilt label matches my paint! 

I flipped through the book a million times and finally decided to go with the Susannah block.  And then I sorted through all of my Island Batik fabric to decide on which ones to use, and that always takes me FOREVER, especially with all the fabric that Island Batik sent to me!  I decided to use the solid black and white along with two of the orange stash builder strips (5" x WOF).  

I didn't set a stopwatch to see how long it took to cut these pieces, but I can tell you it wasn't long at all! 

The entire quilt....in pieces! Crazy, right? 

....and the scraps from all that cutting.  That's it! 

If you haven't had a chance to play with an Accuquilt, I would encourage you to find a sewing center or, better yet, a quilty friend who has an Accuquilt and try it out!  It's a great way to organize your scraps....or make a quilt in a day!  

Disclosure:  The products featured in this post were provided to me free of charge by Island Batik, Accuquilt, Aurifil and Hobbs Batting.