Tag Archives: Island Batik

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It's been a while since I've participated in setting a "One Monthly Goal" (hosted by Patty at Elm Street Quilts). Last month I used my cool colored scraps to make my Island Batik challenge quilt. This month I'll be using my warm scraps. I've opted for some improv piecing and I'm not entirely sure where this is going. Here's a peek at my first seams.

I've chosen a pale tan neutral for my negative space and I'm aiming for about 40" x 40" with Hobbs wool batting and some intricate free motion.

 

Linking up with One Monthly Goal.

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

The April challenge was to use the AccuQuilt Ready. Set. GO! to create a 40" to 48" square baby quilt using AccuQuilt Dies. I asked people on Instagram to vote on my fabric selection for this project. I pulled a rainbow of scraps, but then I also liked the green/blue subset. The green/blue palette was the overwhelming winner.

The Ready. Set. GO! collection includes the GO! Qube 8" Mix & Match Block which is a set of 8 dies in a variety of geometric shapes for making 8" finished blocks. I used dies 1, 2, and 4 for cutting all my green and blue squares and triangles as well as my 4 1/2" background squares. I appreciated how fast and easy it was to cut out the pieces for my scrappy project. I look forward to teaching my kids how to use the AccuQuilt, because it's easy enough for them to use (and I currently do all the cutting for their quilts).

I'm drawn to quilts with expansive negative space, like my Island Batik quilt from last April. I used Rice (from the Island Batik Neutral Foundation Basics) for my background and used my favorite design tool for creating my quilt design: graph paper. The cutting was fast and easy. The piecing was fast and easy. I decided to have fun with free motion quilting this one, using a variety of motifs in the different sections of the quilt. I like to take a photo of the quilt top and markup the image with potential quilting motifs on my phone. Here's my initial sketch.

I didn't think too much about how hard the wishbone quilting in the center background sections would be. Given that the width of that section varies from about 6 to 11 inches wide, these are very long wishbones. It started out a little dicey, but overall I'm pleased with the look. In general, I like organic quilting and don't strive for perfection when quilting. Precision sometimes, but not perfection.

This was the first project I used my new free motion quilting foot on and it went very well. I am loving the visibility of the open toe, and the hopping foot went from distracting to "the new normal" pretty quickly. This is a serious step up from the darning foot I've been using to free motion quilt for 7 years! I used 50wt Aurifil Light Grey Turquoise (#2805) from the Pastel collection for my quilting.

I chose Hobbs Heirloom Premium cotton batting. The 45" x 60" size crib batting was perfect for my 40" x 40" quilt.

In the end, the quilt reminds me a bit of nautical signal flags, though that wasn't at all my inspiration. I'm toying with making another version in warm colors for my May project, though I'll likely decide to do something else

I had nearly enough of my remnant Rice binding from my Fortune Teller quilt and added scraps from the cut off edges of my quilt backing to lengthen the binding. A little hard to see in the photo above, but the two blue and green sections of binding are on the upper right and lower left corners of the quilt.

 

Please visit the other Island Batik Ambassadors to see their AccuQuilt Ready. Set. GO! Challenge Baby Quilts from this month.

I'm linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday and TGIFF.

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

This month we were asked to use a vintage quilt block as inspiration for our Island Batik Ambassador projects. I considered this challenge an opportunity to use Modern Traditionalism in my design, using a traditional block with some twist to modernize the look of it.

I chose the Antique Tile quilt block to work from. I shared my design process in a previous post, but these digital images show the block I started with and the mockup for the quilt that I made.

 

My fabrics are all Island Batik Foundations: Bermuda Cherio, Turquoise Small Pointed Floral, Lemon Round Petal Floral, and Cherry Bubbles.

It's nice when my thread collection contains just the right colors for a project. The project was pieced with Aurifil 50wt White (#2024) and quilted with Aurifil 50wt Jade (#4093), Light Lemon (#2110), and Red (#2250). (Ironically, I used Light Lemon to quilt my Modern Traditional Island Batik quilt last year.)

I used a walking foot for the teal lines of quilting and used free motion quilting for my flowers and jagged stipple.

The 36" x 36" quilt was finished with a faced binding. I chose this option so that the lines from my design would extend all the way to the edge.

I used the remnants of my four fabrics to make a color block backing for the quilt.

 

Please visit the other Island Batik Ambassadors to see their Vintage Reimagined projects from this month.

I'm linking up to Cheryl's first Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup for March. This is my favorite March Finish because I love the colors, the design, and the quilting. I'm also linking up to Brag About Your Beauties and Needle and Thread Thursday. :-)