Christmas in July!

Our monthly challenge for July’s Island Batik Ambassador program is to use the Accuquilt Go! Me cutter and dies that we received in our 2nd boxes from Island Batik.  My June boxes took their time getting here.  They spent over 2 weeks at Customs in Vancouver (a mere 45 minute drive).  Once they arrived, I did my unboxing video (you’ll see that next week) and got to work on my challenge.

The GO! me cutter comes with 2 dies, a Quarter Square and a Half Square Triangle.

The Go! me is a perfect starting set!  It’s small, it’s portable and it will help new quilters make those perfect HST and QST.

It was easy to come up with a design and I used EQ 7  to plan it out.  However, all of the neutral blocks consisted of a HST and 2 portions of a QST … I loved the end result of all the scrappy neutrals!  And the scrappy greens!

Here are a couple of the sample squares that I teased you with earlier in the week.  Do you see how they fit into the quilt?

I had some green scraps in my Island Batik stash, and some neutrals … but I was SUPER excited when the stash builder bundles I received had some neutrals and some greens!!  Heaven!!  You can’t have too much variation when making something scrappy!

The 2nd part of this challenge was to gift the GO! me to a new quilter.  My sister is starting to quilt and it was the obvious choice for her to receive the cutter.  The only problem is … she lives 12 hours away and I can’t just pop over to her home and give it to her.  SEW … what to do?  We are in a Zoom Yoga class and at the end of the class, I took a little video and told her that she was being gifted the Go! me.  She was over the moon.  She couldn’t believe it!  She’s the one in the upper left corner.  And, you can see the partially finished wall hanging on my design wall.

My sister wants the pattern for this tree as does one of the other yoga classmates.  They live close to each other, so I’m sure my sister may lend the cutter to her!  Sew, a pattern will be written up in the near future.

And finally … here is the finished wall hanging:

Yes, I made 2!   One for my sister and one for me!  I decided to take the picture with petunia’s in front of them.  It is July!

And here is the back which shows the FMQ.  Swirls in the neutral areas, arcs in the tree, straight lines in the tree trunk and on the border.  I used 2 squares (6″) folded into triangles to hold the dowel to hang it with.

Wall Hanging Stats:

• 26″ square
• Hobbs 80/20 batting
• Aurifil Thread
  • Cream (neutral area) #2311
  • Red (border) #2460
  • Green Variegated (tree) #4653
  • Brown (tree trunk) # 1285
  • Green (binding) # 5012
• Schmetz Needles
• Backing: Island Batik solid Grey
• Fabric: assorted Island Batik Greens and Neutrals.  Red is “Wavy Dot Cherry” and the Green used in the binding is “Grass.”

Disclaimer:  Thanks to Island Batik for the fabrics, Hobbs batting, Schmetz Needles, Aurifil thread and AccuQuilt for providing the necessary tools and supplies to make the quilts! 

One who sleeps under a quilt is covered by LOVE!

Happy Quilting!  

Happy Christmas in July! 

Gail

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April’s Island Batik Challenge

Last month, for the Island Batik challenge, I HAD to use the “Glorified 9 Patch” Accuquilt Go! die.  And, I made the quilt on the right.  You can read more about it on THIS POST.  I enjoyed making the blocks SEW much!  I knew I wanted to use the die again to make another quilt that was totally different!  I think I achieved that goal!

As I was making the March quilt, I thought about April’s challenge to do a Creative Border or Binding.  The idea to use the “big curve” portion of the die came to life when I thought it would make for a creative, curved border.

It was a little unsettling to have those pieces on the outside of the quilt with nothing to piece and match up to the notches.  (Well, duh, that was the idea, right?)

I used Hobbs Heirloom Permium Cotton Batting that was a dream to free motion quilt with.  I also used Schmetz Microtex 80/12 which goes through the batik and batting with ease.

I started out quilting the quilt with Aurifil #1148: a pretty teal that I received from Island Batik last year.  It was perfect for outlining the colourful blocks and completing the circles.  (You can see a little of it at the corner on the picture below.)  Then I started to do the freemotion quilting to fill in the circles.  Oh MY … talk about a disaster … then I decided to try pebbles … still disastrous … then I decided I HAD to take all of the free motion quilting out.  That took a bit of time! Actually – a lot of time!  A couple of evenings at least!

Once all  free motion teal was removed, I switched to Aurifil #2309, an off white.  It was perfect!  You can see the quilting, but not all the mistakes!  I know, I know … if you look closely, you can still see the mistakes …

I made the bias binding according to one website, but I won’t tell you which one because the measurements were so very misleading.  I ended up with enough bias binding to use on 3, yes 3 quilts.  In the end, I guess that’s better than not having enough binding, right?

I LOVE the vibrant colours of the Island Batik fabrics in this quilt!  Since we’re social isolating, all the pictures were taken in my front yard.  Spring is just starting to show it’s pretty hopeful self!  The hyacinths smell heavenly and the tree with the pink blossoms is alive with the buzzing of bees!

Disclaimer: The products featured in this Blog post were given to me by Island Batik, and their co-sponsers Aurifil, Hobbs Batting, Schmetz Needles & AccuQuilt!  

One who sleeps under a quilt is covered by LOVE!

Happy Quilting! 
Gail 

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