It’s a Scrapbuster Challenge!

Challenge #1

I do have a ‘few’ Island Batik scraps! I save anything that is larger than 2″. I know that some of my fellow ambassadors save scraps that are smaller … I’ll let them do that, but it doesn’t mean that I have to. When it came to deciding what to do, I immediately thought of a scrappy Irish Chain. I have made a few and I love quilting the feather wreaths in the plain white block. I started sewing my 2″ squares into 4 patches … all the while thinking about how I could make it more unique. I thought of stars … and I was happy … here’s the chain blocks with a few of the first stars I made. Yes, I liked it.

Sew, I sewed and I sewed and I sewed. I tried to count how many different fabrics there were in this quilt. I got to 150 and then I started to second guess myself: Is this one in the quilt, or is it a similar one from the same collection? I quit counting. As I was sewing this together, there were lots of memories … oh, I made a log cabin with this fabric … this was from a table runner … this fabric was in a quilt I gave as a wedding gift … Such a lot of fun!!!

There are 782 coloured 2″ squares and 136 coloured Half-Square Triangles. I did not count how many white squares, half square triangles or rectangles are in this quilt. I know there are a LOT.

Then the quilt is . Hobbs 80/20 batting was used. I spray baste my quilts together, using Odif 505 spray. It was quilted on my Janome Continental M7 domestic sewing machine using the following threads: Aurifil #5004 – Grey Smoke and #2021 – Natural White. The binding was sewn on with #2692 – Black. Each square was stitched in the ditch with the Grey Smoke. The Natural White outlined the star and each of the blocks on the white.

There is a single crocus blooming in the garden, it’s in the middle pot, just in front of the rose stems … but I can barely see it in the picture, so you’ll just have to trust me!

Challenge #2

This quilt was unexpected. It just happened. It wasn’t planned. I was to take a ruler quilting course (by Zoom) with Silly Moon Quilting Co. and I needed to make a placemat or table runner, using 5″ squares. I pulled out a couple of neutral Island Batik Stashbuilder rolls and cut them into 5″ squares. (Stash builder rolls are perfect for this since they are 5″ wide by width of fabric.) But, I really didn’t want a placemat or table runner with them. So I made a heart quilt with squares and half-square triangles. Outlined the neutrals in soft dusty blues. I was liking it!!! I ended up adding a few more borders. Then I wanted it to be a rectangle, not a square, so the borders on the top and bottom became larger than the borders on the sides.

I was sewing with a friend (Zoom) and she saw the penguins and wanted to know if it was a fabric that is currently available. It’s an older line because it was in the stashbuilder bundle. But aren’t they cute?

Hobbs 80/20 batting was used, Aurifil #2610 – Light Blue Grey, and Schmetz needles were used for piecing and quilting.

Disclosure: The fabrics, thread, batting and needles were generously supplied by the following companies:

• Island Batik
• Hobbs Batting
• Aurifil Thread
• Schmetz Needles

One who sleeps under a quilt is covered by LOVE!

Happy Quilting! 
Gail 

I donate a LOT of quilts through the guild (Boundary Bay Quilt Guild): Baby Quilts, Comfort Quilts for Cancer patients and Quilts of Valour. The quilt that I made for this blog hop is going to be a comfort quilt. There’s not a scrap of red in this beautiful collection … and I’ve already got several baby quilts ready to donate. So a Comfort Quilt it is. This has double meaning for me as I lost a friend of 48 years to cancer last week.

Aren’t these fabrics wonderful? So rich!!! I love the purples and greens with a touch of blue! This collection will be shipping to your favourite quilt store this month.

I started out by making a design in EQ. I absolutely LOVE using the Island Batik fabrics in EQ as I plan my design.

I really like using quarter square triangles. I used the same technique (although MUCH smaller) and using the Accuquilt GO!Me when I made the Christmas tree wall hangings last year. You can read about them HERE.

Once I had decided on my design, I cut 9″ squares, using my ShapeCut Ruler.

Marked the centre line and sewed a ¼”seam on each side of the line.

After that, the squares were cut in half and with right sides together, nesting the seams. they sewn together with another set of half-square triangles. Again, a centre line was marked. Seams were sewn on each side of the centre line.

The centre line was cut, resulting in quarter square triangles. These were then trimmed to 8″ square. On the design wall, they were rearranged until their final position was decided upon.

Custard is the lovely neutral that was used for the background.

The squares were webbed together (you can see how to web a quilt HERE.

Once the quilt was a flimsy and sandwiched together … I started quilting, using the 3″, 4″ and 5″ Silly Moon Cupid rulers (the 5/3 and the 6/3). After I finished one of the hearts, I back-tracked along the ruler and made a heart of a different size, going in all different directions.

I used the Hobbs Poly-Down batting. I’m in LOVE!!!! This batting is awesome!!! It’s light. It’s easy, easy to quilt and it has a fantastic loft!!! You must give it a try!!!

This was quilted with Aurifil #5003 – wine on top and #2000 – light stand in the bobbin.

The binding is “Square Circle Mardig” from the Mystery collection. I love how it changes colour from purple to blue to green. The binding was sewn on with Aurifil #2370 … sandstone that blends in nicely!!!

Make sure you visit Michelle @ Creative Blonde today. She is my blog hop partner and is using the same fabrics! I’m eager to see her Create for a Cause quilt!

There are 2 Give-aways!

Island Batik is offering a 10″stack or a 2.5″ strip set of Mystery. There are 20 different fabric designs.

I’m offering Ten 10″ squares of Mystery to a blog follower that lives in Canada.

Disclosure: The fabrics, thread, batting and needles were generously supplied by Island Batik and the following companies:

One who sleeps under a quilt is covered by LOVE!

Happy Quilting! 
Gail 

January’s Island Batik challenge is to make a set of placemats. My boxes from Island Batik had not arrived when I started to make these. I began by pulling out some blue stashbuilder bundles that I received last year. Stashbuilder bundles are 5″ wide by width of fabric. And the white with dots is a fabric from the Faded Blue Jeans collection. Blue is my favourite colour, so these placemats will definitely be loved and used!

Last fall, I was able to purchase “Wing Clipper” (for making flying geese) at a quilt store in Edmonton. The Wing Clipper is a Studio 180 (Deb Tucker Designs. I thought this would be the perfect time to try it out. The stashbuilder strips are 5″ wide, so that limited the size I could make the flying geese. They ended up 1 ½” x 3″ finished in the table runner.

I LOVED using the Wing Clipper!!! Each and EVERY flying geese came out PERFECT!!! Or should I say “each flying goose?”) I’d say for this project alone, it was well worth the money!!! (And you all know that I’m NOT a perfect quilter!!!)

I added 2″ strips of fabric to each side of the flying geese … and these are the placemats!

They can be placed with the geese heading up or heading down … which way do you like best? The picture below, taken on my design wall shows the true colour, better than the picture of them on my table (above.)

They are 12.5″ x 18.5″. Hobbs Thermore was used for the batting. It was quilted with Aurifil #1128 and the binding attached with Aurifil #2311, using Schmetz microtex Chrome 70/10. Why 70/10?? Batik is tightly woven and sometimes the larger gauge needles struggle with sewing batik fabric. My machine tech told me to use a smaller needle. SEW … I did and I was very happy!

Disclosure: The fabrics, thread, batting and needles were generously supplied by the following companies:

One who sleeps under a quilt is covered by LOVE!

Happy Quilting! 
Gail 

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The December Island Batik challenge is to make a medallion quilt. The instructions said “A medallion quilt is all about a center block and borders.” Easy peasy … right?

So, I went to EQ and designed a great medallion quilt using “Sundance” fabric collection (a 10″ stack), as well as “Marble Blackberry-BE” and “Copper” that I received as a companion fabrics. Aren’t these fabrics great? (And, as the quilt progressed several other fabrics were incorporated from other fabric lines).

The EQ pattern I designed had paper pieced stars and I started out with a bang. I made all of the paper pieced stars and then promptly decided to change up the design and put the centre block on point. I felt that it would be shown off better if I put it on point and framed it with my favourite dark fabric in the pack.

From there on, the measurements did not fit at all. And I had to do a lot of fudging. The quilt I ended up making is formally called “Sundance Fudge.”

I came across a tutorial from Deb Tucker with migrating geese. Oh … those look like fun and so, after figuring out that the width, with a bit of a border would work … I went to town and made them. They were a LOT of fun to make. However, I needed more light background and I used “121935500” from the Santa Fe collection.

The final pieced border was also fun to make. I’d used up all of the lighter fabrics for the Paper Pieced stars and migrating geese … so I used “Custard,” a neutral. The yellowish hue was perfect for this quilt!

Making the back

I took the copper fabric that I had left over and sliced it diagonally. Then I placed it over the quilt, leaving about 3″ beyond the edges of the quilt. I like that extra amount for handling the quilt on my domestic sewing machine. Next, the distance between the 2 copper pieces was measured (27″) and I cut a length of Marble Blackberry to form the stripe in the middle. Joined the 2 copper triangles to the middle stripe and called it “done” for the back.

Sorry, I didn’t take a picture of the back until after it was quilted. Here’s a picture of the finished back … taken outside so that you can see the front peeking through …

The Batting

I received a queen-sized fusible 80/20 bag of batting in my July Island Batik box. I took it out of the package and needed to let it “breathe” for 24 hours. No, putting it in the drier to fluff it up, no ironing to make the crinkles disappear. It was wound very tightly in the bag and I needed to gently pull it apart.

To read more about Hobbs fusible batting visit the Hobbs website HERE. (Picture was taken from the Hobbs website).

I layered the quilt back, the batting and the top on a queen size bed. The batting was cut about 1/4″ larger than the quilt top. When I pressed the layers together, I was very careful to avoid the edges. It adhered nicely. The back didn’t adhere very well, so I turned the sandwich over and ironed from the back. It was perfect! I loved how the fusible batting did not shift at all! No wrinkles in the back. Loved it!

The Quilting

Here’s a picture of the centre star – from the back … (I’m showing you the back because the quilting shows up much better on the Marble Blackberry!)

Here’s a picture of the centre star – from the front…

And the quilting on the back of the meandering geese and the squares from the outside border. As you can see, the quilting has a lot of stippling … (the colour is off in this picture … the yellow is actually the copper fabric … true colour above!)

The Quilt

Now that you’ve seen the back and close-ups of the quilting, here’s the quilt:

Quilt statistics:

• size 54″ x 54″
• Hobbs 80/20 fusible batting
• Quilted with Aurifil #5021
• Schmetz needle: Microtex Chrome 80/12

Thank You!

Disclaimer: This quilt would not have been possible without Island Batik and the wonderful co-sponsors.

One who sleeps under a quilt is covered by LOVE!

Happy Quilting!    
Gail