This is our Island Batik February challenge.  We were instructed to use any Island Batik fabric in our box, but not the “surprise” fabric. It was to be smaller than 24″ x 24″. Once I decided what to do for my mini … the rest was easy.   Decision: A smalll Sudoku Quilt!

For my mini, I needed 9 fabrics plus a background.  I received 8 wonderful fall colours.  I added a vibrant green from a stash builder’s roll.   And I used the neutral fabric for the sashing, border and back (the yummy butter fabric).

The next step was to cut all of the 2 ½” squares.  I used the GO Cutter to do this … Once the strips were cut, I lined them up on the GO cutter and the squares were ALL cut all at once as they went through the cutter!!!  (Sorry, I didn’t take a picture of this!  But it was pretty quick work!)

I found a Sudoku puzzle and wrote it out so that I would have an easy visual to use.

I have numbered pins, but they are scattered all over … SEW, I took a piece of selvage with the coloured dots on the side.  I cut the dots individually and stuck a pin through them.  It made it easy to keep track of which colour was which number!

I then began sewing … one block at a time.  No rushing this one.  I would have had a lot of ripping to do if I did.   As I finished a block, I added the sashing to the left of the block.

The corners were able to be twirled or swirled, but it took me a bit to figure it out.  (I LOVE twirling where the seams meet – it makes it sew smooth when free motion quilting!)

The blocks were all joined together … and I checked carefully to ensure they were all in the correct placement.    The quilt was sandwiched with Hobbs 80/20 batting, using a spray baste.

I started quilting on my domestic machine.  I used Aurifil thread 50 wt (top & bobbin). I stitched in the ditch along each seam and extended out into the borders.  In the sashing, I sewed wonky ¼” seams.  (I call them wonky because they were not all perfectly straight! grin!)  I thought I was done quilting, until I looked at it closely and saw that the 2 brown fabrics, although quite different, read almost the same colour.  As well, one of the oranges had a lot of green in it, and definitely did not read the same colour throughout.  No Problem!  I decided to just quilt a tiny motif in each block to hopefully define each colour …  Thankfully, I have lots of Aurifil thread in many colours … SEW that was easy.  Then I had to decide which motif to use.  Eventually, they all spoke to me and soon it was done! This little mini measures 22″ x 22″.

The wind is blowing up to 90 km gusts today, so it was hard to get a picture without the quilt being blown away.

I tried to be a bit artistic with my photos …  The one on the tree  (left) is the closest to the true colours … the right and bottom one are both washed out a bit.

Tiny motif’s in each 2″ square

On the huge boulders on the side of our yard.

Can you see the tiny motifs in the 2″ squares?

If you want to see the Magniifcent Minis that are already posted, go to these blogs:

• Clever Chameleon
• Adventurous Applique and Quilting
• Little Bunny Quilts
• Carolina Asmussen
• Creative Blonde
• Gene Black, Creative Soul
• Pretty Piney
• Free Motion by the River

There will be many many more minis being posted during the rest of the month.  You don’t want to miss them!  There is a tab at the top of my blog that lists all the 2019 Island Batik Ambassadors.  If you go to each of their blogs and “follow” each one, you will ensure that you don’t miss a single post of all of their creations!

Disclaimer: The products featured in this Blog post were given to me by Island Batik, and their program partners: Aurifil, Hobbs Batting & AccuQuilt!

Happy Quilting! 
Gail

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Linking to:

• Caroline @  SewCanShe 
• Tish @  Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland
• So Scrappy Saturdays @  So Scrappy