IBA April Project - Summer Breeze I and II

This month, Island Batik Ambassador's got to make what ever they wanted.  Sometimes having no theme is harder because there are so many choices to choose from and narrowing it down to one is so hard!

I decided to stick with making quilts and some quick quilts at that.  Sometimes you just need a quick finish.  These two quilts were just that.  Well, they were until I decided to custom quilt them.  It ended up taking longer to quilt them than it did to sew the tops together, but it was worth it.  I love how they came out.

In my January Island Batik Ambassador box I was given a whole half yard bundle of Summer Fields collection designed by Kathy Engle.  I used most of the half yard bundle for the blog hop we did on February,  but I had some big strips left over and decided to use it up. 

These fabrics shipped to stores in February this year. You can probably still get some in your local shops.   

I had enough fabric left over to to cut two 2.5 inch strips of each print using my Accuquilt cutter and the 2.5 inch strip die.  I used to have my reservations about the 2.5 strip die, I felt I could cut those strips faster myself, but I was wrong. It was so nice to put six layers on and roll it right through.  They came out just as fast as I could cut and didn't have any bowed strips.  Super nice.

 I also cut out an equal amount of Island Batik background fabric, Moo Milk, which was also given to me in my Island Batik Box.  Moo Milk is a slightly off white foundation print you can get all the time.  I decided to combine the prints and the Moo Milk to make a strip tube quilt. 

There are so many different variations and strip sizes you can use to come up with totally different strip tube patterns, but the one I went with was based on the tutorial from MSQC called Summer in the Park. You can watch the video to get a visual on how to make the tube and how to cut it. You can also search strip tube quilt patterns on YouTube and get all kinds of different ideas.

Basically, for this one, I sewed three strips together.  The first set has two prints and one background.  The other set has two backgrounds and one print. Then I sewed those two strips together on both sides creating a tube.

I cut the tube into triangles using my 45 degree ruler and when I opened the triangles I had Square blocks.   It's pretty fun to see them all come together.  

 

I had enough strips to make two quilts. The first one is bordered with a lovely Island Batik blue from the Summer Fields Collection. 

The second version has a green border. I used a green from my personal Island Batik stash for this one.  It is a tortoise shell print from the Magical Reef collection that came out in fall of 2019.  It plays perfect with Summer fields and pulls out the darker green prints of the line.

I used the last of my yellow Aurifil thread for the quilting.  It blended perfectly on all the prints.

And of course, pieced and quilted it with a Schmetz Needle.

 

I already trimmed it off in the photo, but I used Hobbs Heirloom Natural Cotton batting for both quilts. It quilted up so nice and fluffy.

 

The quilting is similar on both quilts,

These strip tube quilts go together so fast and look pretty fancy.

I am naming these two Summer Breeze I and II.  

I took them to the State Park to get some pictures, but it sure was windy down at the beach.

I ended up getting them to stay straight when we got away from the ocean and into the wooded area of the park.

They did sit nice for me on this bench though.

Happy quilting!

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We Support You - UFO Finished!

 It feels good to finish a UFO! This project was started as part of a blog hop in February of 2015. You can read the original post HERE.

What caused this one to be delayed for so long was the applique. I needed to stitch it down and that always seemed like a "chore" so I kept putting it at the bottom of my to do list.

Some UFOs you forget about but this one was always in the back of my mind begging me to finish it, after all I had a recipient I wanted to give it to.  What finally put a fire under me was an opportunity to save $20 in shipping.  My son is flying out in a couple weeks for school and his Aunt will pick him up.  The quilt is for her. So to save on shipping,  I planned to put it in his suitcase.

That gave me a deadline. The quilt had to be finished before April 16. So at the end of March I pulled it out of the box where it was safely stored and got to work sewing down the applique. It wasn't as painful as I thought it was going to be.  I broke it up into two days and even sewed on another quilt inbetween.  

Once everything was stitched down I got to quilting. I usually load my quilts longways on the frame so I don't have to roll it as much so I did the same with this one, but after I started the quilting I realized it would have been easier to loaded it the other way. That way I could have quilted one whole row without rolling it. Lesson learned for the future. 

I like the way the quilting turned out. I quilted what ever struck me at the moment. Swirls, feathers, and even some pebbles. Was good practice for the designs I still feel uncomfortable with. When they get thrown in with everything else it looked pretty good. Couldn't even tell I was practicing.

It feels good to have this finished and ready for gifting! Happy Quilting!

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Island Batik Ambassador Scrapbuster Challenge

 

I had a lot of fun with this month's Island Batik challenge.  Going through all my different Island Batik scraps is always fun and always full of color.  This month I turned my leftover scraps into a Hunter's Star Quilt. 

 This is the first time I have made this type of quilt and I used the Accuquilt Hunter Star die to help me cut everything out.  I like this die as it cuts out all the shapes with one pass and cuts off all the dog ears at the same time.  

  I needed a strip about 4 inches wide to cover the cutouts on the die.  So I went through my leftover Island Batik Scraps and pulled out every scrap piece 4 to 5 inches wide and started cutting.

I also cut some 4 inch strips of Island Batik black solid for the contrasting half of the block.  I love bright colors on a black background.  So pretty!

There are lots of pieces in this quilt. 960 to be exact.

I decided to make the Star sections scrappy, so each star has 4 different colored fabrics. 

The colorful parts that make the stars are attached to the black contrasting section so I randomly grabbed two different colors for each strip and got to sewing. 

Once I had all all the colored triangles sewn together I put them on the design wall and tried to spread out the colors a bit.  I wanted the quilt to have a scrappy look, but I also didn't want all the pinks on one side.  There are some colors touching, but I tried to avoid the same print touching.  Which wasn't too hard as there are lots of different prints.

Then I turned all the triangles in the right direction to form the stars.  It looks cool with the white spaces in-between.  Could be a whole other quilt design.

Then I added the black counterparts and "oohed" and "aahed" over it for a bit before sewing the triangles together into squares.

Loving how those colors pop against the black.

The triangle halves went together nicely. Again it helps to have perfectly cut pieces.

Sewing the rows.

Look at this kitty. I had the top all finished and back on the design wall measuring it for the borders and he decided he didn't like it up there.  In one jump he launched himself into the middle of the design board, hung there for a bit, then used his paw to grab the top and pulled the whole thing off the wall. Then he sat right in the middle of it. Crazy cat.

I broke out the black Hobbs Batting for this one.  I really like the black batting, its just fun to see it on the frame behind the quilt and it hides all the stray black threads that get stuck under the lighter prints. It's quilts up beautifully.

Lots of in the ditch quilting in this one,  I went around each piece.

I played around with what to quilt in each triangle section, but eventually found my groove after the first row.  I used black thread on the black and a light green in all the colors and of course used a Schmetz Needle.

Trying out different quilt poses.

In this one I get to show off the quilt and  my neighbors blossoming azaleas.

Yay for Spring!

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Green Jelly Roll Race

Jelly Roll Race Quilts are fun and quick to sew up.

After cutting forty two different  2.5 inch strips from my stash I sewed up the top in about an hour and a half.  Normally these are made with pre cut jelly rolls, but I did not have a green Jelly Roll that would work well.  I had one, but it only had eight different fabrics, 5 strips each of print.  The eight prints are pretty, but they wouldn't make a very diverse quilt so I created my own set of green strips.a

Even the white squares have light green dots in them.

 

I quilted it with some green thread.  I started out with a meander but then added some leaves and wavy lines and what ever else struck my fancy.

I pieced the back with more green.  This quilt is definitely made for someone who loves green!

Happy Quilting!

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