Modern Charity Quilt

Winter has taken a strong hold in my place of the world, and I really need spring colors!

I haven't made many modern quilts before, but I would love to design and make more. This is my own design, inspired by other quilts I have seen on the Internet.

The floral print is the main attraction.Yellow and green are spring colors for me, and absolutely necessary to make this quilt complete.

It is almost Easter, and the snow is still deep.

The quilt top was put together in one afternoon. The quilting and binding by machine was done the next day.

The quilt is 49" x 60", and will be donated to my local hospital.

The low sun in the morning helps showing off the quilting design. A modern quilt is often quilted with straight lines, and so is this one, with the addition of quilted circles in the yellow sections for extra interest.

The backing is a red print with pink polka dots. A strip of a text print is added for extra width.

This is my second charity quilt for 2018, and my number 22 to the hospital since I started quilting.

Happy quilting!

Try a Technique with Island Batik

The Island Batik ambassadors are presented a challenge each month of the year. The March challenge was to try a technique that we had never done before. I wondered what to make, and had really settled for reverse appliqué, but, then I spotted several posts on Instagram using the interesting Interleave technique. After a quick search I found this tutorial by Lorrie Cranor and decided to give it a try. Laura Piland, a fellow ambassador, made this beauty using the same technique in last year's ambassador program.

I chose fabrics from this bundle of stash builder rolls that was given to me from Island Batik. The rolls are 5" x width of fabric (WOF), and each roll has four strips. 

I decided to make a small quilt as a test for this technique, using the same modified method as Laura  used. I chose these colors from the 5" strips, cut 20" of each and sewed them into two different panels. The idea is to have good contrast between the strips.

After I sewed each panel into a tube, I drew a free-hand wave on freezer paper and ironed it on to one of the panels and traced the shape. I flipped the paper template onto the other tube and traced the wave onto that, too.

After cutting up the tube (with scissors!) the panels looked like this. The wave shifts the strips to make the interesting Interleave design.

I cut the white foundation fabric, a piece of cotton batting, and backing fabric a few inches wider and longer than the quilt panels. Following Lorrie's tutorial I marked lines 1/2" apart on the white fabric to keep the strips in line. The lines are very helpful in making sure that the strips don't shift. After making the striped foundation, the backing, cotton batting, and foundation fabric were pin basted.

I cut 1" strips from each panel alternately, and sewed through the layers with a 1/4"seam. Then the strips were pressed open. For this small quilt, and to keep everything in line since this was my first attempt with this technique, I found it helpful to cut one strip at a time and then sew it on the foundation. The stripes on the foundation were very helpful in keeping the strips spaced evenly as I kept sewing.

This is the result after sewing 40 strips together. I love the wave effect. A nice side effect using this method is that the quilt is already quilted!

Sometimes it is easier to see the wave effect by tilting the quilt a bit. 

I trimmed the quilt to size, it turned out to be 17.5" x 20". Then I had to decide on the binding. I wanted to use the leftovers from the stash builder strips to create an interesting effect to the wave. After laying out the strips I decided to skip the brown and use only four colors.

Here is the finished product, I call it "Fire and Ice".

The Interleave technique is very interesting and I learned a lot in the process. It is almost a surprise to see how the end result is so different from the starting panels. I had my doubts in the beginning concerning the small contrast between the two lighter blue colors on the right, but it really works out fine!

I used a cotton fabric for the backing, and added triangle pockets for easy hanging. This mini will be a jewel on my sewing room wall!

First Charity Quilt This Year

Last year I made 6 charity quilts to the children's ward at my local hospital. This year I am pretty relaxed  about making quilts for the hospital, I'll just make one when I get in the mood, no pressure concerning numbers.

I had quite a few novelty prints in my stash and decided to design a block to show off these fabrics. The block is 10.5" inch square unfinished.

 I decided that it would be too busy with only this kind of block in a quilt, so I added squares of another fabric in between.

This is the finished quilt. The near solid-looking blocks makes the design look calmer.

The backside of the quilt is pieced together from Debbie Mumm panels.

I quilted it with a free motion design of daisies and loops on my domestic sewing machine.

I made this quilt in seven days from start to finish, that's a pretty quick one.

The quilt is approximately 40"x50", and will be a great quilt for a small child. This is the 21st quilt I have donated to the hospital during my quilting career, and it will not be the last.

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday .

Happy quilting!

Arrival of the Island Batik Ambassador Box!

Ever since I got the message that I was accepted as one of the 2018 Island Batik Ambassadors I have been anxiously awaiting my first Ambassador box. I have been tracking the package all the way from California, and it really took a long time to reach me.

There was a long delay in customs, since they claimed that the customs clearance papers were not detailed enough. Island Batik provided a new invoice, but there was a lot back and forth before the box was finally released from the customs office.

It was almost like Christmas when I got this package home!

The box is big!

Look at all the goodies!

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

One item I am not able to show you is the Surprise package which contains a big bundle of fabric that has to stay out of sight until their release date, but I can already tell you that they are really my colors! 

When the customs people saw the wrapped package with the big "SURPRISE" sticker, they did not carefully open it to check it's contents, but completely tore the paper to pieces, so I can not even show you a sneak peek of the big wrapped bundle.

The Galentine's Bundle that was supposed to be used to make a project for Galentine's day in February will be used for another project.

A fat eight bundle of Southern Blooms plus some coordinating fabric, a beautiful collection!

A stack of 10" squares of Paisley Dot Brights with two coordinating fabrics.

The Batik Foundations Bundle together with a neutral fabric (tiny greyish dots on white background).

Five rolls of Stash Builders, which are 5" strips of WOF.

In addition to all the beautiful cotton batiks shown above, I received 2 yards of Rayon fabric which is suitable for garments, and a beautiful rayon scarf.

As if it wasn't enough with all the fabric above, the box also contained coordinating thread from one of Island Batik's industry partners, Aurifil: A large cone of 50WT cotton thread and two large spools of the same quality, and 4 large spools of 40WT cotton thread. I have had the privilege of using their 50WT thread earlier, and I very much enjoy the quality and that the thread is virtually lint-free. I look forward to trying the 40WT thread.

Last, but not least, the box contained Hobbs batting, a twin size cotton batting and a queen size Thermore batting (100% Polyester). The last one I will use for smaller projects since it will not provide enough warmth for a quilt in my part of the world with cold winters and short summers.

Thanks to Island Batik for giving me this opportunity to be an Ambassador.

Follow me here on my blog to see what I make with the beautiful batiks throughout the year. You can also follow me on my Instagram account, @notqnot