Preppy Quilt

In a search for a fun charity quilt pattern I found the Preppy Quilt by A Bright Corner, a five fat quarter fun pattern.

I used four focus fabrics, three with cars and one with dirt bikes. In addition, the red grid binds the focus blocks together.

The quilting is a simple cross hatch design in silver thread color. The quilt finished up to 50" x 60". The binding is a green print, and it gives extra dimension to the quilt.

This is my fifth charity quilt for the year, and number 25 all time for the children's ward at my local hospital.

Second Ambassador Box Arrived

Yesterday was the day my second Island Batik Box arrived. As a 2018 Island Batik Ambassador, I am supplied with a very generous amount of Island Batik products to create beautiful projects with, and tell all about it!

A BIG box was picked up from the post office!

Look at all the goodies inside! The package wrapped in aqua paper in the picture above contains a surprise bundle that I cannot show you until the collection is launched later this fall.

The weather has been unusually hot and humid the last few days in the area where I live, and the dark clouds forced me to take pictures outside. But this is approximately how far I got in the box opening yesterday before a heavy rain shower made me run for cover.

Today the weather was a little more cooperative, and I managed to get good pictures. Here are three yard cuts from the Check It Out line.

I got three bundles of precuts, two 10" stacks and one 2 1/2" strip set. This is the 10" square set of Ocean Odyssey, gorgeous colors and designs!

The second 10" stack is Paisley Dot Brights, which I also received in the first Ambassador box. This bundle is so bright and cheerful and I can never have enough of these fabrics, they can be used for so many projects!

The strip pack is called Vintage Morris, in beautiful fall colors. Coordinating yardage was provided with the strip pack, one light and one dark.

I was also provided with a great bundle of Batik Foundations, eight half yard cuts will blend in with most of the other fabrics.

In addition to the bright batiks I also received 5 (!) yards of a neutral batik called Milk Shake, and three one yard cuts of black, white and grey solids.

Island Batik has partnered up with Aurifil to provide threads for the Ambassador boxes. For this shipment we were given a cute tote containing a sample pack of all the different threads that Aurifil makes, the green samples, with weights ranging from the the thinnest threads to embroidery floss. I also received a spool of variegated thread in red/white/blue. In addition we were also given color charts and information pamphlets.

Aurifil USA celebrated their 10 years anniversary, but Aurifil in Italy has existed since 1983.

Another important industry partner is Hobbs Batting. They provide samples of their batting for the Ambassador boxes. This time I received a queen sized Cotton Batting and two lap sized battings, one 100% Wool and the other a Cotton Wool Blend.

I look forward to be playing with the batiks, threads and batting that was so generously given to me, creating beautiful projects!

Follow my blog and Island Batik adventure in 2018, and I promise there will be a lot of show and tell!

Thanks Island Batik!

Secondary Pattern Challenge With Island Batik

July's challenge in the Island Batik Ambassador program was 'Pattern Play, Secondary Pattern Challenge'. This is my completed piece, a baby quilt of 36" square.

In January when I received the Ambassador Box, I also received a "secret" collection, London Calling . The collection had it's public debut in Spring Market in May.

For my project I chose two fabrics from this collection (the two blue on the left on the picture above), in addition to three Batik Foundations plus my neutral, Sprinkles.

My design is inspired by the Blueberry Swirl Quilt pattern.

I chose a 3 by 3 block layout for my baby quilt. The specifications for the challenge quilt was 36"x36" or larger, and that is perfect for 12" blocks.

The first block is a traditional Sawtooth star block, with the star points in Batik Foundations Rain, the 'geese' fabric is London Calling Fountain Storm and the corner blocks in Foundations Marble Smoke. The center of the stars is the batik neutral, Sprinkles.

The second block shows a pinwheel with a little swirl. The blue fabric in this block, Floral Vine Universe from the London Calling collection, is such a rich and intense color, and it contrasts well with the Foundations Dot Sky.

The magic happens when the blocks are sewn together, they merge into each other, there is a blueberry swirl effect, and in addition there are cute four patches in white and grey appearing.

For this quilt I decided to do the quilting a little different from my previous quilts. Walking foot quilting has always been a safe haven for me, but this time I wanted to challenge myself with FMQ and ruler quilting.  Since the center of the star blocks were quite big with a light fabric, I quilted a cross hatch pattern in white Aurifil 40wt thread. I used Aurifil 50wt thread in the bobbin.

 The fabrics make me long for going picking wild blueberries later this season, the blueberry forest is just a five minute walk from my house! The binding fabric, Bubble Hole Tin, is from the Batik Foundations, and I think it looks like like tiny blueberries spread all over!

The finished baby quilt spread out on my lawn. I did free motion quilting (with swirls) in the blueberry swirls and ruler quilting in the sawtooth stars and the four patches.

Quilt stats:

Size: 36" x 36"

Fabric: Island Batik London Calling, Batik Foundations, and neutral Sprinkles. Binding is Foundations Bubble Hole, Tin.

Thread: Aurifil 50wt 2024, and Aurifil 40wt in 2024, 2715 and 2785

Batting: Hobbs Cotton Batting

All the fabrics, thread and batting were given to me by Island Batik.

Happy Quilting!

Splendid Sampler 2

These are my first three blocks of the second season of the Splendid Sampler blocks.