Crossed Canoes and the Troll - A Fairytale

The Crossed Canoes and the Troll - A Fairytale

Once upon a time there was a quiltmaker who was going to make a quilt for the children's ward at her local hospital. She received fabrics, threads and batting from Island Batik, Aurifil and Hobbs in her Ambassador shipment.

In addition there was a big surprise in the box, a Crossed Canoes cutting die for the AccuQuilt fabric cutter.

The blocks were effectively cut out in a couple of hours.

The Crossed Canoes blocks were made in blues, greens, greys and blacks batik foundations, and they were happily floating around on the wooden floor. There was even room for a canoe block in bright and happy Check It Out batiks!

The canoes longed to be launched on the lake or the sea, because that's where they are supposed to be, right!

The quiltmaker didn't make a lake for them, she made a checkerboard of the neutrals Almond and Milk Shake to go in between the canoes. An almond-milkshake lake! Yummy!

Can you spot the block turned the wrong way? The quiltmaker didn't notice it before she had started quilting, but luckily she managed to turn it around before it was too late!

The quilting resembles a cascade or waterfall, where the energy of the water is high, and where the canoes may get into trouble.

The canoes were finally let outside, and loved the open air and the low sunlight. But, it would definitely be better to get on the water!

Aaah, horizontal at last! But, hey, are you going to take us to the lake, soon?

The quilt was made in a house that is pretty far away from the lake and sea, but close to the forest. So the quilt was taken on a tour in the wilderness.

The first stop was in a play area where the quilt wanted to become a tipi. Unfortunately it was a little bit too small to cover the whole structure, so the search for water continued.

The troll was very spooky, it grabbed the quilt and wouldn't let go! "Let us go, let us go!" cried the canoes. "We have to find the lake!"

The troll grumpily let the canoes loose. "Don't come back to this forest ever again!" said the troll.

The search for water continued, but the hike took them to higher grounds. "The roots of this fairytale tree must go down to water, but it is no way we could get down there", said the canoes. "Let's search the area!"

"No water here", said the canoes. "Just an old and dry dinosaur spine!"

The canoes got tired and discouraged by the futile search for water. On the way back to the house they took a rest on a fence.

But, hey, what's in the horizon?! The SEA! It is the fjord with plenty of water for canoes, yeah!

Zooming in, the canoes could see a ship! Hurray! Finally, the right element for the Crossed Canoes were found!

The End

Epilogue:

The Crossed Canoes quilt will not end up in the fjord, but will be donated to the children's ward at the hospital. The hospital is almost visible behind the trees at the left of this picture. So the canoes will stay a lot closer to the sea, while they are comforting a sick child.


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The September challenge for the Island Batik ambassadors was the following: 

"Let your inner child come out to play!  Color, fun and playful are all for grabs this month! 
Make a quilt for a kid that you love or to donate to a kid that needs comfort. 
Clear out space for magic & whimsy when creating this month!"

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



Quilt stats:
Size: 45" x 63"
Fabrics: Island Batik Foundations, Check It Out, Almond, Milk Shake
Binding: Solid black batik
Thread: Aurifil 50wt, #2024 (white) for piecing and #2843 (light grey green) for quilting
Batting: Hobbs Cotton batting
Crossed Canoes 9" die from AccuQuilt




This is my eighth charity quilt for the year, and 37th all time for the children's ward at the hospital.

Star Light Star Bright Challenge with Island Batik

The August challenge in the Island Batik ambassador program (for half of the ambassadors, the others participate in the Beat the Heat blog hop) was to create a quilt using any star quilt block pattern. The only requirement was that the quilt had to be lap size or larger.

The first idea that popped into my head was to make BRIGHT stars, and I knew I had the right batiks for that in my stash. In last years first ambassador box I got a bundle of Southern Blooms that I used for two different challenges, in May 2018 and June 2019 . These are bright, rainbow colors with gorgeous butterflies in many of the prints.

I still had enough of these batiks for the center squares of the Friendship Stars. For the star petals I used Island Batik foundations and stash builder rolls. I used 20 different prints from Southern Blooms, and 20 different prints for the star petals. I love it when I can use fabrics from my stash to make new quilts, I hardly ever throw away leftover fabrics!

In addition I used solid white batik for the background and solid grey for the diamonds in between the stars. The design is based on a picture I saw at the Internet.

All the blocks were cut using my Accuquilt Go! fabric cutter, and that is a real time saver! The squares and HSTs are 4" finished.

The piecing and quilting is done with Aurifil 50wt #2024. Walking foot quilting makes up the main design, while I made a "string of pearls", or circles of different sizes in FMQ, in stripes crossing the quilt.

I used Hobbs Heirloom Cotton Batting with Scrim in the quilt sandwich

The finished quilt dimension is 48" x 60".

I used a fun print from Ikea for the backing. The binding is black solid batik.

The quilting is easily visible here where the quilt is hanging over the porch wall.

Today was a beautiful day for a photo shoot, and I brought the quilt with me to a nearby lake.

The sun shining through the quilt showing off the fun print on the back. The sun rays glittering in the lake creates a perfect setting!

The wind isn't always cooperating!

Ready for take-off! Is this the Flying Carpet?

A glorious late-summer day by the lake!


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

Frog Quilt for Charity

This is my latest charity quilt, from original idea to finished quilt the whole process took less than 12 hours.

It all started with a panel with six cute frogs. I cut the panel into 6" squares, added some green striped fabric and some yellow bubble fabric, and voila!, I had a center panel for the quilt.

An orange small plaid fabric became the inner border, and a cute cartoon frog fabric became the outer border.

I quilted it using my walking foot with a meandering cross hatch pattern with a corn silk colored thread. The binding is a fun orange/multi colored striped fabric. The binding is machine sewn on the quilt.

The whole quilt was finished less than 12 hours from the idea of the quilt emerged. The 39" x 50" quilt will be a good comfort to a sick child at the hospital.

Here's a detail of the fun frog print in the outer border. A whole lot of frogs are having fun bowling!

This is my seventh charity quilt for the year, and 36th all time for the children's ward at the hospital.

Meadowland Quilt

My Meadowland scrappy quilt top was completed during my vacation, but the quilting had to wait until I came home.

I had to admit it is not very scrappy, the blocks are big (16" finished) and I only used fabrics from my stash. The colors are bold and bright, the dark blue/navy background is perfect for a charity quilt to a young, adolescent boy, or girl for that part.

The quilting is a simple crosshatch pattern, I feel this is right for this modern quilt.

I found this perfect "quilt holder" in my walk in the forest. The uprooted tree looks like a monster or troll holding my quilt up.

The quilt measures 48" x 64" and is the perfect size for a charity quilt.

There are so my great photo locations in the forest/recreational area. I am very fortunate that it is only a 10 minute walk from my house.

The quilt is backed with a print from Ikea, and the binding is the navy fabric.

This is my sixth charity quilt for the year, and 35th all time for the children's ward at the hospital.

Island Batik Unboxing Summer 2019

All the items described in this blog post were given to me by Island Batik as a part of their Ambassador Program. 

Here's an overview of what arrived in my second Ambassador box from Island Batik this summer. 

The box arrived at my house more than two weeks ago, but I was away on vacation and couldn't open it until today.

This is what I found when the contents were revealed. Details of each item follows below.

Firstly a Spring 2019 Collection precut of 10" squares from Island Batik, the collection is called Kaleidoscope. I was also given two 2 yard cuts of a yellow and a purple from this collection.

This will make a vibrant rainbow quilt!

This Batik Foundations bundle  coordinates with the spring precuts I received, and contains eight half yard cuts, 4 basics & 4 blenders.

The Summer 2019 precut is Sand Bar, 40 pieces of 2 1/2" strips, in addition to two 2 yard cuts of a light and dark from this collection. I love the toned-down colors!

The Batik Foundations bundle that coordinates with the Sand Bar collection contains gorgeous colors and designs!

The last precut bundle is Blue Sea, an amazing collection of blues, purples and turquoise quarter yard cuts. This is a real treasure chest, and ideas are already spinning around on what to create from this beauty.

Each Island Batik Ambassador were also given a generous 4 yard cut of a neutral fabric. I received Almond, tiny dots of grey, purple, green and blue coming together in subtle swirls. A great background fabric.

The Ambassadors also received three 4 yard cuts of batik solids in black, grey and white. These batiks are great to use as backgrounds and contrast in quilts, and are wonderful to work with.

Later this year Island Batik is adding several new solids to their collection, go check it out on their website: Island Batik

Aurifil gave me these large spools of 50wt thread, #2905 Army Green will coordinate very well with the summer collection, while #2545 Medium Purple is going to look fabulous together with the spring precuts.

Hobbs Batting provided a queen-size cotton batting and two throw-sized battings, one cotton-wool blend and the other 100% wool. All the battings are wonderful to quilt with.

Last, but not least, AccuQuilt included a fabric cutting die in the Ambassador box. This will be used in the September challenge, I'm looking forward to that one!

Thanks to Island Batik and their industry partners for letting play and create beautiful quilts for the rest of 2019!