May 21, 2018

Island Batik May Challenge {Playful Pillows}

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

Welcome! After spending much of April and the first part of May finishing up projects with deadlines, I was pretty excited to see that the May Island Batik Ambassador assignment was a pillow...a fun, small pillow. 



Here's my very colorful, quilted 18" pillow cover. It's a random mix of half-square triangles, quarter-square triangles, squares on point, signature blocks, chisel blocks, and squares.




I used my AccuQuilt Go! Qube Mix & Match 12" Block and some of the dies in the 12" Companion Qube (no longer available) to cut enough various pieces to make 36 3.5-inch (3-inch finished) blocks. One of the main reasons I love using my AccuQuilt Go! is I'm not a fan of quilt math. When I cut my pieces to make the 36 blocks I need, I know they will all fit together like they're supposed to. It really allows me to randomly sew and design as I go. (Hmmm...design as you go. Is that a thing? If it's not, it should be!)

I still had quite of bit of my Island Batik Elementz Stack left. I love bright colors, and these fabrics were perfect for my playful pillow.



I ordered quilt labels from Spoonflower so I can label each of my Island Batik Ambassador projects. (The May project is the first one I've labeled so far.)


I prefer to make removable pillow covers so I can swap out covers and don't have to store of bunch of pillows. (This comes in handy for quick decorating around the holidays.) I added a zipper to the back of the pillow.

Easy to unzip and swap out this quilted pillow cover for a different one!

I quilted the cover on my longarm. (It took longer to load it on the longarm than it did to actually quilt it!)


Thanks for stopping by! In June, IB Ambassadors will be sharing modern baby quilts. I can't wait to share mine!

May 3, 2018

Island Batik April Challenge {Looking Back, Vintage Quilts Inspiring New Creations} & a GIVEAWAY!

(If you're here for the GIVEAWAY...the details are at the bottom of the blog post!)

The theme for the Island Batik April Challenge was Looking Back, Vintage Quilts Inspiring New Creations. (Yes...at some point I will actually get a project finished and posted before the end of the month like I'm supposed to.)


While I consider myself a modern quilter, I also love the history of quilts and quilting and truly appreciate vintage and traditional quilts. There's something very special about being a quilter and continuing an art/craft that generations of women before me have done. Initially my plan was to modernize something from The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt. Instead, I ended up having the opportunity to pattern test a new paper-piecing pattern from Melinda @melisaswapaholic.

Sampler quilts first became popular in the mid-1800s as quilters moved away from central medallion quilts and into more grid-like block quilts. (Personally, I love sampler quilts because I can made a bunch of different blocks then just sew them all together. Voila...a quilt!) Foundation piecing has been around since the 18th century. Muslin or scrap fabric was originally used as a stabilizer though more recently paper has been used. (For me, nothing beats the precision of paper-piecing.) For more info on the history of sampler quilts, there's a great article on Craftsy.

The pattern I tested was the All the Triangles Sampler Quilt. Triangles are one of my favorite quilting shapes, and I was excited to make a modern version of this pattern with a lot of negative space. I used the gorgeous tourmaline sunflower print from the Morning Sunshine collection as my central fabric and pulled in other coordinating fabrics from the collection. Rice was the batik neutral I used for the background.



I think I ended up with a pretty modern version of a paper-pieced sampler quilt. (Yes...half of the binding still needs handstitched.)



One of my local quilt shops carries a large selection of Island Batik fabrics, so I was able to purchase this beautiful, bright yellow fabric (Cheerio Lemonade) for the backing at Country Sampler.


I quilted this on my APQS Lucey using my Crisscross pantograph.

I purchase most of my pantographs online from Urban Elementz as they have a great selection of fun, modern longarm quilting patterns. They even have FREE patterns you can download and print!

If you want to make your own version of this paper piecing pattern, Melinda is hosting a sew along with this pattern beginning May 6. It's only three blocks a week, and I highly recommend this pattern whether you're new to paper piecing or a seasoned pro. You can check out the Instagram hashtag #AllTheTrianglesSamplerQuiltSewAlong for more details.

And now for the GIVEAWAY!

Melinda has generously offered to give away one copy of her All The Triangles Sampler Quilt Pattern! You can earn 2 entries into the drawing...

  1. Go to Melinda's Craftsy shop SwapaholicQuiltPatterns and leave a comment on this blog post with your favorite paper-piecing pattern.
  2. Follow @mel_is_a_swapaholic on Instagram. Come back here and leave a comment on this blog post letting me know you follow her on Instagram.
I will use a random number generator to select the winning comment the evening of Saturday, May 5. (I'll be in Columbus, NE for my son's baseball tournament so the exact drawing time depends on what time we get back to our hotel after a full day of games.) If you are a no-reply blogger, please leave me your email address so I have a way to contact you if you win. Even if you aren't the pattern winner, you can always purchase the pattern and join in the sewalong that starts May 6!

Thanks for stopping by! Good luck!