What's in Your Bag Island Batik Challenge

 

The October Island Batik Ambassador Challenge is called What's in Your Bag!  

This month our ByAnnie.com is the sponsor and provided all the Ambassadors the supplies needed to make a bag of our choice.  This year I let my daughter pick the bag and she selected the pattern Hang in There.

This pattern is for a beside/sofa pocket organizer.  It comes in two sizes and I decided to make both of them.  Island Batik also let us select what fabrics we wanted and I picked four lovely fabrics from the collection called Poetic Bouquet.

I've made several By Annie bags and this is the easiest one so far.  This organizer requires no quilting, no zippers and no binding!  Wow!  That really simplifies things!

As in all By Annie patterns the instructions are very clear.  All pieces are labeled and there are step by step instructions as well as an online video for extra help.  With the darker fabrics I selected, By Annie sent me their Soft and Stable in black.  That is the first time I've used the black and it worked really well.

I tried to take a few photos of some of the steps. Below you can see the fusible interfacing has been fused to the fabric pockets on the small bag and the large bag.  The labels keep things organized.

It was interesting that the smaller bag was taller and less wide.  The larger bag was wider and not as tall.

Here the small organizer is almost finished.  Need to top stitch around the pockets.  Clips work really well to hold all the layers.  I love the mesh for the pockets and the fold over elastic for the mesh.  It is VERY easy to sew and makes great pockets.

Small organizer finished.  You can see the flap at the top that will go under the mattress.  Size is 15 1/2" H x 12 1/2" W.

Here is the large organizer finished.  It was a lot larger than I expected - 13" H x 23 1/2" W

There are a lot of pockets!  This could be very handy - especially if you are someone who likes to read in bed, or have remotes or phones you want to keep accessible.

Here are photos I took once the organizers were finished.  I will tell you my surprise after the photos- see if you notice anything in the pictures.

I never once considered the measurements of these organizers.  My bad!  These do NOT fit on our bed!  They are made for beds that have a mattress AND a box spring under it.  We have a mattress on top of drawers and it sits lower to the floor.  In the photos above I have the organizer laying on top of the mattress just to get a photo.

Oh well!  These were made for a gift, so now I just need to make sure they will fit on their bed - ha!  Lesson learned!

I also used Schmetz needles and they work great sewing thru all the layers.

Thanks to Island Batik, By Annie and Schmetz for supplying products to use in this project.

Drawing Winner

 The winner for my prize fabric drawing in the Adventurous Applique Blog Hop is dgs.  The fabrics are on the way to her!

Just a note that I am an affiliate with the Missouri Star Quilt Company, but there will be no discounts Oct - Dec as they are reworking their program.

Adventurous Applique Island Batik Blog Hop

 

Dancing Daisies by Connie Kauffman  44" x 54"

September is time for another Island Batik Ambassador Challenge.  This month the theme is Adventurous Applique with Aurifil.

 In my July Island Batik box was a bundle of the collection called Daisy May.  I LOVE daisies and this collection is full of them.  

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The Daisy May collection has bright oranges, yellows, teals and greens and some fabrics with a lighter background.  This collection is a Spring/Summer 2024 collection and is by Kathy Engel and should be arriving in shops now.  Be sure and look for them!

The sponsor for this challenge is Aurifil Thread.  They sent us a lovely selection of threads to match our fabric collection that we could use in our project.  I ended up using some white Aurifil I had and the pretty yellow you see below.

Island Batik also sent yardage in a light and dark color to match the collection.  The light fabric is from their Foundations collections and is called Glaze and the green fabric is from the Daisy May collection called Mini Daisy Turquoise.  I used Glaze to make the daisy petals in my quilt.

Guidelines for this challenge were to make a lap quilt with applique.  The applique was supposed to be attached with some kind of different edge stitching.  They suggested doing the technique by 4th and 6th Designs that they used on their quilt Full Bloom.  Their technique is raw edge and glue basted with no fusible used.. If you want to see this technique, you can watch these two tutorials by 4th and 6th Designs.

YouTube Video demonstrating the edge-coloring technique. 

Shabby Fabrics YouTube video on the edge painting technique.

This technique glues the applique pieces down and does a sort of free hand, back and forth method of stitching over and over. I tried this technique and it wasn't for me!  I thought about doing a machine decorative stitch around my appliques, but I didn't want to be turning the quilt on all those petals.  I tried a few different edge techniques, and finally decided on just doing a freehand loopy/circle around the applique edges.  For the center of the daisies I did loopy/circles thru the whole piece.

While I was deciding what edge stitching to do, I selected 7 of the blue/green fabrics to make a center panel of simple 5"finished squares.  Then I picked out 7 of the yellow/orange fabrics to make a border of 5" finished squares.  That was easy and I decided to go ahead and layer and baste and do basic straight line quilting before adding the applique.  The Daisy May collection has 20 fabrics and I used 14 of them in this quilt.

Most of the time persons finish the applique before basting and quilting the quilt top, but I thought it might be easier to do it this way.  I wanted to try the technique of gluing the raw edges of the applique.  I've done some collage quilting with fusibles and I wondered if this would be easier than ironing all that fusible webbing on to fabrics..

I laid out the daisy petals and the flower centers made from an older yellow Island Batik collection.  I used Roxanne's Glue-Baste-It and found it worked very well.  The glue held up to a lot of manipulation.  I liked how the bottle had a very small tip for applying the glue.

I always use Schmetz Needles and they sewed thru the glue very well. I didn't notice when I was sewing thru the  glue.  Hobbs Cotton Batting worked well with this technique also.

Thanks to Island Batik, Aurifil Thread, Schmetz needles and Hobbs Batting for providing products to use in this project thru the Island Batik Ambassador program.

Every week of the blog hop Island Batik has a tremendous giveaway.  This week it is for two collections called Bubbles, Curves and Corners and Twilight.  Each bundle has a half yard of each fabric in the collection.  Be sure and go to Island Batik to enter to win one of these great bundles!

I am having my own giveaway of two of the half yard cuts from the Daisy Mae collection.  These two fabrics have a light cream background.  One has cute little daisy prints and the other one has dots and dashes in a variety of colors.  Leave a comment telling me your favorite flower to enter the drawing.  USA entries only due to postage costs.  Make sure that I can contact you if you are a winner.

Be sure and visit the other Island Batik Ambassadors (see my last post for all the Ambassadors) and see all the new collections and special quilts.  Also be sure and enter the Island Batik special drawing each week!

 

Adventurous Applique Island Batik Sept Blog Hop

 

Throughout the next three weeks of the Blog Hop, you will see stunning quilts that showcase the fabrics from the latest Island Batik collections, hitting the shelves this month. Don’t forget to express your anticipation to your favorite quilt shop! Find out which stores carry Island Batik near you by using our Store Locator; just enter your zip code, and your local shop will pop up on the map – it’s incredibly convenient and helpful!

Every Friday, we’ll compile round-ups of the projects and host a giveaway of two Fat Quarter bundles from the new Island Batik collections highlighted during that week! Make sure to explore all the amazing creations on the Ambassadors’ blogs and join in on their additional giveaways for even more chances to win.

Below is the complete list of Ambassadors, the collections they’ll feature in their projects, and their scheduled post dates:

WEEK 1

September 3:

• Mania Hatziioannidi, Mania for Quilts
• Sarah Pitcher, Pitcher’s Boutique LLC

September 4:

• Connie Kauffman, Kauffman Designs  This is my day!
• Denise Looney, Quiltery

September 5:

• Connie Kresin Campbell, Freemotion by the River
• Brittany Fisher, Bobbin with Brittany
• Lana Russel, LanaQuilts

September 6:

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 1 and Giveaway

WEEK 2

September 9:

• Brenda Alburl, Songbird Designs
• Lisa Pickering, Lisa’s Quilting Passion

September 10:

• Megan Best, BestQuilter
• Gail Sheppard, Quilting Gail

September 11:

• Kim Jamieson-Hirst, Chatterbox Quilts
• Jane Hauprich, Stitch by Stitch Custom Quilting

September 12:

• Carol Stanek, Stitch With Color
• Julia Schweri, Inflorescence Designs
• Victoria Johnson, Forever Quilting For You

September 13:

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 2 and Giveaway

WEEK 3

September 16:

• Suzy Webster, Websterquilt
• Jennifer Thomas, Curlicue Creations

September 17:

• Preeti Harris, Sew Preeti Quilts
• Emily Leachman, The Darling Dogwood
• Leah Malasky, Quilted Delights

September 18:

• Sandra Starley, Textile Time Travels
• Susan Deshensky, Lady Blue Quilt Studio

September 19:

• Pamela Boatright, PamelaQuilts
• Renee Atkinson, Pink Tulip Quilting
• Maryellen McAuliffe, Mary Mack Made Mine

September 20:

End of Blog Hop and Final Round-Up

Marvelous Minis!

            Marvelous Mini by Connie Kauffman  

            13 3/4" x 15 1/2"

This month the Island Batik Ambassador challenge was to make a marvelous mini!  This is always one of my favorite challenges as I love to make small quilts.  Our quilts were to be between 12" - 24" square.  The size was easy, but what to make?  So many choices!

I love Log Cabin and Pineapple blocks, so I began to design along that line.  I began to wonder how small could I go?  

I've always loved the mini quilts by George Siciliano.  You can see some of his award winning quilts at www.georgesiciliano.com  His quilts are amazing.  He uses a lightweight foundation material called Foundation Stuff that you can run through your printer, and you can also leave it on the back of the block.  Wow!  That would save tearing off all those tiny pieces!  I had ordered a package of Foundation Stuff years ago and never tried it, so here was my chance!

The sheets are sort of like a thick vellum.  They ran through my printer easily and sewed much like thin foundation papers.  I did have to be a bit careful when trimming seams that I didn't tear it.

The blocks in my design measure 2 1/4" x 2 1/2"  Each block has 37 pieces, so you can see why I didn't want to tear away all those tiny paper backings! 

For my color scheme I decided on purple and yellow with Island Batik black solid as the background.  Black always makes colors pop.  I gathered a lot of purple and yellow Island Batik scraps and began sewing 36 blocks.

Just because you make a mini quilt does not mean it is necessarily quick and easy! Each block took a LONG time and I began to worry I wouldn't get this done in time, but I persevered!  I was SO glad I didn't have to tear off all the backing papers1

I used black 50 wt Aurifil thread for all the piecing and quilting.  When working with minis it's helpful to have a good thin thread.  The black color disappeared in the quilting.

It was interesting working with a pineapple block that wasn't square.  This block was only a quarter inch shorter on one side, but it  did make sewing seem a bit off kilter when you are used to making square blocks.  The quilt ended up measuring 13 3/4" x 15 1/2", and had a total of 1,332 pieces.  I'm glad I didn't know that when I started!

Since this was a small quilt I used Hobbs Thermore batting as it is very thin.  I always use Schmetz needles and they worked very well with the thread and foundation sheets.  I finger pressed each seam when sewing so the only ironing I did was a final press on each block and pressing seams open.  Thanks to another one of our sponsors Oliso for supplying the Ambassadors with an iron.

Here is a photo of the back of the quilt top as I'm about to baste it.  The top is a bit stiff, but as this is a mini, it doesn't need any drape or softness.  I would definitely use these foundation sheets again.

Mini quilts can be hung on the wall or on an Ackfeld Wire stand or used as a table mat.

Next time you make a small quilt, try and see how small you can make it.  You may end up with a Little Gem! Okay- that's a shameful plug for my book Little Gems.  If you want to try to make a small quilt 12" x 12"  you will find a bunch of fun patterns in this book.

Many thanks to Island Batik, Hobbs Batting, Aurifil Thread and Oliso for providing the products used in this project thru the Island Batik Ambassador Program.

July 2024 Island Batik Unboxing

 July is an exciting time for the Island Batik Ambassadors.  This is when we receive two large boxes of fabric and supplies to use for the next 6 months with our Island Batik Ambassador Challenges.  I have a video below that shows what was in my two boxes.

Here are some still photos so you can see things a bit closer.  First is the beautiful bundle of Island Batik's Daisy May collection designed by Kathy Engle.  They also included a two yard cut of a dark green from the collection and a 2 yard cut of Glaze from their Foundation collection. I love daises so these will be fun to work with.  I will be making a project with these fabrics in September.

Aurifil Thread is one of our sponsors and they sent 5 small spools of thread that coordinate with the Daisy May fabrics beautifully!

Another sponsor is By Annie.  I always look forward to making one of her patterns.  This year I picked our the pattern Hang In There.  This is a bedside/sofa pocket organizer.  By Annie sends the pattern and all the things needed to make the project and Island Batik sends the fabric we picked out. You can't see the fabric well in the photo, but rest assured it's lovely!  You can look for this  project in October.

Island Batik is always super generous in sending us 4 yard cuts of their white, black and gray solids.  This time we received the dark gray.  They also have a light gray solid.  They also send a generous 6 yard cut of a light foundation called Egg White.  It has a slight yellow tint with lightly colored dots in brown and green.

The pretty green bundle is a SURPRISE!  This fabric doesn't hit the stores until Dec.  You'll see the project I make using these fabrics in November when we have a great blog hop.

There were two Island Batik precuts in my box.  These are Gradation Collections.  The 10 Stack Pack is called Playful Purples and the 2 1/2" Strip package is called Bodacious Black.  These great precuts as well as yardage are available all the time.

There was another Island Batik 2 1/2" strip pack with yardage from the collection called Bubbles, Curves and Corners.  I don't know who names all these fabrics, but I bet they have fun!  This collection also came with two yard cuts of a dark and light coordinating yardage.  The dark fabric is called Pomegranate and the light fabric is called Tea Rose.

My favorite  precut is the 2 1/2" strip packs, so I look forward to working with these.

More and more fabrics!  Below you can see the two bundles of the Island Batik Stash Builders.  These are so great to increase the variety in your fabric stash.  Island Batik also sent a great bundle of half yard cuts from their Solids, Blenders and Basics Foundations.  These are beautiful fabrics that are always available.  I received three solids called Lime Green, Turquoise and Pink. The other fabrics are called Swirl Sun-Cherry, Peacock, Taxi (isn't that a fun name!), Paisley Dot-Orange, Foulard - Waterfall, Navy and Cerulean.

All of this was crammed in one box!  It's like Christmas in July!

The second box was stuffed full of batting from Hobbs.

Hobbs is another one of the sponsors for the Island Batik Ambassador program.  They generously sent five battings.  My very favorite batting is their Heirloom Fusible.  I was so happy to see this one in my box!  They also sent their Heirloom Black poly/cotton, a large package of Thermore, a Tuscany Collection Silk Blend and the Tuscany Supreme 100% Unbleached Cotton.

Many, many thanks to Island Batik and sponsors Hobbs, By Annie and Aurifil for sending products to use for projects the next six months of the Island Batik Ambassador program.

Don't forget that I am an affiliate for the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  If you use my link 

https://glnk.io/mzmmj/kauffmandesign 

you can get 20% off any order of $50 or more and I may receive a small commission.

Thanks Missouri Star Quilt Company!