Thursday, September 28, 2017

Back to School Blog Hop - My Day

Today is my day for the Back to School Island Batik Ambassador Blog Hop.  The fabric I'm using for my project is the Sour Apple Collection.  This collection is a nice selection of teal blues, yellows, and an assortment of browns.  The prints range from dots, to eggs, apples, lemons, and even a print with roosters!  These fabrics are in the stores now.

Here is a sample that has squares of each fabric in the collection.


I looked at the fabrics a long time to decide how I would interpret the theme of Back to School. These fabrics have a warm "summery" feel to me.  It made me think of picnics, sunny days and the last days of summer.   When school approaches each year it always makes you want to make the MOST of the last days of summer.  One last picnic, picking the last of the garden, those last days to sit, relax and soak up the sun.

The quilt I made is an original design I call Summer Daze.  I used the word Daze instead of Days because hurrying around and doing all those last activities can put you in sort of a daze until you are all tired out, and ready to settle into school schedules and other Fall activities.


I used all but 5 of the fabrics from the collection in the quilt.  Below is a photo of all the fabrics I used, plus a bright green basic that is on the left.


There is only one more day for the blog hop, so be sure and look over the list below and go back to any blog post that you might have missed

                                                WEEK 1
Tuesday, September 5 – Country Dozen
Cheryl Lynch Quilts • Inspired Layers
Wednesday, September 6 – Bonsai
Little Bunny Quilts
Thursday, September 7 – Sakura
Masterpiece Quilting

WEEK 2

Monday, September 11 – Fresh Pick’ins
KISSed Quilts
Tuesday, September 12 – Lotus Blooms
Kathys Kwilts and More
Wednesday, September 13 – Olivera
Moose Stash Quilting • Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting
Thursday, September 14 – Rise & Shine
Den Syende Himmel • Sally’s Quilting Corner
Friday, September 15 – Diner Days
Ark Angel Creations • The Quilt Rambler

WEEK 3

Monday, September 18 – Seas the Day
KISSed Quilts • Whispers of Yore • Needle & Foot
Tuesday, September 19 – Vineyard
The Inquiring Quilter • Inchworm Fabrics
Wednesday, September 20 – Abalone
PamelaQuilts • Yellow Cat Quilts
Friday, September 22 – Captain’s Anchor
Purrfect Spots Designs • Beaquilter

WEEK 4

Tuesday, September 26 – Lobster Bake
Seams to be Sew
Wednesday, September 27 – Solstice
Bejeweled Quilts • heARTs Creations
Thursday, September 28 – Sour Apple
Seams Like a Dream • Kauffman Designs
Friday, September 29 – Zen
Lizard Creek Quilting • Quilt’n Party

Island Batik is giving away 3 Fat quarter Bundles from the Captains Anchor, Batiks Go Retro and the Abalone Collections.  Be sure to fill out their raffle copter to enter.

My giveaway is five 1/4 yards of the five fabrics on the Sour Apple Collection that I did not include in the quilt.

These are also beautiful and you can now see the whole collection.  Be sure to leave a comment on what is one of the last things you try to do in the fall before school starts.  USA residents only please.  Winner will be notified after the blog hop ends on Sept 30.  Be sure that I can reach you if you win.



Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Back to School Island Batik Blog Hop


This month is the Back to School blog hop with the Island Batik Ambassadors.  With our blog hop each Ambassador has made a project using the newest  fabrics by Island Batiks.  These fabrics are in the stores now, so you can go right out and purchase them now.   I've posted the days each Ambassador will be sharing, and what new fabric line they will be highlighting.

Island Batik is featuring a giveaway of 3 Fat Quarter Bundles.  Go to their website and enter their raffle copter to enter.  Each Ambassador is also featuring a giveaway, so be sure to visit each site for beautiful fabrics, great new projects, and lots of giveaways!

This blog hop started on the 4th of Sept- so be sure and go back and see the past posts.  I post near the end on Sept 28 so be sure and visit my site then!

WEEK 1

Tuesday, September 5 – Country Dozen
Cheryl Lynch Quilts • Inspired Layers
Wednesday, September 6 – Bonsai
Little Bunny Quilts
Thursday, September 7 – Sakura
Masterpiece Quilting

WEEK 2

Monday, September 11 – Fresh Pick’ins
KISSed Quilts
Tuesday, September 12 – Lotus Blooms
Kathys Kwilts and More
Wednesday, September 13 – Olivera
Moose Stash Quilting • Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting
Thursday, September 14 – Rise & Shine
Den Syende Himmel • Sally’s Quilting Corner
Friday, September 15 – Diner Days
Ark Angel Creations • The Quilt Rambler

WEEK 3

Monday, September 18 – Seas the Day
KISSed Quilts • Whispers of Yore • Needle & Foot
Tuesday, September 19 – Vineyard
The Inquiring Quilter • Inchworm Fabrics
Wednesday, September 20 – Abalone
PamelaQuilts • Yellow Cat Quilts
Friday, September 22 – Captain’s Anchor
Purrfect Spots Designs • Beaquilter

WEEK 4

Tuesday, September 26 – Lobster Bake
Seams to be Sew
Wednesday, September 27 – Solstice
Bejeweled Quilts • heARTs Creations
Thursday, September 28 – Sour Apple
Seams Like a Dream • Kauffman Designs
Friday, September 29 – Zen
Lizard Creek Quilting • Quilt’n Party

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Another "Green" batting

My last post was about some of the great bamboo battings, but I wanted to share another "green" batting with you.  This one is from Quilter's Dream Batting- it's their Quilter's Dream Green batting. This batting is literally GREEN!


This batting is made from recycled plastic bottles!  Isn't that fantastic!  It's 100% recycled polyester.  They list on the packaging how many bottles it takes to make each size batting.  For example - a  Queen size batting uses 20 bottles, a Twin batt takes 13 bottles and a crib takes 5.5 bottles.  I work at recycling as much as I can - so this gives me a little thrill to know I'm keeping bottles from the landfill and putting them to good use!

The batting does have a very light green color.  It is thin, but has a nice little bounce to the touch- very much like other poly battings.  It is carded, needlepunched for uniformity, strength and resiliency.  There is no scrim or resins, stitching can be 12" apart, it has little to no shrinkage and is wrinkle resistant.   It is good for both machine and hand stitching.  What isn't to like about this batting!

I quilted up another baby bib with this batting and I loved the loft in the quilting and it washed up wonderfully.


This may be a new favorite!