McCalls Quilting Aug/Sept

Archipelago

Designed and made by Connie Kauffman

35" x 35"

Photos courtesy of McCalls Quilting Magazine

I'm happy to have my quilt Archipelago published in the Aug/Sept McCalls Quilting magazine.  This design uses the City Culture 2 Collection by Island Batik.  The fabrics are a lovely blend of  muted blues, grays and brown.  The brown has a directional print which worked very nicely in the arrow part of the design.

Here is a full shot of the quilt.

McCalls was very generous and gave me an extra copy of the magazine for a giveaway.  Leave a comment below to be entered in the drawing.

2nd Island Batik Box Reveal

This is my 5th year as an Island Batik Ambassador.  Each year we receive two boxes of fabric that we use to create a monthly challenge project to post on our blogs.  We receive a box in January and one in July.

The anticipation runs high when a new box is due to come!

Here is the 2nd box I received just last week - so dull on the outside- so beautiful inside!

Let me show you what all was in the box.
First of all two stack packs (10" squares).  One is Vintage Morris - lovely soft greens, tans and muted orange.  Also  Paisley Dot  Brights.  This is an eye popping assortment of bright dotted fabrics.  There was also a strip pack of the collection Lavender Sage.  It's a lovely green/purple/blue and soft yellow mix.  It came with coordinating yardage which is great for borders, backgrounds, and backing.  They really do supply us with about everything we could need!

Aurifil sent a tote celebrating their 10th year in the USA.  Inside was a sample pack of green threads in 8 different contents and weights.  Also a spool of a lovely soft yellow/tan and leaflets on thread info and color charts- so great to have on hand.

Island Batik sent a wonderful Foundation Bundle of 8 different Blenders and Basics fabric that they carry.  This is so wonderful to have when an extra fabric is needed to complete a design.  The colors included are: Large Netting- Pineneedles, Cherio-Iris-BE, Bubbles-Chartreuse-BE, Dandelion-Wisteria-BE, Iris, Kiwi, Geranium, Chameleon.  They also included their solids in Black, White and Gray.  I've used the black and white in projects before.  The black is a true black and I love the solid white.  I look forward to using the gray in the future.

Island Batik sent 3 samples of their Check It Out line.  This is a great collection of checkered fabrics.  If you watch some of the other Ambassadors box reveals on their blogs, you will see many more colors of this collection.  There is also a wonderful 5 yard bundle of a neutral basic. Since we Ambassadors use a lot of these neutrals- they decided to stock us up!  My yardage is called Custard and is a light creamy tan/yellow with a touch a green.  Lovely!

Last, but not least are the lovely battings in the bottom of the box.  Hobbs batting supplied us all with a queen size cotton batting, a throw size wool batting and a throw size wool blend batting!  I have used several of Hobbs battings, but never any of these, so this will be interesting.  What a great way to try something new!  

I forgot to take a photo of the surprise bundle in the box (it's the bright pink package you can see in the box photo above).  This bundle is a collection that won't be released to the public until Quilt Market, so we can't show them yet.  You will see them in January when all the Ambassadors will be involved in a Blog Hop showing off projects with the new fabrics.  

Stay tuned to see many of these fabrics, threads and battings in future posts. You can also look for them and/or request them in your local shops.

Many, many thanks to Island Batik, Aurifil and Hobbs Batting for this great box of inspiration!

July Island Batik Challenge

The July challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors was to make a project that had some kind of secondary pattern in it.  The first thing I did was look over the fabrics that Island Batik had sent me in the first box of fabric this year.  I decided to use the Pumpkin Patch fabric that had deep rich fall colors.  This bundle of fabric came in a Stack pack of 10" squares.

The bundle also came with some yardage in two colors.  The gold one I ended up using as background and the dark print I ended up using as backing

The next thing I did was look for a block pattern that would have a secondary pattern when the blocks were placed side by side.

I liked this simple basket pattern.  After playing around awhile, I took off the top two corner triangles so that I could place four baskets together with the handles all pointing towards the center.

Already you can see a secondary pattern.  The baskets almost disappear.

I made nine sets of the four basket blocks and laid them out in rows of three.  Here's the work in progress.

I wondered what to use for borders.  Since my fabrics came in 10" squares, I looked at the bundle of basics fabrics that Island Batik had sent.  I really liked the dark smokey brown called Walnut for the outer border and a mottled brown called Bubbles-Nutmeg for the inner border.  They worked really well.

Here is a photo of the finished quilt 37 1/2" x 37 1/2".  I'm not the best photographer and my camera doesn't seem to like this color combination.  I took several photos and this is the best one of the bunch.  As you can see in the photos above, the colors look a bit different in each one.

If you look at the quilt, you see the secondary pattern made by the four  baskets placed together into one large block.  Then you also see a secondary pattern where the basket blocks are placed together that results in the blue on point squares.

Playing around with single blocks can make some interesting secondary designs!

I used Hobbs Premium Cotton Batting that was also sent in the Ambassador Box.  It quilted up nicely.

If you have read some of my past blogs, you will know that I'm in love with the Westalee quilting foot and rulers.  I really enjoyed using them on this quilt.  Here are a few photos that show quilting with rulers and quilting in the squares and borders.  

If you like to do your own quilting on a domestic machine and you haven't looked into the Westalee rulers/Sew Steady- be sure and check them out!

 One more photo of the finished quilt.  I took this one outside in the full sun which sort of bleached the look of the colors- still not a perfect shot.  Notice the scrappy binding which I think sets it off nicely.