I can hardly believe it is the middle of September! Some of our trees are already turning color, so it looks like an early fall. I do look forward to the burst of fall colors.
While I am waiting for fall colors I have been excited about the colors in this bundle of fabrics from the last Island Batik Ambassador box. This is the Sunny Side Up Collection by Kathy Engle. It's a great combination of yellows and blues in a lovely mix of prints.
These fabrics are wonderful and I was excited to use them in something...
September is time for a new challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors. This month the challenge is called Child's Play!
Each Ambassador was sent a new BOB die from Accuquilt Go! A BOB is called a Block On Board because it contains all the dies needed to make a certain block- all on one die. The BOB I was sent is an Ohio Star 12" block. and we were to use it in this months challenge.
I like the Ohio Star block- but have to admit I was a bit dismayed that it made a 12" block. If you know me at all, you know I tend to make smaller blocks and projects...What to do?
The challenge was to make a child's quilt using this die. To me that could be about anything that is bright and cheerful and the Sunny Side Up fabrics fit that qualification. So I played around with design ideas and color placements. I decided to include the solid white from Island Batik in the design and the solid gray for the back as I had enough yardage for that. These three solids were included in our last Island Batik box.
Here is a poor photo (sorry) of an early layout of the quilt as I was deciding color placements for the stars. I decided to overlap some of the stars to "hopefully" make the design a bit smaller...
Progress. I was still trying to decide whether to use some white or yellow color placements in the center. I like the mix of yellows in the background. I ended up using all but a couple fabrics from the collection.
I liked the design and it was already pretty big, but I really wanted to add a pieced piano key border. This quilt just kept getting bigger and bigger! It ended up being 61 1/2" x 61 1/2" which is actually large enough for an adult lap quilt.
Now for a final photo. I decided to try for a photo in my backyard. The problem is we have good breezes thru the yard, so it was a challenge. I did have to run and catch it a couple times before it all fell over...
Here is a close up of the quilting. I kept it pretty simple.
I used a solid yellow thread for quilting except for white thread in the inner border. I used a Sulky Blendable thread for the back so a little color would show up on the solid gray fabric. I do prefer to use a printed fabric for the backing for more color and it shows the quilting less.
I liked the BOB, but you can also make the Ohio Star using their Cube dies. I could have made the Ohio Star using my 8" block dies and the quilt would have been smaller.
All in all- it's a nice cheerful quilt.
Thanks to Island Batik and Accuquilt Go! and Hobbs Batting for supplying materials for this project thru the Ambassador Program.
