Sept Island Batik Challenge

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.