Floating Flowers- McCall's Quilting

 My quilt Floating Flowers is in the May/June 2022 issue of McCall's Quilting

                                                                    Floating Flowers

                                                                            39" x 31"

                                                    Designed and made by Connie Kauffman

This issue will be on newsstands starting 3/29/22 and available digitally starting 3/15 at Quilting Daily.com.

The leaves on the flowers use lots of different colors of green;  this gives great variety and movement to the design.  It was fun to dig through scraps to find colors for each of the nine flowers.  By placing the flowers on a blue background, I was reminded of water lilies and how they float on the water.

March Aurifil Challange 2022

 

                                                               

                                                         Florence Italy by Connie Kauffman                                                                                                                          13 1/2" x 14 1/2"

The March Island Batik Challenge is with Aurifil Threads.  Aurifil sent each Ambassador one of their Color Builder thread boxes.  Each of the boxes focused on a city in Italy.  The box I received was for Florence Italy.  The colors were three shades of tan/brown in 50 weight.  I also used a blue and green to finish the quilt.  I like the 50 weight for both piecing and quilting.

The challenge was to use the threads and make something about the area it represents.

I added a couple more threads for the quilt.

Florence is the capital of Tuscany.  It is a city known for it's history, art and architecture.  It is said to be the birthplace of the Renaissance.  You will find many masterpieces from such artists as Michelangelo, Botticelli, da Vinci and Raphael.  Cypress trees, rolling hills and vineyards surround the city.  It would be an amazing place to visit!

Many photos I viewed showed scenes overlooking the city with all the roofs a mix of terracotta colors. I received a 10" stack of Wondrous Island Batik fabrics by Jerry Kiev that had some greens and reddish/terracotta colors that I decided to work with in my mini quilt of Florence. 

I wanted the quilt to overlook a part of the city and decided looking out from an enclosed balcony was what I wanted to do.  I designed a wrought iron railing with black solid batik.  The mini houses are VERY small and had to be handled very carefully!  All the applique pieces are fused with Lite Steam a Seam 2.

Working with small pieces it is especially important to work with a thin thread.  Aurifil 50 weight works very well with mini quilts as well as larger projects.  I used Hobbs Thermore Batting as it is very thin and doesn't add bulk to a small project.  Schmetz Micro Tec needles are also wonderful for small quilts as the needles are very thin and don't leave a large hole in the fabric.

Thanks to Island Batik and sponsors Aurifil Thread, Schmetz Needles and Hobbs Batting for supplying products for this project thru the Island Batik Ambassador program.

*The prize winner from my blog for the Row by Row Challenge is  Sharon.  Her fabrics are on the way!