Amy Bradley Dollhouse Pattern Sale

 

Great news!  Amy Bradley Designs is having an end of summer sale with 20% off of anything on the website until the 31st of August.  The Doll House paper pattern is regularly $29.00 and the new digital download pattern is regularly $12.00.  Be aware of the fact that the download pattern has about 100 pages to copy, so if you don't want to do all that copying, you probably want to order the paper pattern.  Amy has alerted me that there are limited amounts of the paper patterns, so if you want one of those you need to order soon - only a couple days left on the sale.

We will be working on this sweet pattern starting with an overview in Sept and working on the first block in Oct.  So now is the perfect time to get your pattern!  Go to Amy Bradley Designs to order the pattern and be sure and check out all her other great patterns while you are there!

Marvelous Mini Island Batik August Challenge

                                                                      Radiant by Connie Kauffman

The August challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors was to make a mini quilt.  This has to be my favorite challenge!  I'm all about minis!  I had SO many ideas!  I finally settled on making a 12" x 12" mini.  My book Little Gems is all about 12" x 12" quilts.  I just love them.  And they stack up so nicely when I put them away and they are easy to find and rotate...  Aren't they sweet stacked on a shelf?

I still have room for more!

Well, this little challenge mini ended up being 12 1/4" x 12 1/4".  It hangs nicely on the 12" x 12" Ackfeld Manufacturing wire stand.

Radiant has three different paper pieced block patterns.  The inner sashings are 1/4".  The outer yellow triangles are prairie  points that are secured with a blue bead.

I used 4 blues and 2 yellow Island Batik fabrics from the Scrap Builder rolls.  I added white and yellow Cheerio from the Foundation Collections.

I used  three colors of Aurifil 50 wt. thread - white, black and yellow 7135.  The 50 weight is nice and thin for making smaller projects like this.

Schmetz microtex needles are especially great for mini quilts as the needle is very thin and doesn't leave large holes in the fabric.  Hobbs Thermore batting is great for mini quilts, but I have many scrap pieces of batting and I ended up using a piece of  Hobbs Heirloom Premium Cotton Batting.

The pressing mat from Prairie Spirit Alpacas is a great surface for pressing small blocks and projects.

Many thanks to Island Batik, Hobbs Batting, Schmetz needles  ,Prairie Spirit Alpacas and Aurifil thread for supplying products for this project thru the Island Batik Ambassador program.

To see more of the mini quilts in the August Island Batik Challenge, check out the list of Ambassadors below

• Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs

• Megan Best ~ Bestquilter

• Pamela Boatright ~ Pamelaquilts

• Elizabeth DeCroos ~ Epida Studio

• Jennifer Fulton ~ Inquiring Quilter

• Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for quilts

• Jane Hauprich ~ Stitch By Stitch Custom Quilting

• Reed Johnson ~ Blue Bear Quilts

• Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs

• Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood

• Denise Looney ~ For The Love Of Geese

• Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights

• Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack Made Mine

• Anorina Morris – sameliasmum.com

• Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa’s Quilting Passion

• Claudia Porter ~ Create with Claudia

• Gail Renna ~ Quilt Haven Threads

• Brianna Roberts ~ Sew Cute And Quirky

• Michelle Roberts ~ Creative Blonde

• Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail

• Andi Stanfield ~ True Blue Quilts

• Sandra Starley ~ Textile Time Travels

• Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations

• Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt

Island Batik Chickadee & Aurifil Thread

 

Another great package from Island Batik arrived last week.  This is a 2 1/2" strip pack of Chickadee - a Summer 2022 precut  that arrived to late to be in the July Ambassador box.  Island Batik sent a light and dark coordinating fabric to go with it and Aurifil sent 4 lovely spools of coordinating thread.  I really love this bright and cheerful collection!

Block of the Month - Dollhouse Quilt by Amy Bradley

Have you ever had a pattern that you haven't done, but you keep going back to?  I'm that way with the Dollhouse Quilt by Amy Bradley.  I love all the designs that Amy Bradley Designs has made and I've done a few in the past.  They are so cute and whimsical.  I love the Dollhouse pattern and have considered it several times in the past.

This quilt is a Dollhouse with either 10 or 13 rooms.  Each room/block is made with a pocket that a small doll or "critter" can fit in the pocket.  Dolls can be about 6" tall.  The pieces are fusible applique.  Doesn't this look like it would be hours of fun for a child!

I've never done the quilt mainly because I don't have any grandchildren, or young children in the family to enjoy it.  But....my sister Jody was just recently blessed with not one, but TWO beautiful little granddaughters!   So now I have two little grandnieces that might enjoy this quilt in the future!  Jody and I discussed how fun this might be if we each made this quilt together.   We thought it would be fun to take our time and just do one block a month - the girls are still babies and it will be awhile before they can enjoy the quilts anyway.  

The more I thought about it, I thought it would be fun to post it on my blog so anyone that is interested can join in the fun!  Here is the plan.  If you are interested in joining in the fun you will need to purchase the pattern from Amy Bradley Designs.  There is a paper pattern available now, and in the next couple of weeks there will be a downloadable pattern for purchase.  The pattern comes with full size patterns, placement sheets, photos and instructions for both size quilts.

I will not be giving any instructions or patterns, so you must purchase a pattern to work along with me. I will be posting each month on what my sister and I've been doing, maybe some hints or suggestions, and photos of works in progress.  I'm hoping that you will let me know if you are working on the quilt and also post pictures of your work in the comments.  It should be fun!

This month it would be great to purchase your pattern although you can buy the pattern any time and join in the fun any time along the way.  In September I will be doing an overview of the pattern and give an outline of what blocks we will do each month.

The full size pattern with 13 rooms is 48 1/2" x 70 1/2".  The house with 10 rooms is 48 1/2" x 59 1/2".

I don't have any little dolls or critters this size, but Jody has already found some cute ones at garage sales.  It will be fun to be on the look out for some of these this year!

I hope many of you will join in the fun!