Crazy Quilts April Challenge

In Full Bloom

13 1/2" x 22"

The April Challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors is to make a Crazy Quilt using one of the new Color Builder Aurifil Thread Collections.  Aurifil sent every Ambassador a Color Builder box of thread with three spools.  I received a box of yellow threads called Bird of Paradise.

One of the threads is more orange and has a some nice variegation of color.  The yellow spools are very similar in color.  One has very slight variegation of color that I didn't even notice at first. The threads are 50 wt cotton.  The numbers are 2130, 3920 and 4657. 

So our challenge was to use the colored threads we received and make some kind of crazy quilt. 

 I thought about this awhile.  I wanted to do something that didn't look like a traditional crazy quilt.   How to incorporate the look of crazy quilting in a modern quilt.?

I had a design for a crazy paper pieced flower that I'd never used, so I thought this would be a fun time to use it.  I made a couple trial blocks of the pattern with Island Batik scraps and made them into hot pads.

I liked the look of the design and decided to make a small wall quilt with flowers where I would add embroidery stitching to the blooms.

I decided on a teal Island Batik Blender for the background called Small Pointed Floral.  I used other Island Batik Foundation fabrics for the other colors.  Island Batik Foundation fabrics are great because they are always available.

The bottom colors are all shades of purple.  They look a bit like blues in the photo.

  

I made the main flowers and stems and wanted to add some leaves. I later decided not to add the little white blossoms because I didn't want to have any more stems.  I also decided to add a strip of colored scraps to the left side of the quilt as an extra pop of color.

I paper pieced the main flowers and secured them to the background with a little touch of glue around the edges.  I didn't want them to be stiff from fusible webbing.  The stems, leaves and tulips were all fused to the background.

After the top was finished, I basted it to the backing and batting and then added the embroidery stitching. I wanted a thin batting for this quilt, so I used a single layer of Hobbs Thermore Batting.

The stems and leaves have button hole stitching.  All the flowers have different embroidery stitching.  It was fun to use a big variety of stitches that I seldom use!

I used the purple threads on the orange flower, the yellow threads on the purple flower and the orangish threads on the yellow flower.

Schmetz Super Nonstick Needles worked very well for all the embroidery stitching.

Here are all the colors of Aurifil I used for the embroidery.

I haven't done much free motion quilting, but I had fun doing a variety of quilting in the background with a matching blue thread.  The thread almost disappears in the background.

Many thanks to Island Batik, Aurifil Threads, Hobbs Batting and Schmetz Needles for supplying products to use in this project.