It''s All Up To You - August Island Batik Challenge

               

                                                  Love Those Scraps! or A Lot a Littles!

                                                                    33" x 39"

The month of August is a free month for the Island Batik Ambassadors.  This month we were free to do whatever we wanted.  Wow!  That is a real treat!  There are so  many times that we're inspired by fabrics and have some great ideas, but they don't fit into the regular challenges.  So now we have a chance to do our own thing.

This month I'm showcasing a quilt I made with tiny little leftover Island Batik scraps.  I had tons of little squares and also tons of triangles.  What to do with them?    They are just to pretty to throw out. I found a block  design I liked that Bonnie Hunter has used that had 2 nine patch blocks and two half square triangle blocks. I decided to make nine patch blocks and half square triangle blocks and work on the layout later.  Here was a trial layout with a few blocks.

So I started trimming up a gazillion colored squares to size and cutting many squares from Island Batik white solid.  Then I started sewing a white square to a colored square, and then sewing two units together to make  little nine patches.  The little squares were cut 1 1/4" x 1 1/4" so they finished at 3/4".  The little nine patch units measure 1 1/2" finished

It looked a  little like confetti!

I also trimmed up all the triangles to the same size and cut enough white triangles to go with them.  I sewed them together to make half square triangles.  These blocks also measure 1 1/2".

Except for some white pieces around the outside edge, the whole quilt is made from the little nine patch and half square triangles and a few colored rectangles at the end of 10 rows.  Pretty neat!

I sewed most of these little units as leaders and enders when doing other projects.  That works really well- but it seemed like it took forever to get noticeable progress!

I just kept making blocks and making blocks.  My scrap stash is never ending!  I decided on my own arrangement of the blocks and finally sewed the blocks into rows and sewed the rows together.  Tada!  That's a lot a littles!

Here are a couple design ideas that I didn't use

A progress photo

Just to see how small the blocks are

I know that SOMEONE - or ALL of you are going to ask me how many little colored squares and triangles are in the quilt.....Sigh.  I wasn't going to, but I finally buckled down and counted them.  There are  484 little colored squares and  272 colored triangles (and of course that many white pieces to match up with both shapes).  So there are 756 colored pieces and 756 white pieces plus some extra white pieces in the border.  That's a LOT of pieces!

This quilt took awhile to make, but it was a fun project and a good scrap buster.

Of course I used Schmetz microtex needles which are great for sewing small pieces.  Hobbs Cotton Batting is always a wonderful choice of batting.  All the quilting was done with white Aurifil thread.

Many thanks to Island Batik, Schmetz Needles and Hobbs Batting and Aurifil Thread  for providing products to make these projects.