Dec Island Batik Ambassador Celebration Challenge

 

It's December and time for the last Island Batik Ambassador challenge for the year.  This year the challenge was to choose a holiday and make a project for it.  I love to make things for Christmas so this was the holiday I picked.

I love  patterns from Amy Bradley and picked this one - Holiday Sewing Tree to make this Christmas.

Her patterns are easy and fun to make.  I liked the striped border in her pattern, but I didn't have any fabric with stripes that fit.  I wanted more of a red and green in the stripe- so I made my own with Island Batik solids in red, white, green and dark gray.

It took a long time to make all the stripes and then I quilted in the ditch by each one.  I don't think I'd do that again!

All the rest of the quilt was made with Island Batik fabrics from my stash.  The bottom of the thimble I painted with intense pencils on light gray to get the dots like on a thimble. I've not used the intense pencils before, so this was interesting.

Aurifil thread was used around all the applique shapes, piecing and the quilting.  Hobbs cotton batting was used along with a lot of tiny buttons for embellishments.

Of course what is Christmas and a Christmas tree without presents under it?  So I made a variety of small projects good for gift giving.

I made coiled mats using macramé cord and 1 1/4" strips of Island Batik fabrics.  All three coiled mats were made using leftover 2 1/2" strips that I cut in half.  The smaller ones were made using strips from the collection Lavender Sage.  The larger mat was made using strips from Floralicious.  Any strip bundle makes great coiled mats- the colors are all pre selected for you!

Aurifil thread works great to sew the coils together with a zig zag stitch. I loved using the variegated blue and variegated green Aurifil for these.  They blended in very well.

They start small and get bigger!  It's actually a fun and easy process.  You can make them as big as you want- or as big as you have scraps to  make. Great for gift giving!

I made a wallet using the pattern Pocket Pal Wallet from Jenna Lou Designs.   I've used this pattern before and like it.  I used Cherry Berry Island Batik from my stash.  It turned out very nice.

I made two smaller wallets that fit easily in your pocket  using the pattern Wonder Wallet from Lazy Girl Designs.

I used Ditty Salmon Swirl and Round Petal Foral Island Batik fabrics.  These are super quick to make.

The last gift item I made was a free pattern from By Anne.  The pattern is called A Pencil Case for Lola.  This is a very easy project and might be especially nice for children,  although you could store a lot of sewing supplies in it also!

Many thanks to Island Batik, Aurifil and Hobbs for suppling products for these projects.

I hope all of you have a blessed holiday season and Happy New Year!