Monday, May 13, 2024

Paper Pieced Celebrations Blog Hop and Giveaway


Iris
Designed and made by Connie Kauffman
28" x 22 1/2"

 The May Island Batik Challenge is called Paper Pieced Celebrations.


I received a Surprise Bundle of fabrics from Island Batik for this challenge.  The fabrics were a Winter 2023 collection designed by Claudia Pfeil called Lavandin.  Island Batik sends a terrific half yard bundle of the collection along with a coordinating dark and light fabric we can use with it if we choose for this challenge.

This collection has some nice purples, a touch of teal and many green/ivory mixes.  This challenge comes in the spring and I immediately thought of Iris's when I saw the fabrics. The challenge was to make a project using paper piecing and to make something with a theme of celebration.  April 22 was Earth Day and my iris flowers were already growing so I decided to celebrate Earth Day even though I wouldn't be able to post until a later date.


Lavandin is a collection of 21 different fabrics.  I ended up using 13 of them and I also used Doughnut for the background.  Doughnut is from the Foundation/Basics collections.


Here I'm playing around with the colors.  I think the purples look like the colors in some Iris.


I ended up not using the fabric on the bottom right as it had a lighter teal/green and yellow.  You can see how it sort of stands out.

I designed two paper pieced Iris patterns.  These were unusual for me as they were much larger than I usually work with.   They also had some Y seams that I almost NEVER allow, but they ended up piecing okay.

Here is a look from the back of some of the pieces in one block in progress.  The back is always reverse of the front in paper piecing.


Here is a partially finished block from the front.


I designed a simple paper pieced block to use in the borders that used a variety of the fabrics.  I find that using Schmetz needles and Aurifil thread work well even with sewing thru paper.  And of course it is good to keep an iron close at hand to press all those seams flat.  Oliso provided irons to all the Ambassadors this year and that is a real help.


And then I kept changing my mind on what to do for the borders.  Here are a couple ideas I played around with.






I finally decided I was over thinking things and I went with my original design.

I used Hobbs Cotton batting, Aurifil thread, Schmetz needles and pressed pieces with the new Oliso iron.

Here is the binding going on - it's almost finished!  I always do a single fold binding.


Here are a couple photos of Iris taken outside on Earth Day.  This one is behind the iris in my flower bed.  The real ones aren't blooming yet!


Here is one on the fence in my side yard.  The colors showed up better outside today.


Island Batik is having a great giveaway this week.  Be sure to enter here for a chance to win one of two fat quarter bundles!

Be sure and follow all the Ambassadors during the hop.  You can see the listings here.
Megan Best and  Leah Malasky are also posting today using the Lavandin collection so be sure and see what they created.  

I'm having a giveaway of three half yard pieces from the Lavandin collection.  These three pieces had  yellow in them and didn't fit with my design colors.  I hope you enjoy them!  Leave a comment on how you like to celebrate spring to enter.  USA entries only due to postage issues.  I will select a winner by Random.com at the end of the blog hop.


Many thanks to Island Batik, Aurifil Thread, Hobbs Batting, Oliso Irons, Schmetz needles for supplying products to use in making this project thru the Island Batik Ambassador program.


Don't forget that I am an affiliate for the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  If you use my link 
you can get 20% off any order of $50 or more!


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Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Winter Reflections Blog Hop

 Welcome to the Winter Reflections Blog Hop by Jennifer Fulton of the Inquiring Quilter.

Jennifer has a lovely new signature collection of Island Batik fabrics called Winter Reflections designed by Kathy Engle.  Today is my day to post what I made with this great collection of fabrics and I have a lovely mini quilt to share with you.


I selected 17  for my project from the 20 fabrics in the collection to use in my project. I love the blues, purples and greens in the collection.


I received the 17 fabrics from Jennifer, but I decided not to use the fabric that is third from the bottom on the right hand side- the one that is sort of yellow with green swirls.  It was the only one that had yellow in it and I didn't want to introduce that color in my quilt with only one fabric.  I used the rest of the 16 fabrics above.

Mini quilts are my favorites to make.  I decided to make the pattern Snow on the Mountain from my book Little Gems.


This pattern has two paper piecing patterns that form the Corn and Beans center block for the quilt.  There are also two paper pieced patterns for the border.


For this quilt I used one color for each block and used the Island Batik foundation fabric called Ice for the background.  Ice has a slightly blue/gray color.

After making the 16 center blocks I sewed them into rows and sewed the rows together.  The border was made using a mix of all the fabrics.  One of the darker prints was used for the binding.

I was happy how it turned out.  The quilt measures 14 1/2" x 14 1/2".  I used Hobbs Natural Batting, Schmetz Needles, and an invisible thread for quilting.  I use an Ackfeld Wire 12" stand to display many of my minis like this one.  I love them!

Be sure and check in with everyone on the blog hop and enter to win some lovely Island Batik fabric!

Be sure and go to Jennifer's blog at the top to enter for a giveaway of a fat quarter collection of Reflections!

Don't forget that I am an affiliate for the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  If you use my link 
you can get 20% off any order of $50 or more!


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Monday, May 6, 2024

Paper Pieced Celebrations Blog Hop

 



Welcome to the Island Batik Ambassadors Paper Pieced Celebrations Blog Hop!  The Ambassadors were challenged to create a quilt using some kind of paper piecing that captures the essence of a holiday that is close to our hearts.

Throughout the next three weeks of the Paper-Pieced Celebrations Blog Hop, we’ll be unveiling stunning quilts that showcase the fabrics from our latest collections, hitting the shelves this month. Find out which stores carry Island Batik near you by using the Store Locator; just enter your zip code, and your local shop will pop up on the map – it’s incredibly convenient and helpful!

Every Friday, we’ll compile round-ups of the projects and host a giveaway of two Fat Quarter bundles from the new Island Batik collections highlighted during that week! Make sure to explore all the amazing creations on the Ambassadors’ blogs and join in on their additional giveaways for even more chances to win.

Below is the complete list of Ambassadors, the collections they’ll feature in their projects, and their scheduled post dates:

WEEK 1

May 6:

May 7:

May 8:

May 9:

May 10:

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 1 and Giveaway

WEEK 2

May 13:

May 14:

May 15:

May 16:

May 17:

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 2 and Giveaway

WEEK 3

May 20:

May 21:

May 22:

May 23:

May 24:

End of Blog Hop and Final Round-Up


The Island Batik Paper Pieced Celebrations Blog Hop starts today and the first week’s giveaway is live right now!  Fat quarter bundles of Dots and Doodles by Carol Moellers Designs or Fire and Ice by Claudia Pfeil! are in the drawing this week. Be sure and go to Island Batik to enter for this weeks drawing


Don't forget that I am an affiliate for the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  If you use my link 
you can get 20% off any order of $50 or more!
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