Island Batik Ambassador

The highlight of my year has been that I was accepted as an Ambassador for Island Batiks.  I'm very excited to work with these beautiful fabrics and promote them in different ways.  I will be bringing sneak peeks of new fabrics, new projects and published projects, so keep watching this site for the most recent posts.

This is a sneak peak at some of the new fabrics that will be coming out this fall with Island Batiks.  I get the privilege to start designing with them now!

Dreams of Winter Gold

This special edition magazine from Quilter's World is called Quilting for the Holidays/November 2014. I have a project in this called Dreams of Winter Gold.  It is a bed runner made with beautiful Silent Night fabrics from Island Batiks.

Here is a partial photo of the runner.  The fabrics have a lot of gold print in them.  I designed the project while watching the 2014 Winter Olympics.  That inspired the name of the quilt- Dreams of Winter Gold.

I also have a project called Stretched Nine Patch Place Mats in the magazine.

Quilt Storage

Do any of you have the same trouble I do - what to do with all your lovely quilts?  My husband and I had been looking around for some kind of cabinet or shelving unit to store some of my quilts.  We finally found this lovely curio cabinet at a consignment shop in our town.  We just love it.  It has has glass on the top, the front and both sides.  You can see the quilts from any side!

This unit holds about 13 quilts.  Now what to do with all the other quilts....

Tamarinis Blog Hop

Welcome to day 7 of the Tamarinis Blog Hop!  Tammy is excited about her new Craftsy class on Creating Quick Quilted Gifts. The blog hop started on July 7 with Island Batiks, and each day since has had a different blog posting projects of Tammy's using Island Batiks.

Today is my day!  Here are the beautiful fabrics that Island Batiks sent for my block.  

My assignment was to make a flower block from Tammy's pattern Mary's Contrary Garden.  My fabrics from Island Batik were fun to work with.  I loved the purple fabric with the yellow flower print and thought it would look nice in the center of the flower.  I made the flower with a darker center and went from dark to lighter fabrics. 

Tammy's flowers are trimmed to square blocks.  When I finished sewing my strips for the flower, I thought it could be an interesting hexagon block, so I trimmed my block this way.  Hexagons are really popular right now and this method would be an interesting and quick way to make them.

There are only a few more days in the blog hop, so be sure and visit the other sites and enter the Island Batik drawing for fabric and Tammy's drawing for a free class!

Here’s the lineup -

July 7 – Island Batik 
July 8 – Tammy Silvers
July 9 – Freemotion by the River
July 10 – Bejeweled Quilts
July 11 – Freemotion by the River 
July 12 – TeachPany
July 13 – Kauffman Designs- you are here
July 14 – One Quilting Circle
July 15 – Susan Vassallo Quilting Art

Tamarinis Blog Hop - Island Batik Fabris (Giveaway)

This is a special week.  Tammy Silvers has begun a class on Craftsy called "Quick Quilted Gifts".  She uses a lot of beautiful Island Batik fabrics in her projects and has joined with Island Batiks in this weeks Blog Hop.  Tammy asked several of the Island Batik Ambassadors to join her in this blog hop and showcase some of her designs.  Also, Island Batik is having a wonderful Giveaway of five one yard cuts of beautiful batiks!

Island Batik started the blog hop on Monday.  Everyday through  July 15 there is another blog site to check out.  Go to the Island Batik website:  www.islandbatik.com  and click on their blog site to enter for the fabric  drawing and see all the daily blog sites.  Tammy is also offering a chance for a free class at her site.  Check it out!

 My day to post is July 13.  Be sure to check back and see what I made with beautiful Island Batiks!

Quilt Garden 2014

The Nappanee Welcome Center Quilt Garden  this year is a school house!  The colors are great and flowers doing really well.  If anyone is traveling to Northern Indiana this summer- check out the 20 Quilt Gardens along the Heritage Trail!

Quilt Garden Video 2013

Here is a video that tells more about the Quilt Gardens along the Heritage Trail in 2013.  Our Nappanee Welcome Center garden this year was called  Nappanee..On Track. The garden portrayed a train rambling through the countryside amidst fields of flowers.  The train symbolized the Baltimore & Ohio railroad that came to town in 1874.  This was an original design by the garden committee. It took 20 volunteers two days to plant 5,472 flowers.

The video shows pictures of all 19 gardens- and short interview clips with some of the people involved with the gardens (including yours truly).

The photo below is our guilt garden and the quilt committee after it was all planted.  Gives youa little  perspective of how large the garden is when you see people in it!