Monday, January 19, 2015

Sock Hop - day 8


Today is my day for the Sock Hop Blog Hop!  I'm excited to show everyone what I made using the new Island Batik fabrics in the line called Down Under.


These are gorgeous fabrics.  Deep rich blacks, browns, golden tans and creams.  I decided to use the traditional Drunkards Path Block in my project. I wanted to do something a little different with the Drunkards Path block, so I made most of the blocks traditionally with one arc, but made some blocks using a second  smaller arc on top of the first arc as shown below.


I hand pieced the arcs with a turned 1/4",  but they could easily be fused. 

So here's my project -I made a tote bag and embellished it with buttons (A special thanks to my sister who let me use a few of her big buttons.  Thanks so much!)


And here's the back of the tote.  I wanted to do something totally different than the front - you can't see both sides at once anyway!


A Drunkards Path Block can be made any size. The way I made the block is with a solid square and an arc piece.  I appliqued the arc onto the square, and left the underneath fabric whole.  I did not cut away any fabric underneath.  Some people don't like the extra bulk of underneath fabric, but for this project I didn't find it was noticiable.

 I made the square 3 1/2" x 3 1/2".  The large arc has two sides that are 2 3/4" and the smaller arc has two sides that are 2 1/4".   I appliqued the arcs onto the square by turning under 1/4" of the curved edge and stitching.   If you don't like to hand applique, you can fuse your arcs, but you need to make them 1/4" smaller on the curved arc. 



Be sure to follow along on the rest of the Blog posts listed below.  Tomorrow is Tamarinis. 

If you click on the fabric names  after the bloggers and the quilt blocks listed below- it will take you to Island Batiks and you can see the fabrics that are used in each post.  They are beautiful!  I'm sure everyone would like to have some of them- so don't forget to sign in at the bottom of this post for the great fabric bundle giveaways from Island Batik!

1/12 – Island Batik 
1/13 – Susan Vassallo Quilting Arts – Topsy Turvey Log Cabin
1/14 – Freemotion by the River – 54-40 in Running Water
1/15 – Beaquilter – Hunter Star in Crimson Tide
1/16 – One Quilting Circle – Flying Geese
1/17 – Mary Mack’s Blog – Sisters Choice in Down in the Boondocks
1/18 – Happy Cottage Quilter – Nine Patch in Johnny B Goode
1/19 – Kauffman Designs – Drunkard’s Path in Downtown
1/20 – Tamarinis – Pinwheel in Saturday Night Fever
1/21 – Bejeweled Quilts – Maple Leaf in La Bamba
1/22 – Six Gables Designs – Friendship Star in Full Bloom
1/23 – Purrfect Spots – Duck and Ducklings in No Particular Place to Go
1/24 – Inchworm Fabrics – Another Star in In the Summer Time
1/25 – Sew Fresh Quilts – Stepping Stones in Cry Me a River






a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, January 12, 2015

Sock Hop Blog Hop


Today is Day 1 of the Island Batik Sock Hop Blog Hop!  This is 14 days of great new fabric and projects.  The fabrics from Island Batik were all named after golden oldie songs - so that is where the Sock Hop theme came from.  Each blogger picked a group of fabrics and a favorite "oldie" block and made a project to share with you.

Today is Island Batik's day on the hop.  Be sure to check it out, and follow along everyday and go to all the different blogs to see what they created.  Enter at each blog for some fantastic giveaways!

1/12 –  http://www.islandbatik.com/news/  - today
1/13 – Susan Vassallo Quilting Arts – Topsy Turvey Log Cabin
1/14 – Freemotion by the River – 54-40 in Running Water
1/15 – Beaquilter – Hunter Star in Crimson Tide
1/16 – One Quilting Circle – Flying Geese
1/17 – Mary Mack’s Blog – Sisters Choice in Down in the Boondocks
1/18 – Happy Cottage Quilter – Nine Patch in Johnny B Goode
1/19 – Kauffman Designs – Drunkard’s Path in Downtown
1/20 – Tamarinis – Pinwheel in Saturday Night Fever
1/21 – Bejeweled Quilts – Maple Leaf in La Bamba
1/22 – Six Gables Designs – Friendship Star in Full Bloom
1/23 – Purrfect Spots – Duck and Ducklings in No Particular Place to Go
1/24 – Inchworm Fabrics – Another Star in In the Summer Time
1/25 – Sew Fresh Quilts – Stepping Stones in Cry Me a River


My day to post is on the 19th.  Come back and see what I made using these fabrics called -Down Under.


Monday, December 22, 2014

Color Inspiration


The colors of Christmas always inspire me!  Here's just a sample of my Christmas decorations.  This is an easy way to get color inspiration for a quilt.  Find a photo or image that you like and pull coordinating fabrics to match.


Here are a few fabrics I pulled to go with the photo above.  So easy - fabrics are ready!  Now need to decide a pattern...

Hope everyone has a wonderful- colorful Christmas!


Monday, December 15, 2014

Give-a-Way Winner

The winner of the e book Take 5 Fat Quarters by Kathy Brown, is Mary Ebert!
Mary, you will be hearing from Martingale's soon about how to download your free ebook.
Enjoy!

(winner was drawn from Random.org)

Monday, December 8, 2014

Book Review & Drawing: Take 5 Fat Quarters

Martingale - Take 5 Fat Quarters (Print version + eBook bundle)
photography courtesy of Martingale
This book:  Take 5 Fat Quarters by Kathy Brown. has a nice variety of 15 easy patterns.  The first thing I do when I see a new quilt book is look at the patterns and the fabric colors.  Then I go through again and look at how the quilting is done.  I liked the patterns in this book and I also liked that each quilt had a unique and different quilting design.  See two of the projects below and notice the nice quilting detail.
Martingale - Take 5 Fat Quarters (Print version + eBook bundle)
photography courtesy of Martingale

Martingale - Take 5 Fat Quarters (Print version + eBook bundle)
photography courtesy of Martingale


Martingale is giving away a free ebook  of Take 5 Fat Quarters to one lucky winner!  Leave a comment with your full name and email address and I will choose a winner on Dec 15.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Free Published Project - Winter Snowfall

Photo courtesy of
Quilter's Newsletter

This quilted table runner I called Winter Snowfall.  It uses Winter Wonderland and Baker's Dozen Sprinkles fabrics from Island Batiks.  These fabrics worked wonderfully to give the feeling of snowflakes flying in a winter sky. The curved flying geese are paper pieced.

This is a free web extra pattern from Quilter's Newsletter Magazine - Dec/Jan 2015 issue.  The size is:  30" x 10".

 Go to:  www.QuiltersNewsletter.com to find the free instructions under the Webxtras.

Monday, November 24, 2014

Blog Block #2 - Betty's Delight

Blog Block #2   Betty's Delight

I've liked this simple block pattern for a long time.  I didn't know the name of the block, so I looked around and the only name I found was Betty's Delight.  I'm sure it also has some other names - send me a post if you know this block by another name.

I made the block using a simple paper pieced pattern.  It takes two patterns to make one block.  Each block only uses two fabrics.  My block is a three inch finished square.


I had a small sampling of Island Batik fabrics that I loved, and thought I'd see how many blocks I could make out of them. 
Here is my finished mini quilt.  
Aren't the colors lovely!