(Hattie's Choice Quilt by Connie Kauffman. Photo taken at Coppes Commons in Nappanee, IN)
My quilt above was made with the Hattie's Choice Accuquilt Die (bottom left block in the image above). This die is called a BOB or Block on Board- which means all the pieces to make the block are on this one die.
This die makes an 8" block with three pieces. You can see on the die above how they have the pieces colored a dark gray and have letters identifying the pieces. Notice also have they have the dog ears already trimmed for each piece, and also include all the 1/4" seam allowances. That's really nice when you are piecing the blocks.
Here is a photo of the Accuquilt Go! when it's folded up.
The Hattie's Choice Block is pretty easy to put together.....if you do it right. I struggled late one night on how to put the blocks together. I tried it this way which seemed logical - put the white piece on top and sew the right side. NO! That doesn't work.
You need to turn the white piece on top so that there is a little dog ear to the side - like this and then sew up the right side.
Can you see the change? It makes a BIG difference and makes completing the block easy.
My first challenge with this project was my fabric selection. Island Batik sends the Ambassadors such a wonderful collection of fabrics and I had to sort through and decide which ones to use. I decided to further challenge myself by using only solids and making a more modern looking quilt. I seldom use solids (or make modern quilts) unless it's white or black, so I thought I'd give some of their new solid colors a try. I picked out the blue, green and red (at the left in the photo) along with the white and gray yardage they sent.
This turned out well--until I found out some of the new solid colors ran when I sprayed them while pressing the blocks. Let me say here that I seldom prewash my fabrics (Island Batik does recommend this). I usually make wall quilts or smaller projects and there isn't the need to prewash fabrics as most of these projects don't get washed. However- I did prewash the red solid as I know reds sometimes bleed. The red didn't bleed and I went merrily on my way cutting out the whole quilt.
It was the blue and green fabrics that were bleeding! Lesson learned! If you are making a larger quilt or trying new fabrics- it is a good idea to prewash!
Another lesson I learned with this quilt was not to do to much work in the evening when you are tired. Cutting the fabrics goes fairly quickly- but with a large project there are a lot of pieces, so it still takes awhile. However....as I was cutting the white triangles, it seemed like it was taking forever! I didn't know until I pieced the blocks together that I had cut TWICE the amount of white triangles! Anyone need 150+ white triangles? Guess there is another project down the road...
I've continued to use the Schmetz Chrome MicroTex needles which are great for quilting.
I also used Hobbs Natural Cotton Batting.
Aurifil white thread was used for the whole quilt - both for piecing and quilting which was nice!
I decided to go with a wavy line quilting across the quilt to continue the more modern look. Very different for me, but I like the overall look. I'm sure this quilting design is easier on a long arm machine.
You can also see that I played around with color placement in the block. I like how the gray sort of frames a block in the center.
I haven't settled on a name for this quilt yet - so feel free to leave a comment with any name suggestions!
Just one more photo to show the challenge of taking a photo on a windy day!
*Just a note to say that Allison Bird was the winner of the Prairie Skies fabrics from my blog hop post and the fabrics are on the way to her. Thanks to all who left comments. I'm sorry to say that my blog no longer lets me leave responsive comments, so I wanted everyone to know I'm not ignoring your comments, I love to read them!
Fabrics from Island Batik, Thread from Aurifil, Batting from Hobbs, Needles from Schmetz and Hattie's Choice Die from Accuquilt where all sent to me through the Island Batik Ambassador program so that I could highlight them in the project this month. Many thanks to them!
