Island Batik sent the Ambassadors a third box of goodness last month. These things were not available in time to include in the first two boxes we received.
Oh my! Aren't these lovely!
The bundle on the left is yardage in solid black, white and the dark gray. This is the first time they've sent the dark gray and it will be great to work with.
On the right is a 10" stack of the collection called Vintage Charm. This is a lovely assortment of springy colors with some touches of white. They included 2 yards of light and dark fabrics to coordinate with the Vintage Charm. The dark fabric is from the Precious Pinks Foundation fabrics and is called Sangria. The light pink is also from the Precious Pinks Foundation fabrics and is called Tea Rose. Such great names!
The three packages of rolls of fabric are their Stash Builder Rolls. These rolls are a great way to add variety to your fabric collection. Each roll has four strips of fabric that are 5" by width of fabric. There is 2.8 yards in each package.
The month of August is a free month for the Island Batik Ambassadors. This month we were free to do whatever we wanted. Wow! That is a real treat! There are so many times that we're inspired by fabrics and have some great ideas, but they don't fit into the regular challenges. So now we have a chance to do our own thing.
This month I'm showcasing a quilt I made with tiny little leftover Island Batik scraps. I had tons of little squares and also tons of triangles. What to do with them? They are just to pretty to throw out. I found a block design I liked that Bonnie Hunter has used that had 2 nine patch blocks and two half square triangle blocks. I decided to make nine patch blocks and half square triangle blocks and work on the layout later. Here was a trial layout with a few blocks.
So I started trimming up a gazillion colored squares to size and cutting many squares from Island Batik white solid. Then I started sewing a white square to a colored square, and then sewing two units together to make little nine patches. The little squares were cut 1 1/4" x 1 1/4" so they finished at 3/4". The little nine patch units measure 1 1/2" finished
It looked a little like confetti!
I also trimmed up all the triangles to the same size and cut enough white triangles to go with them. I sewed them together to make half square triangles. These blocks also measure 1 1/2".
Except for some white pieces around the outside edge, the whole quilt is made from the little nine patch and half square triangles and a few colored rectangles at the end of 10 rows. Pretty neat!
I sewed most of these little units as leaders and enders when doing other projects. That works really well- but it seemed like it took forever to get noticeable progress!
I just kept making blocks and making blocks. My scrap stash is never ending! I decided on my own arrangement of the blocks and finally sewed the blocks into rows and sewed the rows together. Tada! That's a lot a littles!
Here are a couple design ideas that I didn't use
A progress photo
Just to see how small the blocks are
I know that SOMEONE - or ALL of you are going to ask me how many little colored squares and triangles are in the quilt.....Sigh. I wasn't going to, but I finally buckled down and counted them. There are 484 little colored squares and 272 colored triangles (and of course that many white pieces to match up with both shapes). So there are 756 colored pieces and 756 white pieces plus some extra white pieces in the border. That's a LOT of pieces!
This quilt took awhile to make, but it was a fun project and a good scrap buster.
Of course I used Schmetz microtex needles which are great for sewing small pieces. Hobbs Cotton Batting is always a wonderful choice of batting. All the quilting was done with white Aurifil thread.
If you've been following along on making Amy Bradley's Doll House quilt- this is the month to put all the blocks together. At last! The pattern has either 10 rooms or13 rooms which makes an extra level to the house.
You can arrange the rooms in any way you like. Have fun! I decided to make 10 rooms and this is how I decided to place them.
First you sew the sashings to the sides of the rooms and sew them into rows, then sew the rows together with sashing between each row. Easy!
Then sew the top and bottom sashings and then the side sashings.
Next you need to applique the fence to the side panels and the top little sashings and sew them on.
Then sew the sidewalk to the grass sections and sew them to the bottom of the quilt.
Next comes the roof sections. This seems complicated at first, but Amy has really simplified how to get the roof and sky assembled. It's all in how you trim up the pieces once they are sewn together. Read your instructions carefully. The photo below shows how I trimmed one of the segments.
Here is a photo of assembling one of the windows on the applique pressing sheet.
Follow the directions on finishing the attic block and roof/sky pieces and sew the blocks together into a row. Sew the row to the top of the doll house. Amy adds the cutest wide ric rac to the roof edge. I wanted to use things I already had in my stash and I only had narrow white ric rac, so I used that and it's still cute.
This is a photo of my assembled blocks before I remembered to add the ric rac.
The last thing to add is the outside borders. I decided not to add borders for a couple reasons. I thought it was a pretty big quilt already and had been thinking of not putting them on and then I found the perfect backing fabric in my stash and it just fit the quilt without the borders. That made my decision easy!
This was a lot of work for one month, but if you are like me you were excited to put everything all together! Next month we will talk about quilting and finishing touches. It's almost done!
Post photos in the comments if you can, I'd love to see your doll houses.(you may need to open the blog post in your browser to see where to comment).
As I've said in each post- it's never to late to get Amy Bradley's Doll House Pattern and make your own for that special little one in your life.
Here are the girl and boy bedrooms that my sister Jody made for her doll house quilt. I love how each room can be so different!
Twice a year the Island Batik Ambassadors receive boxes with supplies for the Ambassador program. UPS is our friend! We all wait anxiously for the boxes to arrive! This is the second shipment this year and the UPS man backed right up to our garage so he didn't have so far to carry the large boxes.
July marks the second half of the 2023 Ambassador program and there are lots of great fabrics and supplies from sponsors and great monthly challenges ahead for the rest of the year.
Instead of showing you the outside of the plain boxes, I jumped right in to video and show you what exciting things I received to work with.
The video unfortunately cut short when my camera ran out of power. Sorry about that! Since I'd already tried to make the video several times, I decided to just post this one and conclude the video by letting you know that the Accuquilt die I received would be used for the October challenge.
Here are some close up photos
This is the half yard bundle of the collection called Chromatic. It is a Spring 2023 collection by Studio 180 Design. It also came with 2 yards of a light and 2 yards of a dark coordinating fabric. The dark fabric is one from the Chromatic collection.. The light fabric is called Icing and is from the Foundations collections. These fabrics will be used in the Pieced to Perfection Blog Hop in September.
These are fabrics from the Basics, Benders and Solids Foundation Collections. These are always available. The names are from left to right - Dashes-Salt and Pepper, Wavy Dots-Chetty, Parchment, Ravine, Tangy, Lemonade, Cherio-Iris, Small Pointed Floral Turquoise, Orange Solid, Green Solid, Red Solid and Dark Gray Solid. These are always handy to have on hand.
This is the surprise bundle! Isn't it pretty! Wonder what is on the inside? It's a half yard bundle of a Summer 2023 collection with added yardage in a light and dark fabric. You'll see these surprise fabrics in November.
This is a great 6 yard piece of Oyster which is from the Naturally Neutral collection. Island Batik is so gracious to send this large cut of fabric that can be used as backings or anywhere we want to use it.
Aurifil is one of the program sponsors and this time they sent a different selection of thread for us to use.
The first and second threads are on wooden spools and are cotton floss. I've never used this before.
The black thread is 50 wt cotton. That is what I use most of the time in my sewing and quilting.
The white spool is clear monofilament thread. I didn't know for the longest time that Aurifil carried monofilament thread. I'm glad to have some to try out.
The red spool is new to me. It is a blend of 50% wool and 50% acrylic. It is very soft and fluffy.
By Annie is another sponsor and they allowed us to pick out one of their bag patterns to make and send the patterns and all the supplies needed to make it! I picked the In Control pattern. Island Batik allowed us to select the fabrics to make the bag and that was also included. This tote is for my husband and I let him select the fabric for it. By Annie's bags are great. I can't wait to get started on this!
Island Batik sent a new Spring Collection precut package of fabric called Pin Dot Floral with 2 yards of coordinating Cream from the Natrually Nuetral line and 2 yards of navy Cherio- Bermuda from the Blender collections. I like working with the 2 1/2" strip packs. This is a lovely spring collection.
Island Batik sent two precut packages from their Gradation Collection - Playful Purples and Precious Pink. If you want a selection of gradated colors, these are the way to go. They are photographed on top of the Oyster fabric shown above.
Hobbs Batting is another sponsor and they always send a great selection of battings to use. This time they sent Thermore, Heirloom Natural Cotton, Heirloom Preimium Wool and Tuscany Wool/Cotton Blend. It is interesting to try the different battings. You might want to give a new one a try!
Here's another peak at what came in the boxes (minus the batting shown above)
As mentioned in the video- Accuquilt Go! is another sponsor of the Island Batik Ambassador Program and they sent each Ambassador the North Carolina Star Block on Board die in an earlier delivery. You'll see what I make with this die on my October blog.
This month the room is the Bedrooms. In Amy's full house with 13 rooms, there are actually 3 bedrooms. There is a room with a full bed and a little girl and little boys room. The girl and boy room are very similar. If you are making a 10 room house, you will probably only make one or two of the bedrooms.
I decided to just make one bedroom. Mine is for a little girl.
It turned out so sweet. I sewed the buttons on the pocket before sewing the pocket to the background. There will be another button on the flower on the headboard once the quilt is quilted.
This room fills up the last space for my 10 room doll house.
Now I'm excited to put the rows together.
Next month will be more about assembling the rooms, adding the roof and side borders and assembling the quilt top.
Every year I help plant the Nappanee IN Quilt Garden and I make a quilt to match the garden. The garden quilts then hang in the visitor center that is just behind the garden. Here is this years Garden - called Home Sweet Home. The design is of a bird house. This photo is when the flowers have just been planted, so you don't see much color yet.
The Nappanee Indiana Quilt Garden is part of the Quilts Along the Heritage Trail garden tour which is a great tourist attraction and wonderful for everyone to take part in. It takes a full day or two to visit all 15 gardens. The gardens are all free and located in 6 towns in the area. Of course you also have to stop and eat at some great local restaurants along the way!
Here are is a close up of some of the flowers. It is fun to watch the garden grow and see how the plants fill out and fill all the spaces.
My quilt always has the center square as a replica of the garden design. Then I add a border of some kind around the center square. This year I thought I would put birds in all the blocks of the border. After designing about 12 different birds I decided that wasn't what I wanted to do! Back to the drawing board. I decided to make a variety of bird houses and decorated them in different colors and fabrics.
What I didn't know at the time was that they were going to have a contest for different age groups to decorate bird houses to go along with the garden! What a great surprise! They hung the pretty bird houses in side beds beside the quilt garden. That was just perfect!
Aren't they cute!
Here are a couple photos of planting the quilt garden. You can see here how the design is staked out for the various plants. I'm in the upper left of the photo in a blue t shirt. We had a great day to plant. It started out cool, but warmed up and wasn't to hot. My sister Karen was visiting and was able to help with planting the garden this year!
Most of the flowers planted in this photo. The brown dirt rows will be covered with black much later.
After a very busy, tiring day- it was time for a break with a couple of the garden committee members- Karen Clipp and Julie Dijkstra and me in the blue t shirt.
I'm not sure which committee person took the three photos above. Thanks to whoever it was!
If you are ever in the area, please stop and see our wonderful gardens!
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