Kauffman Designs

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

It's In the Bag! Blog Hop

It's time for another great blog hop with the Island Batik Ambassadors. This month the hop is sponsored by ByAnnie.com. Annie Unrein is the creative person behind all the wonderful bag patterns you can find on her website. This is always a great hop to learn about some of the terrific bags and using the great new Summer 2023 Island Batik fabrics to make them.

Every Friday Island Batik will be posting round-ups of the projects and give away two Fat Quarter bundles of the new Island Batik collections featured during that week! Be sure to visit all the incredible Ambassadors’ blogs to discover their inspiring creations and participate in their bonus giveaways!

You can visit the Store Locator on the Island Batik website to see where the fabrics are available. Just plug in your zip code, and your local shop will appear on the map! Super easy and helpful!

The full list of Ambassadors’ names, collections they will be using in their projects, and their post dates are as follows:

November 1:

November 2:

November 3:

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 1 and Giveaway

November 6:

November 7:

November 8:

November 9:

November 10:

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 2 and Giveaway

November 13:

November 14:

November 15:

November 16:

November 17:

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 3 and Giveaway

November 20:

November 21:

End of Blog Hop and Final Round-Up

To celebrate the start of It’s in the Bag Blog Hop for week 1, we are giving away two fabulous Fat Quarter bundles of Celtic Fields and Citron Breeze collections by our very own Kathy Engle!

To enter for your chance to win one of the two prizes above this week, go to the Island Batik blog.

Friday, October 6, 2023

Falling for Accuquilt Oct Challenge

12" x 27"

The October Island Batik Ambassador Challenge is sponsored by Accuquilt.

This year Accuquilt sent each Ambassador a North Carolina Star cutting die to use in the challenge.

This die is very large. It's a BOB or Block on Board die- meaning all the pieces you need to make the design are all on this one die.

The original North Carolina Star block has 33 blocks. There are many Y seams in the block that can be challenging- so Accuquilt decided to simplify the block by making it with no Y seams. That's great and much simpler to sew. HOWEVER - now the block has 53 pieces instead of 33! Wow- that's a lot of pieces! It also creates a challenge in pressing where many of the seams come together.

So- it's an interesting block to make. It's a very lovely block, but I personally wasn't excited about all the pieces created with the die. Our challenge also encourages us to use the die in alternate ways, so I decided to design something a bit different.

I made a table runner that is 12" x 27". It will fit great on top of a quilt display cabinet I have. I made both of the side units as shown on the diagram above. The top and bottom sections I took off the corner A piece.

Where I changed things is with the center units. I created 9 of these units, but I pieced them in a different way. I eliminated some seams in the C and E blocks and I sewed the blocks together as horizontal rows

Here is the layout of all the pieces.

Here are some photos of putting the rows together. The center row is just squares. The next row is squares made by eliminating an E seam. Triangles are sewn to two sides and sewn together into a row.

The next row is where I combined the C blocks eliminating a center seam on all but the end blocks.

This was very easy and I loved that I was able to eliminate many seams.

I got so busy telling you about the block, I forgot to mention the fabrics I used! I used Island Batik Foundation fabrics in red, white is Almond, the light blue is Bluebird Wavy Dots and the dark blue is Blueberry. The mixed print in the center squares and triangles is Blue Marine Dot from the Red, White and Blooms collection. They all went together so nicely and make a great 4th of July runner.

I used Hobbs Heirloom Natural Batting with Scrim and Schmetz Microtex Needles. Three coordinating spools of Aurifil thread blended nicely with the fabrics.

This runner will be nice to use next July!

Many thanks to Island Batik, Accuquilt Go! , Hobbs Batting, Aurifil Thread and Schmetx Needles for providing product to make this project.

Monday, October 2, 2023

Dolls for the Doll House

It has been fun making Amy Bradley's Doll House quilt.

I hope many of you have followed along and made your own doll house. If you made a quilt I hope you post a photo here in the comments or on Amy's blog for everyone to see.

Today for the last posting, I wanted to show just a few of the dolls and toys that work well with the quilt.

Here is my teddy welcoming you to the house.

My sister's little sheep is also welcoming you to the doll house.

More cuteness. One of my daughter's dolls ready to take a nap.

Bunny playing in the laundry.

Many different toys will fit in the pockets. This photo shows the size of the ones I took photos of.

My sister Jody's bunny watching tv.

Tiny teddy in the Kitchen.

My sister Jody had a great idea and has little books in her attic pocket!

My friend Ande had made a doll house quilt earlier. Here are some of her toys.

That's a lot of cuteness! I hope all your little ones have fun with this quilt!

Monday, September 25, 2023

Poinsettia Quilt - On the Cover!

Poinsettias

40" x 40"

Original quilt designed and made by Connie Kauffman

My quilt Poinsettias is in the recent Merry Christmas Quilting by Quilter's World. It is one of several projects on the cover.

The greatest thing about this quilt is that it was all made from scraps! Even the white fabrics. It's amazing what you can create with the scraps you have on hand. It's hard to see in the photo, but the poinsettias are embellished with yellow beads in the centers.

Here is the photo from inside (photos courtesy of Annie Publications).

The prize winner from my Pieced to Perfection blog post is Beth T. Her prize of two half yards of Island Batik Chromatic are on their way!

I had so many great suggestions for names for my quilt. It was very hard to choose.

I finally decided on the name 3D Hugs and Kisses. Thanks for the suggestion!

Monday, September 18, 2023

Week 3 Pieced to Perfection Blog Hop

Check out the new fabrics and projects in this weeks Pieced to Perfection Blog Hop!

WEEK 3

September 18

Lana Russel, Lana Quilts

Lisa Pickering, Lisa’s Quilting Passion

September 19

Randi Jones, Randi’s Roost

Suzy Webster, Websterquilt

September 20

Mania Hatziioannidi, Mania for Quilts

Pamela Boatright, Pamela Quilts

Leah Malasky, Quilted Delights

September 21

Renee Atkinson, Pink Tulip Quilting

Reed Johnson, Blue Bear Quilts

September 22

End of Blog Hop + Final Round Up and Island Batik prize drawing - be sure to enter on the Island Batik Blog for one of two beautiful fabric bundles!