Crazy Quilts April Challenge

In Full Bloom

13 1/2" x 22"

The April Challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors is to make a Crazy Quilt using one of the new Color Builder Aurifil Thread Collections.  Aurifil sent every Ambassador a Color Builder box of thread with three spools.  I received a box of yellow threads called Bird of Paradise.

One of the threads is more orange and has a some nice variegation of color.  The yellow spools are very similar in color.  One has very slight variegation of color that I didn't even notice at first. The threads are 50 wt cotton.  The numbers are 2130, 3920 and 4657. 

So our challenge was to use the colored threads we received and make some kind of crazy quilt. 

 I thought about this awhile.  I wanted to do something that didn't look like a traditional crazy quilt.   How to incorporate the look of crazy quilting in a modern quilt.?

I had a design for a crazy paper pieced flower that I'd never used, so I thought this would be a fun time to use it.  I made a couple trial blocks of the pattern with Island Batik scraps and made them into hot pads.

I liked the look of the design and decided to make a small wall quilt with flowers where I would add embroidery stitching to the blooms.

I decided on a teal Island Batik Blender for the background called Small Pointed Floral.  I used other Island Batik Foundation fabrics for the other colors.  Island Batik Foundation fabrics are great because they are always available.

The bottom colors are all shades of purple.  They look a bit like blues in the photo.

  

I made the main flowers and stems and wanted to add some leaves. I later decided not to add the little white blossoms because I didn't want to have any more stems.  I also decided to add a strip of colored scraps to the left side of the quilt as an extra pop of color.

I paper pieced the main flowers and secured them to the background with a little touch of glue around the edges.  I didn't want them to be stiff from fusible webbing.  The stems, leaves and tulips were all fused to the background.

After the top was finished, I basted it to the backing and batting and then added the embroidery stitching. I wanted a thin batting for this quilt, so I used a single layer of Hobbs Thermore Batting.

The stems and leaves have button hole stitching.  All the flowers have different embroidery stitching.  It was fun to use a big variety of stitches that I seldom use!

I used the purple threads on the orange flower, the yellow threads on the purple flower and the orangish threads on the yellow flower.

Schmetz Super Nonstick Needles worked very well for all the embroidery stitching.

Here are all the colors of Aurifil I used for the embroidery.

I haven't done much free motion quilting, but I had fun doing a variety of quilting in the background with a matching blue thread.  The thread almost disappears in the background.

Many thanks to Island Batik, Aurifil Threads, Hobbs Batting and Schmetz Needles for supplying products to use in this project.

Amy Bradley Doll House Attic Block for April

April is time for the Attic Room in the Amy Bradley Doll House Quilt .

You may have wondered why I didn't post this room last as it's the attic and I think most people will put it at the top of the house.  The reason was that this room didn't have as many small pieces.

A surprise with this block was the sewing model form.  You can't see it in the photo because there is a critter in the box in front of it!

Like all the blocks, it was fun picking out the colors for this block.

It will go at the top of my house.  My foam core board isn't big enough for all the blocks!

Feel free to post photos of your blocks in the comments- we'd  love to see what everyone is making.

Next month will be the Laundry Room.

Here is my sister Jody's cute bathroom

*Remember you can purchase the  pattern at Amy Bradley Designs at any time and join in the fun!

Paper and digital patterns available.

Have a Cuppa

 My quilt called Have a Cuppa is published in the May/June 2023 issue of Quiltmaker Magazine

This cute little quilt (9 3/4" x 16") has three stacked teacups.  These paper pieced tea cups are fun to make by fussy cutting some floral fabrics.  Give it a try!

My friend and fellow Island Batik Ambassador Preeti Harris has a quilt in this issue too!  Her quilt is called  Bourbon Street Bash and is beautiful.

Pick up a copy today!

Old and New Things

Today's post is about old and new things.  The new thing is that I'm still working on how to get blogs sent out to you.  This post may be a repeat of one you got earlier via Follow.it.  I hope to get this worked out soon.

I really value all of my subscribers. Thanks for your patience!

The old thing is something I've been thinking about the past couple of days.  I'm taking part in the Instagram Quilt Fest 2023 (#igquiltfest2023) which has a different posting each day for March.  Yesterday the theme was Pressing Matters.  That got me to thinking of my old, trusty iron.

This is an old General Electric iron that my mother gave me over 40 years ago when she got a new one.  I've used this iron ever since!  It works great and heats a bit hotter than the new irons do.  I did replace the cord once, but that is all the maintenance it has required.  I use a spray bottle with water to iron, so I never put water in it.

It's great that some things are made with quality that lasts!

Future blog posts

I want everyone to know how much I appreciate my blog viewers.  Many of you have signed up and receive my posts automatically once they are created.  I wanted to let you know that  if you receive my blog posts by email, please be aware that the posts may come to you looking a bit different as they will be  from a different sender than Mailchimp starting next week.

Please be patient with me as any kinks are worked out - hopefully everything will work smoothly!

It's All Up To You - Two Projects

The Island Batik Challenge for March was a free month!  We could decide to make what ever we wanted!  What fun! SO MANY things came to mind!  I had a hard time narrowing it down and actually made TWO projects for this month!

One of the first things that I thought of making was a rug.  I've wanted to make one with Island Batik fabrics for awhile, but the challenge never came up.  Here is the rug I made for this month.

I have made a couple rugs using 2 1/2" strips of scrap fabrics and scrap pieces of batting.  That is a great way to use up loads of scraps, but it is very time consuming.  

This time I used a 2 1/2" strip pack from Island Batik of the collection called Sunny Meadow by Kathy Engle. It's a Winter 22 Collection.  I love the 2 1/2" strip packages.  You can use them for so many things.  I loved the colors in this collection.

I also used a roll of the 2 1/4" fusible batting strips from Hobbs.  I've gotten a few rolls of the batting strips in past Ambassador boxes, but never used them.  This was a great time to give them a try and they worked really well.

These rugs are really super easy and I couldn't believe how fast I got the rug made- only two days!

The first thing you do is sew your strips together just like you do to make binding.  I wasn't sure how many strips I might need for the size of rug I wanted to make, so I started with just half a package of strips.  It does make a LONG strip of fabric!

The way Island Batik has the fabric packaged is lovely and I just sewed the strips together in the order they were in the package.  It turned out great that way and I didn't have to think about color placement myself.

Then it was time to try out Hobbs Fusible strips.  The batting strips are fusible on both sides.  You only really need the fusible on one side to make a rug.  I decided to use a pressing sheet under the batting in case it would adhere to my ironing board cover.  That worked well, but I'm not sure I really needed to do that, it is a very light fusible.  Iron the fabric face up on top of the batting strip so your seams are against the batting.  Again, you will have a VERY long strip.

Then you need to take the strip and fold both sides to the middle and fold again and sew about 1/8" from the side of the folded edges to secure the strip.  I used clips to hold some of the strip together before sewing. 

This makes a long finished tube to make your rug.  Impressive isn't it!  And so easy.

You need to decide if you want to make a round or rectangle rug.  I knew I wanted to make a rectangle rug like I had made before, so I knew how long of a strip to make in the middle.  Once you decide that, then it is just a matter of zigzagging in a large stitch where the rows touch and sewing round and round and round.  Sort of mindless!  A good time to listen to an audio book.

You need to sew with the bulk of the rug to the left of the machine.  If you start off with the bulk on the right side, just take it off the machine and turn it over and sew from the other side.

It turned out the rug wasn't as big as I wanted and I ended up using about 6 or 7 strips from the second half of the package and I used a small part of another package of batting strips.  My rug measures 25" x 39".  It's a nice size for in front of my kitchen sink.

A couple things to keep in mind- use the largest zigzag stitch you can make and also kind of scrunch your fabric as you turn the corners so that it doesn't buckle up.  You can  take your rug and iron it every few rows to also help it lay flat if you see it is starting to curve up.

You will want to sew with a coordinating thread.  It takes a lot of thread, so make sure you have plenty on hand before you start.  I used a nice spool of blue Aurifil thread.

Schmetz needles sewed thru the layers very well.

The second project I made this month was a collage quilt.

This is my quilt called Croak.

Isn't he charming!  Ha!  I won this pattern online from Emily Taylor who is a great collage quilter.  I made another one of her patterns called Woodlands and you can see the whole quilt here.  

Below is the color photo of the frog pattern and part of the Woodland pattern behind it.  I thought about making some mushrooms to go with the frog, but later decided not to.

I had this pattern laying around and really wanted to make it, so this was my incentive.

I used a big variety of Island Batik fabrics from my stash and fused pieces with Steam a Seam 2 Lite so they were ready to cut up and use.  Emily's  patterns are in black and white, but there is a color photo of the quilt on the cover of the pattern.

It soon becomes a big mess.

Eventually a frog appears!

Isn't he a charming fellow?

I played around with what colors to use for backgrounds.  I'm not sure I would have thought of purple, but I liked how Emily used it in her design.

I used 7 different colors of Aurifil threads to quilt with and a layer of Thermore batting from Hobbs.  Schmetz has some great nonstick needles that work really well when you are sewing thru fusibles.  These needles are a darker gray metal which helps you distinguish between them and other needles.

The quilt is 20" x 15 1/2".  I have a niece who teaches science and Croak is going to go live in her classroom.

Many thanks to Island Batik, Aurifil Thread, Schmetz Needles and Hobbs Batting for supplying products to use in these projects.

March Doll House Room - Bathrooms

March is the month to make Bathrooms for the Amy Bradley Doll House Quilt.

In Amy's 13 room Doll House there are two bathrooms.  If you are making the 10 room house there is only 1 bathroom.  I'm making the 10 room house with only one bathroom.  If you are making a 13 room house you can make both bathrooms this month.

Isn't that little ducky cute!

Hint:  If you are making 2 bathrooms and even if you have more rooms made ahead, it can save a lot of time if you do the button  hole stitching on all the white pieces at the same time.  Saves you changing thread colors and bobbin threads over and over.

I think I will put the bathroom beside the nursery.

Next month will be the Attic Room.

I hope many of you are following along and making the rooms for your own Doll House.  

Here is my sister Jody's nursery room.

I love the little bunnies on the lower left side!  So cute!

Remember you can purchase the Doll House Pattern at Amy Bradley Designs at any time and join in the fun!  Paper and digital patterns available.