McCalls Quilting Aug/Sept

Archipelago

Designed and made by Connie Kauffman

35" x 35"

Photos courtesy of McCalls Quilting Magazine

I'm happy to have my quilt Archipelago published in the Aug/Sept McCalls Quilting magazine.  This design uses the City Culture 2 Collection by Island Batik.  The fabrics are a lovely blend of  muted blues, grays and brown.  The brown has a directional print which worked very nicely in the arrow part of the design.

Here is a full shot of the quilt.

McCalls was very generous and gave me an extra copy of the magazine for a giveaway.  Leave a comment below to be entered in the drawing.

2nd Island Batik Box Reveal

This is my 5th year as an Island Batik Ambassador.  Each year we receive two boxes of fabric that we use to create a monthly challenge project to post on our blogs.  We receive a box in January and one in July.

The anticipation runs high when a new box is due to come!

Here is the 2nd box I received just last week - so dull on the outside- so beautiful inside!

Let me show you what all was in the box.
First of all two stack packs (10" squares).  One is Vintage Morris - lovely soft greens, tans and muted orange.  Also  Paisley Dot  Brights.  This is an eye popping assortment of bright dotted fabrics.  There was also a strip pack of the collection Lavender Sage.  It's a lovely green/purple/blue and soft yellow mix.  It came with coordinating yardage which is great for borders, backgrounds, and backing.  They really do supply us with about everything we could need!

Aurifil sent a tote celebrating their 10th year in the USA.  Inside was a sample pack of green threads in 8 different contents and weights.  Also a spool of a lovely soft yellow/tan and leaflets on thread info and color charts- so great to have on hand.

Island Batik sent a wonderful Foundation Bundle of 8 different Blenders and Basics fabric that they carry.  This is so wonderful to have when an extra fabric is needed to complete a design.  The colors included are: Large Netting- Pineneedles, Cherio-Iris-BE, Bubbles-Chartreuse-BE, Dandelion-Wisteria-BE, Iris, Kiwi, Geranium, Chameleon.  They also included their solids in Black, White and Gray.  I've used the black and white in projects before.  The black is a true black and I love the solid white.  I look forward to using the gray in the future.

Island Batik sent 3 samples of their Check It Out line.  This is a great collection of checkered fabrics.  If you watch some of the other Ambassadors box reveals on their blogs, you will see many more colors of this collection.  There is also a wonderful 5 yard bundle of a neutral basic. Since we Ambassadors use a lot of these neutrals- they decided to stock us up!  My yardage is called Custard and is a light creamy tan/yellow with a touch a green.  Lovely!

Last, but not least are the lovely battings in the bottom of the box.  Hobbs batting supplied us all with a queen size cotton batting, a throw size wool batting and a throw size wool blend batting!  I have used several of Hobbs battings, but never any of these, so this will be interesting.  What a great way to try something new!  

I forgot to take a photo of the surprise bundle in the box (it's the bright pink package you can see in the box photo above).  This bundle is a collection that won't be released to the public until Quilt Market, so we can't show them yet.  You will see them in January when all the Ambassadors will be involved in a Blog Hop showing off projects with the new fabrics.  

Stay tuned to see many of these fabrics, threads and battings in future posts. You can also look for them and/or request them in your local shops.

Many, many thanks to Island Batik, Aurifil and Hobbs Batting for this great box of inspiration!

July Island Batik Challenge

The July challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors was to make a project that had some kind of secondary pattern in it.  The first thing I did was look over the fabrics that Island Batik had sent me in the first box of fabric this year.  I decided to use the Pumpkin Patch fabric that had deep rich fall colors.  This bundle of fabric came in a Stack pack of 10" squares.

The bundle also came with some yardage in two colors.  The gold one I ended up using as background and the dark print I ended up using as backing

The next thing I did was look for a block pattern that would have a secondary pattern when the blocks were placed side by side.

I liked this simple basket pattern.  After playing around awhile, I took off the top two corner triangles so that I could place four baskets together with the handles all pointing towards the center.

Already you can see a secondary pattern.  The baskets almost disappear.

I made nine sets of the four basket blocks and laid them out in rows of three.  Here's the work in progress.

I wondered what to use for borders.  Since my fabrics came in 10" squares, I looked at the bundle of basics fabrics that Island Batik had sent.  I really liked the dark smokey brown called Walnut for the outer border and a mottled brown called Bubbles-Nutmeg for the inner border.  They worked really well.

Here is a photo of the finished quilt 37 1/2" x 37 1/2".  I'm not the best photographer and my camera doesn't seem to like this color combination.  I took several photos and this is the best one of the bunch.  As you can see in the photos above, the colors look a bit different in each one.

If you look at the quilt, you see the secondary pattern made by the four  baskets placed together into one large block.  Then you also see a secondary pattern where the basket blocks are placed together that results in the blue on point squares.

Playing around with single blocks can make some interesting secondary designs!

I used Hobbs Premium Cotton Batting that was also sent in the Ambassador Box.  It quilted up nicely.

If you have read some of my past blogs, you will know that I'm in love with the Westalee quilting foot and rulers.  I really enjoyed using them on this quilt.  Here are a few photos that show quilting with rulers and quilting in the squares and borders.  

If you like to do your own quilting on a domestic machine and you haven't looked into the Westalee rulers/Sew Steady- be sure and check them out!

 One more photo of the finished quilt.  I took this one outside in the full sun which sort of bleached the look of the colors- still not a perfect shot.  Notice the scrappy binding which I think sets it off nicely.

June Island Batik Modern Challenge

The June challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors was to make a Modern Quilt.  For this quilt project I used the Sunflower Serenade Collection that was sent in my first Ambassador box of fabric this year.

 I dearly love this collection.  My box had a collection of fat eights to work with.  This was a challenge as I wasn't sure how far they would go, but I really wanted to make something with them

*****FYI  I've worked with some of these fabrics before!  Look for my quilt in the Nov/Dec issue of Quiltmaker Magazine.

Many modern quilts use bright fabrics, so this collection would work.  I had enough of Island Batik Sprinkles to use as a light background, which would make the colors pop.

I choose the X Plus block pattern that has been very popular lately.  This was a good block that can use a wide variety of fabrics.  I used all but 3 or 4 fabrics in the whole collection.

This is a  very easy block to  make.  I decided to made the corner blocks by paper piecing- just because that is easy and accurate.  The blocks and sashing go together easily.  I decided to use the darker  fabrics for the sashings which gives a sort of grid work to the design. 

The quilt finished as a lap quilt 38" x 47".  Since many modern quilts have no borders, I finished it with a scrappy binding.

I really love the colors in this collection.

For the quilting I used the Westalee Straight edge ruler and the 4" arc.  Those are two of my favorite Westalee rulers.

You might want to check out the other Ambassadors posts for making Modern Quilts this month:

Busy Hands Quilts 
Freemotion by the River 
Quilting Affection Designs 
Bejeweled Quilts by Barb 
Clever Chameleon 
Mania for Quilts 
Steph Jacobson 
Inchworm Fabrics 
Moosestash Quilting 
BeaQuilter 
Carole Lyles Shaw 
HeARTs Creations 
Sew Karen-ly Created
If These Threads Could Talk 
The Quilt Rambler 
Slice of Pi Quilts 
Creative Blonde 
Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting 
Patterns by Jen 
Powered by Quilting 
Quilt in a not-Shell 
Curlicue Creations 
Little Bunny Quilts 
MMM Quilts 
Sweetgrass Designs 
Living Water Quilter

Book review winner

The winner of the Mini-Charm Quilts ebook is Jody.  The winning number was drawn by Random.org

Book Review and Giveaway - June

If you regularly follow my blog, you know by now that I love mini quilts.  Martingale has a new book called Mini-Charm Quilts  18 Clever Projects for 2 1/2" squares.

Photos are courtesy of Martingale

Martingale asked 18 of their designers to design a quilt using 1, 2 or 3 of their mini charm pack of squares.  Mini charm packs are a quick and easy way to gather pre cut squares - but don't we all have 2 1/2" squares just waiting to be used?  Lots of inspiration here on how to use them.  

A couple months ago I asked readers what color they had the most of in their scrap stash.  Many said blue.  Here is a cute little quilt that would use up a lot of those scraps.  This is called Spare Time by Lisa Bongean.

Another cutie is this heart pillow covered with cross your heart x's.  It's called Cross My Heart Pillow by Brenda Riddle.

This little quilt is so bright and cheerful.  Four Patch Chain is by Barbara Groves & Mary Jacobson.  I think this pattern would make a cute baby quilt.

Save those little squares- there are loads of things you can make with them!  If small projects aren't your thing- I'm sure you have a friend or two that would love to have them!

Look for Mini-Charm Quilts in your local shop or purchase online at shopmartingale.com

Martingale gives all the royalty funds for this book to LOCK-9 Comfort Dogs.  Isn't this a great way to support a special organization!

***Giveaway***

I'm having a drawing for a free ebook.  Let me know in the comments what size scraps you like to save.  I'll announce the winner early next week.  Be sure that I can contact you if you are a winner.

Bridesmaid Baby Blanket

Have you heard about making old bridesmaid dresses into baby blankets?  It is a growing trend as you can see if you look into it on Pinterest.  I wasn't aware of people doing this until  my daughter asked me to make one from a bridesmaid dress she had worn.  The "bride" was having a baby and as the dress no longer fit my daughter, this seemed like an interesting idea!

I didn't think to take a picture of the dress before I started.  It was a slim, halter top, floor length dress.  Luckily the dress was a single layer of fabric and not layers of thin filmy fabric.  I'm not sure, but I think it was some kind of polyester.  The hardest part was cutting into the dress and taking it apart!  My daughter is thin and the pieces of the dress were tapered up the sides, so there wasn't as much usable fabric as I had expected.

I decided to do a simple quilt with squares as I wasn't sure how much the fabric would fray, and how it would quilt.

I decided to make the alternate squares a soft white fleecy fabric that baby's love to feel.  So the blanket has the soft white and the slick pink fabrics to feel.  My daughter picked out a fleece baby blanket on sale for less than the cost of backing, so we went with that for the back. The colors coordinated really well.

It turned out very nice.   I did very simple straight line quilting that worked well to secure the dress fabrics.

It is a pretty neat idea - you might want to give it a try!