Blocked Rainbow QAL {Week #5 - Blue Bowties}

The 2018 quilt along is now over and the entire pattern is available as a single PDF pattern on Etsy and Craftsy.

This week is our super alliterative week with Blue Bowties!

This week we're adding in another basic quilting technique - stitch and flip units!

Here are my fabrics and blocks:

If you're a little bit behind, now is the perfect time to catch up! These bowtie blocks in particular go together quite quickly so if there's a week that you missed or you are still working on a previous week, making only nine blocks this week is a breeze! This is half as many blocks as we made in week 1 for our red pinwheels!

Our winner of last week's prize is Annette! All of her fabrics feature little bugs, isn't that adorable?

This week our giveaway sponsor is Pamela from PamelaQuilts! A little about Pamela:

Pamela Boatright has been sewing since she was a child, but it wasn’t until she was raising her five daughters that she fell in love with the quilting. She is a self taught quilter who loves challenging herself and working with traditional quilt designs. She became a proficient hand quilter, then moved into machine quilting on her domestic machine. After starting work at the local quilt shop 12 years ago she was encouraged to begin writing her own patterns. She loves all aspects of creating quilts, especially the opportunity to work with Island Batik as an Island Batik Ambassador and this past year as collaborated with Aurifil thread as one of their Aurifil Artisans. She enjoys sharing her creations on social media as well as teaching small classes at her local quilt shop.

Don't forget to share your progress photos in the Facebook group or on Instagram with the hashtag #BlockedRainbowQAL! If you haven't joined in yet, don't fret! There's plenty of time to join in because we have multiple "catch up" weeks in the month of May! Sharing at Linky Tuesday and Let's Bee Social!

Schedule:
March 19 - Introduction, Yardage Requirements, Kona Sale with HBD
March 26 - Sponsors, Background Spacer cutting, Color Suggestions
April 2- Red Pinwheels
April 9 - Orange Churn Dashes
April 16 - Yellow Flying Geese
April 23 - Green Sawtooth Stars
April 30 - Blue Bowties <-- That's today!
May 7 - Purple Bear Paws
May 14 - Catch up week/Mother's Day
May 21 - Setting directions
May 28 - Catch up week/Memorial Day
June 4 - Finished Quilt Top Parade/Link Up

On The Road Home {TQB Quilting Progress}

The time had finally come for me to start the quilting on my Traveling Quilt Bee (TQB) quilt from 2016! When last I posted, the top had been finished and I was mulling ideas for quilting.

I did decide to go with my initial quilting idea of quilting each different person's section with a different free motion filler. There are seven sections on the main body of the quilt not including the black and pieced borders.

The first section I quilted was my original quilt starter, the four star block. I used a simple meander. (Side note: some of these pictures don't show the purple well and/or the background looks cream instead of white -- I took these pictures in less than ideal lighting conditions!)

The next section is an L-shaped section of two medium and five small blocks. I used a curly flower motif through this section.

The next section, which is actually two sections added by the same person, are four larger blocks -- two on each side of the center of the quilt. I quilted loop-de-loops in both of these sections.

Now the center third of the quilt is done! The next four sections are each long rows of blocks across the width of the quilt. My next planned motifs to use are the leafy meander (my new favorite!) and potentially a wood grain motif. My plan is to keep the different motifs "curvy" and since all of the piecing in the quilt is straight.

Happy Thursday! Sharing at NTT!

Blocked Rainbow QAL {Week #4 - Green Sawtooth Stars}

The 2018 quilt along is now over and the entire pattern is available as a single PDF pattern on Etsy and Craftsy.

We're more than halfway done making our blocks for this quilt! We'll be making 10 or fewer blocks from this week on!

This week we are making our green sawtooth stars. We'll be using the fast flying geese method again this week to make smaller units for our stars.

Here are my blocks:

I used three different greens this time around. If you're making a super scrappy version of the quilt, mix up your different fabrics while you're working on your flying geese so that your star points could all be different for a single star! As a general helpful note, when working on scrappy projects, cut your largest pieces first followed by your smaller pieces -- I typically do this for all of my cutting so that I am able to cut the smaller pieces and parts from the scraps of larger cuts.

The winner of last week's pattern is Susan! Check out her great yellow geese!

This week's give away is sponsored by Terri from Lizard Creek Quilting! A little about Terri:

Terri has been quilting for over 25 years, longarm quilting for 10 years and for the last 2 years has added pattern design to the mix. Many of her quilts have ribboned in national and international quilt shows. Many quilt designs have been published in magazines--Quiltmaker, McCalls Quilting, Fons and Porter, and Quilter's World. In 2016 she won the AccuQuilt Barn Quilt design contest--and had her winning block displayed on their warehouse/office as a 17 foot barn quilt. She has had the pleasure of being an Island Batik Ambassador for the last 2 years. She lives in NW Iowa on a farm with her husband where they raise pigs!

Make sure to share your blocks in the Facebook group or on Instagram with the hashtag #BlockedRainbowQAL to be entered to win!

Sharing at Linky Tuesday!

Schedule:
March 19 - Introduction, Yardage Requirements, Kona Sale with HBD
March 26 - Sponsors, Background Spacer cutting, Color Suggestions
April 2- Red Pinwheels
April 9 - Orange Churn Dashes
April 16 - Yellow Flying Geese
April 23 - Green Sawtooth Stars <-- That's today!
April 30 - Blue Bowties
May 7 - Purple Bear Paws
May 14 - Catch up week/Mother's Day
May 21 - Setting directions
May 28 - Catch up week/Memorial Day
June 4 - Finished Quilt Top Parade/Link Up

May Cubicle Quilt {Finished Mini}

I may have forgotten to take work-in-progress pictures of this project, but I did finish my May cubicle quilt!

Like my April cubicle quilt, I had made the scrappy background long ago. Some of the fabrics that I used for the background were leftovers from my Cartwheel baby quilt and my Madison baby quilt. I used red, yellow, and green scraps for the flower and petals. I used orange and olive Aurifil (not sure of the exact colors!) for the machine quilting on the flower.

For the quilting, I used the same leafy meander inspired by Angela Walters that I used on my Antietam-inspired baby quilt. I absolutely love the texture on this mini and it was the perfect quilting choice.

The backing and binding are also leftovers from the Madison quilt.

This little quilty cutie is all ready to be hung up on May 1st! I actually have never made the larger June quilt to match my wall hangings at home so I might need to make both the June cubicle quilt and the June wall hanging at the same time.

Sharing at Finish it up Friday!

Donuts {Finished Block Sections}

Once I got to a stopping point with my Double Delight quilt, I pulled out my Donuts block sections to assess how much more I needed to do. I found that I needed five more sets of block sections in mainly lighter shades of blue, aqua, and green.

I made one light aqua, one more medium aqua, one medium-to-dark teal greens, one light green, and one light blue set of block sections.

Now all 18 sets of block sections are complete!

This quilt is one that is going to need to be laid out strategically and it would be helpful if I had a design wall for constructing the quilt. I am pretty sure that I am going to use a grey shade of Kona as the background but I'll have to see how much I'll need before I decide what color. 

This quilt was a good choice for my slightly larger scraps and strips, but I ended up with a lot of little bits and bobs from trimming the blocks and I'm not exactly sure how best to use them. They could easily make some scrappy slabs, but they could also work for some of the other projects in No Scrap Left Behind. And so the scrap cycle continues!

Sharing at Let's Bee Social, Needle and Thread Thursday, and Oh Scrap!

Blocked Rainbow QAL {Week #3 - Yellow Flying Geese}

The 2018 quilt along is now over and the entire pattern is available as a single PDF pattern on Etsy and Craftsy.

It's already week #3! Let's get crackin' on some flying geese!

This week's block is a pair of flying geese. We'll be making fast flying geese, so each set of four geese will make two blocks! This should be a relatively quick week!

Here are my blocks:

You can use any method your heart desires to make your flying geese if the Fast Flying Geese method doesn't work with your current scrap collection. If you're an Easy Angle Ruler kind of person, check out this tutorial from Bonnie Hunter. If you'd rather use the stitch and flip method, check out this page from Connecting Threads that shows both the Fast Flying Geese method and the stitch and flip method.

Remember that if you change which method you plan to use to make your geese you'll need to adjust the cutting directions from my instructions so decide which method you'd like to use first before you start cutting. Regardless of which method you choose, you'll need a total of 24 flying geese in the appropriate size.

Our winner from last week is Ramona! Check out her beautiful churn dashes! Way to go!

This week's giveaway sponsor is Sharon from Yellow Cat Designs! About Sharon:

Sharon lives in Lee Summit, Missouri and is retired -- but somehow she's busier now than when she worked full time! She is a second year Island Batik Ambassador and her designs can be found at www.yellowcatquiltdesigns.com as well as in Quiltmaker, McCall's Quilting, Modern Quilts Unlimited, and in the Moda Bake Shop.

Make sure to post in the Facebook group or use the hashtag #BlockedRainbowQAL to be entered to win! Sharing at Linky Tuesday!

Today also kicks off the Stash Statement blog hop celebrating Kelly's new book! Click on over to her blog to read all about the cover quilt and enter to win a copy of the book for yourself!

Schedule:
March 19 - Introduction, Yardage Requirements, Kona Sale with HBD
March 26 - Sponsors, Background Spacer cutting, Color Suggestions
April 2- Red Pinwheels
April 9 - Orange Churn Dashes
April 16 - Yellow Flying Geese <-- That's today!
April 23 - Green Sawtooth Stars
April 30 - Blue Bowties
May 7 - Purple Bear Paws
May 14 - Catch up week/Mother's Day
May 21 - Setting directions
May 28 - Catch up week/Memorial Day
June 4 - Finished Quilt Top Parade/Link Up

Antietam Inspired Quilt {Finished Baby Quilt}

Today I'm sharing the finish of my April Island Batik Ambassador challenge! This month's theme is using vintage quilts to inspire new creations!

I chose a quilt in the museum of Antietam National Battlefield as my inspiration which you can read more about in my previous post! I made nine blocks in the same design as those in the original quilt.

I put together the blocks with 1.5" sashing strips. I very often sash 12" blocks with 1" finished sashings for baby quilts -- that way the quilt is narrow enough to use a single width of fabric for backing! 

For the quilting, I decided to use a leafy meader after following along with Angela Walter's recent FMQ QAL. I did half the quilting on one day and half the next and used cream thread. The backing is flannel. The batting is Hobbs Heirloom Premium, provided by Hobbs in my IB Ambassador kit.

I used the background fabric for the binding and machine stitched it to the front using emerald thread as a little accent. 

Quilt Stats:

Name: Antietam Baby Quilt

Pattern: Self-designed based on a historical quilt

Fabrics: Island Batik basics/blenders provided in my IB Ambassador box

Size: 40 inches square

Quilting: Leafy meander

Started: March 2018

Finished: April 2018

Future: Baby quilt for close friends' first baby!

Sharing at Finish it up Friday! 

Coast to Coast Bee 2.0 {Chelsea's Quilt}

This round of the Coast to Coast traveling bee had me working on Chelsea's outdoor themed quilt. Here's what I received to work on:

Audrey added the border and paper pieced New Hampshire lettering and the modern mountains was Chelsea's start to the quilt. Doesn't it look like an old fashioned travel ad?

Since this quilt had a lot of paper piecing already, I decided to continue that theme. It was easy to find "NH facts" which told me all about the state bird, butterfly, insect, flower, and so on and so forth. After looking at paper piecing patterns online, I decided to add blocks of the state butterfly -- the Karner Blue butterfly -- and the state insect -- the ladybug!

First, I worked on the butterflies. This type of butterfly is mainly royal blue and black with yellow accents. I omitted the yellow accents, but found this awesome marble print in my scraps that looks awesome for the butterfly wings!

Next, I made two ladybugs. I didn't have polka dot fabric, so I used a paisley print.

My final addition was a block of New Hampshire itself! I used an outline of the state that I found online and traced it onto my fusible backwards. I picked a green leaf Amanda Murphy print as the fabric for the applique. I used a slightly darker shade of green thread to blanket stitch around the edges of the applique state.

Here's what I'll be passing along to Stephanie! I'm so happy with how it came together.

My next assignment is working on Karen's quilt! Her quilt is a medallion quilt. Sharing at Let's Bee social this week!

I'm also excited to share that I am a part of the upcoming Stash Statement blog hop to celebrate Kelly's first book!

Photo courtesy Martingale/That Patchwork Place

The hop has new posts once a week on Mondays! It's a great lineup of quilters taking part.

Stash Statement Blog Tour Schedule-

4/16- Grand Bazaar    Shelley @ Cora's Quilts

                                    Connie @ Freemotion by the River

4/23- Louvered  Lindsey @ Primrose Cottage Quilts 

                           Diann @ Little Penguin Quilts

4/30- Precarious  Jess @ Quilty Habit                       

                             Myra @ Busy Hands Quilts

                                                            

5/7- Beach Retreat  Sarah @ Sarah Goer Quilts                               

                                 Liz @ Savor Every Stitch 

                                                           

5/14- Fire Pit   Alison @ Little Bunny Quilts <---- That's me!                  

                         Preeti @ Sew Preeti Quilts

                                                            

5/21- Detour    Laura @ Slice of Pi Quilts                         

                         Shelley @ The Carpenter's Daughter Who Quilts

                                                            

5/28- Murrina    Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl             

                            Leanne @ Devoted Quilter

                                                            

6/4- Scattered    Jayne @ Twiggy and Opal                      

                           Christine @ Triangles and Squares 

                                                            

6/11- Bloom Chicka Boom   Chris @ made by ChrissieD            

                                               Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty

                                                            

6/18- Regatta   Susan @ Quilt Fabrication                             

                          Debbie @ A Quilter's Table    

                          Christa @ Christa Quilts

                                                            

6/25- Catch a Falling Star  Cynthia @ Quilting is More Fun Than Housework        

                                              Anja @ Anja Quilts

                                                            

7/2- College Prep   Hilary @ by Hilary Jordan                 

                                Lori @ Crossquilt

                                                            

7/9- Take Flight (bonus digital pattern)  Kelli @ Seriously, I Think It Needs Stitches 

                                                                 Paula @ The Sassy Quilter

Blocked Rainbow QAL {Week #2 - Orange Churn Dashes}

The 2018 quilt along is now over and the entire pattern is available as a single PDF pattern on Etsy and Craftsy.

Welcome to Week #2 of the Blocked Rainbow QAL!

I have loved seeing everyone's pinwheel blocks on Facebook and Instagram! Gina was the winner of our Week 1 pattern giveaway hosted by The Inquiring Quilter! Gina is doing a super scrappy version of the quilt with a grey background!

Let's get back to business and make some churn dashes.

Here are my blocks:

I used five different fabrics this week. As noted in last week's scrappy suggestions, you can chose to mix up fabrics within a single block, or make each block in a single fabric like I have done.

If you're working from smaller fabrics, strip piecing your side sections might not be the best use of your scraps and you might want to cut individual rectangles and that's totally fine! If you want to do that you'll need 1.5 inch x 2.5 inch rectangles for the 6 inch blocks used in the throw sized quilt or 2 inch x 3.5 inch rectangles for the 9 inch blocks used in the twin sized quilt. Some of my side sections were strip pieced and some weren't -- it just depended on the size of my starting piece of fabric for that particular color.

If you like the blocks but aren't sure if you have enough scraps to make either size quilt and don't want to use yardage, here are some alternate project suggestions:

-- To make a set of four placemats, make four (4) 6 inch blocks each week and combine one block in each color to make placemats that each use 6 blocks
-- You could also make a 24 block table runner if you make four (4) 6 inch blocks each week.

This week our prize sponsor is Marlene from KISSed Quilts and the winner will receive a PDF pattern of their choosing! She's retired as an Island Batik Ambassador, but is still designing patterns for the company. Here's a little bit about Marlene:

Marlene (Baerg) Oddie is an award winning long-arm machine quilter, pattern designer and author who enjoys creating unique treasures. She's an engineer by education, project manager by profession and now a quilter by passion. Her company name comes from her engineering days of the KISS method, but she has adapted it to Keeping It Simple.....and Stunning!

Due to job moves with her husband, she is now involved with quilting projects full-time and has a small retail shop and quilting studio in Grand Coulee, WA. You may have read her columns that are regularly picked up across North America in your local Country Register. If you're going through the Pacific Northwest, stop to see the Grand Coulee Dam and be sure to say hello to Marlene.

Make sure to post in the Facebook group or use the hashtag #BlockedRainbowQAL to be entered to win!

Sharing at Linky Tuesday and Needle and Thread Thursday!

Schedule:
March 19 - Introduction, Yardage Requirements, Kona Sale with HBD
March 26 - Sponsors, Background Spacer cutting, Color Suggestions
April 2- Red Pinwheels
April 9 - Orange Churn Dashes <-- That's today!
April 16 - Yellow Flying Geese
April 23 - Green Sawtooth Stars
April 30 - Blue Bowties
May 7 - Purple Bear Paws
May 14 - Catch up week/Mother's Day
May 21 - Setting directions
May 28 - Catch up week/Memorial Day
June 4 - Finished Quilt Top Parade/Link Up

Antietam Inspired Quilt {April IBA Challenge}

Our Island Batik Ambassador theme for April is "Looking Back" -- this month we're taking inspiration from vintage quilts.

For those of you that have read Little Bunny Quilts for a long time will know that my husband works for the National Park Service ("Park Ranger Husband") and spent his first few years in the NPS working at Antietam National Battlefield. One of the more notable items at their museum is this quilt:

This quilt was made in 1850 by Barbara Miller, who lived nearby. Relatives owned one of the farms that became part of the field of battle on September 17th, 1862. The quilt is signed by friends and family. This simple red and cream quilt has large cream sashings and borders filled with hand quilted feathers and a gear-like triangle border.

Today I'm going to break down how I dissected the original blocks to make my blocks and then give you the necessary dimensions to make your own Antietam autograph-style blocks. My blocks are 12" finished, but based on seeing the original quilt in person quite a few times, I think the original quilt blocks are probably 8" or 9" finished.

The original block is -- more or less -- a square in a square in a square in a square with beveled corners. So a lot of research on square in a square blocks and economy blocks later, I had cutting measurements for my planned blocks. I used three different focus fabrics (two greens and a brown) and one cream background and made three blocks each for a total of nine blocks. Island Batik kindly provided these fabrics in my Spring Ambassador box!

For one 12" finished block, you'll need
(1) 4 3/4" square background fabric
(2) 4" squares focus fabric cut once on the diagonal for (4) triangles
(2) 5 1/4" squares background fabric cut once on the diagonal for (4) triangles
(2) 7" squares focus fabric cut once on the diagonal for (4) triangles
(4) 3.5" squares background fabric

I found that these measurements allowed me to sliver trim on all four sides of the block as I went along. If you prefer to have more wiggle room for trimming or use a wider 1/4" seam, add 1/4" to the 4", 5 1/4", and 7" squares.

After adding the 4" triangles, trim the entire unit to 6.5". After adding the 5 1/4" triangles, trim the entire unit to 9". After adding the 7" triangles, trim to 12.5".

Draw lines on the diagonal of each 3.5" square. Sew one to each corner of the 12.5" block using the stitch and flip method. Blocks should still measure 12.5".

I made a total of nine blocks -- three in each color. These will be made up into a baby quilt top shortly!

Have a wonderful weekend! Don't forget to check out the Blocked Rainbow QAL and join the Facebook Group!