Jungle Cruise Quilt {Great Outdoors Blog Hop with Island Batik}

Today is finally my day to share as part of the Great Outdoors Blog Hop!

Let's go on an adventure -- let's go on a Jungle Cruise! This line is inspired by the wild side of nature -- featuring snakeskin prints, giraffe spots, leopard speckles, and leaves!

When I was thinking about what pattern to use with these fabrics, I thought that our new Summer Patio pattern was the perfect choice to showcase these beautiful fabrics in a fun and easy setting. I posted about the start of this quilt in July!

I had enough fabrics to make the full sized quilt and put my strip pieced blocks in diagonals across the quilt.

For the quilting, I used 50 wt. Aurifil thread in "blonde beige" and did all over swirls for the quilting. This color blended well with all of the prints in the collection.

For the binding I did a semi-scrappy binding using alternating strips of two different bright prints. I fully found this by machine. I used a variegated thread from Superior Threads to do the top stitching on the binding.

This quilt finishes at 77 x 91 inches for the full size. The pattern also includes instructions for a twin size that finishes at 63 x 91 inches.

I loved working with the Jungle Cruise line and hope that you have checked out all of the blog posts for the Great Outdoors hop! Click here for the full schedule -- I've updated all of the links to date with links to the posts rather than to just the blog homepage. That post also includes the live Rafflecopter for the Grand Prize giveaway sponsored by Island Batik -- they'll be giving away strip packs of new fabric to three lucky winners!

I'm always happy to share my Island Batik fabric wealth with my friends from the interwebs (that's you!) and so I am giving away TWO mini-strip sets (24 strips each) cut from the remaining yardage of my bundle of Jungle Cruise fabrics.

You know the drill -- comments for entries, up to three entries per person! (If you leave more than three comments, extra comments will be deleted and not counted as entries.) Giveaway will be closed on September 5th (but I have another one planned that will start on September 7th!)

1. Tell me which of the new IB collections is your favorite -- check out the Spring collections here and the Summer collections here!

2. If you already visited some of the previous posts of the Great Outdoors Blog Hop (this post has the full schedule of the hop!), leave a second comment telling me what other posts you enjoyed from my fellow IB Ambassadors.

3. If you follow Little Bunny Quilts in some form or fashion, tell me how you follow! (Facebook, Instagram, Bloglovin, or any other blog reader.)

The giveaway is now closed! Our winners are Margaret and Cecelia!

Thank you for visiting me today on the hop! Please check out all of the other stops on the hop and get the pattern to make your own Summer Patio quilt!

Sharing at Linky Tuesday and Needle and Thread Thursday!

Here in the Real World {Retreat Round Up}

I'm back in the real world after a few days in the happiest place on earth -- Quilt Camp!

I was able to make a TON of progress on the projects that I took to Michigan with me!

1. Secret Test Quilt

This quilt top is done, and I can't show it off, but here are some work in project pictures.

2. Jolly Bar Meringue Quilt

This quilt top is done and I can't wait to share more about it! The quilt is made up of half square rectangles and I took a little bit of a creative detour with my color placement to give the appearance of pinwheels!

3. Christine's Kitchen 2.0

Lots more pictures of this one will come in October, but I am absolutely in love with the the London Fog line for this project! I've used the larger cuts of yardage for the paper piecing of the teapots and pitchers and grey solid for the background.

4. Radiant Jewel Quilt

This was my "just in case" project -- I ended up making more progress than expected on my other three projects and got to start some of the blocks for this quilt! I managed to finish nine of the 17 "diamond" blocks and start on the flying geese and HSTs for the next two. This was a mystery quilt at Craftsy about 5 years ago and my mom bought the kit on clearance for me. I have the "Jewel" colorway and the fabrics in the kit are a mixture of Kona solids and Grandeur prints from Robert Kaufman.

Now I have two tops ready to quilt, I'm ready to make the applique blocks for my Christine's Kitchen quilt, and I actually got to start a project just for fun! But here in the real world, I'm back to prioritizing deadlines, making do with what I have on hand for finishes, and having to fit in my sewing in between work and chores!

Overnight Delivery Rail Fence Table Runner {Tutorial}

I ended up with a little pile of extra jelly roll strips as well as a few half strips after making my latest quilt pattern for Moda Bake Shop, Jingle Bell Rock.

The leftovers were definitely enough for a small project so I kept all of my coordinating fabrics together after finishing that quilt. I don't always keep coordinating scraps together, but when it seems like there is enough fabric to make something like placemats, a mini quilt, or even a table runner, I usually tend to keep the fabric together until I decide what I want to do with it.

I had quite a few low volume strips and some medium-to-dark strips so I decided to make rail fence blocks.

A little bit of strip piecing and quilting later, I had this adorable table runner! Here's how I made it:

For the top:
A total of 9 - 2.5" x WOF strips or equivalent scraps
     (I used some full WOF strips and some half WOF strips leftover from the quilt)

For the backing and batting:
A piece of fabric approximately 24" by 54"
     (This gives you a 2-3" overhang on all four sides)
A piece of batting the same size as your backing

For the binding:
4 - 2.5" x WOF strips (or binding width of your choice!)

To make the rail fence blocks, sew your strips together in sets of three and press as desired. Your strip sets should measure 6.5" wide unfinished. Subcut your strip sets into 6.5" long sections.

If you are working from WOF strips, make 4 strip sets, each containing 3 - 2.5" strips. Cut 6 - 6.5" sections from each strip set, making a total of 24 rail fence blocks.

If you are working from scraps, you can choose to strip piece or not -- each block is made up of 3 - 2.5" x 6.5" rectangles if you prefer to cut the small rectangles instead of strip piecing the blocks.

Arrange the blocks so that the orientation of the blocks alternate in a 8 block by 3 block arrangement and sew the top together. Your top should measure approximately 48.5" long and 18.5" across. Layer with batting and backing; quilt as desired and bind.

For the quilting, I quilted it in the same star-and-loops design that I used for the quilt but I scaled down the design slightly. The backing is the same backing as the throw sized quilt and I also used this fabric for the binding (but don't look too closely because I had to piece my binding quite a bit!) The Overnight Delivery line from Sweetwater is just too cute!

I hope you are having a wonderful week! I am home from retreat and will be working on a wrap up post this weekend to share what I was working on!

Jingle Bell Rock {New on Moda Bake Shop!}

I'm excited to share my newest Moda Bake Shop pattern with you -- introducing Jingle Bell Rock!

I've sort of had bowtie blocks on the brain in the last year and I came up with the idea of a bowtie made of pieced nine-patches in the springtime. I found that designs with just my nine-patch bowtie blocks were a little busy and I decided to swap out half of the blocks for log cabins built around a four patch. Here's my original design:

This quilt was made with the Overnight Delivery line from Sweetwater. This is a quilt that uses one jelly roll and background yardage -- I used a white on cream print from the line for my background instead of a solid this time around. 

To make the quilt, I made all of the nine-patch bowtie blocks first and then used the "strip stubs" and remaining jelly roll strips to make the log cabin blocks. Each of the bowtie blocks uses one dark and one light fabric; the log cabin blocks uses light scraps for the four patches, darker and medium prints for the first set of "logs", and background fabric for the second set of "logs". 

And guess what -- this pattern doesn't even use the whole jelly roll! I was able to make a coordinating table runner out of the scraps from this quilt -- I put together a tutorial for that too and that will be published tomorrow!

The backing for this quilt is one of the large text prints -- hope, joy, love, peace! The binding is the diagonal plaid in green and black. For the quilting, I did an all over filler of whimsical stars and loops in white thread.

If you're looking for a quick and fun quilt to make for Christmas, this pattern should be on your list! This quilt is also perfect for beginners because other than the stitch and flip units for the bowtie blocks, the rest of the quilt is put together entirely with straight seams and no sashings or borders.

It's always a little funny to work on Christmas quilts in the summer, and this one was no exception! I took these outdoor quilt photos on what was to that point the hottest day of the year here in Maryland!

Check out the full tutorial here on the Moda Bake Shop blog!

Quilt Stats:
Name: Jingle Bell Rock
Pattern: pattern on MBS, designed by me
Size: 60" square
Fabrics: Overnight Delivery by Sweetwater
Quilting: Stars and loops in white Aurifil

Sharing with Needle and Thread Thursday!

Summer Shopping {Stash Additions and Shopping List}

I've added a few things to my stash this summer -- some for specific projects and some for stashing!

Back when I bought the fabric for the setting triangles for my Double Delight quilt, I also picked up a few cuts of clearance fabric:

I picked up half yards of the floral prints and a yard of the tiled cream print. These don't have any specific plans for use just yet. Over the last four years, I've really whittled down on whats in my stash, so I have been finding that it would be helpful to have a few more half yard and yard cuts on hand for things like bindings and spur-of-the-moment projects.

I also finally picked up a backing and a binding for my Magnolia mystery quilt! As a reminder, here's the quilt:

You can get this pattern from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs -- I modified my version by adding sashings and cornerstones between the blocks. 

For the backing and binding, I picked out these two fabrics from the True Blue line by Ana Davis. The drop print will be the backing and the twist fabric will be the binding. 

I really have a soft spot for these fun large scale prints for backings. I'm planning to put together a tutorial for when I get back from retreat about matching prints for backings, so keep your eyes out for that! I think the red is going to be so pretty for the binding against the grey solid.

As mentioned in my retreat prep post, I am going to be working on a new Fat Quarter Shop shortcut quilt using the Sweet Marion Line. I also picked up this coral print that's actually from a Downton  Abbey line (also an amazing clearance buy!) to use for the backing and binding for that quilt.

This is another fun, large-scale print! Once I get back from retreat, I'll hopefully have this quilt in Sweet Marion done so both that quilt and my Magnolia quilt will be ready to quilt! I should be lined up for quite a few finishes in September!

Even with this shopping I still need to get fabric for quite a few projects:
-white fabric for my pineapple quilt
-border fabrics for Double Delight and Drift Away
-backing fabrics for Blocked Rainbow and Breezy Blooms
...and this is kind of a brief list focusing on the things I want to finish first.

On Monday, I'm going to be the featured interview with my good friend Jen of Patterns By Jen as part of the lead up to the Border Quilt QAL that will kick off in September! Make sure to check that out next week. I'm hoping to have at least one post scheduled for the blog while I am gone on retreat, but I am planning to post lots of pictures on Instagram of my progress and adventures.

I hope that you've been following along with the Great Outdoors blog hop too! Twenty Island Batik Ambassadors have posted amazing projects so far and we're not even halfway done with the blog hop! Check out all of the previous posts to see the great projects and enter the giveaways hosted by the individual bloggers. My day is August 28th and uses our Summer Patio pattern!

Happy Friday -- have a wonderful weekend!

Alison in Wonderland {Retreat Prep}

Saturday I fly to Michigan to spend some time with family and go on retreat with my mom! Quilt retreat is the perfect combination of my favorite things: quilting, massages, junk food, and wearing comfy pants all day.

I've been making a serious effort over the last month or so to finish up a bunch of projects before I go on retreat. I have finished my Donuts quilt top and my Breezy Blooms quilt top over the last week and I also finished my Pansy Garden quilt and my Jungle Cruise version of Summer Patio which I will finally get to show off on August 28th!

Last year while on retreat, I worked on the piecing for my two Blue in Bloom quilts. This year I have three projects that  I am going to be working on.

1. Secret Test Quilt

The details of this quilt that I am testing are still a secret but I will at least tell you about all of the fabrics! I pulled everything out of my stash and the color scheme is orange/coral, brown, chartreuse, and purple with a Kona Oyster background. This one is actually baby sized so this should be a relatively short project. All of the cutting is done, so this will hopefully go together quickly.

2. Radiant Jewel Quilt

A long, long time ago, I managed to get my hands on a kit from Craftsy on sale for what was at the time a mystery quilt along. The fabric has sat in my stash all of this time, and I thought it was the perfect project for retreat! The quilt is called Radiant Jewel by Kimberly Einmo, but it looks like most of the original links are now expired. Here's the fabrics in the kit:

3. Christine's Kitchen 2.0

Our Island Batik Ambassador theme for October is paper piecing. My current plan is to use the London Fog fabrics that came in my most recent Ambassador box to make another version of our Christine's Kitchen pattern. My original version is green and cream; this version will be grey and blue!

4. Jolly Bar Meringue Quilt

I just got the supplies to make this upcoming Fat Quarter Shop Shortcuts quilt and I'll be showing off the finished quilt in early October! I'm using the Sweet Marion line.

I know that these are all new projects and I am trying to cut down on the new projects, but both the Jolly Bar Meringue and Christine's Kitchen 2.0 quilts will be done before the end of October. The Radiant Star Quilt is my "maybe" project -- but you can't go on retreat and then not have enough projects to work on!

What do you think of my project list? Which fabrics are your favorites?