Little Bunny Quilts: January 2019

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Daisy Chain QAL {Featured Bloggers}

We are just a few days away from the kick-off of the Daisy Chain Mystery QAL!

On Monday, the first set of clues will be released: our fabric requirements as well as tips and tricks for picking your fabrics! The fabric requirements will be posted in their own blog post here on the blog but they will also be available to download for free from our PayHip site.

We also encourage you to join our Facebook group -- where we'll be sharing our fabric pulls, block progress, and have an open space for questions and comments! We hope that you'll join us whether or not you're planning to sew along!

I'd also like to highlight some of the wonderful bloggers who are joining in for the quilt along!

Christina @ Christina's Handicrafts

Gail @ Quilting Gail

Gene @ Gene Black

Jessica @ Desert Bloom Quilting

Kate @ Life in Pieces

Michelle @ Creative Blonde

Pamela @ PamelaQuilts

Stephanie @ Quilt'n Party

Vasudha @ Storied Quilts

A few of these bloggers are fellow Island Batik Ambassadors for 2019 and some are just lovely blog-land friends! They'll be sharing about their own Daisy Chain quilts on their blogs and I'll be highlighting their progress here as well.

Have I convinced you to jump into the fun yet? Don't forget to enter to win my Island Batik giveaway in this post -- the giveaway closes Sunday!

Schedule
Fabric Requirements - February 4th
Cutting - February 18th
Block Units- March 4th
Block Units - March 18th
Block Units - April 1st
Block Units - April 15th
Catch up week link up - April 29th
Top Construction Part 1 - May 6th
Top Construction Part 2 - May 20th
Link up/giveaways/quilt parade starts: June 3rd
Link up/giveaways/quilt parade ends: June 17th

Monday, January 28, 2019

Good Fortune {75%}

A little progress is better than no progress, right? I had big plans to start quilting a quilt on Saturday, but that got kicked to the wayside. I hemmed some curtains on Saturday (go me!) but that was the extent of my sewing.

Sunday afternoon I went back to work on Good Fortune. My first task was to get the spacer border added. I double checked my math and cut my background strips. These zipped on extremely quickly, other than the fact that one WOF was *just barely* too short for the sides, so all four border strips had to be pieced.

Next came the arduous task of making the chains of HSTs for the green sawtooth border. I realized that I didn't have quite enough HSTs for all four sides, but figured that I would rather get as far as I could get and then figure out exactly how many more green HSTs I would need.

First border added:

(I also realized how badly my ironing board needs recovered -- not the usual reason of the fabric being ripped to shreds, but because there's this rather large divot in the one end that made pressing the borders somewhat difficult.)

With the HSTs that I already had made, I was able to complete three of the four sides, and start the piecing of the fourth and final side. Much of the border wobbly-ness that I was slightly worried about after adding my spacer border as been evened out after adding the HST border.

So now I'm back to making HSTs. All are sewn and ready to be trimmed and pressed.

Bonnie's directions have a neutral border between the green HSTs and the blue QSTs, however my quilt top is currently the perfect size for adding the blue QST border with an even number of units. That would mean skipping the neutral border between the pieced border -or- adding a much wider pieced border to get the quilt width to the right size.

I will need to make about a dozen more QST units, so I am leaning towards skipping this spacer border because I am almost out of background fabric. My quilt will then end up around 54", which is right about the same size as my finished ORL quilt. I've seen some other creative solutions on the Quiltville Facebook group that I might also consider.

What do you think? Check out Bonnie's finished version of the quilt here and give me all of your creative solutions.

Sharing at Oh Scrap, Linky Tuesday, and Needle and Thread Thursday!

Update 2/11/19:
Also sharing at Bonnie's final Good Fortune link up! I have made some progress on the quilt since I wrote this blog post, so hopefully I will be able to share my finished top by the end of this week!

-- A@LBQ

Friday, January 25, 2019

Good Fortune {Spinning Stars and Border Beginnings}

My Good Fortune quilt is no longer units and blocks -- it's the beginning of a quilt top and units waiting to be turned into borders, hooray!

Pairing up my HST sets and half-chevrons to make the block quarters for my Spinning Star units was a quick and easy process. Getting the quarters into blocks was also quick and easy -- the seams nested perfectly and within a short while, all of my blocks were complete!

There's definitely a lot of the lighter blue lattice print (in the block corners) in these units, but ending up with a lot of blue lattice HSTs was much better than buying extra fabric for this project! I'm also SO happy with my decision to be fussy about the stripe in my green print -- I think the stripes add to the swirling effect of the block.

Following Bonnie's pressing directions meant that all of my seams nested like a dream while putting together my Spinning Stars and String Chain blocks into the center of the top.

Seeing the quilt center complete reaffirms that I made the right decision for my color scheme. I love how the green pinwheels pop and the red four patches remind me of little red berries.

I'm skipping the string border sections, so I used background rectangles combined with the remaining HSTs for the first border. I made all of my border HST units the same and then pulled four more HSTs of the same fabric for the four corners.

Now I come to a bit of a pickle. Because of sizing my quilt down, the next pieced border won't fit correctly with an even number of units, so I will need to add a spacer border. I originally thought about doing a green border, cut that green border, and then realized that I had done my math wrong. Whoops.

I think ultimately this is a blessing in disguise because I think a background spacer border will be a better choice and I can probably use the green strips that I already cut as the next spacer border. A quilt with three pieced borders is definitely easier if you are making the prescribed size of quilt!

This weekend, my plan is to actually put this away for a few days so that I can do some quilting (!!!) for the first time since the move. I still need to find a border fabric for my January UFO project too, as the end of the month is quickly approaching.

What are your weekend sewing plans? Do you find yourself at a project impasse?

Happy Friday!

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Modern with a Twist in Modern by the Yard

The latest issue of Modern by the Yard is out today and I have a block featured in the Modern with a Twist section!

For this issue, we worked with log cabin blocks to make them more modern. I decided to add additional piecing to the rounds of logs for my block. I used fabrics from the By Hand collected and a grey textured blender for my design.

This design has many possibilities for secondary designs! My idea for a full quilt is adding sashing between the blocks that also has pieced sections to make diamonds that connect the larger center squares.

Make sure to check out everything in the new issue of Modern by the Yard!

Getaway Blog Hop {Dashing to the Chapel in Bazaar}

I am so excited to share my quilt for the Getaway Blog Hop, hosted by Island Batik!

As I previewed two weeks ago, I am working with the Bazaar collection this time around:

This collection has a tropical feel! I love that many of the prints have orange featured!

I decided that I wanted to turn my half yards of this fabric into a queen sized quilt using our Dashing to the Chapel pattern (available on Etsy and PayHip!)

I used ten slightly larger scale prints (and the rainbow batiks) for the larger church dash blocks, and used six smaller scale prints for the medium and small churn dash blocks. I used an oatmeal blender for my background fabric. Once the quilt center was assembled. I used a turquoise blender batik for the small border. Instead of using wide strips for the outermost border, I used squares of the various pink, orange, and rainbow prints to finish the quilt.

The quilt was long arm quilted by Fran of Twin Stitches using a pantograph called "Dazzle." I used three different yellow fabrics from the collection for the binding.

I love how this quilt sparkles with these Island Batiks!

The cold and snow impeded some of my plans for pictures, but I was able to snap a few once the sun came out today!

Two of my fellow IB Ambassadors also have shared projects featuring Bazaar today:

Karen @ The Quilt Rambler

Turid @ Den syende himmel

Now for a little giveaway! Don't forget to enter Island Batik's fat quarter bundle giveaway too!

I am giving away a bundle of Bazaar fabrics, cut into 2.5" strips and 4.5" squares, to one lucky winner. This giveaway will stay open until Sunday, February 3rd. (The giveaway is now closed and the winner is noted below!)

~~To enter, leave comments for entries, up to three entries per person:~~
~~1. Tell me which of the Bazaar prints is your favorite. My favorite is the teal scroll.~~
~~2. If you follow me in some form or fashion (blog, FB, IG, bloglovin, etc.) tell me how you follow in a second comment.~~
~~3. Leave a final comment if you've visited any of the other blog posts from the Getaway blog hop and tell me whose blog you visited. You can see the full schedule here.~~

Update 2/4/19: Joyce is our winner!

Thanks for visiting Little Bunny Quilts! Sharing at Linky Tuesday, Needle and Thread Thursday, and Let's Bee Social, too! And of course Brag About Your Beauties!

Monday, January 21, 2019

Good Fortune {Clue #7 and Making Blocks}

Moving has (understandably) put me slightly behind schedule for my Good Fortune quilt. However, I now have a mostly operable sewing space (hooray) and managed to squeak in Clue #7 and some block construction.

For Clue #7, we made some of the units we needed for block construction. I made the 16 patch units first.

Next up were the four-HST chains. These will be used in the border and I made each of these units the same.

At this point, I realized that I needed to make a few more HSTs for my spinning star blocks. I picked a fabric that I hadn't used yet for HSTs and made about a dozen more HSTs.

These were added in with the rest of my HSTs to make the HST pairs for the spinning star units.

I also sewed up the chain blocks that use the 16 patch units, more four patches, and the scrappy string rectangles. These were quick and easy with minimal matching. I'm very happy with my choice to substitute aqua for orange in my quilt!

My plan for this week is to get my spinning star blocks put together and then put the center of the quilt together. After that, I will have to measure, count, and perhaps make additional border units, depending on how many I actually need. Making half of what Bonnie directs has put me pretty close for what I need but hopefully I won't have to make too many more of those tiny green triangles!

Tomorrow is my day for the Getaway Blog hop! I am so excited to show you my new version of our Dashing to the Chapel pattern!

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Blocked Rainbow {Finished Twin Quilt}

My twin sized version of my Blocked Rainbow pattern is finally complete! This pattern was our QAL in Spring 2018 and I had made the throw size version in 2017 with fabrics from Benartex. I did actually finish this in December 2018, but we have been racing around nonstop since December 22nd between traveling for Christmas, packing, and moving. Things have finally settled down and I finally was able to snap pictures of this finish!

I made this version of the quilt using Island Batik fabrics and Kona Black as the background. I considered quilting this top myself but after seeing my mom's version of the quilt finished with a simple pantograph, I decided that I wanted the same for my own quilt in black thread!

The backing is a crosshatch grass green extra wide fabric. The binding is also Island Batik -- I believe it is specifically from the Morning Sunshine line but it is an all-over rainbow batik.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing with this quilt just yet but I am just happy to have it finished! The pattern is available on both Payhip and Etsy.

Quilt Stats:
Name: Blocked Rainbow
Pattern: Blocked Rainbow, twin version
Size: 99" x 72"
Fabrics: Kona Black background, various Island Batik fabrics
Quilting: pantographed loops
Started: February 2018
Finished: December 2018

Sharing at Let's Bee Social and Needle and Thread Thursday! And Brag about your Beauties!

Monday, January 14, 2019

Dashing To The Chapel {In The Pipeline}

January is one of our two Island Batik blog hop months! I'm working with the Bazaar line this time around, which is a gorgeous collection of brights. Some of the fabrics have floral motifs, some have butterflies and dragonflies, and some are blender prints.

I decided that I wanted to use these fabrics to make a remixed version of our Dashing to the Chapel pattern. My mom and I constructed the original quilt in 2014 as a wedding gift for my sister and her husband. Her now-mother-in-law did the long arm quilting!

The original quilt used a fat quarter bundle plus coordinates, but I am working from half yards of a fewer number of prints. Additionally, I decided to simplify things for myself slightly by not making the blocks entirely random. I picked out ten colors for the larger size churn dash blocks:

I picked out the majority of the larger prints for the larger blocks and did a lot of cutting:

Not making one block at a time allowed for a major time savings in the form of marathon strip piecing:

Followed by marathon chain piecing of the HSTs to go with them.

This process was also repeated with six fabrics for my smaller 6" churn dashes and itty bitty 4.5" churn dashes. Here's a sneak peak of the top:

My official hop day is next Tuesday -- January 22nd. Until then you can get the Dashing to the Chapel pattern on Etsy and PayHip!

Don't forget to check out all of the stops for this week of the hop:

Monday, January 14 - Fortune Teller

Sarah @ Sarah Goer Quilts

Sherry @ Powered by Quilting

Jennifer @ The Inquiring Quilter

Tuesday, January 15 - Gypsy Rose

Jen @ Dizzy Quilter

Janet @ Whispers of Yore

Wednesday, January 16 - Paisley Park

Dione @ Clever Chameleon

Nancy @ Masterpiece Quilting

Thursday, January 17 - Soul Song

Carole @ Carol Lyles Shaw

Toby @ Gateway Quilts & Stuff

Friday, January 18 - Twilight Chic

Jackie @ If These Threads Could Talk

Tina @ Quilting Affection

(And a quick teaser: I changed up the border a bit for this version and I can't wait to show it off!)

Sharing at Linky Tuesday!

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

News and Notes {2019 Happenings}

Thank you to everyone for the well-wishes on our new home! We are still surrounded by boxes for the most part but things are getting better day by day.

Today I'm going to share some news, notes, and reminders about what's going on both here on Little Bunny Quilts and in quilt blogland.

First, I'm excited to share that I am returning as an Island Batik Ambassador for 2019. This year we are partnering with Aurifil, Hobbs, and Accuquilt (!!!) for our projects and there is an Accuquilt GO! system on its way to my new house! I've snuck a peak at the new box of fabric and it's beautiful! I'll have a full share of all of the goodies here on the blog in a few weeks.

Additionally, the Getaway blog hop continues, so don't forget to follow along with each day's posts! Here's a sneak peak of my project:

Next, I hope that you will strongly consider participating in some way in the Carolina Hurricane Quilt Project.

This project is being spearheaded by Carole at From My Carolina Home. Some details:

More than 4500 quilts are needed for those whose homes were completely destroyed
The project will go through Summer 2019 so plenty of time
I am matching top makers with longarmers to help get more quilts sent, forms are on the link and both top makers and more longarmers are needed.
There are five drop off locations in NC, with Wilmington as the distribution point
Completed quilts should be bed sized
Regular updates will be on Carole's blog.

My plan is to make a number of tops from my leftover Island Batik fabrics from 2017 and 2018. I am going to cut up my older fabrics into easy sizes of squares and rectangles for simple patchwork tops. Right now I am leaning towards 10.5" squares and 10.5" x 5.5" rectangles to start. 10" finished squares will translate simply into 70" x 90" for twin, 80" x 90" for full, and 90" square for queen.

As noted above, both top makers and long arm quilters are desperately needed. Please consider helping in some way!

Finally, Audrey, Karen, Stephanie, and I are plotting and planning for the third round of the Coast to Coast Bee! Here are my quilt tops from the first two years:

I am trying to figure out exactly what I will request for my quilt. My two thoughts are another medallion or a big block quilt where each person would make one XL quilt block. We are currently looking for one to two more USA-based intermediate-advanced quilters to join our round robin bee group. Email me (littlebunnyquilts@gmail.com) if you might be interested.

Monday, January 7, 2019

Getaway Blog Hop Schedule {Winter Island Batik Blog Hop}

Today is the kick-off of the semi-annual blog hop featuring the menagerie of Island Batik Ambassadors showing off the newest Island Batik fabric lines!

This hop's theme is "Getaway!"

Here's the full schedule of bloggers, fabric lines, and dates -- make sure to visit everyone, as most of us have giveaways that will start on our designated hop day!

All links have been updated to each blogger's blog hop post!

WEEK 1

Monday, January 7 - Crystal Ball

MaryEllen @ Mary Mack’s Blog

Sandra @ mmm! quilts

Tuesday, January 8 - Ditty

Stephanie @ Steph Jacobson Designs

Michelle @ Creative Blonde

Wednesday, January 9 - Elk Lodge

Connie @ Free Motion by the River

Anna @ Ark Angel Creations

Thursday, January 10 - Feline Fine

Bea @ BeaQuilter