On The Road Again {Scrappy Sewing Progress}

When I last posted about my new scrappy project, my block units looked like this:

And now I have blocks that look like this!

{block pics}

I currently have 22 star blocks and 22 chain blocks. I still have six sets of finished flying geese units for another six star blocks, and then I'll make another batch of six chain blocks. Since I last posted about this project, I did cut up some additional 2.5" squares for my four patches and the corners of the chain blocks to add some additional color variety. 

That would put me at 56 total blocks, able to be alternated in a 7x8 grid, for a quilt (pre-borders) that would be approximately 56" x 64", which would be a nice sized throw. But, I think if I can find another blue/aqua fabric or two to cut into more flying geese units, I'd like to see the quilt grow closer to twin sized, since I still have a lot of this fabric line left. I might skip the green fabrics all together just for the sake of contrast, but that's still to be determined.

What are you sewing this week?

Christmas in July Wall Hanging {Finished Project}

My Christmas in July Island Batik project is finished!

I added a penguin applique to the lower right corner of the top of the wall hanging for a little bit of fun. This is actually the same penguin that is available in our Seasonal Placemats and Seasonal Wall Hanging patterns; I simply scaled up the design.

For the quilting, I used white thread to quilt loops and snowflakes. I added eyes for the penguin with a fabric pen. 

The binding is a navy mottled Island Batik basic that I had a half yard cut of in my stash. For the backing, I used a piece of the remaining snowflake print yardage from the line combined with a half-yard of a blue dot basic that coordinated well with this line. I used a piece of the snowflake print for the hanging sleeve.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway -- it will close tomorrow at midnight!

Quilt Stats:

Name: Winter Forest wall hanging

Pattern: Self designed

Fabrics: Winter Forest from Island Batik plus Island Batik Basics

Techniques: Accuquilt cutting, applique, free motion quilting

Quilting: meandering loops and snowflakes

Batting: Hobbs 80/20 batting

Size: 36 inches square

Started and finished: July 2020

Future: Gift!

Christmas in July {With Island Batik and Accuquilt} and GIVEAWAY!

This month's Island Batik theme is "Christmas in July" and Accuquilt is acting as Santa!

Every IB ambassador has a regular sized GO! cutter that we were given (I got mine last year) however, this summer we were each sent one of the brand new GO! Me starter sets to make a gift using the 3" finished dies AND to give the starter set to someone who doesn't have an Accuquilt!

The GO! Me system is really fun and compact -- much more portable than the standard sized GO! cutter with the same cutting performance. It's fast, accurate, easy, and safe -- perfect for a quilters old and new alike! This set includes two dies -- a 3" square and a 3" HST, so the dies work together. 

I'll go ahead and admit here that I had to do things a *little* out of order for this challenge with how busy things have been! I got my fabrics cut for my project, gave the GO! Me set to the recipient when I saw her in person earlier this month, and now I am working on getting my project sewn.

So first up -- my project. I am making a wall hanging using some of the remaining Winter Forest fabrics I had on hand. I cut a big pile of 3.5" unfinished squares using the GO! Me cutter.

The lovely recipient of the starter set was my wonderful Mom, whose birthday happened to be this month and because she's just all around wonderful. She said she was excited to use this for some scrap cutting!

And now that the crazy of the last month has died down, I was able to pick up this project again and get the top finished!

Using 144 of my 3.5" unfinished squares, I made a really, really big postage stamp block that will be turned into the base of a wall hanging! I also have some extra squares that might get turned into coordinating table toppers. This also happens to match just perfectly with the placemats I made back in May for our blog hop!

And to spread more of the Christmas in July spirit -- I am having a giveaway of the rest of my Winter Forest fabric! I have WOF strips that are at least 5" wide (some closer to 6") in all 20 fabrics from the line, packaged and ready to ship to the winner!

Entries are as follows, leave a comment for each entry:

1. Tell me what you'd make with the Winter Forest fabric.

2. Tell me which of the other Island Batik Ambassadors you follow -- if you follow me, that counts too!

The giveaway will only be open for a short amount of time -- next Tuesday, July 28th will be the last day to enter and I will announce the winner on the 29th.

Update: The giveaway is now closed and the winner is Kat!

What I've Been Sewing Lately {WIP Wednesday}

Despite the fact that I have been working from home for four months as of tomorrow, that has not translated at all into extra sewing time. It's mostly translated into sleeping more and loading and unloading the dishwasher more. And we may or may not have made it through the entire Marvel movie series in that time. 

The goals in my sewing room have been two-fold since the beginning of the year: finish up WIPs and clear out scraps. The finishing up WIPs part has been wholly unsuccessful. The clearing out scraps part has actually gone relatively well. I haven't made any lately, but early on in quarantine, I made oodles of my Rainbow Snippet blocks. 

I haven't really posted about it but I have actually been making masks. I've made four "batches" -- the first batch was for us, a few of my husband's coworkers, and some friends, the second was a batch for our church when they reopened for socially distanced services, and the third and fourth batches have been for my work. I've used the Sarah Maker tutorial with ties for all of them, but usually I make my ties slightly shorter.

This has been a great medium-to-large scrap buster. I've pulled the majority of my fabrics from my "larger cuts" scrap bin and just tried to maximize what I can get out of the scraps.

I also started a new scrappy project using some Island Batik fabrics and my Accuquilt cutter. I still had most of the scraps left from my Hip to Be Square quilts from the Little Sir, Little Miss line (other than the pink and purples I pulled out to make my Hattie's Choice quilt a few months ago) and combined that with the black solid Island Batik fabric I had on hand for the background. The inspiration for my quilt is this pattern that is featured in the Accuquilt book that came with my starter set last year:

I'm not sure if I will do the borders as the pattern shows, but for now, I cut all of my blue and teal scraps into pieces and parts for flying geese for the star points and the rest of the colors (other than the green, which I am reserving for now) into squares for the four patches. The other change is that the pattern is actually for the 6" Qube set and I have an 8" Qube set so I am not really going off yardage, I'm just starting with this general idea for a a two block quilt.

I have all but four of my flying geese sets complete (at least of what I have cut thus far):

I've also made quite a few four patches that will become the centers of my star blocks:

The four patches will also be part of the secondary block for this quilt, which I have seen called by many names, including a "Frayed Four Patch". To me it's kind of like a mini Irish Chain block or a really small Courthouse Steps block. Some of my small squares will be used for the corners of these blocks so I can't just mindlessly turn all of them into four patches! I also realized that I need to cut some black small squares for the corners of my star blocks, so that will be my next task.

Now that I am finally in a better mind for sewing, it figures that I am going back to work on site (part time) starting next week! I still need to decide on my project for this month's Island Batik assignment, but I have a few good ideas! I'll be using the same fabrics that I used for my May project (I think) to make a wall hanging (I think).

Hattie's Choice {Finished One Die Wonder Quilt}

When last I posted about this quilt, I thought that I would be adding a border -- and then I started digging through my Island Batik stash only to realize that I only had one half yard of purple and no other pink or purple to use to finish this quilt! Oops! So instead, I decided to quilt this quilt as is -- a bitty baby quilt -- and use a neutral dot batik for the backing.

As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics, Aurifil thread, Accuquilt products, and Hobbs Batting to use and share with you!

For the batting, I had a small sized Hobbs Thermore batting left over from last year's Island Batik Ambassador box which was a good fit for this quilt.

Here's the quilt post-quilting, pre-trim.

I used purple Aurifil thread in the pink and purple areas to quilt simple arch dot-to-dot style designs. In the background, I used a gold-tan Aurifil thread to quilt simple meanders.

I used my last purple half yard for the binding, as I mentioned above! For some reason, right now I have A LOT of blue and green batiks hanging around.

And voila -- a finished quilt!

Here's a close up of blocks which shows off some of the quilting a little bit better:

The backing is a dingy white-grey print, which shows off the quilting quite a lot!

I machine stitched the binding to the front of the quilt and hand stitched it to the back during our copious indoor time this weekend. Here in PA it rained the entire weekend, which was rather unwelcome after spending the week indoors working from home.

Happy Monday to you! I hope that you have plenty to keep you busy! If not, don't forget that all of our Honey, Bunny, and Doll PDF patterns are 20% off until April 16th!

Quilt Stats:
Name: Hattie's Choice quilt
Pattern: Hattie's Choice block-on-board pattern from Accuquilt
Fabrics: Island Batik scraps
Techniques: free motion quilting, Accuquilt cutting and piecing
Quilting: Free motion dot-to-dot designs and meanders
Size: 40" x 32"
Batting: Hobbs Thermore
Started: February 2020
Finished: March 2020
Future: TBD

Sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday!

One Die Wonder {Blocks on Blocks}

When I posted about this project last week, I showed off by first block:

Since then, I have finished up all of the blocks and arranged them into the quilt top!

I randomly pulled block sets to work on and worked on one block at a time until all 20 blocks were complete!

I arranged my blocks in diagonal rows and sewed the top together.

My quilt is now 32" x 40" and I will see if I have anything to use as a border.

Happy Wednesday --- I hope you and yours are staying safe and well!

As a little quarantine bonus, all of our Honey, Bunny, and Doll PDF patterns are on sale for the next Month! Check out our Etsy site for all of the details!

Sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday!

One Die Wonders with Accuquilt and Island Batik {Beginnings}

This month, the project theme for us Island Batik Ambassadors is making one-block quilts using some of the new Block on Board dies from Accuquilt!

For my quilt, I picked the Hattie's Choice Die. As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics, Aurifil thread, Accuquilt products, and Hobbs Batting to use and share with you!

I used pink and purple scraps as well as about a yard of a cream basic batik to do my cutting. I was able to squeeze out 20 blocks from my fabrics. To keep my pieces and parts together, I pinned each set of block parts together so that it would be easy to make one block at a time.

Cutting all of the pieces and parts for one block on one die rather than using multiple dies to cut multiple shapes takes a little bit of getting used to. I think that this method did waste more fabric but I was less concerned since I was working from scraps to begin with.

Here's my first block:

My plan is to make all of my blocks and then decide on what kind of setting I will use.

Happy Tuesday! I hope that spring is starting to appear in your neighborhood!

Faceted Churn Dash {Finished Wall Hanging}

If you are in our Honey, Bunny, and Doll FB group, you've seen all of the progress on this wall hanging!

I hosted a "casual QAL" for our Faceted pattern collection on FB this fall -- it was a lot of fun to do something from an already written pattern rather than a brand new pattern and it's something I will do again!

Returning back to the beginning, I cut the majority of the scraps used in this project using my Accuquilt cutter. 

A lot of half-square triangles later, I incrementally made the pieces and parts for this quilt top.

Parts became the block, and I added the pieced border.

For the quilting, I used a flowerly paisley motif. This is different from my other Faceted wall hangings, where I did different quilting motifs in the piecing, background, and borders.

For the backing, I found a few large pieces of some of my scrap fabrics and sewed them together. I used four different WOF strips of different sizes, which was perfect because the quilt is 36" square.

For the binding, I had just enough of the grey/teal/yellow medallion print. For the hanging sleeve I also used the zig zag print.

Now to find a place to hang this beauty!

Quilt Stats:
Name: Faceted Churn Dash
Pattern: Faceted Churn Dash
Fabrics: scraps, scraps, and more scraps
Techniques: free motion quilting, Accuquilt cutting, endless HSTs
Quilting: Free motion flower paisley
Size: 36" square
Batting: scrap batting
Started: September 2019
Finished: November 2019
Future: Wall hanging for my bedroom

Sharing at Finished or Not Friday, TGIFF at Sarah Goer Quilts, and Peacock Party and Brag about your Beauties!

Cutting Down Scraps {New Scrap Projects}

The bad news is that I have been feeling really overwhelmed by my scrap bins (and baskets and bags) lately.

The good news is that I am starting to feel like at least some of them to good use, after doing a lot of cutting with my Accuquilt Go! cutter.

The sort of bad news is that I have started a bunch of new projects in the last few weeks as a result.

The first of these projects is my Faceted Churn Dash. The grey print in the upper left corner will be my background (this was the backing of my Stash Bee quilt), the print in the lower right hand corner is my inspiration fabric (this was the back of one of my Little Fireworks quilts). I pulled yellows, teals, blacks, and a few grays as my scrappy focal fabrics. All of these fabrics came from my scrap bins, making a tiny dent.

This is also my project for the Faceted QAL I am hosting in our Honey, Bunny, and Doll Facebook group; join if you are able!

The second of these projects is intended to become a table runner, inspired by pieces of a large Asian-inspired floral in my scrap bin. I pulled a teal tonal dot (actually backing fabric scraps!) and a neutral Island Batik basic to use with this fabric. I cut enough pieces and parts to make 12 star blocks, the first four of which are complete:

The final project is the Christmas Ribbons pattern from the book Scrap Basket Surprises by Kim Brackett. Right now I just have the rectangles cut; I have yet to start on cutting the background fabrics but I have the fabric chosen. This will be made as large as I can make it from the yard of background fabric that I have.

What kind of scrap projects are you working on this week?

Sharing at Oh Scrap!

Stars Align {Ohio Star Quilt Top}

The blocks I made on retreat are now in a top that is ready to quilt!

I decided on a very simple sashed setting for this quilt without cornerstones. I have a 60" square batting from Hobbs set aside for this project so I used that as my "maximum size" when deciding on how wide to cut my sashing strips. I settled on cutting 1.5" strips, so my finished quilt size will be 53" square.

Sometimes a quilt just needs a very simple setting.

I also put together a pieced backing for this quilt using some of the Quiet Shades yardage I received and some of the remaining 10" squares.

Now this quilt is ready to quilt! What sort of quilting do you think I should do?

As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics, Aurifil thread, and Hobbs Batting to use and share with you!

Sharing at Wait Loss Wednesday and Needle and Thread Thursday! And Moving it forward Monday too!

Child's Play {Baby Quilts with Island Batik and AccuQuilt}

It's time for another Island Batik Ambassador project!

This month we have been tasked with making baby quilts that use the "block on board" dies from AccuQuilt we received in our summer goody boxies.

The die I received was an Ohio Star die and I decided to use the Quiet Shades fabric for my quilt.

I used mainly fabrics from the layer cake for my block parts and some neutral sprinkles fabric for my background. The cutting for this was lightning fast using the die; this made it so easy to transport all of my block parts to retreat a few weeks ago!

I did a sneak preview of my blocks a in my retreat wrap up:

Here are my 16 blocks for this quilt!

Next up is sashing my blocks together!

As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics, Aurifil thread, and Hobbs Batting to use and share with you!

Sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday!

Happy Mail {Island Batik Ambassador Box #2}

Twice a year it's like Christmas for Island Batik Ambassadors!

I shared my unboxing video a few days ago on our Facebook page, but here it is for those of you who may have missed it:

Here are some photos as well:

First up, my strip pack of Sand Bar, coordinating two yard cuts, and coordinating half yard cuts. These are the fabrics that I am going to be using in my August project. I'm going to be making the wall hanging size version of our Starburst pattern.

Next, a 10" stacker of Quiet Shades, coordinating two yard cuts, and coordinating half yard cuts. These beautiful pastels will be used for my September baby quilt project.

I also received a fat quarter bundle of the Primo line. I absolutely love all of the different geometric prints in jewel colors.

Basics are also always good to have on hand -- four yard cuts of neutral batik and solid black, white, and grey!

Two spools of Aurifil as well as a brand new "block on board" die from Accuquilt also were tucked in this box:

Finally, three lovely battings came from Hobbs, one queen sized cotton, one throw cotton-wool blend, and one throw wool.

Now, the best part: I have cleaned some of my fabrics from my previous boxes to share with you!

I have a fabric bundle to give away to a lucky winner!

This bundle is all of the scraps, remains, and remnants of the Flea Market fabric that I used to make my Daisy Chain quilt.

Leave comments to enter, if for some reason you cannot leave a comment please email me (littlebunnyquilts@gmail.com), up to two entries per person:

1. Leave me a comment telling which of my 2019 Island Batik Ambassador projects is your favorite so far:

2. If you follow me in some form or fashion, tell me how you follow.

Good luck!

Update: our winner is Kathryn!

Ps. I'm linking my giveaway to Laura's new Giveaway Party linky! Check out the great giveaways already listed on the linky!