Up in the Air {New Applique Pattern!}

 We've added another applique add-on to our Etsy and Payhip shops for use with our Ready Set Soar and Boot Scootin' Baby patterns!

Our "Up In the Air" hot air balloon appliques are another perfect baby quilt option!

Inspired by the hot air balloon fabric she used in this quilt, Amanda made this baby quilt for a good friend last year! The PDF includes applique templates for three different sizes of balloons and two different sizes of clouds.

Don't forget our other add-on applique options! Both Whales on Parade and Slow and Steady are perfect for little boy quilts!

All of these appliques are interchangable with our Ready Set Soar and Boot Scootin' Baby patterns! And of course, the options for the quilt bases are only limited by your own imagination!

As always, thank your for your support of our Etsy and Payhip shops! 

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!

Spooky Halloween {Finished Table Runner}

My October Island Batik Ambassador challenge is complete!

For the machine applique stitching, I used a simple blanket stitch in black thread for all of the blocks.

I then pieced everything together and layered it with backing and batting, only to realize, that yes, I was a couple inches short on backing length using a single width of fabric. Oops.

To remedy my problem, I added a strip of black fabric approximately 5" wide to my backing to get the necessary length.

Here's my quilted table runner, after trimming and before adding the binding:

In the block backgrounds, I used black thread to free motion quilt meanders around the applique sections; I did not do any quilting within the applique sections. In the strip pieced sections and in the black cornerstones, I used orange thread to quilt loops and swirls.

I used the same color in the top and the bobbin throughout; here's a peak of the backing with the pop of orange thread:

For the binding, I also used the black solid batik.

This is ready to adorn my dining room table!

Thank you to Island Batik (as usual) for providing me this lovely fabric!

Quilt Stats:
Name: Halloween Spooks table runner
Pattern: Halloween Spooks by HBD
Fabrics: Island Batik fabrics -- scraps and black solid
Techniques: machine applique, strip piecing, free motion quilting
Quilting: free motion meanders, loops, and swirls in black and orange thread
Size: 45" x 18"
Batting: scrap batting
Started and finished: October 2019
Future: seasonal decoration

Sharing at Peacock Party, Finished or Not Friday, and Brag about your Beauties!

Topping it off {October Island Batik Challenge}

This month's Island Batik Ambassador theme is "Top It Off" -- and we are making seasonal table toppers! There have already been a number of adorable projects already posted, too!

I decided to make another Halloween themed table runner -- using our Halloween Spooks pattern! I actually made one table runner using this pattern and some fun non-batik fabrics in May!

This time around, I changed up the color scheme slightly -- I decided to use solid black batik in place of the green prints and use some of the other applique designs included in the pattern.

This time, I decided to use the pumpkin and candy corn applique templates. The color scheme is "candy corn" and black!

I used various orange, yellow, and white fabrics for the scrappy piecing. I strip pieced the sections and placed my fabrics sort of randomly, but used slightly more orange fabric than yellow and white.

Now comes doing the machine applique stitching of my applique blocks and putting the table runner together! One slight wrinkle will be the length -- the pieced table runner is 45" -- so I will probably need to piece the backing.

This weekend was full of activities so I was not doing a lot of sewing, so hopefully this week I can squeeze in a bit more sewing.

Sharing at What I Made Monday and Moving it forward Monday!

Tree Mini Quilt {Artsy Fartsy Finish}

My "artsy fartsy" project for this month is finished!

Here are the previous posts about this project:
Project Beginnings
Machine Applique
Quilting in Progress

Stepping back, I used a light aqua 50 wt. Aurifil to quilt loops in the sky area. I then trimmed the mini quilt into a rectangle.

I used a navy batik for the binding; I used a blue 28 wt Aurifil thread to do the final top stitching. I had never used the 28 wt. before and I really liked it for the binding -- it has more weight than the 40 or 50 wt. threads, but is not as thick as the 12 wt.

Now my tree mini quilt is finished!

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

Our challenge for this month was to make an art-style quilt with at least three different weights of Aurifil thread, and I think I succeeded at that task! I used four different colors of 50 wt. threads for the top stitching and FMQ. I used 12 wt. thread for the heart and 28 wt. thread for the binding.

Quilt stats:
Name: Tree Mini Quilt
Pattern: self-designed
Fabrics: Various Island Batik half yard cuts and scraps
Batting: scraps
Quilting: various FMQ designs using 50 wt Aurifil thread
Techniques used: FMQ, machine applique, topstitching with various stitches
Size: Approximately 25" x 12"
Started and Finished: July 2019

Sharing at Brag about your Beauties!

Quilting in Progress {Artsy Fartsy}

I need to come up with a better name for this project than "The July Island Batik Ambassador project using Aurifil thread to make a tree with traces of my and my husband's hands." Suggestions?

This project, whatever I might decide to call it, is now in the quilting stage. As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics and Aurifil threads to use and share with you!

I used an emerald green 50 wt. thread to quilt swirls and echos in the leaves; I used the same emerald green thread to quilt scallops in the grass. I used the same tan-gold thread that I used to do the blanket stitching on my tree trunk to quilt squiggles on the tree trunk.

Here's the back of the piece, taken at the same time I took the above photo. I picked a darker teal fabric for the backing and for all of the quilting that I have done so far, I used the same color in the bobbin as in the spool.

Next up will be quilting the sky areas, trimming it, and binding it.

Branches and Leaves {Artsy Fartsy}

Did you manage to figure out what I'm making for my Aurifil and Island Batik challenge project this month?

Which of the five backgrounds do you think I picked? What do you think I'm making?

If you guessed the top aqua and using the hands to make the trunk of a tree -- you were right!

This project is going to be all machine applique and almost no piecing! To stitch the edges of the tree, I used a gold-tan 50 wt. Aurifil thread and a blanket stitch.

I was initially hesitant about the light thread on the dark brown fabric, but I think it actually works really well.

Next I added a piece of green for grass, using an olive green 50 wt. Aurifil thread for this stitching, but used a different stitch, a cross-hatch like stitch, to sort of give the impression of blades of grass.

I used the same thread for top stitching all of my leaves -- I used two different green fabrics for the leaves and used a blanket stitch for the leaves.

Next came switching over to the 12 wt. peach thread to create a heart on my tree trunk! Having used the 12 wt. thread a few times previously, I have found that I like to use a lighter weight thread in the bobbin and stitch slightly slower than my normal cheetah speed.

Here's my mini quilt top, ready to be quilted!

I have used two different thread weights so far -- 12 wt. and 50 wt. -- and I have a few other 50 wt. threads set aside for quilting as well. I'm not 100% settled on what other thread weight I will add into this project, but I have some ideas!

My very cheesy, slightly arty quilt is turning out pretty cute and I'm very pleased with it! It might not truly fit the "art quilt" moniker, but it's about as artsy fartsy as I'm going to get!

Tracing Hands and Making Plans {Artsy Fartsy With Aurifil and Island Batik}

This month our Island Batik challenge theme is Artsy Fartsy! The ambassadors have been tasked with making a project that uses at least three different weights of Aurifil thread. We are supposed to channel our inner quilt artists to create something Artsy Fartsy!

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

My plan for this month is to make a fun mini quilt for my hallway that is art quilt-inspired. But also, it's a little on the cheesy side and I had to enlist my lovely husband for the project too.

While its hard to see in this picture (and slightly easier to see in the second picture) I traced the hand and forearm of myself and my husband. He only agreed to participate if he did not appear in any pictures, so action shots of me tracing his hand are unavailable.

Next up, I pulled out a great brown Island Batik blender to use for these appliques.

A little trimming (and smoothing) later, I have a lady hand and a man hand for my project.

I pulled a number of half yard cuts and larger pieces for my background.

What color do you think I decided on? Any guesses on what I'm making here?

Happy Monday!

Baseball Baby Quilts {Applique Bonanza}

Since last I posted about the progress on my baseball baby quilts, I made some creative decisions about what to do for the applique section of the quilts. It also helps that I now know the names!

My final decision was to add just the name to each quilt. With the names being longer, I decided to simplify the applique section. I created my own alphabet templates for this project simply by making a font extremely large in Word (one page per letter!). The tracing was done with the help of the afternoon sun in my bathroom window and I did all of the ironing and trimming while my husband and I listened to Christmas music in the evening last week.

Since the quilt itself has black in the prints, I decided to do the letters in black solid. (I had plenty of navy in my stash but no black so I got a little delayed with that!)

For each quilt, I laid out the letters and approximated the middle of each name; I started adding letters from the middle out (definitely testing my spelling skills) until each letter was added. I probably could have made the letters slightly smaller -- I sort of underestimated how wide these would be!

Then came the machine applique of each letter. This font was a good choice because the letters are simple lines and curves and the corners are nice and sharp!

I used black thread and did a simple small zig-zag stitch around the letters. In a world with unlimited time and thread, I might have outlined one with red and one with blue satin stitching but I really want to get these to the recipients before Christmas. It's rather hard to pick out the stitching with black thread on black fabric, but trust me -- it's there!

Now to decide on backing and start quilting. I plan to use the same backing for both and also plan to use the same quilting motif for both (currently my plan is a meander with stars). One will have a blue binding and one will have a yellow binding. Keeping many of the design elements simple makes it much easier to accomplish two quilts in the time of one -- literally!

Don't forget to enter to win a set of 2.5" Island Batik strips in this post!

Christine's Kitchen 2.0 {Finished Quilt Top}

My Chrstine's Kitchen top -- version 2.0! -- is now ready for quilting!

I sewed together the three out of four of the rows of blocks right away. The last remaining row is the row containing the two flower blocks which stick out of the vases.

For my two applique blocks, I decided to make white daisies with blue centers. I made my flowers larger than the applique templates in the pattern, so I made two flowers for each block instead of three for each block. These fabrics, as well as the green stems and leaves, came out of my stash of Island Batik scraps. As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics to use and share with you!

For the machine applique, I used a blanket stitch around my flowers, stems, and leaves. For the leaves, I used a dark olive green Aurifil thread. For the flower centers and petals, I used a navy blue thread. I used a wider stitch width for the petals and a narrower stitch width for the centers.

After adding the applique blocks to the second row, I added the set of sashings that are added before the pieced border.

Instead of using the background fabric in the pieced border, I decided to alternate between the light and dark colors from the strip pack. I had to cut down the strips from 2.5" to 2", but strip piecing the pieced border was a very quick process. I was able to use up the scraps I had from paper piecing and I think I used about 10 different fabrics in the pieced border.

I'll be using the remainders of my two blue yardages for the backing, binding, and hanging sleeve. This is the next top that I'll be quilting -- I have a batting from Hobbs that was provided in my July Island Batik Ambassador box that I'll be using. I am leaning towards quilting this one with grey thread and I have a few different grey options.

Happy Wednesday!

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