Head of the Class {My First Teaching Gig}

Last week, I taught my first quilting class! I taught "Introduction to Paper Piecing" at Capital Quilts in Gaithersburg, MD. I had eight students in my class and the vast majority had never done any paper piecing before!

Here are some of the finished blocks that my students made!

I'm also excited to share that I will be back to teach TWO paper piecing classes in April and May! I'll be teaching a second session of the beginner paper piecing class and an intermediate/advanced paper piecing class too! If you are local (or semi-local) to Gaithersburg, MD, I would love to have you in one of my classes!

Starburst Wall Hanging {Finished Quilt}

My Island Batik version of our long-time favorite Starburst pattern is now complete!

For the quilting, I picked out a tan Aurifil thread that is nearly the same shade as the tan batik that I used in the blocks and for the inner border. I drew inspiration from my Magnolia quilt and quilted the blocks with different motifs and a consistent filler in the background. I used a meander with a "shell" in the background.

Here are my first two blocks close up.

I used the grey batik for the backing, and here is the first block quilted, from the backside! For the batting, I used a Hobbs silk blend batting -- my first time using a silk blend -- because I know this will be a wall hanging and not a throw quilt and likely will not need washed (or less frequently washed.)

I used the tan thread everywhere except the dark teal border, where I used a light teal thread and quilted leaves.

Here's the quilt top, post quilting, post trimming, pre binding. Also notice how well this quilt matches the rug -- it might end up being hung in this room!

Here's a photo showing the sold batik backing and how the quilting shows up on it. The two different thread colors are more apparent on the back than on the front, but I think the teal thread looks amazing on the dark border.

For the binding, I used the steel blue mottled print that I used in some of the borders. I made a hanging sleeve for this quilt and added it when I added the binding.

Get your own copy of Starbursts on Etsy! 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!

Quilt stats:
Name: Starbursts Wall Hanging
Pattern: Starbursts by us
Fabrics: Island Batiks
Techniques: Paper piecing, free motion quilting
Batting: Hobbs Silk blend
Quilting: various FMQ designs
Size: 48" square
Started: July 2019
Finished: August 2019
Future: TBD

Sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday!

Lucky Stars {Starburst Blocks}

The blocks for this month's Island Batik Ambassador challenge are complete! I'll have a finished Starburst top in no time!

I finished up blocks 6 through 9; these blocks are the most intricate blocks of the bunch and so they took a little longer than the first five blocks.

Here are these four blocks together:

Here are all nine of my blocks together:

Back to the grind to finish this quilt top! Get your own copy of Starbursts on Etsy!

Sharing at Wait Loss Wednesday and Needle and Thread Thursday! 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

Catch a Falling Star {Starburst in Progress}

I've been putting the pedal to the metal (or really, my hardwood floors) on my paper pieced Starburst blocks for this month's Island Batik Ambassador challenge!

For this installment of creating my constellation with fabrics, I've finished up blocks 2 through 5.

Here are these four blocks together:

So far, the darker blue-grey and the tan batiks are the two non-strip fabrics I have mixed into my blocks. I'd like as much of the block piecing as possible to come from my 2.5" strips but the first couple blocks have quite a bit of piecing that requires pieces wider than 2.5".

Only four more blocks to go! Get your own copy of Starbursts on Etsy! 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

Star Light Star Bright {Shooting for the Stars with Island Batik}

I'm not on the blog hop schedule this month for Island Batik (but make sure to check out the other posts!) so I am tasked with making a star-themed project this month!

This month I am going to be making a wall hanging or throw sized version of one of our original Honey, Bunny, and Doll patterns -- Starbursts!

If you've followed me for a long while, you might remember that Starbursts was our first-ever quilt along! My original quilt (above) is a twin-ish sized quilt, and I made a mini quilt during my first year as an Island Batik Ambassador that just used one of the blocks repeated four times.

This time around, I will be making the wall hanging/throw size version -- this version utilizes nine blocks, one each of the designs included in the pattern. The throw size is not set on point like the twin sized version.

For the fabrics, I am going to be using the Sand Bar line that I received in my latest Island Batik Ambassador box. As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics to use and share with you!

The light blue Cheerios print will be my background fabric and I will be using the dark navy print for the eight star points in each block. I will use the 2.5" strips for the majority of the piecing, mixing in the half yard cuts for any of the piecing where I might need pieces larger than 2.5" wide.

Here's one of my favorite paper piecing tips: it can be helpful to pin your first piece of fabric to your paper foundation to provide some stability until you start sewing to the foundation.

Here's my first block:

I used 2.5" strips for all of the piecing with the exception of the center square and the background.

I absolutely love to paper piece, but I know a lot of people struggle with this technique -- so leave your burning paper piecing questions in the comments and I will try to answer some of them (with pictures!) over my next few posts.

Happy Monday! Get your own copy of Starbursts on Etsy!

Coast to Coast Bee 3.0 {My Block}

A new year means the start of new quilt bees, including the Coast to Coast Traveling Bee! While we decided to put off the start of this year's edition of the C2C Bee until February, I have been looking forward to this bee restarting since we concluded last year!

As a reminder, here are my two quilt tops (neither are finished quilts yet, oops.) from 2017 and 2018:

This year, I took my starting block inspiration from my new hometown -- Gettysburg, PA! I found this quilt block that's actually called "Gettysburg" and scaled it to an 18" finished block.

For my fabrics, I pulled Kona Navy for my background and red, white, and aqua fabrics for the rest of the piecing. I decided to paper piece my square in a square units.

The best part about big blocks is how fast they are!

Instead of using this block as the start to a medallion, I'm going to ask each of my bee-mates to make their own 18" finished block inspired by a location -- with lots of state-inspired and history-inspired quilt blocks available, I hope this is a fun (and not overly difficult) request!

Here's a mock up of my design idea with my block repeated four times (but each person will choose their own block(s)!

My plan is that each block will have the Kona Navy background and I will also use the same fabric for the sashing. This will end up being more in the range of 40-45" square rather than a bigger throw quilt. This quilt is likely going to end up in our red bedroom (aka the baseball room) as a quilt for whichever chair ends up in that room as the "reading chair".

I will be working on Stephanie's quilt first this time around. Sharing at Linky Tuesday!

Christine's Blue Kitchen {Finished Quilt}

This weekend, I was able to quilt my blue Island Batik version of our Christine's Kitchen pattern! 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 quilting, I briefly considered using multiple thread colors but ultimately decided to use the same thread throughout. I used Connecting Threads 50 wt. in Silver.

Like my original Christine's Kitchen quilt, I did meanders in the background. In my original quilt, I did loops inside of all of the dishes, but this time around, I used a variety of simple free motion quilting motifs in the cups, vases, and pots. I did a lot of loops, swirls, and squiggles, but I tried to mix it up a little bit.

Working with the small spaces was a little limiting but other than the sugar and creamer pair on the bottom shelf, the rest of the dishes are all quilted differently.

The backing fabric is the larger floral print (used in the teapot above!) and the binding fabric is the speckle print (used in the coffee pot below!). I also used the floral print for the hanging sleeve. Because this quilt finishes at 36" x 39", you only need a single width of fabric for the backing!

I didn't do any quilting in the applique sections to help it stand out. For the border, I used a larger swirly flower filler.

I used one of my decorative stitches to stitch down the binding so it will be extra secure!

Originally I had planned to give this as a gift, but now I'm feeling a little selfish and might want to keep it. 

Don't forget to check out the Island Batik Facebook page to see what all of the other Ambassadors are working on this month!

Project Stats:

Name: Christine's Blue Kitchen
Pattern: Christine's Kitchen by HBD
Size: 36" x 39"
Fabrics: London Fog by Island Batik and grey solid
Quilting: Various motifs in grey thread from Connecting Threads
Future: Might be a gift, might not!

Sharing at Let's Bee Social, Needle and Thread Thursday, and Brag About Your Beauties!

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!