Simple Squares {Finished Quilt}

Today I'm excited to show off my finished quilt for our April Island Batik Ambassador challenge! Our theme was "creative borders and bindings".

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!

My quilt is made entirely of 4.5" squares cut from Island Batik stash builder rolls and 4.5" strips of black solid batik to break up the inner 64-patch from the pieced outer border. 

I also used the same black solid for the backing and the binding of the quilt. The border and backing really shows off my leafy swirl quilting!

I used a variegated teal Aurifil thread for the top of the quilt and used a lighter teal in the bobbins. Some of the fabrics highlight the darker teal in the variegated thread and other fabrics show off the lighter teals! The black inner border shows off all of the quilting -- and I only used a single spool of thread throughout the whole quilt and got vastly different levels of thread contrast!

This quilt is finished and ready for snuggles! My intention is to keep this quilt for a picnic quilt (all of those dark colors will hide stains!)

Happy Thursday! Don't forget that our Etsy shop is still stocked and shipping!

Previous posts:
Cutting and Planning post
Quilt top post

Quilt Stats:
Name: Simple Squares throw quilt
Pattern: self designed
Fabrics: Island Batik stash builder rolls, Island Batik solid
Techniques: free motion quilting
Quilting: Free motion leaves and swirls with Aurifil thread
Batting: Hobbs 80/20 batting
Size: 48" square
Started and Finished: April 2020
Future: Picnic Quilt

Pineapple Log Cabin Quilt {Finished Quilt}

In my push to finish, finish, finish, I got my Pineapple Log Cabin quilt finished before it languished on a shelf for 6, 12, or 18 months -- unlike a lot of other finishes this year! Here's the quilt top when it was completed in June:

When I started this quilt, I got all of the supplies for it at one time -- I thought ahead and included the batting and a spool of Aurifil thread the same time I ordered the fabric. Sometimes, I forget about batting and thread -- especially batting! -- and that ends up being an impediment to finishing something. 

(That being said, I have started a new column on my WIP/UFO spreadsheet -- a "shopping list" column -- to note what I need to get to finish a quilt. My hope is that I can be more proactive about making sure I have everything I need for a project.)

For the quilting on this quilt, I got a spool of variegated Aurifil 50 wt. thread -- the color is "teal spotted". However, I used a solid color light teal for all of the bobbins. I found it to be much easier to work from the two spools for top thread and bobbin thread rather than to use the variegated thread in both the top and the bobbin.

This is the largest quilt (and I think actually the only "quilt") that I have quilted using variegated thread. I believe I've only ever quilted table runners and mini quilts with variegated thread before. For the design, I attempted to copy the same chrysanthemum motif that my mom used to quilt my Good Fortune quilt. But being "on brand" for myself, my flowers are denser and smaller. 

Regardless, I really liked using this design and found it easy to move across the quilt, to fill in spaces of various shape and size, and only once did I run out of bobbin mid-quilt-stream. 

For the binding, I had set aside a half yard of one of my fabrics -- a fun striped, scalloped print -- and turned the entire half yard into some really awesome bias binding. The whole half yard was more than I needed, but now I have enough bias binding for a mini quilt ready to go. 

This quilt turned out quite lovely and the color scheme was a fun diversion from my typical choices.

In my head, I call this the "OG Cotton + Steel quilt" since most of the prints are from the first few Cotton + Steel collections. I missed out on a lot of these fabrics when they came out since I am a quilter on a serious budget, but holy man do these fabrics feel amazing in the hand. 

I'm *very* glad I sort of maybe over-ordered and have lots left over. 

Quilt stats:

Name: Pineapple Log Cabin // The OG C+S Quilt

Pattern: Modified version of the Pineapple Day pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop

Fabrics: Various old Cotton + Steel prints

Techniques: Paper piecing

Quilting: free motion quilted chrysanthemums

Size: 67" x 55"

Started: May 2019

Finished: August 2019

Future: TBD