Twirls and Stripes {Vintage Reimagined with Island Batik}

My life has been filled with a lot of strip piecing recently! Both with Unit A for the Daisy Chain QAL, and with this project!

After cutting the pieces and parts for this project, zipping together my "striped fabric" strip sets was the next step.

The HSTs went together quickly as well. I'm using two different orange fabrics and one yellow fabric for these units.

Subcutting the strip sets into blocks went slightly faster than trimming all of my HSTs, as you might have imagined.

Chain piecing all of the pinwheels was also a quick process -- here are the piles of blocks stacked together before I laid out my blocks.

Because I was able to squeeze five 8.5" squares out of each strip set (Island Batik fabrics are *actually* more than 42" wide selvage to selvage!) I do have enough blocks to do a 5x6 block arrangement for a 40" x 48" quilt and only one extra yellow pinwheel!

Here's the quilt blocks sewn into rows. Whenever possible, I like to use the "webbing" technique to put together my quilt tops. I realize now it might be worthwhile to do my own webbing tutorial, so keep your eyes out for one in the coming weeks/months. But for the time being, check out a tutorial from Bonnie Hunter.

Five seams later and I have a finished quilt top!

Now to find some backing fabric for this quilt. I'm leaning towards flannel since I will likely give it as a baby quilt but now that I don't live 5 minutes away from Joann's, I'll have to make a special trip this weekend. And after the super-shrinkage snafu that happened with the last bunch of flannel that I bought, I'm going to get an extra 1/4 yard just to be safe!

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

Vintage Reimagined {March IBA Challenge}

This month's Island Batik Ambassador theme is "Vintage Reimagined"!

Our task this month is to take inspiration from a vintage quilt to create something new! Last year, for this theme, I created this baby quilt inspired by a quilt at the Antietam Battlefield museum.

This year, I'm taking my inspiration from another quilt from a battlefield -- this time from Gettysburg! This quilt is in the collection at Gettysburg, but isn't typically out for display.

About this quilt, from the Gettysburg National Military Park collection:

"This thin top layer of a Civil War-era cotton quilt was given to young Helen Mills of Gettysburg by a Union soldier during the pursuit of General Lee’s army on July 5 or 6, 1863. Helen lived on a farm on the Taneytown Road south of Gettysburg. Citizens of Gettysburg and the surrounding community were literally inundated not only with the wounded after the battle, but the numerous articles of war that came with and were left by two massive armies."

Since I now live in Gettysburg, I thought this quilt was an excellent inspiration for this challenge. I decided to simplify the color scheme to white, blue, yellow, and orange. I really love this aqua-blue batik -- it reminds me of free motion quilting designs! As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics to use and share with you!

The original quilt is made up of pinwheel blocks that alternate with a striped blue-and-white fabric, except on the right edge where it looks like they ran out of the striped fabric! Since I don't have any batik fabrics with a similar large stripe, I am going to make rail fence blocks with the white and blue fabrics to alternate with my yellow and orange pinwheel blocks.

While I've never seen this quilt in person, my estimation is that the blocks are somewhere between 4" and 6" finished in this quilt. I'm going to be making bigger blocks that are 8" finished for my quilt, so that I can use 2.5" strips for my rail fence "stripes" and 5" squares for my pinwheel HSTs.

With a half yard of the blue fabric, I should be able to make a 40" square baby quilt. If I'm able to squeeze out an extra block or two from my strip sets, I could enlarge the quilt to 40" by 48", but the goal is 40" square, which is my favorite size for baby quilts.

My next step is making my "striped fabric" strip sets and making half-square triangles for my pinwheel blocks!

Happy Wednesday! Sharing at Let's Bee Social and NTT!

Antietam Inspired Quilt {April IBA Challenge}

Our Island Batik Ambassador theme for April is "Looking Back" -- this month we're taking inspiration from vintage quilts.

For those of you that have read Little Bunny Quilts for a long time will know that my husband works for the National Park Service ("Park Ranger Husband") and spent his first few years in the NPS working at Antietam National Battlefield. One of the more notable items at their museum is this quilt:

This quilt was made in 1850 by Barbara Miller, who lived nearby. Relatives owned one of the farms that became part of the field of battle on September 17th, 1862. The quilt is signed by friends and family. This simple red and cream quilt has large cream sashings and borders filled with hand quilted feathers and a gear-like triangle border.

Today I'm going to break down how I dissected the original blocks to make my blocks and then give you the necessary dimensions to make your own Antietam autograph-style blocks. My blocks are 12" finished, but based on seeing the original quilt in person quite a few times, I think the original quilt blocks are probably 8" or 9" finished.

The original block is -- more or less -- a square in a square in a square in a square with beveled corners. So a lot of research on square in a square blocks and economy blocks later, I had cutting measurements for my planned blocks. I used three different focus fabrics (two greens and a brown) and one cream background and made three blocks each for a total of nine blocks. Island Batik kindly provided these fabrics in my Spring Ambassador box!

For one 12" finished block, you'll need
(1) 4 3/4" square background fabric
(2) 4" squares focus fabric cut once on the diagonal for (4) triangles
(2) 5 1/4" squares background fabric cut once on the diagonal for (4) triangles
(2) 7" squares focus fabric cut once on the diagonal for (4) triangles
(4) 3.5" squares background fabric

I found that these measurements allowed me to sliver trim on all four sides of the block as I went along. If you prefer to have more wiggle room for trimming or use a wider 1/4" seam, add 1/4" to the 4", 5 1/4", and 7" squares.

After adding the 4" triangles, trim the entire unit to 6.5". After adding the 5 1/4" triangles, trim the entire unit to 9". After adding the 7" triangles, trim to 12.5".

Draw lines on the diagonal of each 3.5" square. Sew one to each corner of the 12.5" block using the stitch and flip method. Blocks should still measure 12.5".

I made a total of nine blocks -- three in each color. These will be made up into a baby quilt top shortly!

Have a wonderful weekend! Don't forget to check out the Blocked Rainbow QAL and join the Facebook Group!