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!

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!

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!

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!

Needle, Paper, Scissors {Paper Piecing with Island Batik!}

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

If you've followed me for any length of time, you know that I absolutely LOVE foundation paper piecing! I've been looking forward to this challenge since we got our project calendar all the way back in January.

When we got our July shipments, I decided that I wanted to use the London Fog fabrics to make a new version of our Christine's Kitchen pattern. This pattern was our 2017 QAL -- when I made my original version, I also used Island Batik fabrics in greens with a cream background.

This time around, I pulled out the yardage and strip pack of London Fog and decided to use a grey solid for my background.

This is one of the projects that I started while I was at quilt camp in August. I used the larger cuts of two different fabrics from the line for the piecing of the larger pieces and used the dark strips for the accents in each block. Here are the first three blocks that I made:

For the largest blocks, I made half with the floral print and half with the speckled print. For the smaller blocks and the center coffee pot, I used just the 2.5" strips for the piecing. This meant that for a few of the blocks I had to get creative in piecing the blocks -- like for the sugar bowl and creamer where I made them look "dip dyed" instead of just one color for the majority of the block.

Here are most of my paper pieced blocks for this project all laid out together:

Next up will be making the applique flower blocks and then putting the whole quilt top together. I cut all of the background setting pieces before I started the blocks, so putting together the top will be quite quick!

Interested in the Christine's Kitchen pattern but scared to commit? We have a two block preview that is free on our Craftsy site! The preview only contains the pattern for one teacup and one coffee pot and has no setting directions, but is a good way to practice paper piecing with scraps until you're undertake the full pattern!

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

30 Pearls {Finished Quilt}

Happy birthday to me and hip hip hooray for another finish!

My modern-themed quilt for our June Island Batik Ambassador challenge is finished! You can see the first two posts on this quilt here and here.

I finished the binding and trimmed all of the lose threads last night and am going to hang it up in my sewing room later today!

As I explained in my original post, there are 30 "pearls" to celebrate my 30th birthday (today!), pearls are my birthstone, and pearl is a traditional 30th anniversary gift.

I quilted free motion pebbles in each pearl with white Aurifil. In the backgrounds I used five different shades -- hot pink, red, dark coral, orange, and purple -- to quilt the different filler motifs. I used 56 different filler motifs inspired by Leah Day's quilting gallery! It required quite a bit of starting and stopping, which I don't normally like to do when I quilt, but it was 100% worthwhile for this quilt to be exactly as I had envisioned.

The binding and hanging pocket are of a cream Island Batik print that is slightly darker than my pearls. I had originally pulled a purple fabric for the binding but I didn't have quite enough fabric for that. In the below picture, you can really make out some of the quilting with the orange thread!

For the whole quilt, I used white thread in the bobbin so that I didn't have to change both the top thread and the bobbin every time I needed to switch between colors (which was a lot!). The texture on the backing is just so fun! I managed to keep my pieced backing nearly perfectly square with the top, which is a miracle for me!

I will try to post some close up pictures of some of my favorite quilted sections on Instagram over the weekend. Using Leah Day's gallery as my inspiration was a great starting point however I had to think through how to quilt some of the designs in the arcs! Some were easier than others to "bend" into the arched spaces -- like the meandering type motifs and feather type motifs -- than others! There were a few that I decided would only work in the full squares rather than in the arches, which worked out well.

This project is a rarity in that I both designed and made it for me for fun. I enjoy and love just about all of the quilting that I do but I don't often make something "just for me" and it was a nice change of pace to be completely selfish with this project and be finicky about every detail without worrying about writing a pattern to go along with it.

As always, a big yippee hooray thank you to Island Batik for providing these fabrics for me each month to play with and to stretch my creativity! I love our modern challenge month as Amabassadors and this might be my favorite Ambassador project of all of the things I have made in the last 18 months!

Quilt Stats:
Name: 30 Pearls
Design: self designed, essentially randomly spaced drunkard's path blocks
Fabrics: Sunflower Serenade from Island Batik
Size: 42 inches square
Quilting: pearls: pebbles in white Aurifil;
     background: 56 different motifs inspired by Leah Day in pink, purple, red, orange, and dark coral Aurifil
Started: April 2018
Finished: June 2018

Have a wonderful weekend!

Periodically {Two Periodic Table Quilts}

If you've been around Little Bunny Quilts for a long while, you might remember that I started this blog while I was in graduate school studying chemistry. This year, my two best friends from undergrad both started teaching chemistry at the college level and I have been secretly working on something special for each of them!

I had actually made a periodic table wall hanging in 2014 for my old adviser so it was easy to repeat the process! I even kept nearly all of the color assignments the same, with the exception of swapping out the black background for white backgrounds in my new versions.

Within each wall hanging, there are no fabric repeats! Each wall hanging has all of the same fabrics, but just laid out differently. I was able to pull all of the squares from gigantic box of 2" squares that I "borrowed" from my mom. 

These two wall hangings are slightly shorter than the original, but I did the same free motion quilting in these -- cursive lettering of all of the chemical symbols for the elements! In the background of each, I did a simple meander.

The backing, binding, and hanging pocket of each quilt came from my box of "large scraps" -- usually the ends of yardage left over from projects. I pieced the battings too -- these were truly scrappy projects!

The first quilt backing is pieced with a large navy and green stripe print and a section of green left from my Christmas Twirls quilt. The second quilt backing is pieced with three different fabrics - a black leaf print, a magenta dot, and the white stripe print leftover from the backing of the Clover Sunshine quilt.

I used the same green floral print for both pockets. I used some of the leftover backing fabric from my Favorite Frames quilt for the binding for the first quilt.

For the second quilt, I used burgundy dot print (also used in one of my Firecracker quilts) for the binding.

These are in the mail to my friends and I can't wait for them to get them!

Sharing with Finish it up Friday!