Christmas in July {Island Batik Ambassador Box Opening}

Saturday certainly felt like Christmas in July -- my second Island Batik Ambassador goodie box arrived!

For those that may not know, as an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided a lovely LOVELY box of fabric and goodies twice a year by Island Batik! We do challenges every month based around a theme and have blog hops featuring the newest fabric lines two times a year. This is my second year and hopefully not the last! Let's check out what was in my box:

First up is a strip set of London Fog with coordinating yardage:

Next is a ten inch stacker of Spirit Rhythm:

And we can't go without basics! This is a big chunk of neutral and some half yard cuts of blenders and basics:

A beautiful rainbow of Paisley Dot fabric:

Some solids to sprinkle in to projects:

Three different battings from Hobbs! I'm very excited to try the wool blend battings.

And of course -- my SURPRISE bundle! I can't show this just yet since it hasn't been released! It will be used in a big project in January!

And finally some swag from Aurifil!

If you're interested in checking out more of my Island Batik Ambassador projects, click on the Island Batik Ambassador tab in my header! I will have another post up later this week about my July project!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be in my sewing nook petting all of this beautiful fabric!

Don't forget to take advantage of our free shipping special in our Etsy shop!

PS. If you missed out on my Island Batik giveaway two weeks ago, don't fret! Plenty of the other ambassadors have giveaways planned this month -- check out PamelaQuilts to enter her giveaway this week!

Sharing at Linky Tuesday!

Pattern Play and Secondary Designs {July IBA Challenge}

This month's Island Batik Ambassador theme is pattern play and secondary designs!

What exactly are secondary designs as they relate to quilts and quilting? I think the best, simplest explanation of a secondary design is that it is the additional designs that arise when pieced blocks are placed next to one another. I think the most common example of a quilt with secondary designs is the traditional Storm at Sea quilt.

Image from Generations Quilt Patterns

While this quilt is, when broken down into its parts, are square in a square units and pieced sashings, putting things together results in our eyes seeing stars as well as the illusion of waves.

Two block quilts also frequently produce secondary designs. If you haven't made one yourself, you've probably seen someone make a Wanta Fanta block from the Bee Hive collection! 

Image from Blossom Heart Quilts

Another one of my favorites is the Carol quilt from Kitchen Table Quilting! In this quilt, the blocks create a lattice effect.

Image from Kitchen Table Quilting

Remember my two Blue in Bloom quilts? These quilts definitely make use of secondary designs!

I created a Pinterest board for secondary designs and two block quilts, too! Check it out for more inspirations. 

For my project for this month, I'm making a two block quilt using snowball blocks and Missouri stars that will be a baby sized version of a very cute mini quilt my sister made a while ago:

Her blocks are 6" finished and her mini is about 24" square. My blocks will be 9" finished and my quilt will be about 36" square, which will be a perfect little baby quilt! For my quilt, I pulled yellow, purple, and pink Island Batik fabrics and added in a white solid.

The yellow dot print in the back will be my main fabric replacing Amanda's jellyfish. My stars will be an assortment of pink, purple, and yellow and I'll use white in the same places as the original. I already have purple binding set aside (my failed binding from my 30 Pearls quilt!) for this project and I'll be getting flannel for the backing since it will be a baby quilt.

The four full snowball blocks are done (I'll need to make eight half-snowballs!).

I've started cutting and sewing on some of the parts and pieces of my Missouri star blocks and have really just made a mess of my cutting board.

Happy Friday! Sharing at Main Crush Monday!

Progress Report {Mid-year Check in with Quilting JetGirl}

Yvonne has set up a link-up encouraging all of us to look back on the goals we set for ourselves in 2018 and see how we've fared halfway through the year.

My three goals for 2018 were:

1. Quilt and finish some of my completed (or nearly completed quilt tops)
2. Host a new QAL and improve engagement
3. Say "no" with more frequency.

Here's how I think I've done with each of them:

1. Quilt and finish some of my completed (or nearly completed quilt tops)
Moderate Success -- doing my monthly "Brutal Honesty" posts with my full WIP list keeps me honest and ensures that I completely forget about a project. I've finished seven different projects that were on my WIP list in January, three of which were actually WIPs at the start of 2017 -- Top Spin, Farmer's Wife, and Summer on the Coast.

2. Host a new QAL and improve engagement
Great Success -- the Blocked Rainbow QAL has come and gone already! We had a lot of new faces that joined us this time around and I set up a Facebook group. Now to just finish my own quilt...

3. Say "no" with more frequency.
Mild Success -- I don't know if I am actually saying no more or not -- but overall, I'm feeling less overwhelmed by my commitments both with sewing and personally. I think most of this is just being more organized and prioritizing anything with a deadline over other sewing -- even if that means not having three blog posts every week. I'm also focusing on sewing for fun and making sure that my commitments are fun too!

Don't forget to stop by to check in with everyone else at Quilting JetGirl!

Faceted Ohio Star {Pattern Premiere}

I'm so excited that we've finished our Faceted Ohio Star Pattern!

This pattern can be found on Payhip!. I originally made this mini quilt as a part of the Printology hop with Benartex and the quilt uses 2.5" strips and yardage to create this faceted masterpiece!

For this quilt, you only need twenty 2.5" strips, one yard of background fabric, and one and a half yards of fabric for the backing. If you have strip stubs left over from a different pre-cut project, all three of our Faceted quilt patterns are amazing for both scraps and yardage! It does save a little bit of time if you start from 2.5" precut strips, but you could even use a few fat eights instead!

Do you have any suggestions for other blocks we should "Facet"? Get all three patterns on Payhip!

Faceted Churn Dash

Faceted Friendship Star

Faceted Ohio Star

Have a wonderful 4th of July! Sharing at Linky Tuesday!

Brutal Honesty {July 2018}

The year is officially halfway over! I have managed to make a little dent in my list from January -- I've finished 6 of the things that were on that list (in addition to finishing an Island Batik Ambassador project every month!) but I've added four things to the list.

My goals for June were to finish my Traveling Quilt Bee which unfortunately didn't happen and to do some fabric shopping to finish some projects, which I did a little bit of. I still need some backings, but I would rather check things out at my local quilt shops before I order online.

Quilting in Progress:
1. Traveling Quilt Bee (2016) -- I haven't managed to get anything done on this. :(

Completed tops:
2. Magnolia Mystery QAL -- No progress
3. Double Delight -- The top is together and now I need to decide if I should add a border or not.

4. Blocked Rainbow Quilt --  The top is done and now I need to decide on how to back and quilt it!

Tops partially finished:
5. Bonnie and Camille C2C Bee Quilt -- No progress
6. Romantic Garden Quilt -- No progress
7. Monthly Wall Hangings -- No progress

Just blocks and units:
8. Pineapple Stash Bee Blocks -- No progress
9. Sew Kitschy Blocks -- No progress
10. Cubicle Quilts -- No progress
11. Happy Houses blocks -- No progress
12. Birthstone blocks -- No progress
13. Donuts quilt -- No Progress

Quilt alongs and long term projects:
14. Monthly Island Batik Ambassador projects -- My June project was my 30 Pearls wall hanging and for July our theme is secondary designs and I'll be working on a baby quilt for a girl!

15. Breezy Blooms C2C Bee -- I sent off Karen's quilt in June, received Stephanie's quilt to work on for July, and also got my own quilt back (early!). I'll be working on Stephanie's quilt soon!

New Projects:

16. Drift Away Scrap Quilt: I'm almost halfway done with the top! 

17. Overnight Delivery quilt for MBS: This quilt is almost finished and will be revealed soon! I say this about most of my MBS patterns when they come out, but this is one of my favorites! This is the second Sweetwater Christmas line I've gotten to work with (the other being Christmas Twirls which uses The Cookie Exchange line)!

My goal for this month is to finish up my additions to Stephanie's quilt for the C2C bee and then to start working on both my April Showers C2C quilt from last year and my Breezy Blooms C2C quilt from this year. 

I also picked the winners for the Island Batik scrap giveaway! Congrats to the winners.

Happy Monday!