Great Outdoors Blog Hop with Island Batik {Schedule and Giveaway!}

Today is the kick off of the semi-annual Island Batik blog hop showing off all of the new lines that have recently arrive or will soon be arriving in your local quilt shops!

Over the next four weeks, all 40+ Island Batik Ambassadors will be showcasing a project featuring one of these new lines. Additionally, Island Batik has put together a fantastic giveaway which you can enter through this Rafflecopter. Three winners will be chosen, and each will win a strip pack of one of the new lines of fabric!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click here for the terms and conditions of the giveaway!

Additionally, many of the Ambassadors will be having giveaways of their own throughout the month so make sure to keep up with the individual posts! As a reminder, I'm using our Summer Patio pattern for my blog hop project! I will have a giveaway posted on my hop day on August 28th of some of the Jungle Cruise fabrics used in my project.

Here's the full schedule with links to the home pages of each blog:

Monday, August 6 - All A Flutter - Yellow Cat Quilt Designs, Creative Blonde

Tuesday, August 7 - Birds N’ Bees - Ark Angel Creations, Patterns By Jen

Wednesday, August 8 - Canterbury Manor - Sally Manke, Powered By Quilting

Thursday, August 9 - Eclectic Garden - Desert Bloom Quilting, Sew Karen-ly Created

Friday, August 10 - Vintage Morris - MooseStash Quilting, Devoted Quilter

Monday, August 13 - Safari - Sew Incredibly Crazy, SweetGrass Designs

Tuesday, August 14 - Spring Blossoms - Mary Mack Made Mine, If These Threads Could Talk

Wednesday, August 15 - Victoria and Albert - Bejeweled Quilts, Clever Chameleon

Thursday, August 16 - Wild Things - Freemotion By The River, Kauffman Designs

Friday, August 17 - Petting Zoo - Den Syende Himmel, Sarah Goer Quilts

Monday, August 20 - Ocean Odyssey - Gateway Quilts, The Quilt Rambler

Tuesday, August 21 - British Rose - Busy Hands Quilts, Mania for Quilts

Wednesday, August 22 - Dear William - The Inquiring Quilter, MMM Quilts, Living Water Quilter

Thursday, August 23 - Dragonfly Dreams - Inchworm Fabrics, BeaQuilter

Friday, August 24 - Fur-ocious Friends - Quilting Affection Designs, Dizzy Quilter

Monday, August 27 - Globetrotter - Pamela Quilts, Curliecue Creations

Tuesday, August 28 - Jungle Cruise - Vicki's Crafts and Quilting, Little Bunny Quilts

Wednesday, August 29 - Lavendula - Carole Lyles Shaw, Masterpiece Quilting

Thursday, August 30 - London Calling - Quilt in a Not-Shell, Lizard Creek Quilting

Friday, August 31 - Spirit Rhythm - Steph Jacobson, Whispers of Yore

Monday, September 3 - Sweet Tweets - Kathleen McMusing, Adventurous Applique and Quilting

Tuesday, September 4 - Whatnot - heARTS Creations, Slice of Pi Quilts

I've seen previews of many of these projects and you will NOT be disappointed!

Happy Monday and happy hopping!

Pansy Garden {Traveling Quilt Bee Finish}

It's really and truly finished! I really wanted to post this earlier, but here in Maryland it has been raining for essentially two weeks and I have been trying to wait to take outdoor pictures. I finally gave up this morning and took a few pictures inside.

I started this quilt in June 2016 as part of the Instagram-based "Traveling Quilt Bee" and received my quilt back in January 2017. I decided it needed a border, so I put my mom and sister in charge of that project and the top was finished in December 2017. I started the quilting in April, did another section of quilting in May, and finished up the quilting in July.

The quilting in each section (as explained in the above posts) is different for each person who added to the quilt! I realized once I trimmed the quilt that the backing is ever-so-slightly diagonal, but it's good enough for me!

I hand stitched the binding down over a few days this last weekend. I personally like a 2.25" double fold binding for my quilts.

This quilt is ready for the next person that comes to visit! Onward to the rest of the projects that I need to finish!

PS. We are starting to plan our *2019* quilt along! We have a poll up in the HBD Quilts Facebook group about what kind of quilt you prefer and what kind of fabric you'd like to use. Join the group and share your opinions!

Quilt Stats:
Name: Pansy Garden, Traveling Quilt Bee Quilt
Size: approximately 70" x 90"

Fabrics: scraps and stash from myself and the 7 people who added to the quilt

Quilting: 8 different FMQ fillers using white Aurifil thread

Future: Guest room quilt

Started: June 2016
Finished July 2018

Sharing at Linky Tuesday!

Sharing at Show Me Something {Purple} at Sarah Goer Quilts for January 2020!

Brutal Honesty {August 2018}

It's August! That means I'm less than three weeks away from going on retreat with my mom! Hooray! The first half of this month will be focused on finishing up things that are close to being completed so that I can take at least one new project with me to Michigan.

My goal for July was to finish up Stephanie's C2C quilt, which I did! I also wanted to work on my own C2C bee quilts but I worked on finishing up some other projects instead.

I DID finish my Traveling Quilt Bee quilt, however, between company visiting this weekend and constant rain, I haven't been able to get pictures yet and will hopefully be able to do that on Friday.

Completed tops:
1. Magnolia Mystery QAL -- No progress
2. Blocked Rainbow Quilt -- No progress

Both of these projects need backing and are otherwise ready to quilt!

Tops partially finished:
3. Double Delight -- I decided that I did want a border for this quilt and I have three fabrics to choose from.

4. Drift Away Scrap Quilt -- The piecing is now complete! Now to shop for border fabric. My plan is a skinny black border surrounded by some sort of print border that would coordinate with my piecing fabrics.

5. Bonnie and Camille C2C Bee Quilt -- No progress
6. Romantic Garden Quilt -- No progress
7. Monthly Wall Hangings -- No progress
8. Pineapple Stash Bee Blocks -- The blocks are now in columns and I need some white on white fabric to finish the top!

Just blocks and units:
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 -- I got the grey fabric to start putting this together!

Quilt alongs and long term projects:
14. Monthly Island Batik Ambassador projects -- My July project was my bright baby quilt and this month is our Great Outdoors blog hop! I will be posting the full schedule of the hop and Rafflecopter giveaway on August 6th. My post date is August 28th and I am working with the Jungle Cruise collection! Here's a preview of my project:

15. Breezy Blooms C2C Bee -- I completed my additions to Stephanie's quilt and received my quilt back after it's national tour! I have the black and border fabric ready to put this top together too.

New Projects:

16. The Border Quilt QAL: I've pulled my fabrics and started some of the cutting but this quilt along doesn't start until September. This will be put on the back burner while I try to finish up some other projects this month.

My focus for this month is going to be finishing up some quilt tops so that they are ready to quilt and finding backings. My Magnolia and Blocked Rainbow quilts just need backings, so I would like to find backing for at least one of those. My Drift Away and Pineapple quilts need some fabric to finish the tops and then will need backings too. I have all of the fabric I need to finish my Donuts and Breezy Blooms tops. I have a lot that I can work on this month!

Fall in Love {Fall and Halloween Patterns!}

With all of the back-to-school sales and supplies popping up in all of the stores, it made me think about all of the fun fall and Halloween patterns we have in the HBD shop!

Love fall leaves? Our Seasonal collections have you set! The Seasonal Placemats set #3 and Seasonal Table Runners set #3 each have a fall leaves pattern.

Seasonal Placemats set #2 and Seasonal Table Runners set #2 have a Halloween candy corn pattern!

We also have the Candy Corn Placemat KIT that includes the pattern for Seasonal Placemats set #2.

More into ghosts and ghouls? Check out our Halloween Spooks pattern -- perfect for a table runner or a wall hanging and includes SIX different Halloween applique motifs for you to pick and choose your favorite designs.

And if all of this applique isn't your thing, we also have our Log Cabin Pumpkins table runner!

Don't forget to join our HBD Quilts Facebook group for tips, tricks, sale previews, and more!

The End of the Journey {Traveling Quilt Bee}

Despite it being one of my top WIP priorities for the last few months, it took until last weekend for me to settle on the final free motion quilting motifs and get excited about finishing the quilting on my Traveling Quilt Bee (TQB) quilt.

(Side note, this quilt needs a better name! Maybe something pansy-related given the color scheme?)

When I last posted, I had three sections to go -- two block sections and the border. I had planned to quilt the two block sections with a wood grain motif in one and an echoed daisy-ish motif in the other, and to quilt the border with wishbones. I changed my mind on all three sections!

For the first block section, I did an echoing motif that sort of looks like a sunshine but to me also looks like a fried egg. 

For the final block section, I decided that I wanted to do a sharp stipple (also known as a zipple by some!) instead of another curvy and round design. This is a design that I really enjoy quilting -- I like being able to intertwine the different passes of quilting with the points and echoing.

For the borders, I used a flower meander. I was originally thinking that I might quilt the border with black thread, but I am glad that I decided against it! I think the white flowers popping off the black fabric is fun.

This quilt is now trimmed and ready to be bound!

I initially thought I was going to have to buy something new for the binding, but look what I found in my stash!

I was even able to find out where I got this fabric: I got it while on vacation in 2012! The binding says that it's from In The Beginning fabrics in 2006! The lighter print looks great next to the border, and especially next to the black solid fabric. I cut my binding strips at 2.25" which enabled me to squeak in 8 strips out of my half yard of fabric.

My plan is to sew this to the front and stitch the binding to the backside over the next few days while we have company in town. Hopefully this will be finished by the end of the month so that I can finally cross this off my WIP list!

Sharing at Main Crush Monday!