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!

Orphan Block Mini Quilt {A Little Finish}

I made a mini!

This 12.5" block has been hanging around in my pile of orphan blocks since at least 2014. Yes, 2014! This block came to me as a swap block, when I participated in a monthly block swap on Flickr. (Takes me way back!)

I used many of the other blocks to make these baby quilts but this was one of the blocks whose color scheme wasn't exactly right.

I was just in the mood to do a little FMQ and burn through some batting scraps. I quilted this with white Aurifil in a meander. The backing is "vintage" Anna Maria Horner -- this is a Bubble Burst print from the Innocent Crush line.

The binding is the same bias binding that I used on my Blooming Bear Tracks quilt that I shared last week! I used purple thread to topstitch the binding.

Sometimes you need to just make something quick and simple.

Quilt Stats:
Name: Pastel Mini Quilt
Pattern: 99% sure it's Double Aster from the Quilter's Cache
Fabrics: Scraps
Quilting: meander in white 40 wt. Aurifil
Size: 12" square
Started: the block was originally made in 2014!
Finished: March 2019
Future: doll quilt or mini quilt for my sewing room

Sharing at Brag about your Beauties!

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!

Daisy Chain QAL {Unit A}

Update 8/11/2020 -- This pattern is now available in our Etsy and Payhip shops. Please visit one of those sites to purchase the full pattern.

It's time to fill those bobbins and put in a fresh needle -- today we're doing our first stitching for the Daisy Chain QAL!

A reminder -- unlike our Blocked Rainbow QAL last year where the two different sizes of quilts used two different sizes of blocks, the different sizes of the Daisy Chain quilt use the same size of blocks and units, but the number of units needed increases for each larger size.

This week we are making our first block units -- classic four patches! These units are composed of background fabric and accent fabric (not your focal fabric!).

For my scrappy baby sized quilt, I used the same brown accent fabric for all of my four patch units.

For my Island Batik twin quilt, I used the same multicolored batik for all of my four patch units.

One tip to make sub-cutting sections faster: take two accent/background strip pieced sections and place them right sides together and then cut both layers at the same time. Your two-patches will already be nested together nicely to sew into four patches!

Another tip: You can choose to "spin" your seams for these units, however it is not necessary. I like to spin seams for four patches since it eliminates bulk, but for these units, it's not necessary to press a particular way for nesting later on when we assemble blocks.

Let's see what some of our participants are making:
- Stephanie has purple and black four patches for her Halloween quilt!
- Gail used her Accuquilt Go! to cut the parts for her red and white four patches.
- Gene has orange and purple four patches.
- Kate made red and cream four patches for her quilt.
- Christina is working on blue and white four patches!
- Pam has pink and white four patches -- featuring some cute Island Batik birdies!
- Vasudha has red and white four patches -- can't wait to see more!
- Michelle made some lovely purple and white four patches!

Schedule
Fabric Requirements - February 4th
Cutting - February 18th
Block Units- March 4th <--- That's today!
Block Units - March 18th
Block Units - April 1st
Block Units - April 15th
Catch up week link up - April 29th
Top Construction Part 1 - May 6th
Top Construction Part 2 - May 20th
Link up/giveaways/quilt parade starts: June 3rd
Link up/giveaways/quilt parade ends: June 17th

Brutal Honesty {March 2019}

As it typically does, February flew by! Between family visiting and the never-ending projects on our house, sewing time was at a premium, but I did manage to finish a few things and make progress on a few others.

Sent out for quilting:
1. Drift Away Scrap Quilt -- At the long arm quilter.

Completed tops:
2. Magnolia Mystery QAL -- No progress
3. Breezy Blooms C2C Bee -- No progress
4. Double Delight -- No progress
5. Good Fortune Mystery Quilt -- The top of this quilt is now finished! Not sure when or how this will be quilted.

Tops partially finished:
6. April Showers C2C Bee Quilt -- January UFO project -- Final border fabric has arrived, border strips have been cut and are ready to sew!
7. Romantic Garden Quilt -- No progress
8. Monthly Wall Hangings -- No progress
9. Pineapple Stash Bee Blocks -- February UFO project -- Sashing fabric has arrived, not cut yet

Just blocks and units:
10. Sew Kitschy Blocks -- No progress
11. Cubicle Quilts -- No progress
12. Happy Houses blocks -- No progress
13. Birthstone blocks -- No progress
14. Radiant Jewel Quilt -- No progress

Quilt alongs and long term projects:
15. Monthly Island Batik Ambassador projects -- February was the kick-off of the new Ambassador year! I shared about my new Ambassador goody box (including fabric, batting, AND an Accuquilt machine!) and also shared about my Stars at Play mini quilt. The full Stars at Play pattern (including 3 quilt sizes!) is now available!

16. Daisy Chain Mystery Quilt -- The Daisy Chain QAL started in February and we've picked our fabrics and cut them up! On Monday, we'll start sewing the block units. If you haven't joined in yet, there's plenty of time to catch up!

New Projects:

17. Coast to Coast Bee 2019 -- In February, I also made my first block for and mailed off this year's edition of the C2C Bee! I am calling this "Roadtrip Americana" with my bright color scheme and my location-inspired XL blocks. I have received Stephanie's quilt and will be working on that this month.

My UFO for February was my Pineapple Quilt. I ordered fabric to finish this quilt top and my April Showers quilt top at the end of January. I didn't do anything beyond getting the fabric. (Apparently I'm not so good at working on UFOs!)

My UFO for March is my September monthly wall hanging, which is the last of the wall hangings that I have partially completed.

Don't forget to enter to win some FQs of Home Grown on this post!

If you or someone you love is interested in purchasing a quilt that you've seen on Little Bunny Quilts, please email me (littlebunnyquilts@gmail.com) because I am willing to part with many of the quilts I have made in the last two years. It is not cost-effective for me to list everything that I'm willing to sell on Etsy with their current listing fee structure. Click on the "Finished Quilts" tab above to see finished items.