Log Cabin Challenge - Island Batik Ambassador Challenge with Primo by Ebony Love

Finally!  I am so excited to share what I made for the Island Batik Ambassador Log Cabin Blog Hop.  It's been so much fun to see all of the beautiful projects made with the fabulous Fall lines from Island Batik!  Each of us ambassadors was given a generous bundle of fabric for this challenge and asked to create a log cabin quilt using as many of the fabrics as we could.

The line I had to use was Primo, by Ebony Love of Lovebug Studios!  It's a fun collection, with lots of lovely color and different patterns.  I found the perfect project in a new book I happened to buy last year:  Cabin Fever: 20 Modern Log Cabin Quilts.

The project I chose to work on used 2 1/2 inch strips!  Bingo - there's a die for that, so I got to put that Accuquilt Go cutter to work along with the die that cuts three 2 1/2 inch strips in one pass.  I cut three strips from each fabric - 25 in all.  It didn't take long at all - I love it when I can use the Go! cutter to make my work easier!  Then I cut strips from the solid white batik as well. Now it was on to to work sewing up all my blocks, making two quarter square log cabin blocks using each fabric.  They were all just so pretty, and really fast to sew.

So it was about at this point that I realized I was going to end up with a quilt that would finish around 84 x 84 if I used all the blocks I had made.  What to do?  I could make a smaller quilt plus a baby size quilt.  Or I could make two quilts that would each finish at 60 x 60 - which ended up being my decision.  This way I could use the lighter colored blocks in one quilt, and the darker colors in the second.

And that's how I ended up making two quilts for this challenge!  I think it was a great decision - I was able to use all the fabrics, and I didn't have to make a giant quilt.  They are both quilted with a swirl design using 50 wt Aurifil white thread.  One large spool did all the piecing and the quilting!  (Did you know that the Fat Quarter Shop is hosting a Sew Down challenge with Aurifil thread?  Fun!)

One is backed with the solid gray Island Batik fabric.  Love it!

The light quilt is backed with a large piece of the Primo yardage I received, plus leftover pieces from the rest of the Primo fabric left from making the blocks. The binding on this one is the same light coral, I just love the diagonal print on this!  I used the same batting for both quilts - Hobbs Heirloom Premium Cotton batting.  This batting is just so soft and has the perfect amount of loft to feel so cozy - it's like a cloud in the quilt!  This is great batting for free motion quilting on your domestic machine.

The binding on the darker quilt is the navy print with red triangles.  It really frames this quilt perfectly!

Aren't these colors amazing?  I love how the white makes them really pop!  I tried something new on the quilting.  I used one of the Chrome needles provided by Schmetz.  It was awesome!  I used the size 12 and it went through two quilts and didn't show any signs of dulling.  Sometimes when you are quilting batiks, there's a lot of popping as the needle dulls, but I didn't notice any with the Chrome needle - I'm impressed!

I did break out the light pink thread in the Sardinia Pink Color Builder box to top-stitch the binding on - it blended nicely and looked great.

Hopefully you like these fabrics as much as I did, because I am going to give away a mini roll of the leftover fabric from cutting the strips!  There are two 13 inch strips of most of the fabrics - a couple of them have shorter pieces because...oops, I miscut a few pieces.  It happens, and luckily I was able to use the leftover bits to make the corrected cuts so there are a few shorter pieces.

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Make sure you visit the other two bloggers that are featuring Primo today - I can't wait to see what Maryellen and Jennifer made, it's absolutely amazing how different all the quilts have been during this hop!

Wednesday, February 26

Pamela Boatright 

Maryellen McAuliffe

Jennifer Strauser 

If you haven't done so already - here's one more chance to enter the Island Batik giveaway for precuts from the Sunset Blooms collection by Kathy Engle for Chris Hoover of Whirligig Designs.

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Thanks for joining us on this blog hop!  And thanks to all of our wonderful sponsors: