Monday, August 01, 2022

July Island Batik Ambassador Challenge - Christmas in July with Accuquilt

 Life has been a little crazy lately so I'm a bit late with my July Challenge!  Island Batik and Accuquilt challenged us to add some joy to someone's life using the new Tree of Life BOB die, and I was sure excited to try it out!  This block has been on my list for years, so I was happy to get to use it!  For this project I've used fabric and notions supplied in the Ambassador boxes I have received from Island Batik.


I decided to make my project for my Secret Sister at church!  At sometime in the past I had seen a neat tree of life made with one red square, so that's what I decided to make.  I pulled four green strips from a Stashbuilder roll in my Island Batik Stash, and used the bronze basic from my foundation bundle.  I made the background solid white.  

It was very simple to follow the cutting instructions and it took just a bit of cranking to cut out all the triangles, rectangles and a very odd polygon shape that you could never rotary cut!  Just one pass through the cutter and you have all the pieces for the block - very nice!

I was so excited to make the block that I just started sewing and forgot to take any pictures!  Here is my finished block.  I wasn't really happy with the placement of that red triangle, so I ended up taking it out and replacing it with a white triangle.  I might try this again another time and be more careful to plan out where it ends up in my design. For my piecing I used Aurfil thread in a pale green.  I almost always use their 50 weight thread for pieceing, and combined with a size 10 Schmetz needle (Professional Chrome) you get a very nice accurate 1/4 inch seam which combines perfectly with the accurately cut pieces from the Go cutter to make an absolutely perfect block with lots of beautiful points!


Since my Secret Sister likes aqua and purple, I chose my setting triangles and borders to complement those colors.  For the backing I found a gorgeous purple and aqua blend - I had to do some creative piecing to make it work, but I think it's perfect for this quilt!  I added a hanging sleeve, plus a label with Psalm 1:3 on it: 


For the quilting I used some of the Hobbs fusible batting I had left from my first box - since my backing was not much bigger than the top, I wanted to be sure that nothing shifted and I love the way the fusible keeps everything in place! I used very light delft blue Aurifil 50 weight (from the Como Blue Color Builder set) for the swirl quilting - it's such a pretty color and I've used several spools of this one!  I changed my needle to a Schmetz size 12 quilting needle and had no problem with skipping or shredding!  That sure made the quilting go quickly!


It turned out very pretty!  I really enjoyed making this, and hope it was enjoyed by the recipient. I wasn't able to be at our get together to present it in person, so I don't have a picture, but I really hope that she gets a lot of encouragement from this gift! 

Thanks to Accuquilt for the great die - I really want to make more of these blocks, I've seen some great scrappy versions of the Tree of Life that I would love to make!  (Of course with Island Batik scraps!)

I also enjoyed using Aurifil thread, Schmetz Needles and Hobbs Batting for this project!   








 #accuquiltchristmasinjuly


3 comments:

Brenda @ Songbird Designs said...

Very pretty, Pamela. I love how the blues and greens play so well together!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas said...

It's so pretty! I love the colors you used for this quilt. Have a great day!

Anonymous said...

I ordered a pattern that I thought I would receive in the mail. It says to download it and I can’t do that. I’ve tried logging into Etsy but wasn’t able to.
Could you please send me the pattern? Thank you. You
This is Carolyn Allred
Vista50@q.com