This month the Island Batik Ambassadors are showing off the newest fabrics from Island batik and showing off our skills with paper piecing! There are many ways of using paper as a foundation for stitching! English paper piecing is one way, and foundation paper piecing is another. Usually, foundation paper piecing involves printing a pattern on your paper to follow for the sake of precision. I thought I would show another way to use foundation paper for quilting by doing some string quilting!
The collection I received was Park Avenue, Designed by Claudia Pfiel! It is a gorgeous collection with beautiful colors and designs!
Yummy! I always enjoy working with the collections that Claudia designs, they really are uniquely beautiful, and unusual. I played around with several ideas, and finally decided that a diamond quilt would really show off these fabrics. When I received the final shipment from Island Batik, it included a dark gray solid, which pairs really well with them, so used that for a center strip to make a nice lattice.
I divided the fabric into light and dark, planning on dividing my blocks to give my quilt some contrast.
Then, I started cutting it up into strips - as you can see, random is good for this technique! Some strips are wider than others, and the angles make the piecing more interesting!
I cut pages from a phone book I saved for this purpose. It's nice, thin paper and tears off easily! Here's a block in progress:
I chose a light gray
Auriful thread for my piecing. I like the 50 weight for piecing because it allows you to press your seams nice and flat. I save my previously used needles for when I want to do paper piecing. The
Schmetz Microtex needles stay nice and sharp through a lot of stitching! Size 12 is my favorite, and works well the tightly woven batik fabrics!
After you get your paper covered, you trim your block up. I used a wet erase pen to mark a diagonal line on the ruler so I could keep the center strip centered on my blocks.
Ooh fun! Laying out scrappy blocks can be a lot of fun! I always spend way too much time moving my blocks around! Don't these colors just glow? So pretty!
I decided to do s strippy border, so I mixed all my leftover strips up and started sewing them to some strips of paper.
Tearing the paper off has to happen at some point! I pulled the paper off the blocks before I sewed them together, and did the same with my border strips. It's a good activity to use when you are relaxing in front of the television in the evening!
I added an inner border of Ocean to separate the pieced center from the pieced border. Then I added a final border as well, which framed the center nicely.
The next step is deciding what color to quilt with! I thought I would like the blue, but the gray ended up being the perfect color! It looks good both on the light and dark fabrics. I like keeping my
Aurifil threads in these collection boxes. I have six different boxes that I store my threads in by color. I like it as much for quilting as I do for piecing!
I was excited that my quilt was the perfect size to try out the lap size
Tuscany cotton wool blend I received from Hobbs Batting! When I opened the bag, I knew I was going to love this batting, it is sooo soft! It is super lightweight, and has a very nice feel to it. It quilted up very nicely! I finished my quilt up with binding using the same Ocean fabric I used for the borders. I used light gray solid for the backing.
I got a wonderful morning to take this outside for a photo shoot! My stand only blew down once - haha!
I love this time of year! Other than the grass being brown and needing at trim, the yard looks so nice!
I'm so happy with this quilt that I decided that it might make a nice pattern, so I got that written up, too! String quilts are super easy to make and a great beginner project!
Deluxe Diamonds can be made in three sizes! This new pattern is on sale right now, so don't delay if you want to purchase it!
Aren't the colors gorgeous in this collection? Park Avenue will be shipping to shops near you very soon, so keep an eye out! You will probably want at least a few of these, if not all of them
I thought it would be fun to make some mug rugs out of my leftovers from this fabric - and I decided to use this one for a giveaway! You can enter using the Rafflecopter below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Want to see more projects with Park Avenue? Check out these Ambassador blogs:
Mania Hatziioannidi, Mania for Quilts
Leah Malasky, Quilted Delights
Would you like to win some beautiful fabric?
Island Batik is having a giveaway featuring the fabrics above - make sure you enter to win!
Thanks for joining us on this fun blog hop, which of the collections is your favorite?
24 comments:
Your quilt is gorgeous!!! I love the layout. So pretty!
wow your quilt is gorgeous. I think I will be making something with this pattern. Thanks for sharing and for inspiring. quilting dash lady at comcast dot net
What a gorgeous quilt! My next project is going to be a sampler from many block pattern I have that I haven't made yet.
I love the Park Avenue layout....beautiful.
Such pretty colors! I love the richness of batiks, the Park Avenue is my favorite. I really need to make one of those FPP quilts.
Beautiful quilt. I want to try making a carpenter's star quilt next.
Just curious as to when the Park Avenue Mug Rug contest is going to start.
I have used string piecing for part of a quilt, but not the whole quilt...your quilt turned out lovely!
I love the Park Avenue collection. Beautiful combination of colors.
Love it!! It's almost like you have two collections there, the way you separated the fabrics.
I love your quilt! It really is a gorgeous collection. I haven't made a string quilt, but really hope to someday. I have several patterns bookmarked for them.
I love your quilt, the fabrics worked very well. I have not completed any string blocks, but they always look so pretty when I see them. Perhaps it is time to give it a try.��
I've never made a string quilt. One of my quilting friends was suggesting that today! Love how your quilt turned out.
Gorgeous quilt Pamela! I really love the design you came up with. It made a Wonderful layout.
I have made several string quilts.I like making them because they are easy and fast and I can use my pieces that are leftover from other projects.
Yes, I’m still in the process of sewing my blocks. I am using my black and white, grey, and red strips. I love the color combination.
I love paper-piecing, and am currently working on some "Paw Patrol" pillows for my grandson. I finished one, but promised two more, so after our quilt show in a couple of weeks, I'll be back, hard at work, on his pillows!! Love the fabrics, and thanks so much for the chance to win some!!! Blessings!!
I love your quilt and Park Avenue is the perfect collection for it. My favourite string quilt pattern makes a triangle, which ends up being three dimensional cubes when the blocks are sewn together.
I make a lot of string quilts They are perfect for charity.
I have made small string quilts, i.e., mug rugs, placemats.
Gorgeous! I've been saving phone books for string piecing. I have a quilt started but have a long way to go.
I have started a sting quilt but have never finished it... it is in the UFO Pile!!!
cshelleyqbq ( at ) gmail ( dot ) com
Your quilt is beautiful! I have made some string blocks. Must finish some more to make enough for a quilt!
nikilsend(at)outlook(dot)com
Beautifully done! I’ve been making string blocks for donation quilts that are very scrappy, but I just might need to make one with chosen fabrics! Thanks, Pamela for sharing! I enjoy reading your blogs and doing the quilt alongs, as I feel it keeps me connected to my Coos Bay quilties!
Beautiful, Pamela. I've never tried string blocks with phone books. Of course, we don't get phone books like we used to! LOL
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