Kissin' in the Pumpkin Patch

I am delighted to say that I have finally finished the top that I made for the Island Batik Ambassador challenge in October!  The fabric is Pumpkin Patch and I used this as an opportunity to spruce up my Lover's Kiss pattern.  (The fabric for the top was provided by Island Batik in my Fall 2017 Ambassador box )

My original version of this pattern only used twenty one 2 1/2 inch strips and had a plain border.  Now, I have included a piano key border option that uses the remaining strips - a much better use of a strip pack!  You can also make this pattern using fat quarters, because I just love a pattern that gives you options.

I found a rich brown for the backing, and quilted it with leaves and loops using Aurifil 40 wt thread in a lovely reddish brown color that looks wonderful on both the front and the back.  I really like the 40 weight for quilting - it gives the quilting a nice definition without being too heavy.

I love the beautiful colors in this line, and the focus fabric is so lovely with such pretty details.  This is a perfect quilt for fall!

The piano key border is really wonderful, I think - and I love that I could use every last strip in the package.  This quilt is now available for purchase in my Etsy Shop, and my pattern is available there as well!  The cover now features Salt and Pepper by Island Batik.

Pumpkin Patch Quilt

Lover's Kiss Pattern

I'm happy to see that the enormous piles in my sewing room are slowly being whittled down!  Still have a lot of projects in the works, but they are starting to get cleared off the list, one by one.

Hope you have a happy day - go do some quilting!

Pumpkinfest with Island Batik!

Welcome to another fun challenge from Island Batik!  I love fall, so it was really a pleasant task to create a quilt inspired by the lovely browns and oranges I received in my bundle.  I wasn't inspired to make a project with a pumpkin, but I was inspired by a kaleidoscope quilt I saw.  I haven't made one since I was a very new quilter.  The first one I made was used to cover a window in our house.  I made it using templates - I didn't own a rotary cutter yet, so cut out each piece individually with scissors!  I can't find a picture of it, but it had the dusty pinks and blues that were popular in the 80's.  I was very intrigued by the illusion of curves in a quilt made with all geometric pieces and have always thought I would like to make another one someday.

For this quilt, instead of using templates and a pencil to mark my pieces I used my rotary cutter and rulers to make fast work of this part of the process.  I used the Triangler ruler by Anka's Treasures to cut out the triangles, and calculated the corner pieces.  I had an enjoyable afternoon putting pieces on my design wall and rearranging them until I cam up with an arrangement that I liked.

Isn't it pretty?  So the next step was sewing.  The center block was super simple, but the rest of the blocks got a little challenging for me, and I used my seam ripper several times when I realized I had sewn the wrong set of triangles together!

I used my mini design board to make one block at a time.  This is one of the corner blocks.

After sewing the triangles into pairs, I would then sew pairs into half block units.  This would be where I would get into trouble every time.  I would somehow sew the pairs backwards and not notice until the whole block was together!  This one I got right, though!

Then the two halves get put together.  Watch those seams in the center - if you sew accurately they come out looking good!

 Here are the nine blocks sewn and ready to be assembled.  I figured out my borders, then added the first round.  I ended up with a point that was cut off pretty badly.  I'm not too much of a  perfectionist about this, a few threads off isn't bad, but this one was definitely off!

I took out my stitching for a couple inches before and after the point and adjusted my stitching line on the point so it looks a lot better now:

Still slightly off, but within my tolerance level!  (See the pretty prints!  I loved working with these!)

I finished sewing the second border on and called it done:

Pretty!  I am calling this quilt Autumn glow.

I quilted it with three lines 1/4 inch apart around all the circles I could see.  I added some angled lines in the same way in the outer border and bound it with the bright orange to finish it off:

This beautiful wall hanging is available in my Etsy shop:  Autumn Glow Wall hanging.  As much as I love it, I have an abundance of fall quilts!  I am inspired to do more playing with kaleidoscope designs after making this, it's sure a lot easier with today's tools!  Thanks to Island Batik for providing the lovely fabrics for this challenge, and the inspiration  Several of them look like they are from the Dotalicious line - fun prints that work for a variety of projects.  Make sure you keep a look out for these at your local quilt shop!