Coming back down to earth....

What a fabulous weekend we had at Spring International Quilt Market!  It was totally overwhelming, so many awesome vendors, classes, and people to meet.  My eyes, heart and brain are totally full, and though I want to blog about it all, right now I am out of words - the introvert in me needs to recoup from so much input!  

Here we are after closing the market down on friday evening - so much fun looking at all the fabrics and helping choose what we'll be stocking in the shop at Threads That Bind this fall!  Everyone loved how our outfits coordinated - it wasn't planned that way at all.  My top was made out of Island Batik Rayon (Iris Rayon) - it was so comfy to wear and I got compliments everywhere on it.  This piece was provided in my first Ambassador box this year, and I love it!

This is Jessica Caldwell of Desert Bloom Quilting!  She's a fellow Island Batik Ambassador and we were there taking our first class with Tammy Silver of Tamarini's - she is a designer with Island Batik.  I love her sweet Georgia accent!  She was teaching guided improv, which was quite fun.  This was a great way to start off because I already had a connection with these ladies which really helped settle my nerves.  Plus, Jessica and I had to wait for our friends to arrive so we got to sit and chat while we were waiting - I really enjoyed getting to know her better!

So, off we started down the aisles.  So much to look at!

Aren't those miniatures to die for?  It was hard to concentrate with all the quilts to look at, patterns to see, notions to consider.  I was there with my quilt shop, so I had to make sure I was keeping an eye out for things for the shop, but oh my - the inspiration for quilting designs, colors and displays.  Plus people to meet and chat with!

Finally we got the Island Batik booth!  It was so exciting to see my Bloom table runner hanging in the British Rose grouping!  Doesn't my top look nice with this collection?

And I was super elated to see Fancy Feathers hanging so visibly!  This collection is Eclectic Garden - it is a gorgeous line of fabric - I really loved working with it.  The pattern for Fancy Feathers will be available soon, don't worry I will let you know when it's ready to purchase!

Another highlight was visiting the Suzybee Quilting booth!  The Quiltsy Team just finished a challenge with one of her fabrics, and we'll be asking you to help us choose a favorite, so I'll be posting more about that tomorrow.

Goodbye, Quilt Market!  It was so much fun - I was exhausted, inspired and totally overwhelmed by it all!  I have lots of products and things to share, but for now I have a ton of stuff in real life to catch up on...still have some wedding gowns and alterations to finish up, and a quilt that needs to be finished for Fall Market - yep, no rest for a quilt designer, it's from one project to the next!  

I'll be back with more tales from Quilt Market, plus lots more pictures of the Island Batik booth.  Have a wonderful day - go do some quilting!

Adventurous Applique - Bloom Table Runner

Whew, another busy month, but I got my Island Batik Ambassador Challenge done this month!  As usual, I used the fabrics supplied to me as an Ambassador, as well as a spool of Superior Threads that I received.  In addition, I was provided a sample of Marti's Choice Fusible Tape by Marty Michell.  I love trying new things, and I like sharing them with my readers as well - my opinions are my honest assessment of these products.

I don't do a lot of applique, so this challenge definitely was out of my box.  It's not that applique is difficult or that I don't feel comfortable doing it, I just like piecing best.  I had a hard time coming up with a plan, mostly because this month was so very busy, but once I got my fabric out and started playing, low and behold, the perfect idea came up!  I felt very adventurous and it was really fun to do something different than the usual pieced project.

I thought I would make something with the Stamps (Dotalicious Wind), so started out by sewing them together to make the base of my table runner.  After that, I thought about what I would like to applique.  Flowers, of course came to mind, and I found this pretty floral in EQ7.  At this point I decided that a word would be a fun touch, and what better word for this time of year than Bloom?

A little work in EQ7 and I had templates ready and started to get to work creating my table runner.  I reversed my letters and traced them on the fusible web, then picked out the fabrics for the applique.
The blue was absolutely perfect - bright enough to stand out and my favorite sky blue color!  This is from the Island Batik blender collection.  The pinks were left from my Galentine's day project - just right for my flowers!

After getting the letters fused down, I added the flowers and finished getting my top ready.  I decided to be even more adventurous and try out Marti's Fabulous Edge Finish.  I did try this out first on a couple of smaller projects, and really liked it, so felt ready to try it on a larger project.  I really do like how the Fusible tape holds the batting in place, and the idea of turning the project through a seam in the backing is super clever!  It really makes for a crisp and even finish all the way around the edge of the quilt.  I had to be very careful because this quilt is a bit bigger than my cutting table, so I could only do one section at a time, but with careful pinning and sewing I got the edges all sewn - then was ready to turn it right side out!

Finally ready for some quilting!  I pulled some pink Sew Fine thread out of my stash (from my local quilt shop).  I decided to use a size 11 needle and happily stitched until the next to last flower section.  Suddenly my machine started making some really strange noises in the bobbin area!  Somehow the thread caught up and snagged somewhere down there and caused a mess.  I cleaned up the excess thread and started stitching again, but was having a horrible time with it skipping stitches.  

I managed to finish up the flowers, and changed my thread to a pretty blue Masterpiece by Superior Threads - this one was part of my Ambassador Box goodies.  My machine was not sewing right at all!  I cleaned out the bobbin area, finding a long piece of black thread lurking in the bobbin, but still was having problems.  I took off the throat plate and did some more cleaning out, and oiled everything.  Still no help.  It occurred to me that maybe there was a problem with the needle because I felt like the fabric was pulling to the right with every stitch.  I took out the needle and compared it to a new one:

If you look at the shadow, you can see that the needle in the back is just ever so slightly bent!  After putting in the new needle I was back in the groove and finished the quilting without a hitch - whew.  This adventure was one I really didn't want to go on and I was so glad that the solution was so simple!

And look at the cute measuring cups I won at Bunco - don't they go perfectly with the runner?  So cute!

I liked the runner so much that I decided to write it up into a pattern - it's available in my Etsy Shop:

Bloom Table Runner

Have you done anything out of your "box" lately?  Maybe it's time to be a little adventurous!  Here are the other Ambassador's blogs - see what they came up with as well!

Purrfect Spots 
Den Syende Himmel
Quilt'n Party
Pamela Quilts (Me!)
Ark Angel Creations
Kathy's Kwilts and More
Desert Bloom Quilting
Freemotion by the River
Seams Like a Dream
Yellow Cat Quilt Designs
Quilting Affection Designs
Inquiring Quilter
Bejeweled Quilts
Sally's Quilting Corner
Inch Worm Fabrics
Kauffman Designs
Moosestash Quilting
Needle & Foot
Beaquilter
Cheryl Lynch Quilts
MaryMack's Blog
heARTs Creations
Kissed Quilts
The Quilt Rambler
Seams To Be Sew
Inspired Layers
Vicki's Crafts and Quilting
Masterpiece Quilting
Fun Threads
Meanderings Along Lizard Creek
Little Bunny Quilts
Webster Quilt
Sophie Junction