A little Winter Mini Madness! December Island Batik Ambassador Challenge

 I decided that today would be the perfect day to post my December Island Batik Ambassador challenge because it is the Winter Solstice.  I'm excited that even though it's the start of winter, that the days will be getting longer from here on out.  This year has been a trying one, and I was thinking that a little Mini Madness might be the solution - so I created this Winter Mini Medallion quilt using the fat quarter bundle of Glacier View that I received in my Ambassador box this summer.  I love these beautiful blues and thought they would be perfect for a winter quilt!

The theme for this challenge was to create a quilt 36 x 36 or larger:

A medallion quilt is all about a center block and borders. Use what you learned from your research in the Creative Borders and Bindings Challenge to help you create your masterpiece! Your center medallion block can be anything, appliqué, paper pieced, traditionally pieced, improv or any other idea you come up with.

 

I started out playing with design ideas earlier this summer, using EQ8 to come up with various ideas.  After a lot of playing around I came up with the start of a plan:

So fun!  But so many blocks!  And that cute shoo fly border is made up of 2 inch blocks, which is not going to happen.  But it's a beginning, and I really like the dresden plate center, so it was a good start! 

I love the fabric with the trees!  It made a nice center for my dresden plate block  - perfect for fussy cutting.  Back to the drawing board.  My next draft seemed a little more do-able.

Until I got to the third border, that is.  That's the point where I realized that the fabric I wanted to use as the dark part of the stars was not going to stretch near far enough!  Back to EQ8 to decide what to do next.

Maybe just use the blocks in the corners?  At this point I was a bit tired of making those ribbon star blocks and put them up on the design wall to decide if there was another way.

I kind of liked the idea of alternating the blocks with white space, so decided on that for my final design!

From here it was just a matter of making a few more ribbon stars, then sewing them together, and  getting the final border going.

Yes, this looks good to me!  I love it!  I actually made another design switch here to better show off those penquins in the outer blocks.  I originally had a more complicated version of the Economy Block, but changed so that the center square was larger to give them more space.

I decided to use the Fusible Cotton batting from Hobbs again - I just love not needing to baste my quilt!  This batting is definitely up there on my favorites list now!

 I had a perfectly sized piece left from my November project, so was quickly on my way to getting the quilting started.  With a Schmetz needle and Aurifil thread loaded, I was ready to tackle getting this project finished.  My cone of white Aurifil thread is sure getting a workout this month, this is the third blue and white quilt I've made this month!

I kept my quiting simple, lots of curvy designs to soften all the straight piecing.  It sure is a pretty little quilt!  I quilted the last border in diamonds using a ruler foot and straight ruler.  I'm getting better at using these tools, and am finding myself much more comfortable with practice.  

After Christmas it will be lovely on this table!   This quilt will end up being washed, so I'm interested in seeing how the batting looks after that, I'll be sure to remember to updat you when that happens.

I think Scamper approves!  He takes advantage of this spot to look out the front window and supervise who comes in and out of the front door, so is the reason I'll be washing it!

Would you like to join me in my Winter Mini Madness?  I've written up the instructions for making this quilt and am happy to make it available as a pattern.  I had hopes of doing this as a Quilt Along this month, but things were just too crazy for that so this is the next best thing.  If you loved doing the June Mini Madness quilt, I think you will love this one, too.  If it helps with your winter madness I am happy - it helped with mine!

Winter Mini Medallion Pattern

Thanks to Island Batik for a wonderful year as an Island Batik Ambassador!  Thank you for all the wonderful fabric and the great group of Ambassadors that have inspired and encouraged me!  I'll post a review of all my 2020 projects next week - it's been quite a year.

Make sure to visit the rest of the Island Batik Ambassadors this month and see what they make for this challenge!

Designing a Medallion Style quilt in EQ7

I can't believe it is the 10th of July already, this summer is just zooming past.  This month Island Batik is partnering in the 25th anniversary of Electric Quilt - they will be giving out a copy of the EQ7 software, so make sure you enter for a chance to win that, as well as entering on the Electric Quilt website for a bundle of Island Batik fabric!

I thought I would share some tips for designing a medallion style quilt this month (my Christmas In July challenge for Island Batik is a medallion quilt).  EQ7 has a variety of border styles that make this a fun and creative process.

First you need to start out with your quilt layout.  I just wanted one 12 inch block as my center, so after adding a few choices into my sketchbook I started a new quilt, using a horizontal layout.  I then clicked the first tab (layout) and after selecting 1 block horizontal and vertical set my block size at 12 inches.

 Next step is to go to the second tab (borders) and start selecting your borders.  Your layout will probably start with one border already present.  

As you can see, there are quite a few border styles to choose from.  It's a lot of fun to click on each one to see what happens.  There are additional options for the different border styles as well, you can usually adjust the number of units in the border, and the width of your border.

To see how the block will look with your center block you click the Layer 1 tab.  Color the border just as you would a block.  If you use the control key you can color all the units on each side at once - that makes it quick and easy.

I used this as my second border because I liked the way it reflected the triangles in the block.  Now you can go back to the border tab and add another border by just clicking add.  I wanted to make this border a plain border with corner blocks and knew that I would have to cut the strips at 3 inches, so selected a 2.5 inch border with cornerstones - simple and easy!

The next border I wanted to add would be a pieced border.  I chose Big and Little Points out for this one, but once it was colored decided that I wanted this border to be the final one and wanted to add an accent border inside of it.

So I went back to the borders tab, clicked insert and added my border:

I was happy with this layout, and after a bit of trial and error in adjusting to the sizes I was able to get that last border to have pieces that were square and easy to rotary cut and sew.  I'm not going to go through all of that right now, but I worked it out by selecting the border pieces after I colored them and using the print menu to see what the rotary cutting measurements were.  I found that by making the accent border 3/4 of an inch and the outer border 3.75 inches that the angles and measurements worked out perfectly.  If you can't adjust your measurements to work like this, you can also use the print menu to print out templates and cut your pieces that way as well.

And here is my finished design!  You'll have to wait to see the actual quilt until later this week, I have to finish sewing it.

I hope you've enjoyed this overview of how to add borders to make a medallion quilt on EQ7.  I love all the possibilities of working with the different border options.  You can also add blocks to the borders - which make the options infinite, as well as super challenging to sew!  Here is a fun design I came up using the same borders, but a different block in the center, and playing with setting blocks in the border patches:

I could go on playing with this for hours!

For more ideas about using EQ7 make sure you check out Quilt Shop Gal's Blog - she has been linking up several bloggers on the 10th of each month as we celebrate Electric Quilt's 25th anniversary - and make sure you use the #EQ25 on social media - I was a winner for their May social media giveaway!