Sewing Stars and Sixteen Patches

I needed some mindless sewing to do the last few days, so I went to work on quilting the Lone Starburst quilt in a simple meander.  (The pattern for this quilt is in the book Jelly Roll Magic) I think it was the perfect choice, giving this quilt a nice texture and showcasing the lovely fabrics.  I'm hoping to be able to get some better pictures of it today between rain showers!  I think my days of outdoor photography will be in jeapardy, according to the weather forcast for the next week.

I also sewed up a bunch of sixteen patch blocks for my Island Batik Inspired by Nature project.  

I am having such fun with this project, but I've got two more weeks before my post is scheduled, so I'll have to be patient, and so will you!  Luckily there will be lots more fun Island Batik quilts to share with you!  

Yesterday the Bliss collection was the highlight, so you'll have to go visit Carla at Creatin' in the Sticks and Jennifer at The Inquiring Quilter to see their wonderful quilts!  

Today the featured collection is  Coco Cabana!  Can't wait to see what Carolina and Denise do!

 Have an inspired day!

Thread Painting with Aurifil - October Island Batik Ambassador Challenge

Are you ready to see my finished quilt for this month's Island Batik Ambassador Challenge?

Our goal this month was to celebrate aret and use the Aurifil thread we were provided as paint on the canvas of the Island Batik fabric.  I'm excited to share my vision and the results with you!  But first, I'll show you what I used to create my challenge quilt:

The stars of this quilt are the six beautiful colors of Aurifil Thread I received that match the glorious colors of Peacock Galore.  They are all 50 wt spools and the colors are: Eggplant (4225), Butter (2120), Medium Delft Blue (2783), Bright Orange  (1133), Light Jade (1148),and Spring Green (1231) What a beautiful palette of colors to work with!

The Peacock Galore Line was designed by Claudia Pfiel for Island Batik's Spring 2020 collection.  I love all the pretty greens and oranges in this line.  These shold be arriving in quilt shops right now, so keep your eye out for them, they are wonderful!

 Well, what else can you do with a fabric line called Peacock Galore except make a quilt inspired by a peacock?

Can't you just see all of the colors of thread that I have in this feather?  

I decided to make a blazing star using all 20 prints in the Peacock Galore Line!  I had a great time in EQ8 playing with color placement.  I finally settled on this version, placing the purple in the center and working out to the lime greens.  To come up with a 36 inch quilt, I needed to cut 1 3/4 inch strips.  So I proceeded to cut strips and start sewing strip sets.

So much pleasure in seeing the colors blend and contrast with each other!  Finally 8 wedges were put together!

And now it was time to sew the wedges together to make the star!

So pretty!  The next step was to decide for sure on the background.  I wasn't 100% positive that I wanted to use black, but once I tried stitching with the threads on it, I knew it was going to be just what I wanted for my thread painting.  I must confess that I was very nervous about this part of my project.  I honestly wasn't sure if I had the skill and patience to pull off the picture in my head.

I got my top basted, using the wonderful black batting provided in my July Ambassador box by Hobbs. (80/20 black batting is great for projects with dark colors!)  Then I quilted the star, doing a curvy echo around all the diamonds, and matching each fabric with the Aurifil thread color closest to it.

Before starting with my stitching I made sure to give my machine a cleaning and put in a brand new Schmetz needle!  The last one in this packet - I really like these Chrome needles, they seem to stay nice and sharp all through your project.  Schmetz provided these for us to use earlier in the year.

I  started out by thread painting the eyes in the peacock feathers, beginning with the dark blue center, then adding the various colors.  I love the way the 50 wt Aurifil thread shows up against the black solid Island Batik fabric!  I used a chalk pencil to trace a circle for the center.  I outlined it and worked my way stitching up and down into the center of the circle.  Then I added the lighter blue, stitching back and forth a few stitches at a time to add a ring around the center, Next was the purple, then the orange.  I went back and forth around the top of the circle, then up and down to elongate that ring at the bottom.  I found that it looked best when I just stitched up and down and didn't outline the shape.  Instead of using my hands to move the fabric up and down, I found that using my abs to rock my body and move the fabric helped me have more control!  It was a good workout, too!

The next step was adding yellow, then I added a final ring of green! And wouldn't you know it, on the final green ring, my machine decided to go a little wacky.  (Yep, I used this gorgeous purple on the back!  I think this one is Cherio in Iris from the Blenders collecion!)

I'm going to write another in depth post on how I resolved this issue, but yes- it was very frustrating!

I took a little liberty and made my plumules wavy instead of straight like an actual feather would be.  I used the Light Jade, Spring Green and Medium Delft Blue to try to capture that irridescent look of the color of the peacock feather.  I think it works!

I was really happy with how my quilt looked when I was finished quiting!  It really did come out just like I pictured, so I'm happy that I took a risk and tried something different.  I do wish I would have used my chalk pencil to mark out where I wanted to quilt the feathers because some of them ended up getting under the binding area, though.  For the binding I decided to go all out and use the Piping Hot Binding technique using the trim tool designed by Susan K Cleveland. I'm glad she has a YouTube video of how to do the binding because it's been a while!  

I used the darkest blue fabric from Peacock Galore along with solid turquoise for the small piping.  Here is my quilt all clipped up for hand stitching the back of the binding!

Once the binding was sewn, we went outdoors for a little photo shoot!  My quilt measures 36 x 36.  I love the way the thread painting I did adds to the effect of the piecing. It's always fun to try a new technique, and I'll definitely want to do some more playing with these vibrant colors on more projects.

What did I learn from this challenge?  Don't worry about making something perfect - just have fun trying!

Thanks to Island Batik, Aurifil Thread, Schmetz Needles, and Hobbs Batting for the products used in this project!

Project Quilting - Challenge 4 - Brighter the Better

I really enjoyed working on this challenge.  I've been setting aside Saturday afternoon to work on the Project Quilting challenges, and it's been nice working in a smaller format this year.  I thought it might be fun to do a blazing star quilt - something like a sunburst was my original intention.

I pulled some fabric (these are from a couple of Stash Builder rolls from Island Batik)

I really liked the blues and purples, and thought I would use the orange strip from the lower set to spice it up.  I decided it wasn't quite colorful enough, so exchanged the light purple for a bright yellow color.

I liked the way that looked, so cut my strip sets and got to work sewing.

As usual, I was so into the process I forgot to take any more pictures of my progress!  When I was done with the diamond units I decided to rotate every other one for a more interesting look.  Then I auditioned several background fabrics, and ended up with a dark navy with gorgeous swirls.  I thought it made my colors pop more.  Then I added a light green border and a blue with little flowers for the final border.  I quilted it with bright yellow thread for the fun of it!

 I love how the dark background really makes the colors pop!

 The backing was a nice print out of my stash.

 I used another bright blue for the binding

And, the center star came out just right!

This little quilt measures almost 20 inches square, and was made by me in Coos Bay Oregon.  Linking up on Project Quilting for week 4 - make sure you go see the other awesome entries!

Adding a Hanging Sleeve Under Your Quilt Binding

One of my favorite ways of adding a hanging sleeve to a quilt is to sew the top of it under the binding, making it a permanent part of the quilt. For this wall hanging I am using a 5 inch strip for the sleeve. For a larger quilt, or a competition quilt I would make it 8 1/2 inches.

I narrow hem the ends, then press the sleeve almost in half, leaving about 1/2 inch extra to build some slack into the sleeve so the quilt will hang better on the rod.

I then fold the sleeve raw edges together and baste to the back of the quilt with the short side facing the quilt. I will hand stitch the fold to the back of the quilt after binding.

 

 

I then stitch the binding on in the usual way - for me, that's machine stitched to the back, then top-stitched on the front.  This also works if you are machine stitching to the front, just be careful not to catch a fold of the sleeve in the process of machine stitching.  This is a nice, quick way to add a sleeve since you don't have to hand stitch it on both sides!

 

 

And here is the quilt that was being finished up!  This was supposed to be my entry for the second Project Quilting challenge this year.  I didn't get it done in time, but I did finally finish today - isn't it pretty?  Available in my Etsy Shop



Paper Piecing is Fun!

I've made great progress on the Hawaiin Star this week. I have all the lone star sections pieced and I'm halfway through the paper pieceing on the corner squares. The instructions for this pattern are terrific - and the fact that you actually only have to make 8 of each piece really makes it go by quickly without feeling tedious. I'm still loving it at this point and am thinking about how I want to quilt it!

I put the lone star sections on the floor to take a picture and the Miss Cat had to come and sit on the points to hold them down for me. Isn't that sweet of her? She is such a good helper, I don't know how in the world I would manage without her to sit on all of my projects! (Just kidding - she doesn't get to sit on all of my projects, just the ones she gets to before I catch her!)

Here it is with the corner sections laid out:

I'm hoping to finish the paper piecing on the corner squares by Thursday and start the curved piecing. With a lot of hard work I think I can get the border sections done next week, and hopefully spend the last week of May quilting it. Don't know how long Sharan will keep it at the shop, but when I get it back I plan on hanging it in my bedroom. I have learned so much about paper piecing, and actually even designing something for paper piecing, how to make it all go together logically.

1" Charm Squares

These are the 1" charm squared I did for the swap on Etsy. I had fun doing them, but the next set I am going to do a little bit differently. I want to do some with some machine work on them, and some piecing. These came out really cute, though. I especially like the ones with the fish beads on them, they are soo cute! They are one of those things that can take a lot of time if you really want to be elaborate, but you can do one fairly quickly if you keep it simple.

Red Ribbon for Nova Nouvelle

Another second place for Nova Nouvelle in Miniature. What did I learn with this quilt? Always make sure you trim your seam allowances. I was so excited, impatient to put this together that I didn't do that. I realized after quilting that the shadows showed through and it doesn't look as finished as it should. Hopefully I will not do another quilt with this problem, but I do get in a hurry. Even with this small defect, I love this quilt and think it is beautiful. I would like to do a similar style lone star in different colors. It's amazing the effect that the color wash has on the design.

I am really excited, nervous, almost nauseous today. I had a picture cd made, and filled out an application for the Pacific International Quiltfest. I hope Butterfly Pond makes it in! I feel scared because I really don't want to be rejected, but I'm nervous that it will be accepted and looked at up-close and personal by the judges! I am keeping myself busy so I don't think about it too much, but I'm sure my heart rate soars every time I go there. Well, it's out of my hands now. Wish me luck, please!