December's Island Batik Ambassador challenge is completely up to us! I've been planning my project for this challenge since I started it in June, but getting it done in time came down to the wire! I visited my dad in early June for his birthday. He's had some health problems over the past year and is mostly sleeping in his guest room, as the twin bed in that room is easier to get in and out of. While I was there, he asked if I could make him a quilt for that twin bed. I had already been thinking that I should do exactly that, so I said I was already planning to, and would hope to gift if for Christmas. At the time I didn't know it, but we're actually going to see him (and my brother and his wife & daughter) over the holidays! So I'll get to gift it in person.
My dad is a big hiker and loves trees; he taught me to identify trees by their leaves when I was really young. Two years ago, I was given the Tree of Life die by Accuquilt. I reconfigured the layout of the tree a little bit, but I cut it all with the die. Each tree has 38 half-square triangles and there are 18 tree blocks, so that's 684 HSTs! Luckily they were cut with the Accuquilt! That also means there were no dog ears to trim.
When I decided to make the trees, I envisioned the trees going from light green to dark. I used fabrics from Island Batik's always-available basics line, mostly from Glorious Greens. The greens in the trees, from top to bottom, are: Honeydew, Pistachio, Lemongrass, Ivy, Frog, Grass, and Pinecone. The background is Beige. Of the greens from the trees, I chose Grass for the binding.
Items used in this project were provided to me by Island Batik, Schmetz, Aurifil, and Accuquilt.
I did all the piecing with Schmetz needles and Aurifil thread color #2000 Light Sand. I really dislike quilting large quilts and I wasn't sure I could do the quilt justice, so I decided to take this to a longarmer. That's only something I've done a few times before, and I didn't really have a longarmer in mind. I did a google search for longarmers in my area and chose Stitch Lab Quilting. It turns out Sara is in my quilt guild (this guild still doesn't meet in person) and lives only about 20 minutes from me! We chose a Beech Leaves panto that looks absolutely stunning!!!! I will take Sara future quilts for sure!
I knew I was cutting it close to Christmas. I got the quilt back on Saturday (12-21) and finished binding it about an hour before I sat down to write this post! I'll take it in my carry-on for the plane so it won't get lost, and I'm so excited to gift it to my dad!
This marks the last Island Batik Challenge of 2024 and concludes my 6th year as an Island Batik Ambassador! I am grateful to Island Batik for the opportunity to work with their beautiful fabrics!
Welcome to my stop on the Butterfly Haven blog hop tour! I was so thrilled when Jennifer Thomas of Curlicue Creations asked me to make one of my designs in her beautiful signature fabric line! Butterfly Haven is a mix of dark greens, purples, and mauve-y pink with patterns of butterflies and leaves.
I decided to use a new design that plays with classic Ohio Star blocks. I call it Churning Stars because I like the movement.
I used 8 fabrics from Butterfly Haven in this quilt. There are three beautiful purples, the darkest pink in the line, two lighter fabrics with butterflies and leaves, and both a darker and lighter green. I think my favorite in the line is this medium green with butterflies.
I combined the Butterfly Haven fabrics with three fabrics from Island Batik's always-available Basics collection: the background is Almond, there is Pearl in the pink Ohio Star blocks and Celery in the purple/green Ohio Star blocks.
Today starts a new blog hop celebrating Butterfly Haven. Butterfly Haven is an Island Batik fabric collection designed by Jerry Khiev for Jennifer Thomas of Curlicue Creations. I've known Jennifer online for years and was excited to get to meet her in February at QuiltCon. We're currently the two Island Batik Ambassadors from North Carolina, so we have a few things in common😄
When Jennifer asked me if I was interested in participating in her blog hop to celebrate Butterfly Have, I enthusiastically said yes! Butterfly Haven is a mix of dark greens, purples, and mauve-y pink with patterns of butterflies and leaves.
Come back on Thursday to see what I made with these beautiful fabrics! In the mean time, be sure to check out all the designers showing off their patterns made with Butterfly Haven fabrics!
Welcome to my stop on Island Batik's Dresden Plate blog hop. I was sent the Turtle Cove collection, designed by Kathy Engle as a signature collection for Kari Nichols of Quilting Renditions. I was tasked with using Turtle Cove and Dresden Plate to make a quilt lap size or larger. Except the more I thought about it, the more I didn't want to make a quilt!
We all know that Quilt Coats have been quite the rage for several years now. I've been interested, but garment sewing and quilting are very different skills and I've always been nervous about messing up a quilt coat. I talked to someone at QuiltCon in February about her quilt coat; she said the Hovea quilt pattern was constructed a lot like a quilt. So, knowing I had the lovely blues and greens of Turtle Cove to work with, I decided to take the plunge!
My first task was to figure out a layout that would get me several Dresdens on the back of the coat. I played around with several layouts in EQ8 and finally decided that I liked full Dresdens flanked by half Dresdens. I also liked the idea of dividing these by color. I already owned a Dresden ruler by Darlene Zimmerman. What I like about this ruler is that I can use it to make a wide variety of sizes. I experimented and found that cutting 2 1/2" strips would get me a a finished Dresden that would allow three Dresdens down the back of the coat.
You may have guessed that the Turtle Cove collection features several fabrics with turtles. I fussy cut a few turtles to go in the center of my Dresden Plates. I sewed my Dresden blades with a small zigzag using Aurifil invisible thread. For the center, I wanted more of a visible line of stitching so I used a satin stitch with color 2784 Dark Navy. I did the same thing with the green half Dresdens, using invisible thread for the blades and Dark Navy for the center. I find Elmer's disappearing glue sticks to be really useful in many sewing projects. I used them to secure the Dresden blades and centers down until I could stitch them down. It dries quickly and there is no stickiness -- my Schmetz Needles had no difficulty with any of the stitching.
Items used in this project were provided to me by Island Batik, Hobbs, Schmetz, Aurifil, and Oliso.
One of the features that I love about the Hovea jacket is that it has HUGE pockets. I knew those pockets were another great place to use Dresden Plate blocks. Because the pockets are so large, I could use much bigger Dresdens than what's on the back. I cut 5 1/2" strips for the pocket Dresden Plates and fussy-cut more turtles for the centers. I have to say, those big Dresden Plates are my favorite part of the coat!
When I finished the coat and put it on, my son (age 11) said, "Those pockets are so big! You could have another baby and carry it in your pocket like a kangaroo!" He's not wrong! We decided a stuffed animal was a better plan, though.
We didn't have a kangaroo, but a sloth in the pocket is good too!
I used 17 of the fabrics from Turtle Cove in this jacket, plus the neutral Rice from Island Batik's Basics collection. The lining fabric is from the collection. I wanted to pre-wash my sections before cutting so that any shrinkage would happen before the jacket was assembled. I created quilt sandwiches for each area, layering my top with Hobbs Wool batting, and quilted each section with a 2" cross-hatch using Aurifil #2710 Light Robins Egg. The light blue of the thread blends beautifully on the slightly blue-tinged Rice fabric. Then I washed my sections, pressed them with my Oliso iron, and was ready to cut my pieces.
The pattern I used is the Hovea Curve Jacket by Megan Nielsen patterns. (Note that there are two Hovea patterns: the standard pattern for sizes 0-20 and the Curve pattern for sizes 14-34.) The Hovea jacket has a lot of options: there are 3 different lengths, and you can make it as a quilted jacket or lined or unlined coat with a collar band. There are also ties or a belt. I chose the middle length, quilted, and no ties or belt. It's a pdf pattern with lots of way to print, including ready for a large format printer. I have access to a large format printer at work, so this saved me the work of taping a whole lot of pieces of paper together. It's not a lot of pieces and it goes together fairly straightforward. It took me a bit to understand how the binding was supposed to be ironed/folded, but I understood eventually and it wasn't hard to do. As a garment, I was happy with the assembly process.
Except. It's hard to get a fit right, especially if you aren't a garment sewer and don't know how to make changes. I am a busty woman. I looked at the measurement chart and chose the size that correlates to my bust measurement, but that meant being 2 sizes above the size that correlates to the rest of my measurements. So when I first put it together, there was a ton of extra fabric in the arm area, so that it was super boxy and looked awful. I knew I needed to take out fabric in the sleeves, but I didn't know how to do that and still have the sleeves fit the armholes. I ended up taking it to an alternations person. She was able to take some of the extra out, though it is still unnecessarily boxy in the top. It's supposed to be drop shoulder, but mine is really low on the shoulder (and was even lower before the alterations were done.) I was excited about making more quilt coats but unless I can find someone who can help me create a version of the pattern for my body, I won't repeat this. And I think I'll have the same problem with other quilt coat patterns. So while I'm satisfied with this coat and will wear it, I wish I could make one that fits better.
But for a first attempt a fully sewn-by-me garment, it's great! I'm really happy with how the pattern shows off the Dresden plate blocks on the back and the big Dresden plates on the pockets.
To showcase their newest fabric collections, Island Batik is hosting a blog hop over most of the month of December showcasing the new fabric and the classic Dresden Plate block. Each Island Batik Ambassador was sent one of the new collections and was tasked with creating a Dresden Plate quilt. The first two weeks of the hope have already passed and there have been some amazing creations!
I was sent Turtle Cove, a beautiful water-inspired collection of blues and greens with hints of turquoise. Turtle Cove was designed by Kathy Engle as a signature collection for Kari Nichols of Quilting Renditions. I was so excited to get this collection, and I'm even more excited about what I made with it! But you'll have to wait for that; my day on the hop is this Thursday, November 21st.
Several of the Ambassadors have noted that their quilt for this challenge is their first Dresden Plate quilt. That got me thinking about the previous Dresden-inspired quilts I've made, and there are three! And all of them are projects I made as previous Island Batik challenges. The first was four years ago, Dresden's Butterfly Garden for the Inspired By Nature blog hop in November 2020. I played with making butterflies using blades from the Dresden plate, and I added whole Dresdens as flowers.
photo by K. Mellnik
My second Dresden-based project was in July of 2021, when I made a fun turkey to hang on my door for the Never Too Early holiday-themed challenge. This was a pattern from Vicki who blogs at Vicki's Crafts & Quilting, and you can still get the pattern in her etsy shop. Her pattern is for a table runner but I just wanted the one turkey. It being the right time of year, I have this hanging on my front door now!
Looking for more lovely Dresden Plate quilts? Check out all of the Island Batik Ambassadors and their Dresden Plate blog hop projects, and then come back on Thursday to see mine!
This month's Island Batik challenge is my favorite annual challenge: a bag made with a pattern By Annie. We got to pick out a By Annie pattern as well as fabrics of our choice from the most recent batch of Island Batik collections. I've loved By Annie patterns since my first bag, made for a 2020 Island Batik challenge. Since then, I've made a whole lot of By Annie patterns and I love them all! I chose Totally Trendy Totes II for this year's challenge. This is one of Annie's older patterns, so I had to get permission from Annie herself to make this one for my Island Batik challenge.
I made a video showing off the totes and walking through some of the things I did a little differently, as well as showing the features of the tote.
Totally Trendy Totes has directions for totes in three sizes. The smallest is actually called Medium, and then there is Large and Extra Large. I was sent all the supplies needed to make the bags. If we were making more than one bag, we were encouraged to use multiple fabric collections. I picked out fabrics from Flower Pot for two of the bags and Daisy May for the third bag. I picked out Flower Pot fabrics before Jennifer Fulton asked me to participate in the blog hop for her signature line, so I got an extra dose of these beautiful fabrics!
My original plan was to make one bag in each of the three sizes. I made the medium first, which feels like a pretty standard tote bag size. Then I made the large in the blue and pink Flower Pot fabrics. It felt huge! I didn't think I'd use a bag bigger than the large. I even had an impromptu family meeting and we decided that the large was plenty big for us, that we wouldn't use something bigger, and that the extra large would probably be too heavy to carry if we filled it. So instead of making an extra large with my Daisy May fabrics, I made a second large. I'm very happy with all of them!
What they look like full. They hold a lot!
Items used in this project were provided to me by Island Batik, By Annie, Schmetz, Aurifil, and Oliso.
Annie calls for 3 fabrics for each bag but of course you can use more. There is a slip pocket on each side of the outside. I
like my pockets to each be different, so I used additional fabrics for
the second pocket on each bag. For the pink & blue bag, I cut a
daisy with my Accuquilt & Daisy die from other Flower Pot fabrics
and appliqued it on the pockets. It's my favorite pocket!
As I mentioned, this is an older By Annie pattern. That means it does not have the features that the newer patterns have, meaning no easy-to-print sheet of labels for pieces to cut out and no add-on video for the more difficult steps. I've gotten spoiled with her newer patterns and the extra features! She does update a few of her older patterns each year, so Totally Trendy Totes may get an update at some point.
This is honestly one of the most straightforward and easiest of her patterns that I've made. The only tricky part is the recessed zipper. While there is no add-on video, Annie did cover her method for a recessed zipper on one of her Live with Annie sessions, now available to view on youtube. It's the week 39 video and the recessed zipper part starts around minute 46:30. Her walk-through of the process was really all I needed. If you want a more in-depth look at making the bag in its entirety, the maker Quilt Passion has a series of videos on the entire construction, but the videos are not in English. The visual was still nice to have as reassurance. (I'm pretty sure the videos are in Swedish, though it may be Dutch. It's a Germanic language but is not German. My husband was very confused as to why I was watching videos in a language I do not understand!)
recessed zipper
One thing I like about Annie's patterns is that once you understand her techniques, you can add features from different bags. Totally Trendy Totes has two external slip pockets, one on each side of the bag. I wanted to add a zipper to one slip pocket so I would have a more secure option. Other bags of Annie's feature a zippered pocket, so I used methods from other bags. I have honestly done it enough I could do it from memory, but I did pull out my Out & About pattern from last year's Island Batik/By Annie challenge and double checked the direction for that front zippered pocket.
I also added a short strap with a D-ring to the top of the inside of each bag, as a place to hook my keys. A commercially made bag I have has a similar ring and I have found it really helpful not to have to dig for my keys, so I used Annie methods from other bags for attaching a D ring and made a nice key fob. I love being able to add touches that make my bags useful for me and how I will use them!
The best part of By Annie bags, other than Annie's fantastically thorough directions, is the Soft & Stable. It helps bags keep their shape. I use an Elmer's disappearing purple glue stick to adhere the fabric on either side of the Soft & Stable before quilting with Aurifil Thread and Schmetz needles. I feel very fancy when I use my Oliso iron to get the fabric wrinkle-free before layering it on the Soft & Stable.
I am usually so excited to make my By Annie bag that I do that as soon as the boxes that include my supplies arrive! This year, I really wanted these totes for my family vacation to the beach. I had the bag fabrics in the washer within 24 hours of my July box arriving and I started on the bag within 28 hours! I do not usually pre-wash my fabrics for quilts, but I do pre-wash for bags.
I really love my totes and have been using them since I made them in July. The colors are so bright and fun! It's a fabulous pattern. Thanks to Island Batik and By Annie for all the fabric and supplies to make these beautiful bags!
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