Stormy Seas: An Island Batik Challenge with Studio 180 Design

For our August challenge, Island Batik partnered with Deb Tucker's Studio 180 Design.  Each of us was sent one of her tools and had to make at least 16 units with that tool.  Tools were assigned randomly and I was sent the Diamond Rects tool.  This makes one unit, a diamond inside a rectangle, most commonly found in the Storm at Sea block.  Well, truth be told, I had never been tempted to make a Storm at Sea before, but as soon as I realized that was the best fit for my tool, I envisioned a sail boat in the center of a traditional Storm at Sea block.  I had a fat quarter bundle of Colorpop by Kathy Engle and the bright colors just screamed fun and child friendly.

Photo by K. Mellnik

Remember when I teased this sneak peak of brightly colored sailboats?  Now you know what I had planned!  The background is Coconut from the Neutrals collection; there actually isn't much of it in the finished quilt, as the corners are essentially snowballed to create the Storm at Sea block.  I named this Stormy Seas as a play on the traditional block.

This was my first time working with Deb Tucker's tools and it was great!  I'm not a perfectionist quilter. I don't try to be nor do I claim to be.  Deb's tools have you make slightly oversized units and trim them down--and the tool makes this not a chore.  I did watch the video tutorial for the diamond rects tool a few times and seeing it in use helped.  The Studio 180 Design website also has the instruction sheets as well as diagrams for left-handed quilters. 

The diamond rect units were easy to make and trim with the tool. The tool makes 5 different sizes.  I used the next-to-largest size as I wanted my blocks to be big enough to put a boat in the middle.  My layout required 24 diamond rectangle units, comfortably above the minimum of 16 for the challenge. 

I

I use painters' tape to mark each unit's placement

I used EQ8 to adapt the Storm at Sea block and to test my color placement.  I'm still learning the program but I was able to get a pretty good feel for the final quilt.   I used the design in EQ8 to help me with the color placement as I made the units--one of the hardest parts for me when they are not all the same.

Photo by K. Mellnik.  Knees by me.

I used Hobbs fusible 80/20 batting.  I quilted in organic wavy lines, hoping to simulate waves, with Aurifil thread color 1231, a lime green that matches the green in Colorpop.  I used Schmetz chrome microtex needles and love how well they go through the batik fabrics--and how long they last.

Photo by K. Mellnik

Materials used in this project were provided to me by Island Batik, Deb Tucker's Studio 180 Design, Hobbs, Aurifil, and Schmetz.

I really wanted to photograph this with a boat but I don't have access to any boats.  I decided near water was the next best thing so I arranged a social distanced take-out picnic with a friend at a local nature park with a lake.  She's got a better eye for photography than I do, so she took the pictures of the finished quilt.

Photo by K. Mellnik

It's not a traditional Storm at Sea but I'm hoping the block comes through and I can't help but smile when I look at it.  I think the diamonds inside rectangles would make a really nice border so I'm excited to play with this tool some more to see how I use can the units.