The Darling Dogwood: September 2022

Friday, September 30, 2022

Arabella's Garden

I am excited to introduce you to Arabella's Garden, a new pattern by my friend Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts. When I first saw this pattern in the Island Batik catalog for spring/summer 2022, I absolutely loved it. I practically begged Preeti to add me to her list of testers for the pattern!

Preeti used Island Batik's Bee Kind collection, which has blues, purples, yellows, and greens. I used very similar colors in my version. I kept the somewhat scrappy look of hers, but was very specific in what colors went where.

It's a great pattern and very easy to follow. I was able to cut most of it with my Accuquilt 8" cube but Preeti also gives traditional cutting directions. The pattern makes a quilt that is 64" x 88", with options for four different sizes. I chose to make mine square instead of rectangular, so my version is 64" square. It's a good lap size.

All the fabrics in my version are Island Batik. I used scraps and stash builder rolls. The background is solid white. The pattern includes a coloring sheet so you can play around with color placement.

If you love the look of Arabella's Garden as much as I did, the pattern is now available in Preeti's etsy shop. Standard price is $14 but she's listing it with 30% off through October 6th. Thanks, Preeti, for letting me show off your fabulous design! Preeti is very generously giving me a copy of her pattern to give away! Leave any comment for an entry. If you need a prompt, Preeti has asked what is your major complain with quilt patterns? Contest closes October 7th and I will draw a winner October 8th.

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Prairie Meadow with Island Batik and Studio 180 Design

Welcome to my stop on Island Batik's Tool Talk blog hop, featuring Island Batik's newest fabric collections and Studio 180 Design tools by Deb Tucker. I was sent the Prairie Blue collection by Kathy Engle and the Split Rects tool.

The challenge required using at least 30 units made with our Studio 180 tool. My final design actually has 60 split rects units! I also used the Wing Clipper tool, which I was sent last year. The Wing Clipper makes flying geese units and there are 40 of those in this quilt! So my Studio 180 Design tools certainly got a workout.

Here is a part of a single block, can you see the flying geese and half square rectangle/split rects units?

The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik, Deb Tucker's Studio 180 Design, Prairie Spirit Alpaca, Schmetz, Aurifil, & Hobbs.

more split rect and flying geese units for the outside part of the block

My finished blocks are 20" square, so quite large. I ended up setting them on point and adding some 4-patch units to connect the blocks to each other. While I used Island Batik's solid white for the background in the blocks themselves, I used the Prickly Pear Cacti fabric from Prairie Blue for the sashing between blocks and the setting triangles.

After washing, the finished quilt measures at 58" square. (Photos are from before washing.) I used fifteen of the beautiful blue fabrics in the Prairie Blue collection. I pieced and quilted with Aurifil thread 2770 Very Light Delft and a Schmetz microtex chrome needle, fresh at the start of this project. I really felt the prairie connection while using Prairie Blue fabrics and my new pressing mat from Prairie Spirit Alpacas--it's like they were meant for each other! I also used Hobbs bleached 80/20 batting, great for quilts with a very light background.

Inspired by all the beautiful blues and the collection name, I named this Prairie Meadow. It makes me think of beautiful blue skies shining over the prairie. Prairie Blue should be shipping to quilt shops this month, so be sure to look for it if you need a little or a lot of blue for your next project.

special thanks to my friend Cheryl for being my quilt holder!

Island Batik is hosting weekly giveaways throughout September to celebrate the Tool Talk blog hop, be sure to look for the new giveaway every Friday on their blog. I am also hosting a small giveaway.

I have an uncut half yard of Longhorn Star and 1/3 yard each of Cacti Mix & Canyon Mountains, which together will make a nice start on a prairie-themed project. Leave me a comment to enter the giveaway, which runs until the end of September. Any comment will work but if you need a prompt, tell me your favorite shade of blue a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to visit my fellow Island Batik Ambassador Andi Stanfield at True Blue Quilts and see what she made what Prairie Blue!

Monday, September 19, 2022

Car Pillow

Over the weekend, I went to visit a friend and former colleague who had a baby over the summer. I was able to finally take Totally Triangles to its adorable new owner. Baby Girl has an older brother, aged 2 1/2 years. When I give a baby quilt to a new arrival with an older sibling, I like to make something small for the older child as well. I know young Michael loves cars and trucks, so I made him a pillow.

I cut the cars with my Accuquilt Go--the Cute Car is a super fun die. I loved the roads I made as the borders for my Row by Row back in February, so I added a border of roads as well. I am pleased to say that Michael loved it! When he realized that the outer border was a road, he immediately went looking for his small trucks and had them drive on the road. He also wanted to put his pillow on the couch and made me move the throw pillow next to me to make room for the car pillow. I call that success!

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Island Batik's Tool Talk blog hop

For most of the month of September, Island Batik and their ambassadors will be showing off all their newest fabric collections. These fabrics will begin shipping to quilt shops this month, so keep your eyes out! For the hop, Island Batik has partnered with Deb Tucker's Studio 180 Design to showcase their fabulous tools. Each ambassador was sent of Deb's tools plus a complete fabric collection (usually 20 fabrics) and tasked to make at least 30 units with their tool. All of Deb's tools make multiple sizes, so you could see miniature blocks or huge ones.

I was sent the collection Prairie Blue. As you might suspect from the name, it's a stunning collection of a variety of shades of blue. There are cacti, long horned cattle, blue bonnets, and other things that you might associate with the Prairie. Come back on September 20th to see what I made with these beautiful blues.

Island Batik hosts a giveaway every week on their blog; check back every Friday for a new one. For this week, you can win either the Baroque or Bee Kind collections. I got to pick the farbics for my October challenge and I chose fabrics from Bee Kind; don't miss your chance to enter to win these beautiful fabrics!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out all the ambassadors' projects all month long! Many will host their own giveaways, too!

WEEK 1
September 6

Gail Renna, Quilt Haven Threads

Michelle Roberts, Creative Blonde Gifts

September 7

Sandra Starley, Textile Time Travels

Jennifer Thomas, Curlicue Creations

September 8

Brenda Alburl, Songbird Designs

Jennifer Fulton, Inquiring Quilter

WEEK 2

September 12

Lisa Pickering, Lisa’s Quilting Passion

Suzy Webster, Websterquilt

September 13

Denise Looney, For the Love of Geese

Gail Sheppard, Quilting Gail

September 14

Preeti Harris, Sew Preeti Quilts

Connie Kauffman, Kauffman Designs

September 15

Megan Best, Bestquilter

Maryellen McAuliffe, Mary Mack Made Mine

WEEK 3

September 19

Elizabeth DeCroos, Epida Studio

Jane Hauprich, Stitch by Stitch Custom Quilting

September 20

Emily Leachman, The Darling Dogwood

Andi Stanfield, True Blue Quilts

September 21

Leah Malasky, Quilted Delights

Claudia Porter, Create with Claudia

September 22

Mania Hatziioannidi, Mania for Quilts

Reed Johnson, Blue Bear Quilts

WEEK 4

September 26

Pamela Boatright, Pamela Quilts

September 27

Anorina Morris, Samelia’s Mum

Brianna Roberts, Sew Cute and Quirky

Monday, September 5, 2022

Get on Board with Sewing blog hop

Happy National Sewing Month! To celebrate, Brenda of Songbird Designs and Melva of Melva Loves Scraps are co-hosting the "Get on Board With Sewing" blog hop to celebrate all forms of sewing.

Participants were encouraged to complete and share a project that fits the theme, which I am interpreting to be a beach/surf theme. I had the perfect project in a By Annie bag that I stalled on about 2/3 through the process. The hop was fantastic motivation to get it finished.

This is the Roll With It pattern, designed to hold either a yoga mat or a beach towel. I had been wanting to make one for both me and for Fire Monkey, my 8-year-old son. I started with his. He's been in a shark phase for a few years now so naturally I had to use shark fabric. I found a fun and colorful clown fish fabric for the lining. The binding and handles are Kona Ocean, also appropriate for the theme. 😀 The pattern calls for coordinating fabric on one side to differentiate the two side pockets, but I didn't want just solid blue, so I create an applique shark from the same coloring sheet I used on my Octopus's Garden quilt several years ago. You can't have too many sharks! Or so Fire Monkey would say, anyway.

I finished this in time for us to take it to our friends' neighborhood pool to celebrate the end of summer weekend before school started. I meant to take photos at the pool but I got caught up in the fun and completely forgot! It worked great, though, and I liked that Fire Monkey could now be responsible for his own towel and other things he might want, like sunglasses or goggles. I will be making another for me for sure!

For the Get on Board with Sewing hop, we are also encouraged to share how we got started with sewing. The vast majority of my sewing is quilting, and I got started when I was in college. We had a Craft Center that was an extracurricular. I had always done different crafts and like to try different things, so I signed up for a quilting class at the start of my sophomore year. Well, I fell in love with quilting and while I still dabble in other creative things, quilting is really my passion.