Orange Blooms

For March's Island Batik Ambassador challenge, all the choices are up to us!  We can make whatever we want with Island Batik fabric.  I've been obsessed with flower quilts lately, and when I was at a new-to-me quilt shop about an hour away a few months ago, I picked up 2 flower quilt patterns.  One was Bloom by Kate Spain.  Here's my version!

I decided to stretch myself a little and focus on orange for these flowers.  Orange is not normally my color but I do love the brightness of these blooms.  I went through my scraps of Island Batik and pulled out all the orange and orange-adjacent fabrics I could find.  Many of these are stash-builder strips, which are 5" by WOF.  Once I had all the flower fabrics picked out and cut, I dug through my scraps and stash-builder strips again, this time looking for greens for the leaves and stems.

Whenever I'm following someone else's pattern, I figure out what pieces I can cut with my Accuquilt to save time.  Many parts of the flowers use HSTs, so I cut those with my Accuquilt.   

The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik, Schmetz, Aurifil, Hobbs, Accuquilt, and Oliso.

I actually did all the piecing on this one a few months ago, but it's been sitting around waiting to be finished and photographed.  Now that spring is finally here, I was inspired to finish it!  

 

I quilted it with yellow Aurifil thread with my favorite organic wavy lines quilting.  Schmetz needles are the only needles I use, for piecing and for quilting. The batting is Hobbs Tuscany collection cotton wool blend.  (Because I pieced this in 2024, I did not yet have my Oliso mini iron, but I did use it to press my backing, not pictured.)

My Orange Blooms quilt measures 52" x 55".  And I am not even close to being over my current obsession with flower quilts!

 

 

Sampler Blues: A Stay at Home Round Robin Finish

Welcome to the kick-off to the finish parade for 2025's Stay at Home Round Robin!  We've been so pleased to see so many sew along!

Link up your finishes with Gail.  Finished tops or finished quilts are both accepted for the finish parade.  Finishes are your final entry into our prize drawing.  We've been keeping track of every SAHRR participant and each time you've linked up, you've gotten a number for that post.  Sometime in the first two weeks of April, the hosts will have a Zoom call and use a random number generator to award the prizes.  Once we've contacted the winners and gotten responses from them, we'll post winners on each of our blogs.

I was not sure if I was going to add an additional border of solid dark gray after completing my 6th round prompt.  I ultimately decided that there was enough gray around the quilt that it didn't need more.  I quilted with straight lines at 1 1/2" intervals using a light blue thread.  I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but I only have about half the binding completed.  You can see the clips on one side.  Time got a bit away from me, so it's not completely finished.  But it's close!

This was the first time I've done my SAHRR as a sampler quilt and I love it!  The uniform block size gave me parameters and establishing my setting before I started helped me to have a basic plan while still allowing for the freedom to go with the flow of each round.  All my fabrics are from Island Batik. I picked a selection of 12 blues and paired them with Cornsilk as the background for the blocks, then used the solid gray for the sashing cornerstones and setting triangles.  Most of it was cut with my Accuquilt.  

We all had such a good time that we've decided to do it again next year!  We typically start mid-January.  That gives you a TON of time to decide on a center for next year's Round Robin! 😀

Be sure to visit all of the hosts, and remember to link up with Gail for a chance at prizes.

 Gail @ Quilting Gail

Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing

Anja @ Anja Quilts

Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

Brenda @ Songbird Designs

 

This was my 5th year as a host and participant in the Stay at Home Round Robin.  Here is a look at all my SAHRR finishes.

2025 Sampler Blues

 2024 Purple Path

2023 Flamingo Fun

 

 

2022 (Unnamed)

 

2021: Ursa Major

 

 

 

Marble Mystery

I've been doing the Marble Mystery Quilt Along with Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs.  I love the pace of Cheryl's mysteries and have really enjoyed sewing along, especially after having sat out the last several years.  I only posted my progress once, but I am excited to now have a finish!

All the fabrics are Island Batik.  The background is solid white, and there are three shades of orange: Peach, Marmalade, and Dandelions in Pumpkin.  I bought the yellow fabric from my local quilt shop; it's from the Vintage Charm collection.  

I'm not sure it photographs well, especially on the sunny days I've had recently, but I'm really happy with it.  I had it at work to take pictures and a coworker who saw it said it looked "like sunshine in quilt form."  I love that!

Cheryl always has such great patterns, both for her mysteries and her other patterns.  One of the neatest things about the mysteries is the sheer number of people who sew along, which means a huge number of color and fabric combinations!  Cheryl will host a finish parade of all the Marble Mystery quilts that have been sent to her next Monday.  Be sure to visit her blog on Monday, March 10th to see them all!