July unboxing with Island Batik

July brings heat and humidity, but also brings the second Island Batik Ambassador box!  Island Batik (under the umbrella of Lumin Fabrics) and their industry partners are very generous!  Let's take a look at what was in my boxes.

First, I have a generous half yard bundle of Sunset, one of the new collections that will be hitting shops in September.  There is also yardage that coordinates with Sunset: 2 yards each of Scuba and Goldfish, as well as 6 half-yard cuts from the Basics collection: Lotus, Raspberry, Ogee Petal in Sunshine, Dandelion in Pumpkin, Fuchsia solid, and Red solid.  

 

Sunset will be part of a blog hop in September showcasing all the new Island Batik collections.  The theme will be a crazy quilt challenge, sponsored by Aurifil.  For the first time, we ambassadors got to pick our Aurifil threads!  We were told to pick out 4 threads that we would want to use with our assigned collections.  It was soooo hard to choose!  Here's what I asked for:

 

Next, there is a 2 1/2" strip pack of Colorburst, another collection that will be available in September.  I love the rainbow look of Colorburst!  My coordinating yardage is Dot in Sky and Storm.  

 

I also have a half yard bundle of a surprise collection that will debut in November and be available in shops in December or January.  I can't show you this one yet! 

 

You can get a little bit of an idea of the colors in the mystery collection, though, by looking at the 6 half yard cuts that coordinate:  Violet, Turtle, Wavy Dots in Bluebird, Small Pointed Floral in Turquoise, Green solid, and Amethyst solid.  

 

I also have another collection that will hit stores at the end of the year/beginning of next: a 10" stack of Garden Gate plus yardage from the collection.  I love these colors!  This might be the fabric I use for next year's Stay at Home Round Robin. 

A few years ago, Island Batik expanded their basics line and introduced Gradations, containing 20 shades of a color family.  I love these already coordinated palettes!  I received a 2 1/2" strip pack of Oppulent Oranges and a 10" stack of Bodacious Browns. 

 

What's a quilt without a great background?  As with all boxes, I got 4 yards each of white, black, and gray (dark gray, in this case) solid fabrics.  I love these fabrics and use them all regularly!  I also got 6 yards of Ceramic. 

Stash builder strips are 5" of fabric by width of fabric, rolled into bundles of 4 strips.  Each bundle of strips it packaged with  4 other bundles for a total of 20 strips of fabric, or just under 3 yards!  This is a great way to get a variety of fabrics in a variety of colors.  I especially love these for applique projects. 

 

October's challenge is one of my annual favorites: the By Annie bag challenge!  We get to choose one of Annie Unrein's fabulous patterns, pick out the fabric from upcoming collections, and then get a kit that includes everything we need to make the bag!  This year I am making Sidekick and I chose gorgeous fabrics from Berry Crush, a signature collection for my friend and fellow ambassador Jennifer of Curlicue Creations.  I can't wait to make this bag!

 

Speaking of industry partners, Hobbs sent an extremely generous 5 battings!  There is their poly-down, their fusible batting, 80/20 Bleached, cotton wool blend,  and unbleached 100% cotton.

 

Thank you, Island Batik, Aurifil, Hobbs, and By Annie for such amazing treasures!  I look forward to creating with all these goodies over the next 6 months and can't wait to share what I make.

 

 

Size Mishap: Churning Stars

I'm still catching up with posting last year's teacher quilts. At the beginning of the school year, it is Fire Monkey's job to ask all his teacher's their favorite color.  I then spend the school year making quilts (throw size) that are gifted in the last week or two of the school year.  This year, one of the teachers said her favorite color was brown.  This one was hard for me.  I don't mind brown, but I honestly don't think much about it.  It's fine in the background, as a supporting character, but I wasn't really sure what to do with brown as a feature.

 

Eventually, I decided to try a brown version of my Churning Stars quilts.  Ohio Star blocks are classic, and I liked the overall look.  It would also allow me to use a few shades of brown, which worked best for the somewhat limited browns in my Island Batik stash.  I made my blocks.  Had all the blocks made.  Went to lay it out.  "Hmmmm...this feels a lot bigger than the other one."  I did not check my original EQ8 design.  I assumed I had made the original with 12" blocks.  I had not; that quilt had 9" blocks. This meant the brown version would be 72" square.  There is some variation in the size of the teacher quilts, but I aim for about 60" square.  At first I was just going to go forward, but in the end, I decided the quilt would just be too big, so instead of the 5 x 5 layout I intended, this one is 4x4, so the pattern isn't quite as nice as I'd like, but it still looks ok. And I now have enough extra blocks to make a 3x3 quilt that will become a donation quilt whenever I get it put together.  

 

All fabrics are Island Batik.  The background is Bone, the unadorned stars are Copper, and there are several fabrics in the alternate star block.  All was cut with the Accuquilt. I'm glad to have it done, and truth be told, I hope none of next year's teachers name brown as their favorite color!