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!

 

Round #6 - Kites

Welcome to the final week of the Stay at Home Round Robin!  This week it is my turn to give the prompt.  I chose the kite unit.  When we were all discussing our rounds, I noted that Kathleen started the rounds with her first initial as inspiration and I am closing with the same letter.  On that note, if you decide that the kite unit is not for you or if you just want a different choice, you can choose something inspired by your first initial or Kathleen's first initial. 😊

 

The Kite unit has a heavy point at one end and a skinny point at the opposite end.  I cur mine with my Accuquilt; the cube companion set of Angles has a kite shape, and you use the triangles that form a half rectangle as the side pieces.  There are lots of other ways to cut the kite shape; Deb Tucker of Studio 180 Design calls her tool that cuts this unit the Corner Beam.  These kite units are frequently combined in sets of 4 with the heavy points all facing in and the skinny parts out.  It is up to you if you want to use your kite units solo or in bigger blocks with multiple units.

Since I am making 12" blocks for my sampler-style quilt, I create my own blocks using kite units.  I had a lot of fun with these blocks!  And I'm really pleased with the ones I came up with.

 

For my first block, I used 2 sets of 2 kites.  I put the first set inside a larger star and had a second set of kite units radiating out like spotlights.

 

The second block is my favorite.  I added stacked flying geese.  I'd like to play with this block some more at some point. 

Here is the rendering of all my blocks together.

 

And, since this is the last round, I can show the real blocks in the finished quilt top!  All fabrics are from Island Batik. I chose an assortment of 12 different blue fabrics plus the neutral Cornsilk for the blocks.  The setting triangles and sashing squares are Dark Gray solid. 

 

Now it is your turn to add your final round to your quilts. The link will be open for one week.  Remember that you get an entry into our prize drawing for every week you have linked up.

I hope you have enjoyed the Stay At Home Round Robin 2025!  You now have a month to complete your top.  On March 24th, a month from today, we'll be back with a parade of finishes!  Gail will have the final link up.  You do not need to have a finished quilt; a finished top is enough.  

Here is the 2025 Stay at Home Round Robin schedule:

• January 13th: Center: Gail @ Quilting Gail
• January 20th: 1^st Round: King's Crown block or inspired by your first initial  Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
• January 27th: 2^nd Round: Half Square Triangles   Anja @ Anja Quilts
• February 3rd: 3rd Round: Stars Gail @ Quilting Gail
• February 10th: 4^th Round: Slice & Insert  Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
• February 17th:5^th Round: Partial Log Cabins Brenda @ Songbird Designs
• February 24th: 6th Round: Kites or inspired by your first initial or the letter "k"
  Emily @ The Darling Dogwood 🠜 You Are Here
• March 24th: Finish Parade: Gail @ Quilting Gail

 

Round #5 - Partial Log Cabins

We are getting close to the end of the Stay at Home Round Robin!  Today it is Brenda's turn to tell us what to add to our quilts.  Brenda chose partial log cabin blocks.  You may want to do quarter log cabins, or you may want to use half log cabins.

 

Because I am doing my SAHRR sampler-style this year, I wanted blocks that stood well on their own.  Log cabins and their variation usually gain impact by being combined together; I needed something that didn't need multiple similar blocks together.  The first block I chose is a sort of log cabin flower.  I consider this a half log cabin because you build the block on two sides of center, as opposed to all four sides in a traditional log cabin.

For my second block, I made a log cabin heart.  I'm calling this a half log cabin because in my mind, the block is half heart, half log cabin!  You can interpret the prompt many different ways; that's part of the fun!

 

If you are sewing along, this week's link up is with Brenda of Songbird Designs.  Remember that every week you link up, you are entered into our prize drawing!  We have fabulous prizes:

• One of 3 fat quarter bundles from Island Batik:
  • Flutter Fields
  • Shadow Blooms
  • Bubbles Curves and Corners!
• Oliso Pro Plus Iron
• Hobbs Batting
• A pattern of YOUR choice from A Quiltery
• A quilt pattern from Devoted Quilter
• A pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts
• Aurifil
• and more to come!

Here is the mock-up of my quilt as it stands now.  There is only one round left.  Next week's it's my turn to decide what to add!

 

Here is the 2025 Stay at Home Round Robin schedule:

• January 13th: Center: Gail @ Quilting Gail
• January 20th: 1^st Round: King's Crown block or inspired by your first initial  Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
• January 27th: 2^nd Round: Half Square Triangles   Anja @ Anja Quilts
• February 3rd: 3rd Round: Stars Gail @ Quilting Gail
• February 10th: 4^th Round: Slice & Insert  Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
• February 17th:5^th Round: Partial Log Cabins Brenda @ Songbird Designs
• February 24th: 6th Round: Me!
• March 24th: Finish Parade: Gail @ Quilting Gail

Round #4 - Slice & Insert

Welcome back to the Stay at Home Round Robin!  This week it is Wendy's turn to tell us what to add, and she picked a slice and insert block.  This was probably the most difficult round for me to decide what to do, because I consider slice and insert primarily an improv technique, and I'm not really an improv gal.  So I had to think of how to put slice and inset units in a 12" block.

I played around in EQ8 and came up with two designs I liked.  I intentionally used different widths for my inset in each of my two blocks so they wouldn't be too similar.  I cut slightly oversized squares, did my slice and insert, and then trimmed my units to the size I needed for my blocks.  I didn't worry about them not matching up perfectly.

 

 

And here's how all my blocks so far look together.

The link up this week is with Wendy.  How will you use slice & insert blocks?

Here is the full schedule for the Stay at Home Round Robin:

• January 13th: Center: Gail @ Quilting Gail
• January 20th: 1^st Round: King's Crown block or inspired by your first initial  Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
• January 27th: 2^nd Round: Half Square Triangles   Anja @ Anja Quilts
• February 3rd: 3rd Round: Stars Gail @ Quilting Gail
• February 10th: 4^th Round: Slice & Insert  Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
• February 17th:5^th Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs
• February 24th: 6th Round: Me!
• March 24th: Finish Parade: Gail @ Quilting Gail

Botanical Dreams Table Runner with Island Batik

Welcome to the start of the Runner Up Blog Hop with Island Batik and Studio 180 Design! I am very excited to be on the kick-off day of this hop.  The details of the challenge were to take my assigned collection, Botanical Dreams, and create a table runner using that fabric and at least 12 units made with the V Block tool from Studio 180 Design.   I had an additional layer to my challenge: time.  My ambassador box with my V Block tool didn't arrive until January 16th.  That gave me 18 days from when it arrived to when I needed to post.  Subtract a day for filming my video and another for writing this post, and that left me with only 16 days for this challenge.  Even with a smaller project, that was going to be a bit tight, as I have both a full-time job and a school-aged kid. But I made it!

I absolutely love the purples combined with the oranges and peaches of the Botanical Dreams collection, and floral motifs are my absolute favorites in Island Batik's fabrics.  I decided to pair these fabrics with the neutral Muslin, which has a nice, soft, yellow glow to it.  I felt like the glow of the Muslin was a great compliment to the oranges in the collection.

My first step was to design something with the V Block unit.  I immediately thought about the classic blocks 54 40 or Fight and Road to Paradise quilt blocks.  I played with both of them and loved what I created, but it wouldn't work for a table runner.  The blocks create fabulous illusions of curves, but you need multiple blocks to get those illusions and it wouldn't work visually in a smaller project.  

 

V Block units before being trimmed to the perfect size

I needed a block that could stand on its own.  I browsed Studio 180 Designs' Blockbusters collection.  These are free block patterns that use their tools.  Many of the blocks combine several of their tools.  You can find the block busters here; you will need to scroll down a little to get to them.  There were a lot of great blocks that use the V Block!  I picked block buster #61: Sweetbrier.  This block uses both the V Block and Split Rects tools.  I had Split Rects from an ambassador challenge a few years ago, so this worked out perfectly!

 

I chose to make 15" Sweetbrier blocks and thought that 3 blocks would give me a good-sized runner as well as let me showcase a decent number of the fabrics from Botanical Dreams.  Each block uses 4 fabrics from the collection, plus Muslin.  There are a total of 14 different fabrics in this runner and it measures 19" x 50".

I used Island Batik's solid orange for the back.  I did simple organic wavy lines down the long way down the runner for the quilting.  All piecing and quilting was done with Aurifil thread and Schmetz needles.  For the quilting itself, I used a light yellow on the top and bright orange in the bobbin--I don't typically use two different color threads in quilting, but it worked well for this.  The batting is Hobbs' Thermore polyester batting; it is thin and great for smaller projects.  

 

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

 

On the conference table at my work

It's really hard to get pictures of a table runner if you don't have a nice table!  I took it to work and tried a conference table, but it was hard to get a good shot.  I also took it to my office.  It's not quite the right size for my table, but it does look great with Overflowing Heart, my ambassador challenge from August of 2023!

On the table in my office with another Island Batik quilt on the wall

Kim at Chatterbox Quilts was also sent Botanical Dreams, and she has a different Studio 180 Design tool to work with.  Be sure to go see her beautiful table runner!  And today is just the first day of this hop; Island Batik ambassadors will be showing off new collections all month long!  You can find the full schedule here.