Wildflowers --An Island Batik Challenge with AccuQuilt

The March Island Batik challenge is One Die Wonder, sponsored by AccuQuilt.  AccuQuilt sent each of us one of the BOB dies--Block on Board.  Our mission is to create a quilt with the block as the spotlight. 

Wildflowers

I was sent the Hattie's Choice die.  Of the four dies chosen for this challenge, Hattie's Choice was my favorite and the one I hoped for!  I fully intended to create my own layout/design with the block. But when I went to AccuQuilt's webpage to check out the die and get some ideas, one of their patterns jumped out and me and I knew I HAD to make it--I loved the design, I loved the name, I loved everything about it and I knew I couldn't come up with anything that would make me happier.  The pattern is Wildflower and it adds a flying geese unit to the point of the Hattie's Choice fan for a stunning floral look.  And I could use my Go! Cube to cut the pieces for the geese units--bonus!

Hattie's Choice

The BOB dies are designed so that you cut all your pieces for a block in one run through the machine.  My favorite feature is that your dog ears are already cut off--no trimming!  The newest dies also have the pieces marked on the foam so you can follow along with your pattern and cutting instructions.

I was dying to use the new Island Batik solids and this seemed like a great pattern to showcase the deeply saturated colors.  I chose the Fuchsia, Amethyst, and Cobalt and looked for a basic or blender in the same color family to coordinate with each.  I used Petal, a soft pink, to go with Fuchsia and Dots in Sky to go with the Cobalt.  I didn't have a light purple among my Foundations fabrics but there were some great purples in my Stash Builder roll and I chose one of those to pair with Amethyst.  The background is the solid black.

I made a total of thirteen blocks--slightly less than the original pattern.  Mine finishes at 49" x 56".  I chose to name mine Wildflowers, using the plural instead of the original singular  title.

I did a large continuous spiral for the quilting, one of my favorite motifs.  And of course I marked the start using my bobbin holder as the template--it's a great size and it usually nearby!  I used Aurifil monofilament in smoke for the quilting--I have really come to love their monofilament; it's great for quilts with both light and dark fabrics.  All piecing and quilting was done with a Schmetz microtex chrome needle, 80/20.

I had enough Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 black batting left from last year's Modern Turtle Race to use for Wildflowers.  The black batting is so perfect for a quilt with a dark background, and there is no dulling or darkening of the lighter fabrics at all! 

Not a great angle, but you can see the quilted spiral really well in this photo

I wanted to use one of the solids for binding but didn't have enough of any one color left and I didn't want a scrappy binding for this--I thought it would look odd with the contrast between the binding and the background.  I had Aubergine from the basics collection and thought it blended nicely with the colors in the top.

Island Batik asked the Ambassadors for pictures in our studios and I happened to be working on this one at the time, so here's a little peak of me sewing in my "studio" aka the guest room. 

The materials used to make this quilt were provided to me by Island Batik, AccuQuilt, Hobbs, Aurifil, & Schmetz.  

This is my 4th finish towards my quest to complete 52 projects in 2020.  (Projects may not appear in the order in which they were completed.)  I've actually had this done for a bit but wanted to wait to get photographs with some spring blooms.  After all, it's named after flowers!