Thursday, July 23, 2020

Sunny Skies: An Island Batik Christmas in July challenge

Regular readers know that I love my accuquilt Go! fabric cutter.  I bought it several years ago with the main purpose of cutting down scraps into usable sizes.  This month, the Island Batik ambassador challenge is sponsored by Accuquilt.  They sent each ambassador their newly re-released Go! Me cutter and tasked us to make is Christmas in July for someone by using the Go! Me to make a gift for someone.



An unexpected Christmas gift in July is pretty great but Accuquilt took it one step further.  To really make this July Christmas special, we were also to give that lucky recipient the Go! Me cutter!  Truly a gift that keeps on giving!


I chose a woman named Glendel as my recipient.  Glendel & I were both blanketeers for our local Project Linus chapter before it closed.  Glendel went on to create her own group of quilters that meets (pre-Covid) monthly at senior center in a nearby rural community.  Her primary goal for that group is making quilts for girls who have been rescued from sex trafficking.  In addition to making quilts to donate, Glendel frequently creates kits for other volunteers.  I thought the Go! Me would be a great tool for someone making quilt kits regularly.


We agreed that my gift to her would be a quilt ready to donated to a rescued girl.  This measures 42" x 54", a size Glendel asked for.  The Go! Me comes with two dies: half square triangle and quarter square triangle, both for a finished 3" square.  I decided to just use half square triangles and to do a Trip Around the Wolrd style setting.  I used 252 half square triangles for this quilt!  And I didn't even mind, because my favorite part about the HST die is that it cuts off the dog ears, so there is no trimming.  Just stitch your die-cut pieces together, press, and voila!  Perfect HSTs every time!

Center of Sunny Skies
I started with fabrics from the Sunny Side Up collection that were left after the Teddy Bear's Picnic quilt.  I added in any yellow and blue scraps I had in my Island Batik bin, including some blues from Glacier View and some yellows and golds from Flea Market.  The binding is Cobalt in the Foundations Solids collection.  I'm sure that the "correct" way to make this would have been in rows, but with the way my brain works I knew that would result in blocks sewn together wrong and lots of frustration.  So I essentially built it from the center out instead.

slowly building out
I wanted to emphasize the Trip Around the World look so I quilted in straight lines along the diagonal lines created by the HSTs.  I used Aurifil 1135 in the yellow sections and Aurifil 2735 from the Como color builders set in the blue sections.  All stitching was done with a Schmetz microtex chrome needle. For batting, I used Hobbs 80/20 fusible batting for the first time and it was flawless!  Easy to adhere to my quilt top and back and I loved the results!   


I named this Sunny Skies.  The yellow and blue combination make me think of the deep blue of the sky on a sunny day.  I hope this quilt lets someone know that sunny skies are on the horizon.  Thank you, Island Batik and Accuquilt for letting me give someone Sunny Skies!






Go! Me in action

12 comments:

  1. No dog ears? Yes, please!!! Thanks to Glendel and group for blessing women formerly involved in human trafficking.

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  2. No trimming is worth its weight in gold! What a pretty quilt, and so great that it will go to someone rescued from human trafficking.

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  3. What a perfect gift of the Accuquilt Go Me cutter and quilt - beautiful!

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  4. How beautiful! I love the idea that your quilt is going to a good cause.

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  5. Beautiful quilt for a great cause! I am so impressed by this month's challenge. Your friend definitely deserves this for the good she is doing. I appreciate her so much for doing this for the kids.

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  6. Wow it is gorgeous. Dont you just love blue and bright yellow together?

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  7. What a great quilt and so much fun to be able to give a quilter a Go cutter!

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  8. Lovely quilt!
    This is a fantastic quilt to make with the Go Me!!!
    What a wonderful gift to give!

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  9. Love Sunny Skies! It's a very happy quilt. Congrats to Glendel! Hopefully she'll be able to make more kits so there are more donation quilts. Definitely a great Christmas in July.

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  10. What a great quilt! I love those rich vibrant colors and what a great gift to make accurate blocks! That would make my heart happy. I don't sweat it too much if my points are off but I'm really happy when they are on! Love seeing what you're doing as an Island Batik ambaassador!

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  11. Love blue and yellow together, and the trip around the world layout. And yeah, I love how it is cut, stitch, press, done. This is a gift within a gift because the quilt is going to Glendel, for a rescued girl. May it give her much needed comfort.

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