Road Trip!

It's hard to believe that summer is essentially over!  I'm still not entirely sure where it went!  Things were very busy at work as we moved into a gorgeous new library and I am the details person at work, so I was very involved with the move and getting ready to open.  But my family did manage to take two short trips.  I had been wanting to make the Road Trip pattern By Annie and I managed to get it done before our July trip to Ohio.

Annie's patterns are very thorough.  There are a lot of steps so they take some time, but the results are always beautiful and totally worth it.  I love this one!  There are a ton of pockets.  My vision was always to load this up with everything Fire Monkey would want for a road trip, both in the car and once we made it to our destination.  It fit everything: friends (stuffed animals), his tablet, books, extra masks.  Our car bingo set was in there too, but I don't think you can see it in the photos. There are also two other Annie bags in this one, a large clam up that holds his cars & trucks, and a pencil case made with firetruck fabric.  

The main fabric is Little Explorers by Sarah Frederking; I bought it at my local quilt shop from their sale room.  I love all the little animals in it!  The binding/coordinating fabric is Kona Enchanted, their color of the year in 2020.  The lining fabric is a fun multi-color print that was leftover backing from my Exploding Heart teacher quilt.

This is a great bag and it fits so much.  It was great for Fire Monkey to have everything right next to him in the car, and then we could just carry into the house we rented when we got to our destination and he had everything there, too.  I know Road Trip will go with us on many future trips!

 

 

Time to Quilt! A Marvelous Mini

For August, Island Batik challenged their ambassadors to make a Marvelous Mini.  We could use any techniques, the only stipulation was that it be no larger than 24" square. I have long wanted to make a quilted clock and this seemed like the perfect time. 

The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik, Hobbs, Schmetz, Aurifil, & Prairie Spirit Alpaca.

A Dresden block seemed perfect, and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to make a color wheel.  As I've said before, no one can do a rainbow like Island Batik! I went through my scraps and collection of stash builder strips to choose the best color wheel I could.  I used the Chunky Dresden template from Julie of Crafty Quilter.  While I was cutting the blades, I decided to make more than one Dresden since the blades use so little fabric.  The red-orange was my limiting factor; I could only get three blades out of it, so three clocks it is!  The blades after being chain-pieced made a beautiful garland!

Once I pressed all my blades on my alpaca pressing mat from Paririe Spirit Alpaca, I assembled my fans.  I did all piecing and quilting with Schmetz needles. I decided on solid gray for the background and center circle.  I used an Elmer's disappearing purple glue stick to keep the Dresden in place while I stitched around each blade with Aurifil monofilament thread.  Then I switched to Aurifil #6726 Airstream for the quilting. 

 

The numbers were the hardest part.  I used to do a lot of rubber stamping and I still had a set of small number stamps.  I tested on some scrap and liked it, but then when I stamped on an actual wheel, it bothered me that the stamps didn't really show up well on a few of the darker colors, like the purple. 

 

I ended up printing out bubble letters from online, using a copier to get them to a size I liked, and then used my light box to trace them backwards so I could print onto heat-n-bond light printable sheets.  I then ironed onto Island Batik solid black fabric. The numbers are small enough that I did not stitch around them after fusing; I'm assuming they won't get much handling since the clock will presumably hang on a wall or be propped on shelf. 

 

Though the fabrics are all the same, I varied the starting color.  The one for me, I used purple as the 12.  The second clock is a birthday present for my friend Kate, whose amazing photographs I sometimes use here.  Kate's favorite color is blue, so her clock has blue in the 12 o' clock position.  For the third, I stuck with Roy-G-Biv and used red as the start of the wheel.I quilted each clock slightly differently.  The battings are also different, though they are all by Hobbs.  Since this was a small project, I was able to use up smaller bits.  The clock with the red 12 has Hobbs' fusible batting, which I absolutely love because it cuts out the need to baste.  The clock with the blue 12 has Hobbs bleached 80/20 batting and the purple 12 has their Thermore 100% polyester batting.  

 

solid gray on the back, quilting from the Dresden blades

I bought 14" artist's canvases and Husband helped me staple the quilted sandwich to the canvases.  If I had it to do over again, I probably wouldn't have layered and quilted the clock, I would just staple the top to the canvas.  The bulk of the batting plus top & backing made for a lot to staple, especially in the corners.  The clock mechanisms were pretty easy to install. 

I'm so happy with my finished clocks!  Marvelous Mini was a fun challenge!

Island Batik bonus

When Island Batik sent out our ambassador boxes, the summer pre-cuts weren't ready yet.  Shipping delays are still pretty common.  So last week I got a bonus package, a strip pack of the Emperor's Treasure collection!  Emperor's Treasure is a beautiful collection of purples and greens, one of my favorite color combinations.  My coordinating yardage is from the always-available Foundations collection; I got two yards each of Lemongrass and Frog.  

Aurifil also sent 4 spools of thread!  I was not expecting thread, so it was fun to find such bright colors in my package.

And lest you think that I am the only one in my household who enjoys packages from Island Batik, here is Buttercup playing with the Island Batik twill tape that wrapped the strip stack with the yardage.

I completely forgot to pick a winner of the fabric from the Woodblock Bouquets collection, from my June Prickly Pear New York Beauty project.  I was supposed to pick a winner on July 1st and completely forgot.  Fortunately, the fabric bundle re-surfaced in my sewing room and reminded me.  The lucky winner is Wendy of Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life.  Wendy & I have been quilting friends for several years so I was thrilled when it was her number.  I'll get these beauties mailed off to Wendy this weekend so that I can spread the Island Batik happy mail.

My NYC blog hop - I Heart New York

During my last year and a half of college and a few years after, I dated a guy who was born & raised in New York City.  I visited him & his family a total of 3 times while we were together and loved the city each time.  So I was thrilled when Jennifer of Dizzy Quilter asked me to join in a blog hop celebrating Gotham Quilts' first fabric line, My NYC.  The line has so many visuals that are classic New York, including taxis, the Statue of Liberty, pigeons, the skyline, and even pizza rat!

 

I was generously sent a bundle of fat quarters of the 11 prints in the collection and told I could make whatever I wanted.  I love the prints so much that I wanted something that kept them in fairly large pieces to show them off.  The iconic I 💗 NY logo kept creeping into my head, so I decided on Paper Hearts from The Jolly Bar Book, though I changed it somewhat.  I love these fabrics in heart form!

I wanted the My NYC fabrics to shine so I needed a background fabric, and I settled on a navy blender.  I quilted with a dark grey thread in organic wavy lines.  I used one of the text prints as the binding.  The text print is super clever; check it out!  The print is in two colors and the dark creates a skyline!  I believe the words are all subway stops.

I don't have access to the New York City skyline but I did get a picture with my skyline: that's Charlotte, NC.  

 

 

Be sure to check out all the projects this week that use My NYC.  There will also be a giveaway next week; keep your eye on Jennifer's posts for details.  The giveaway is on Instagram, so I am not participating but most of the other makers are.

August 1		Dizzy Quilter	www.dizzyquilter.com
August 1		Sugar Sand Quilt Co.	www.sugarsandquilts.com
August 2		Go-Go Kim	www.gogokim.com
August 2		Fish Museum and Circus	www.fishmuseumandcircus.com
August 3		The Darling Dogwood	http://thedarlingdogwood.blogspot.com/	👈That's me!
August 4		CDM365 Studios	www.cdm365studios.com
August 5		Powered By Quilting	www.poweredbyquilting.com
August 6		Lovingly, Lissa	www.lovinglylissa.com
August 6		Geometry and Joy	www.geometryandjoy.com
August 7		Slice of Pi Quilts	https://www.sliceofpiquilts.com/

To close, here are my two favorite hearts, taxis and pigeons: