It's time for the last Island Batik ambassador challenge of the year. How is it the end of the year already?!? We were challenged to make something to celebrate a holiday of our choice. I don't do a lot of holiday decorating so I was looking for something holiday appropriate that would also not be out of place all year. I really like the quilt that AccuQuilt used as their summer sew-along: Shoo Fly Spin. It was designed to be cut with their Cube, and they give cutting instructions for a variety of sizes. I chose to use the 6" cube, which gave me a finished quilt of 50" x 68".
When I follow someone else's pattern, I rarely use colors exactly as they are shown in the sample. But this time, I liked theirs so much I didn't change anything! My borders are different, but that was the only change I made. I used fabrics from Island Batik's always available Foundations collection: solid white, solid gray, and a red blender. The binding is solid dark gray.
Materials used in this project were given to me by Island Batik, Accuquilt, Schmetz, Hobbs, and Aurifil.
The quilt uses two blocks: a traditional shoo fly and a block Accuquilt created using their cube shapes. I think the 2nd block looks like a snowflake. Husband didn't think the colors looked holiday enough for a holiday challenge. When we were out at a local holiday lights celebration, I pointed out some decorations that looked like peppermints, and he conceded that maybe the blocks looked a little like peppermints. I chose to name it Shoo Fly Snowflake for my interpretation, but whatever gets you to a holiday look works for me! I like that I could put it out before Christmas and leave it out through Valentine's day.
I used Aurifil thread in all piecing and quilting. For piecing I used up various light-colored bobbin ends, and I quilted with white thread. I remembered to start with a fresh Schmetz needle at the start of the project. The batting is Hobbs 80/20, though admittedly I created a Franken-Batt with various pieces of leftover Hobbs batting. (I like fusible batting tape to create a larger batting from leftover pieces.)
My family took a vacation in early December. On the drive from Charlotte to Florida, I sewed all the binding. I took advantage of the decorated hotel lobby for photos.
This brings my 5th years as an Island Batik ambassador to a close. I can't believe I've been working with Island Batik for 5 years! I so appreciate the opportunity to work with their beautiful fabrics! Thanks for another great year, Island Batik!
