December's Island Batik Ambassador challenge is completely up to us! I've been planning my project for this challenge since I started it in June, but getting it done in time came down to the wire! I visited my dad in early June for his birthday. He's had some health problems over the past year and is mostly sleeping in his guest room, as the twin bed in that room is easier to get in and out of. While I was there, he asked if I could make him a quilt for that twin bed. I had already been thinking that I should do exactly that, so I said I was already planning to, and would hope to gift if for Christmas. At the time I didn't know it, but we're actually going to see him (and my brother and his wife & daughter) over the holidays! So I'll get to gift it in person.
My dad is a big hiker and loves trees; he taught me to identify trees by their leaves when I was really young. Two years ago, I was given the Tree of Life die by Accuquilt. I reconfigured the layout of the tree a little bit, but I cut it all with the die. Each tree has 38 half-square triangles and there are 18 tree blocks, so that's 684 HSTs! Luckily they were cut with the Accuquilt! That also means there were no dog ears to trim.
When I decided to make the trees, I envisioned the trees going from light green to dark. I used fabrics from Island Batik's always-available basics line, mostly from Glorious Greens. The greens in the trees, from top to bottom, are: Honeydew, Pistachio, Lemongrass, Ivy, Frog, Grass, and Pinecone. The background is Beige. Of the greens from the trees, I chose Grass for the binding.
Items used in this project were provided to me by Island Batik, Schmetz, Aurifil, and Accuquilt.
I did all the piecing with Schmetz needles and Aurifil thread color #2000 Light Sand. I really dislike quilting large quilts and I wasn't sure I could do the quilt justice, so I decided to take this to a longarmer. That's only something I've done a few times before, and I didn't really have a longarmer in mind. I did a google search for longarmers in my area and chose Stitch Lab Quilting. It turns out Sara is in my quilt guild (this guild still doesn't meet in person) and lives only about 20 minutes from me! We chose a Beech Leaves panto that looks absolutely stunning!!!! I will take Sara future quilts for sure!
I knew I was cutting it close to Christmas. I got the quilt back on Saturday (12-21) and finished binding it about an hour before I sat down to write this post! I'll take it in my carry-on for the plane so it won't get lost, and I'm so excited to gift it to my dad!
This marks the last Island Batik Challenge of 2024 and concludes my 6th year as an Island Batik Ambassador! I am grateful to Island Batik for the opportunity to work with their beautiful fabrics!
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