Botanical Dreams Table Runner with Island Batik

Welcome to the start of the Runner Up Blog Hop with Island Batik and Studio 180 Design! I am very excited to be on the kick-off day of this hop.  The details of the challenge were to take my assigned collection, Botanical Dreams, and create a table runner using that fabric and at least 12 units made with the V Block tool from Studio 180 Design.   I had an additional layer to my challenge: time.  My ambassador box with my V Block tool didn't arrive until January 16th.  That gave me 18 days from when it arrived to when I needed to post.  Subtract a day for filming my video and another for writing this post, and that left me with only 16 days for this challenge.  Even with a smaller project, that was going to be a bit tight, as I have both a full-time job and a school-aged kid. But I made it!

I absolutely love the purples combined with the oranges and peaches of the Botanical Dreams collection, and floral motifs are my absolute favorites in Island Batik's fabrics.  I decided to pair these fabrics with the neutral Muslin, which has a nice, soft, yellow glow to it.  I felt like the glow of the Muslin was a great compliment to the oranges in the collection.

My first step was to design something with the V Block unit.  I immediately thought about the classic blocks 54 40 or Fight and Road to Paradise quilt blocks.  I played with both of them and loved what I created, but it wouldn't work for a table runner.  The blocks create fabulous illusions of curves, but you need multiple blocks to get those illusions and it wouldn't work visually in a smaller project.  

 

V Block units before being trimmed to the perfect size

I needed a block that could stand on its own.  I browsed Studio 180 Designs' Blockbusters collection.  These are free block patterns that use their tools.  Many of the blocks combine several of their tools.  You can find the block busters here; you will need to scroll down a little to get to them.  There were a lot of great blocks that use the V Block!  I picked block buster #61: Sweetbrier.  This block uses both the V Block and Split Rects tools.  I had Split Rects from an ambassador challenge a few years ago, so this worked out perfectly!

 

I chose to make 15" Sweetbrier blocks and thought that 3 blocks would give me a good-sized runner as well as let me showcase a decent number of the fabrics from Botanical Dreams.  Each block uses 4 fabrics from the collection, plus Muslin.  There are a total of 14 different fabrics in this runner and it measures 19" x 50".

I used Island Batik's solid orange for the back.  I did simple organic wavy lines down the long way down the runner for the quilting.  All piecing and quilting was done with Aurifil thread and Schmetz needles.  For the quilting itself, I used a light yellow on the top and bright orange in the bobbin--I don't typically use two different color threads in quilting, but it worked well for this.  The batting is Hobbs' Thermore polyester batting; it is thin and great for smaller projects.  

 

The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik, Deb Tucker's Studio 180 Design,  Schmetz, Aurifil, & Hobbs.

 

On the conference table at my work

It's really hard to get pictures of a table runner if you don't have a nice table!  I took it to work and tried a conference table, but it was hard to get a good shot.  I also took it to my office.  It's not quite the right size for my table, but it does look great with Overflowing Heart, my ambassador challenge from August of 2023!

On the table in my office with another Island Batik quilt on the wall

Kim at Chatterbox Quilts was also sent Botanical Dreams, and she has a different Studio 180 Design tool to work with.  Be sure to go see her beautiful table runner!  And today is just the first day of this hop; Island Batik ambassadors will be showing off new collections all month long!  You can find the full schedule here.