Solar Flare

School supplies are already in stores and I didn't finish showing off last year's teacher quilts!  Because we moved around the holidays and it took me a while to get my sewing machine set up, I lost a lot of sewing time during the first half of this year/second half of the school year.  I found myself under the wire to finish.  Mr. H, the band director, said his favorite color was blue.  I was looking for something stunning but simple and decided on the pattern Solar Flare by Villa Rosa Designs.  

 

I used a 10" square pack of Brilliant Blues by Island Batik plus their solid white. The "focus fabric" for the main pinwheel and the outer border is Cheerio in Navy, also by Island Batik.  It's the only fabric with a design on it to set it apart. I cut everything with my Accuquilt. This was a quilt where I'm really glad I have a design wall.  I laid it all out and really tried to integrate all the different values of blue so no one section felt weight too light or too dark.

 

 

I quilted it with a medium blue Aurifil thread and used wavy line stitching--I call it Preeti quilting, as my friend Preeti frequently uses that stitch to great effect. 

I wash all the teacher quilts before gifting and was sorry to see that this one did bleed.  (I had the same problem with my Magnificent Mystery quilt but didn't notice the bleeding until after my post.)  I did some research and found reports of many quilters swearing by the methods from this VickiWelshMakes post.  There are also some good tips here from SuzyQuilts.  I bought Dawn dishsoap and used my tub, as outlined in Vicki's method.  My son was kind of fascinated by the process, and he did help me agitate the quilt at one point, singing "Rock-a-bye qui-ilt, In the bath tub."  I found it hilarious but managed not to laugh because I knew it would mean he'd stop.  I'm happy to say that the magic process did work, and I managed to get the bleeding out of both quilts.  I do find that blues are the most likely color to run these days, more so than reds.

I am thrilled with how this turned out and it was very quick to make.  This is a pattern I will come back to!

 

 

Bears & Stars

The last day of school is tomorrow!  I got all the teacher quilts done in time (the last one went to school today!) but I'm behind in posting.  This one is for the PE teacher Mr. W, who said his favorite color is light blue.  

 

I've been particularly drawn to bear paw blocks lately and have been playing around with designs using those blocks.  This is my favorite of the designs I came up with.  I always love sawtooth stars and think they go with everything!  I really like this combination of bear paw blocks & sawtooth star blocks, so much that I named this Bears & Stars.  Not super original or creative, I know!

All fabrics are Island Batik, including the solid black background.  The colors aren't coming through gretat in the photos, but the bear paws are a light blue (Sky) and the stars are white with blue designs. The Irish Chain blocks are a blender called Blue with Wavy Dots.  I cut everything with my Accuquilt.  

 

I'm excited to use this design again, maybe in some bolder colors.   

Red Flare

May sure hustled it's way through my life!  I think I blinked and missed it!  I've been busy getting the teacher quilts ready for the end of the year.  This year's homeroom & English teacher, Ms. W, stated that red is her favorite color.  Red is frequently a struggle for me.  I think partly because I don't tend to have much of it and partly because it's hard to do scrappy. 

I decided on my pattern Flare, which I made previously for a blog hop for Berry Crush, a previous signature collection for Jennifer of Curlicue Creations.  (The blog hop for Jennifer's next signature collection starts tomorrow!) I have made all but the very first teacher quilt usig Island Batik fabrics, mostly because I have so much of it.  But as I said, I don't have a lot of red.  I did have a fair amount of leftover from a wide back from a previous year's red quilt, so I decided to use that as my red fabric and paired it with black, white, and gray Island Batik solid.  

 

Using the two types of fabric together was not a problem.  They are both cotton, the batik just has a little bit of a tighter weave.  Now that it's been washed, I can't feel a difference! 

 

I also want to show two quilts I've posted previously, but they weren't completely finished yet. The first is Emerge, which I made for The Inquiring Quilter's blog hop in January.  The fabrics are Starry Seas for Island Batik. I didn't quilt have the binding done on my day for the hop.  Now here it is, bound and washed!

 

The second is my version of the Magnificent Mystery, made during the QAL led by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs.  I was working against Cheryl's deadline for the finish parade and just squeaked by with a finished top.  It's now been quilted, bound, and washed.  All fabrics are Island Batik.  

 

 Despite my lack of posts in May, I was actually busy with finishes! 

  

 

Magnificent Mystery

Cheryl at Meadow Mist designs does a mystery quilt along every year.  I love Cheryl's patterns and her mysteries always turn out great. This year it's the Magnificent Mystery.  I started mine late, but I still got the top done just in time for her finishing parade!  All of my fabrics are from Island Batik's Foundations.   

 

I made a few minor changes to Cheryl's pattern, the advantage of starting once the design is revealed!  😃  Cheryl also does an un-mystery for those who don't want to commit without knowing the design.  I cut out the partial blocks at the top and bottom, and chose something other than the background fabric for the center of the stars. I will use the same fabric from the chains as the binding, giving it a bit of a frame.  This is for a teacher whose favorite colors are blue and green.  

 

One of the best parts of these mysteries is seeing all the different color and fabric combinations that people use.  Hundreds of quilters participate!  There will be a finishing parade next week on Cheryl's blog. 

 

Emerge: Starry Seas blog hop

Welcome to my stop on the Starry Seas blog hop!  Starry Seas is a new signature fabric collection for my friend Jennifer of The Inquiring Quilter, made by Island Batik/Lumin Fabrics.  Jennifer asked if I'd make something to celebrate the collection and I enthusiastically agreed!  

 

I leaned heavily into the dark blues and turquoises of Starry Seas, with just a touch of the golden orange for accent.  I am calling this pattern Emerge. 

There are eight of the SKUs from Starry Seas in Emerge, plus Island Batik's foundation neutral Cream.  Emerge is 60" square.

 

Starry Seas is arriving in quilt shops now.  Want to win some Starry Seas fabric?  Jennifer is giving away a fat quarter bundle of the collection on her blog.  And be sure to visit every stop on the Starry Seas blog hop!

 

January 12th - Jennifer @ Inquiring Quilter  

January 13th - Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing

January 14th - Preeti @ Sew Preeti Quilts

January 15th - Emily @ The Darling Dogwood 🠄 You Are Here!

January 16th - Laura @ Slice of Pi

January 17th - Lisa @ Lisa’s Quilting Passion

January 18th - Gail @ Quilting Gail

January 19th - Sandra @ Textile Time Travels

January 20th - Leah @ Quilted Delights

January 21st - Jennifer @ Inquiring Quilter (WINNER ANNOUNCED!)

Size Mishap: Churning Stars

I'm still catching up with posting last year's teacher quilts. At the beginning of the school year, it is Fire Monkey's job to ask all his teacher's their favorite color.  I then spend the school year making quilts (throw size) that are gifted in the last week or two of the school year.  This year, one of the teachers said her favorite color was brown.  This one was hard for me.  I don't mind brown, but I honestly don't think much about it.  It's fine in the background, as a supporting character, but I wasn't really sure what to do with brown as a feature.

 

Eventually, I decided to try a brown version of my Churning Stars quilts.  Ohio Star blocks are classic, and I liked the overall look.  It would also allow me to use a few shades of brown, which worked best for the somewhat limited browns in my Island Batik stash.  I made my blocks.  Had all the blocks made.  Went to lay it out.  "Hmmmm...this feels a lot bigger than the other one."  I did not check my original EQ8 design.  I assumed I had made the original with 12" blocks.  I had not; that quilt had 9" blocks. This meant the brown version would be 72" square.  There is some variation in the size of the teacher quilts, but I aim for about 60" square.  At first I was just going to go forward, but in the end, I decided the quilt would just be too big, so instead of the 5 x 5 layout I intended, this one is 4x4, so the pattern isn't quite as nice as I'd like, but it still looks ok. And I now have enough extra blocks to make a 3x3 quilt that will become a donation quilt whenever I get it put together.  

 

All fabrics are Island Batik.  The background is Bone, the unadorned stars are Copper, and there are several fabrics in the alternate star block.  All was cut with the Accuquilt. I'm glad to have it done, and truth be told, I hope none of next year's teachers name brown as their favorite color! 

 

 

Tahoe in Green

The slide into the end of the school year is usually about finishing up teacher quilts, and I get so focused on that, I don't remember to post them!  Now that we're a few weeks into summer (from a school calendar perspective), I want to be sure to document the quilts I finished.

 

In my brief time at an elementary school, I was a Media Specialist/School Librarian, which falls under the category of "Specials."  Every school is different, but Specials frequently include art, music, PE, etc.  So I make sure to include Specials teachers.  There was a new PE teacher this year, so he went on the list.  His favorite color is green.

 

I chose the pattern Tahoe by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs.  I love Cheryl's patterns, they are easy to understand, easy to follow, and make stunning quilts!  All the fabrics are from Island Batik: two greens from the Limerick collection plus Frog and solid white.  It sewed up very quickly and I love how it looks!

 

 

Orange Blooms

For March's Island Batik Ambassador challenge, all the choices are up to us!  We can make whatever we want with Island Batik fabric.  I've been obsessed with flower quilts lately, and when I was at a new-to-me quilt shop about an hour away a few months ago, I picked up 2 flower quilt patterns.  One was Bloom by Kate Spain.  Here's my version!

I decided to stretch myself a little and focus on orange for these flowers.  Orange is not normally my color but I do love the brightness of these blooms.  I went through my scraps of Island Batik and pulled out all the orange and orange-adjacent fabrics I could find.  Many of these are stash-builder strips, which are 5" by WOF.  Once I had all the flower fabrics picked out and cut, I dug through my scraps and stash-builder strips again, this time looking for greens for the leaves and stems.

Whenever I'm following someone else's pattern, I figure out what pieces I can cut with my Accuquilt to save time.  Many parts of the flowers use HSTs, so I cut those with my Accuquilt.   

The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik, Schmetz, Aurifil, Hobbs, Accuquilt, and Oliso.

I actually did all the piecing on this one a few months ago, but it's been sitting around waiting to be finished and photographed.  Now that spring is finally here, I was inspired to finish it!  

 

I quilted it with yellow Aurifil thread with my favorite organic wavy lines quilting.  Schmetz needles are the only needles I use, for piecing and for quilting. The batting is Hobbs Tuscany collection cotton wool blend.  (Because I pieced this in 2024, I did not yet have my Oliso mini iron, but I did use it to press my backing, not pictured.)

My Orange Blooms quilt measures 52" x 55".  And I am not even close to being over my current obsession with flower quilts!

 

 

Red Sparkle

Two weeks ago, my family went to the local minor league baseball game.  While there, we ran into the principal of Fire Monkey's school, Ms. L, who was there with her daughters.  Seeing Ms. L reminded me that I still hadn't posted two of last school year's teacher quilts, including the one for Ms. L!

If you don't know what I mean by Teacher Quilts, every year I make quilts for my son's teachers.  My son, called Fire Monkey on the blog, is currently 10 years old and just finished 4th grade.  He is in a dual language school, so he has two teachers each year, one for English (and social studies and health) and one for Spanish (and math and science).  I've also done quilts for the Specials teachers like Art, PE, & Music, knowing that those teachers often get overlooked.  Fire Monkey asks each teacher their favorite color at the start of the school year, I get busy sewing, and we gift them during the last week of school.

a peak at the backing

We were at an event at the school at the beginning of last year and got to talking to Ms. L, who is always at every school event.  I realized she hadn't yet gotten a quilt so we added her to the list for the 2023-24 school year.  Fire Monkey was able to find out a few weeks later that Ms. L's favorite color is red. Truth be told, I struggle with red quilts.  I think it's because I like scrappy, and there just aren't that many shades of red.  Too light and it's pink.  Too dark and it doesn't feel like red anymore either.

block as created for SAHRR 2024

I struggled with what to make and this was the last one/last pattern I decided on this year.  Finally I picked a block I designed for my SAHRR that I really liked.  I set it on point for visual interest.  I cut everything with my Accuquilt.

I used four fabrics, all from Island Batik.  The background is Milkshake, the light triangles are Shell, the main red is a red blender that I don't know the name of, and there's a bit of solid black.  I'm happy with how it turned out!

Scrappy Joy Blooms

It's the end of the school year, so I am finishing up this year's teacher quilts.  Music teacher Ms. B said "all the colors" when asked her favorite color.  I was browsing older issues of Make Modern magazine looking for inspiration when I saw Joy Blooms by Katy Devlin in issue #22.  It was a neat looking block.  I saw reading through the instructions that it was paper pieced, which I hate, but in looking at the diagram I realized that I could cut it with my accuquilt cube and use traditional piecing.  Score!

I used my 6" cube and each block is 15" finished.  I wanted mine to have a really scrappy, colorful look.  I selected 3 fabrics for each block using my Island Batik scraps, aiming for fun fabric combinations and an over-all broad use of a lot of different colors.  I eliminated the sashing between the blocks from the original pattern though I did add a skinny border on the outside to give a little visual distance from the blocks.

With scrappy quilts I love to use a scrappy binding.  I keep all my binding remnants and I separate out those from Island Batik fabrics.  I got out my bag of leftovers to see what I had and pieced them together to get to the length I needed.  There are 14 different binding leftovers in this quilt!  I love cleaning out my leftovers!
 

scrappy binding ready to go

I like the orignal pattern name of Joy Blooms so I am just adding the word "scrappy" to it to indicated that these are scrappy blooms of joy. I'm pleased with this as a colorful and scrappy quilt.  I hope it succeeds in having all the colors! 

Aurelia's Granddaughter

March's Island Batik Ambassador challenge is It's All Up To You.  Meaning Ambassador's choice.  March is usually when I'm trying to finish up the teacher quilts, so the timing is great for me!  (I make quilts for Fire Monkey's teachers every year, to be gifted the last week of school.) While I love all of the teacher quilts, this is my favorite of this year's batch.

Now that you've seen it, let me back up and give you some details. 

This year, Fire Monkey is in TD (Talent Development) enrichment classes twice a week.  I asked Fire Monkey to find out the favorite color of the teacher, Ms. L.  It's pink.  I had a strip pack of Precious Pinks in my January ambassador box, so I knew I'd use that.  Island Batik recently put together Gradations, each containing 20 of their basics in a a color graduation.  I've had Precious Pinks before and it's probably my favorite of the gradation collections, even though purple is my favorite color.

 

Items used in this project were give to me by Island Batik, Aurifil, Hobbs, Schmetz, and Oliso.

At some point in January, a new issue of Make Modern Magazine came out.  My friend and fellow Island Batik Ambassador Preeti had a pattern in this issue.  She calls it Aurelia and it's beautiful.  I loved it!  Preeti's version has a gradient of two colors, blues and purples, paired with white and black solid.  (Her fabrics come from the Porcelain Blue and Morris Mist collections.) I wondered if I could make a single color version.  That was not as challenging as specifically working within the strip set I had.  Mine was going to be a little bit scrappy.

Aurelia by Preeti Harris

I got out my strips and put together 2 different strip sets for the blocks.  One set used Hot Lips, Camellia, and Blush, while the other set used French Rose, Ballerina, and Carnation.  Instead of the black in Preeti's version, I used Sangria as the darkest pink, and the neutral Coconut for the background.  There are six different fabrics in the "flower" blocks: Petunia, Bubblegum, Tea Rose, Geranium, Raspberry, and Grenadine.

I ended up laying mine out a little differently than Preeti's version.  Hers is in narrower columns and uses blocks and reverse blocks.  With the monochromatic version, I liked the look of wider columns and chose not to make reverse blocks.  Fire Monkey got final decision and agreed on the layout change with the pink fabrics.

This came together really quickly and I absolutely love it!  Preeti named her pattern Aurelia.  I know there is a relative in my grandmother's family tree named Aurelia, but I do not remember who or the relationship, and neither does my brother.  I think Aurelia might have been my grandmother's grandmother.  So I'm naming this Aurelia's Granddaughter, therefore essentially naming it after my grandmother, or so I hope!

 

I quilted in Preeti style, meaning a grid of wavy line stitch.  I used Aurifil thread 2425 Bright Pink.  The batting is Hobbs 80/20 and the piecing and quilting were both done with Schmetz needles.  I pressed with my new yellow Oliso iron.   

Aurelia is in issue 56 of Make Modern Magazine.  You can also find it in Preeti's etsy shop.  AND!  Preeti is generously giving away a copy to one of my readers; leave a comment by April 4th and I will choose a winner randomly.  My version is 60" square but the original pattern is 60" x 84".  I absolutely love this quilt! I hope Ms. L loves it too! Thanks, Preeti, for such a fun and fast pattern!

Purple Path: A Stay at Home Round Robin finish

Welcome to the finale of 2024's Stay At Home Round Robin!   I planned my quilt out in advance this year, using EQ8.  I used a variety of purple Island Batik scraps, with Almond as the background.  The dark purple is an Island Batik blender.  (It might look black but it's very dark purple.)  I cut it out with my Accuquilt and the 8" cube & cube companion dies.

I finished the binding on my quilt just a few days ago.  I left the quilt on the couch, and Husband found it and used it for a nap.  Always nice to see quilts being used!  And this was mere hours after it was finished.  (He ducked under it when he realized I was taking photos.)

Special thanks to Gail for coming up with such a great idea, and for inviting me to play along.  Also many thanks to the other hosts: Wendy, Anja, Kathleen, and Brenda.  Be sure to visit each of them to see their finished quilts!

I was so glad to see so many people sewing along with the Stay at Home Round Robin!  Link up with Gail at Quilting Gail for a final entry for the prizes from our generous sponsors.  We will do the prize drawings at the end of the month and will post the winners on the blogs of all of the hosts. This was my fourth Stay at Home Round Robin and I hope it's not my last!  This one might be my favorite.

 2024 Purple Path

2023 Flamingo Fun

 

 

2022 (Unnamed)

 

2021: Ursa Major