Purrfect Spots: Oh Baby - Island Batik July Challenge

Purrfect Spots: Oh Baby - Island Batik July Challenge: The challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors for the month of July was to make a baby quilt. This couldn't have come at a better ti...

Oh Baby - Island Batik July Challenge

The challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors for the month of July was to make a baby quilt. This couldn't have come at a better time for me. I learned in May that one of my good friends was expecting a little boy around the first of November. The minute she told me I knew I wanted to make her a quilt. I didn't realize that the July project was for a baby quilt!

What "purrfect" timing!

I looked through all my wonderful Island Batik Fabrics and decided on the Dotalicious Fire10" Squares as the colors was so bright and lovely. Great colors for a little guy! What do you think?

I went through the pack and choose ten colors. I chose the brightest and the ones that played well with each other. 

I wanted to do a disappearing four patch that I had seen on one of Jenny Doan's tutorials. (It looked like fun). So that is what I did. I cut the 10" squares into four 5" squares. I found a light blue fabric from some of my Island Batik stash and decided it would show off all the colors beautifully. 

I started sewing all the squares together and then cut them per the four patch directions (as seen on YouTube). This was so much fun!

I played around on my design wall and came up with several ideas. This was not the final one. But rather than lining the disappearing four patch blocks all going the same way, I started twisting them around and came up with this layout. It reminded me of Blocks - Baby Blocks and what little boy doesn't like to play with blocks!

I quilted it with a variegated thread from YLI Corporation as it really complimented the quilt. I did just simple blocks. 

This YLI variegated thread worked beautifully. I am so glad I had a chance to use it. 

And here is the finished "Oh Baby"' quilt! Since the 10" squares contain 2 pieces of fabric of each color, I used the second squares to make my binding. I hope my friend will like her quilt! What do you think?














Please be sure to check out the other "Oh Baby" Quilts posted by other Island Batik Ambassadors.  

Purrfect Spots - you are here!
Den Syende Himmel
Quilt'n Party
Pamela Quilts
Ark Angel Creations
Kathy's Kwilts and More
Desert Bloom Quilting
Freemotion by the River
Seams Like a Dream
Yellow Cat Quilt Designs
Quilting Affection Designs
Inquiring Quilter
Bejeweled Quilts
Sally's Quilting Corner
Inch Worm Fabrics
Kauffman Designs
Moosestash Quilting
Needle & Foot
Beaquilter
Cheryl Lynch Quilts
MaryMack's Blog
heARTs Creations
Kissed Quilts
The Quilt Rambler
Seams To Be Sew
Inspired Layers
Vicki's Crafts and Quilting
Masterpiece Quilting
Fun Threads
Meanderings Along Lizard Creek
Little Bunny Quilts
Webster Quilt
Sophie Junction
Slice of Pi Quilts

Thank you for stopping by. 

Until next time,
Nan

Curves Coming with Island Batik Fabric

This month the challenge for the  Island Batik ambassadors was to make a quilt using CURVES!  Some of us (and it use to be me) hated hearing that dreaded word. But you will never learn anything until you try. 

One of my favorite quilts (and it just happens to be made with lovely Island Batik Fabrics) is called "Bubblegum". I was apprehensive when I started it, but then I just had fun. I learned the secret is lots of pins!

So I was not too undaunted when the call came for CURVES! I had lots of pretty fabrics to choose from, but the choice was clear when I discovered the template I used for Bubblegum was the "purrfect" size for a Charm Square. 

I had thought about making a table topper using several of the middle layers in the Bubblegum pattern, but I only had two of each color and they were so pretty and I couldn't decide and on and on and on!

 
Presenting
The Drizzle Charm Pack from Island Batik.
Aren't the colors yummy?

 Look how "purrfect" this is!

All ready to sew - lots of pins!

 And the sewing begins!

And the sewing continues.

These are the leftovers! I made a quarter circle and a 1 1/2 " square!













 
Figuring out my pattern on the dining room table.

 

Came up with this. Notice the little squares in the border, but something was missing.

This is the picture taken off of my quilt wall. Don't you think the little squares in the middle add some pizazz?

 Here is a closer look.

Here I am all ready to quilt.  I am using the light aqua color of Aurifil Thread thanks to some wonderful suggestions and help from my fellow ambassadors.
 

However life happens. We just found out we are having company for the next couple of days (family) so we are excited about that and glad it worked out.  Everybody loves to come to the beach!

But my quilting has been put on hold. 
I promise I will share when it is done!




Meanwhile we welcome July on Saturday. Lots of big holidays, both US and Canada. There will be Fireworks too. This is just a reminder for all you pet owners. Please keep your pets in and away from all the noise as it frightens them so, particularly dogs. You can read more about Pet safety here.

I wish you a safe and happy holiday and I will publish my quilt as soon as it is quilted. It will be available as a pattern. I am calling it "Crumb Cakes".

Thank you for stopping by.

Until next time,

Nan
 

Purrfect Spots: Adventurous Applique with Island Batik

Purrfect Spots: Adventurous Applique with Island Batik: April is almost over and the theme for the month of April given to the Island Batik Ambassadors was "Adventurous Applique".  I ...

Adventurous Applique with Island Batik

April is almost over and the theme for the month of April given to the Island Batik Ambassadors was "Adventurous Applique".  I will admit that I have been doing applique all month long and it has kept me very busy, but I can't share that until October. Sorry.

However, I have done some different applique just for this project and it has been and will continue to be quite adventurous for me. 

As you may or may not know, I use to design cross stitch and needlepoint. One reason I started quilting was many of my designs could be used for applique in the quilting medium. So I took a needlepoint design (which was actually designed by my very talented and artistic sister) and turned it into an applique work. I have been wanting to do this for a long time and this was just the push I needed. Here is the hand painted canvas called "Two for Lunch" by Raffy L. 

Actually this is one in a series of four - this being for Spring. I plan on doing all four (at some point) and making a wall hanging. I just love these bunnies as they are so elegant. 

I looked through the goody box that I received from Island Batik and came up with these colors. They don't match hers exactly, but I had to work with what I was sent. What do you think?

No yellows, but I thought the oranges would be very acceptable and my sister agreed.  So I started tracing onto fusible applique and pulled out my applique sheet to begin the process of putting the design together. Here is the first part.

I am pleased but filling in the urn with all the greenery and fruit was definitely going to be a challenge. I found the easiest way to do it was to iron a piece of fusible applique to the different color fabrics, get out the scissors, start cutting the leaves and fruit then fuse them together on the sheet. Here is what I ended up with. I am pleased.

My next step will be to stitch the applique down and then quilt the background. I plan on adding beads to the bunnies (eyes), the urn, the leaves and fruit in the urn. I love bead work (and bling) and this will be so much fun. However, I won't be able to start that process until June. I will post pictures as I go along.

Be sure and check out all the other Island Batik Ambassadors Adventurous Applique posts as there are some fabulous designs this month. Here is the list:

Purrfect Spots - you are here!
Den Syende Himmel
Quilt'n Party
Pamela Quilts
Ark Angel Creations
Kathy's Kwilts and More
Desert Bloom Quilting
Freemotion by the River
Seams Like a Dream
Yellow Cat Quilt Designs
Quilting Affection Designs
Inquiring Quilter
Bejeweled Quilts
Sally's Quilting Corner
Inch Worm Fabrics
Kauffman Designs
Moosestash Quilting
Needle & Foot
Beaquilter
Cheryl Lynch Quilts
MaryMack's Blog
heARTs Creations
Kissed Quilts
The Quilt Rambler
Seams To Be Sew
Inspired Layers
Vicki's Crafts and Quilting
Masterpiece Quilting
Fun Threads
Meanderings Along Lizard Creek
Little Bunny Quilts
Webster Quilt
Sophie Junction
Slice of Pi Quilts

Thank you for stopping by. 

Until next time,
Nan

Purrfect Spots: March Mini Madness

Purrfect Spots: March Mini Madness: Welcome to my March Mini Madness Blog. As an Island Batik Ambassador, we were given the challenge to create a small project with Island ...

March Mini Madness

Welcome to my March Mini Madness Blog. As an Island Batik Ambassador, we were given the challenge to create a small project with Island Batik fabrics using paper piecing or English paper piecing (EPP). We were to create a project 24" x 24" or smaller. I like both although I do find that machine paper piecing can be somewhat frustrating to say the least.   I love hand work, so decided to go with EPP. 

Another reason I  chose EPP was I could stitch and watch all the basketball games of March Madness plus I could try out a new EPP pattern designed by Cindy Mccoy in The Quilt Pattern Magazine (TQPM). This pattern will appear in the April issue (Saturday).

I have only done hexagons with EPP, but her pattern includes squares, diamonds and half square triangles. I really wanted to give it a go. Isn't it beautiful?

 

I decided to go with blue and white and chose some lovely strips from my wonderful box of Island Batik goodies! I took some strips from the package of rolls on the left.

Aren't they pretty? And so I began, starting with the diamonds. I cut my templates out and laid them on the darkest blue strip.

I stitched the middle diamonds and then added the white squares to complete  my first step.                                        

 









My points matched and I was so excited I was eager to move to the next step. 





 

 

This step was a little harder for me at first but the more I stitched, the easier it got. 












 




It was really beginning to take shape now 
and I was delighted with what I was making. 

And this is where I am now on March 30th. I still have some steps to do and I will be stitching this weekend while watching the Final Four. 

I had planned on getting it finished, but March was a very unusual month with some ups and downs, so I had to put it on the back burner. But then if I had not done that,  I couldn't work on it for the final March Madness!!!

 I will share when it is finished.

You may have seen some of the other blogs that the Island Batik Ambassadors have posted about their Mini Madness quilts. There are some beautiful projects. I have the list below and I hope you will go and check them all out. 
 
Turid from Den Syende Himmel
Stephanie from Quilt’n Party
Pamela from Pamela Quilts
Anna from Ark Angel Creations
Kathy from Kathy’s Kwilts and More
Jessica from Desert Bloom Quilting
Connie from Freemotion by the River
Kate from Seams Like a Dream
Sharon from Yellow Cat Quilt Designs
Tina from Quilting Affection Designs
Jennifer from The Inquiring Quilter
Barb from Bejeweled Quilts
Sally from Sally’s Quilting Corner
Jeanette from Inch Worm Fabrics
Connie from Kauffman Designs
Joan from Moosestash Quilting
Bernadine from Needle and Foot
Bea from Beaquilter
Cheryl from Cheryl Lynch Quilts
Maryellen from Mary Mack’s Blog
Joyce from Hearts Creations
Marlene from Kissed Quilts
Karen from The Quilt Rambler
Marian from Seams to be Sew
Laura from Slice of Pi Quilts
Linda from Inspired Layers
Vicki from Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting
Nancy from Masterpiece Quilting
Carol from FunThreads Designs
Terri from Meanderings Along Lizard Creek
Alison from Little Bunny Quilts
Suzy from Adventurous Applique and Quilting
Jean-Sophie from Sophie Junction
Janet from Whispers of Yore

Thank you for stopping by.

Until next time,
Nan