The items used to make the quilt in this post were given to me by Island Batik as part of their Ambassador program.
Hi Guys,
Welcome to my Island Batik October challenge post, This month we got to work with some cool new thread collections from Aurifil Thread all of which are highlighting some of the endangered species on our planet. The collection i recieved is the African Wild Dog, which i know very little about but they have awesome ears! They can be found in southern Africa and the current population is 1400, they can also run upto 44MPH matching a greyhound. The set consists of 3 40wt spools all yellow in colour (2105,2115,1135)
The brief this month was to design a project inspired the the animal, I used my favourite design program, Quilt Assistant to create this supersized geometric Foundation paperpieced pattern.
The fabric, thread and batting used to make this stocking were given to me by Island Batik as part of their Ambassador 2021 program.
Hey Guys,
Welcome to my Island Batik July post, This months challenge is “Never too Early” For this project we had to make something Christmas, I chose a oversized stocking, you cant tell how big this is in these photo’s, i must get another shot holding them when the rain stops!
I used a selection of pink fabrics and my Accuquilt Go 2 1/2″ strip cutter along with the Go Cube to cut my strips and squares, it makes the cutting out so much quicker!
I added a little applique tree detail to each side which i fused onto Heat N Bond lite and then onto the stocking and straight stitched down 1/8″ from the edge (so once washed a couple of times, the edges will fray).
Fot the piecing and quilting i used Hobbs 80/20 Batting, Schmetz Microtex Chrome needles and Aurifil 50wt thread in colour 2024
I bound the top edge and added a little pom pom trim.
Its been another really fun make! i think im going to put this away and gift it to mom with her presents inside on christmas day xx
The items used to make the quilt in this post were given to me by Island Batik as part of their Ambassador 2020 program
Hey Guys,
Today is my stop on the Island Batik Ambassador “Inspired by nature” Blog hop. Today im sharing with you a brand new collection called “Love and Kisses” designed by Sherry Shish. A lovely selection of blues, pinks and purples mostly with hearts incorporated in the deisgns. These will be shipping to stores in December. (Check out the website images here)
My Inspiration for this project was the night sky, were seeing alot of it this time of year and its so pretty looking up at it, seeing all the stars shining. I used the blues of the collection for the background and then used this lovely Simple Star pattern by Irina of Zephyrskies to create some pink and purple stars. This pattern is a great beginner project for any newbie to FPP, it comes with 2 different sized stars, 6″ and 12″ and consists of 3 templates with just 3 sections in each and is a free download too! you can get your hands on this pattern here in Irina’s Payhip store.
Island batik Ambassadors are sharing lots of lovely new fabric collections during this blog Hop and island batik are also doing weekly giveaways over on their blog, For your chance to win one of these bundles click here and please do check out my fellow Ambassadors to see what lovelies they have been making too
Most of the items used in post were given to me by Island batik as part of their Ambassador 2020 program
Hey Guys,
Welcome to my October Ambassador challenge. Meet my latest make ” Happy Mess” This Month was all about showcasing Aurifil thread. I decided to do some fun improv applique using Island Batik solids. I love working with solids, they always make a project look more modern, and having been an ambassador for the last 2 years, ive gotton quite a good little collection going. The colours are beautiful! so vibrant and fun!
I literally had no plan with this one at all, I started by piecing some scraps together of the white and grey solids. I added a few decorative stitches using my Janome Horizon and then started cutting shapes out the the coloured solids, I arranged them onto the background again randomly and stitched them down using blanket and straight stiches with 50wt thread. Where i straight stitched i fringed the edges to add more texture.
Once i had all my shapes stitched down i started to decorate some more by hand using colours from my Aurifil 12wt collection, this is my favourite of the thread weights and my go to for hand quilting.
I used 4 different thread weights in total, 50wt, 12wt, 28wt and floss which i used to hand tie the layers at the end.
I also used Hobbs 100% cotton batting and Shmetz microtex needles for this project. Its been a really fun make and quite exciting not knowing how it would turn out, I hope you like like my happy mess too 🙂
The items used to make this post were supplied to me by Island batik as part of their Ambassador 2020 program.
Hey Guys,
Im back with another Island Batik challenge and this month is a really lovely one! The challenge is “Christmas in July” with Accuquilt. We got given an Accuquilt GO! Me fabric cutter starter set and with this we had to make a gift for a special person and also gift them the GO! Me cutter too! This set consists of the cutting machine, 2 dies to cut 2 different sized HST’s and a cutting mat. It really is a great starter set for a newbie quilter especially if you havent managed to get your hands on all the fancy tools yet.
I knew straight away i wanted to gift mine to my niece Katie, she has recently gotten into sewing and got her first sewing machine last year, and this cutter set will set her well on her way to making her first quilt and more!
So for the gift i decided to make her a wall hanging for her bedroom, Purple is her favourite colour and amazingly i recieved a bundle of stash builder rolls in guess what colour?…. Yes purple!
I made the wall hanging in the style of a banner with a heart in the middle, the Go! cutter made quick work of the cutting out and i had it whipped up in no time! For this project I also used Hobbs 80/20 batting, Aurifil 50wt thread and Schmetz needles.
Now all that was left for me to do was to get gifting! We met up in our local park on Sunday were we had a lovely family walk and i was able to suprise her with this fab gift, I think she was pleased and I cant wait to see what she makes 🙂 xx
Thankyou so much Island batik and Accuquilt for this absolutely lovely and thoughtful challenge, It was so fun to make and even better to gift!xx
The items featured in this post were gifted to me by Island Batik as part of their ambassador 2020 program.
Hey Guys,
Its that time again when I recieve very happy mail from Island Batik in the form of 2 giant boxes filled with goodies. This is the second and final shipment of the year filled to the brim with new fabric and awsome products from industry partners and will see me through the rest of the years challenges. Here’s a little peak at what i got…….
A super fun and bright fat quarter bundle of a collection called Color Pop designed by Kathy Engle.
A gorgeous (and i think my favourite from this this box) 2.5″ strip pack of Mandala Magic designed by Jackie Kunkel of Canton Village Quilt Works.
A selection of basics to tie in with the fabric collections we have received. A total of 6 yards.
4 yards each of black, white and grey solids and 4 yards of Almond from the neutrals range.
2 packs of these stash builder rolls, each strip is 5″ wide x WOF, you get 4 pieces in each roll and 5 rolls in each pack. These come in super handy!
And finally on the fabric front, I recieved these 2 suprise packages that I can not share with you just yet, but do stay tuned for the reveal later on in the year. Now onto industry partners…….
6 spools of Aurifil Thread 50wt in colours 2600, 2625, 2692, 4026, 1133 and 2134.
A selection of Hobbs Batting, Fusible cotton, 80/20 Black, Silk blend and Fusible batting strips, I haven’t tried any of the fusibles yet so I’m super excited for that!
A new industry partner this year is By Annie, I got to choose one of her patterns and received the full bag making kit, I’m looking forward to making this one.
Another new industry partner this year is Studio 180 Design ltd, I received Deb Tucker’s Diamond Rects ruler and will be using this one very soon in our next challenge.
And last but definately not least, I recieved the Accuquilt Go Me fabric cutter starter set. The challenge for this one is so lovely and I cant wait to share it with you, I’m working on it right now x
So thats everything I recieved in my second box, i’m once again blown away by all the stuff I recieved! Thankyou so much Island batik and industry partners Hobbs Batting, Accuquilt, Studio 180 design Ltd, By Annie and Aurifil thread! Im excited for the scond half of the year and I hope you will follow along with me to see what I make.
The items used in the post were given to me by Island Batik as part of their Ambassador 2020 program.
Hey Guys,
Today is my stop on the Island Batik Ultimate Home décor Blog Hop and I’m sharing a brand new fabric collection with you called Smooch! This gorgeous collection by Kathy Engle is shipping to stores this month! I absolutely love how all these colours mix together, they give me real spring vibes!
I recieved a half yard bundle of the whole collection and two 2 yard cuts of a light and dark from the collection also, for this challenge we had to create a Home Décor item featuring as many prints from the collection as possible, I ended up using all of them in this project and a little white and grey from the solids line too. I used a new pattern I’m working on called Tangled which is a foundation paper pieced pattern and will come in two sizes, i used the smaller templates for this project to make my cushion. Each block is made up of 4 templates and i used 4 blocks to fit my 18″ cushion pad.
As always i pieced and quilted using Aurifil 50wt thread, colour 2410 from the Sardina Pink colour builder box which is a lovely pale pink, I also used Hobbs 100% cotton batting and Schmets microtex chrome neddles in 80/12.
The back of pillow is constructed in a simple envelope design with a binded edge.
I had so much fun working with this collection, i think it was my favourite from the whole first box!
Island Batik are running giveaways throughout this whole blog hop over on their blog. For your chance to win some of these gorgeous new collections click here.
And be sure to check out my fellow Ambassador’s projects, There has been so many gorgeous makes already and still more to come!
The items used to make the quilt in this post were given to me by Island batik as part of the 2020 ambassador program
Hey Guys,
April brings a new Island Batik ambassador challenge and this month is all about creative borders and binding. For this project, we had to create a quilt 36″ x 36″ or larger and be as creative as we can with borders/binding. The fabrics I used were:
Almond – Neutrals range (for the background)
Fern leaves – Basics range
Carnation – Mini Flower
Mustard – Basics range
Dot – Dreamsical (one of my favourite prints)
Lemonade – Circles
Thistle Bloom – Wildflower (for the backing)
White – Solids range
I wanted to do foundation paper piecing for this challenge (as i always want to do foundation paper piecing!) I started out with my Unicorn pattern for the centre piece which i enlarged to be 17″, and created a simple modern border to go around to tie in the the modern feel of the quilt block.
For the outer 3D border i used solid white 5″ squares folded corner to corner twice to create the prairie points and 4 1/2″ cirlcles cut in half to create the half moon shapes. I then basted them evenly around the quilt and sandwiched them imbetween the layers and topstitched around the edge to finish.
Thankyou Island Batik and industry partners, its been another super fun challenge as always, Stay tuned for next month where all Ambassadors will be sharing brand new fabric lines! x
The items used in this post were given to me by Island Batik as part of the 2020 Ambassador program.
Hey guys,
Its that time again when I get to complete a new monthly challenge as an Island Batik Ambassador. This month we had to use the BOB (Block on board) die from Accuquilt we received in our January box. I got Hatties Choice.
The brief this month was to create a quilt using the primary block design, I decided to go quite uniform with my fabrics and just adding a few pops of colour to add a little more interest, the fabrics I used are Grey, White and Black from the solids line, Mustard, Bluebird, Fern Leaves and Lemonade from the basics line.
The Accuquilt Go cutter is great for making a quilt with a continuous pattern, you are able to cut all the pieces in no time at all! and each piece is always perfectly cut, I find my self using it more and more.
The die board is clearly labelled and is so simple to use! it even gives you instructions on what size to cut your fabric.
For this project, i also used Hobbs Batting Premium Cotton batting. I pieced and quilted with Aurifil 50Wt 2024 and Shmetz Microtex Chrome 80/12 needles.
As always, its been another super fun make, thankyou so much Island batik, Accuquilt, Hobbs Batting, Aurifil and Schmetz for supplying all the awesome tools to work with.
Thankyou so much for reading guys! I hope you are all staying safe! xx
Today is my stop on the Island Batik Log Cabin Blog Hop. I’m sharing the gorgeous Bloomers collection designed by Kathy Engle. Its a lovely selection of pinks and purples with a couple of blues and low volumes added into the mix. This super pretty collection is shipping to stores this month
So the brief this month was to make a quilt using a log cabin design using as many prints from the collection as possible, I managed to use all of them 🙂 I also used white and grey solids.
Log cabins are my favourite! There are so many different ways to make a quilt using this technique, and I LOVE all of them! I was going to go for the pineapple block but for this project I wanted to go for a more modern design.
I used Lemonade from the basics range for the centre of each block which is a gorgeous vibrant yellow and I thought it went well with the colours in this collection.
By changing the colour placement on each block from light to dark gives the illusion of different sized squares and gives the quilt a cool modern look.
For this project I also used Hobbs Heirloom Natural 100% cotton batting, one of my favourites
I used Schmetz Chrome Microtex 80/12 needles for the piecing and quilting. The microtex needles are great for tightly woven fabrics like Island Batiks as they have a super sharp point and pierce the fabric so easily. I also used Aurifil 50wt in colour 2410 which is a light pink colour and part of the Sardina Colour Builder box. I quilted wavy lines all over using my walking foot.
I love how my quilt turned out, I had so much fun sewing with this lovely new fabric and I cant wait to see what the other Ambassadors make 😉 Head over to Island batiks website here to have a look at all the new collections and for all the Ambassador links.
Island Batik are also giving away a 10″ stack and a 2 1/2″ strip pack of another new collection called Ancient Etchings designed by Jackie Kunkel, so check out this link here to enter for your chance to win! Good Luck! x
Unicornharts 