Day One - Squiggles, Dots and Lines Blog Hop

Welcome to Day One of the Squiggle, Dots, and Lines Blog Hop. This week, five Studio 180 Design Certified Instructors will share beautiful and creative projects they have made with Deb Tucker's Studio 180 Design's newest collection, "Squiggles, Dots, and Lines," with Island Batik. The blog hop will include small projects that feature one of Studio 180's design tools and techniques.

Let me start by introducing myself to all the newcomers to my blog. My name is Tina Dillard; I'm a Certified Instructor, author, and designer under Quilting Affection Designs. My two partners in crime in the image above are my sewing buddies, Anna and Lucy. I'm so happy you are here, and I can show you my project. Additionally, I have an announcement later in this blog.

I am very excited to be part of this blog hop again because I love this newest collection, Squiggle, Dots, and Lines. The fabric collection is one of my new favorites because it features bold and bright colors, including various greens, blues, and purples.

Just days before being asked to participate in this blog hop, I was playing with a new design for a table topper that uses the Star 60 Tool and Techniques. When Studio 180 Design asked for volunteers for this Blog Hop, I knew I wanted to make this design to test it out with these fabrics. This was not the first time I had played with the Squiggle, Dots, and Lines fabric collection since I designed a pattern around this collection; more about that later in this blog. 

I used the fabrics I had left from that project: four different values of blues, two greens, and one purple. For the white background, I used an Island Batik neutral called Glaze.

The small hexagon project, which I called Radiant Light Table Topper, features the Star 60 and Capped 60 units, measuring about 23" inches. However, I'm using the Capped 60 units differently in this project. I'm not using them as regular units; I made them as side triangles for the Star 60 units instead of the regular solid piece side triangles. This adds some interest to the block, and depending on how you place your fabric colors, it adds some separation between blocks. I want to highlight the center of the table topper and the six partial hexagon blocks on the outer edges.

As I worked on the fabric placement in the project, I knew I wanted to use dark purple and a variety of blues as the borders. The center diamond flowers were created using two different greens: the lighter color in the center of the project and then the darker green on the outer edges. The white and light blue background added highlights and outer borders for the hexagon project.

I finished the quilt using some straight-line quilting on my sewing machine. Which shows off the shape of the project.

Now that this project is complete, I love how it turned out. I have a good feeling that it will become a pattern later this year. What do you think?

Special Announcement

As I told you earlier in this blog, this was not my first time using the Squiggle, Dots, and Line Fabric Collection. In early 2023, the Studio180 Design team and other designers asked me to create a pattern for this new collection. Today, after lots of hard work behind the scenes, I would like to announce I'm releasing this new pattern called "Midnight Snowflake."

This pattern allows you to enjoy the beauty of "Midnight Snowflakes" as they twist and turn on the ground. It uses the Studio 180Design Wedge Star to make twisted wedge blocks and combines them with other fundamental tools to create secondary blocks. Combine them with this new fabric collection to produce a stunning quilt top.

This pattern is now available as a physical or digital copy on my website, quiltingaffection.com. If you are a shop owner and wish to purchase the pattern for your shop, please check out the wholesale page on my website.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Check your local quilt shop for the "Squiggle, Dots, and Lines" fabric collection, which is arriving now. If they don't have it, ask if they can order it. 

Please return tomorrow as the blog hop continues with my fellow CI Jackie O'Brien from If These Threads Could Talk. The schedule of featured Certified Instructor bloggers is below; click on the links below.

Friday, March 8 - Welcome on the Studio 180 Design Blog

Monday, March 11 – Tina (me) of Quilting Affection Designs

Tuesday, March 12 – Jackie O'Brien of If These Threads Could Talk

Wednesday, March 13 – Phyllis Fay of Tucker University 

Thursday, March 14 – Diana Mann of Murgaboo Quilts

Friday, March 15 – Toni Reynolds of Love Pieced Perfection

Saturday, March 16 – Wrap Up on the  Studio 180 Design blog