Island Batik Ambassador - Hobbs Modern Challenge

May's challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors was to create a Modern Quilt that was used Hobbs Batting.  

There are lots of different interpretations of a Modern Quilt.  The Modern Quilt Guild defines a Modern Quilt as the following, “We define modern quilts as quilts that are functional, include bold colors, and are inspired by modern design. Minimalism, asymmetry expansive negative space, and alternate grid work are often a part of modern quilt compositions, as are improvisational piecing and solid fabrics.”

Many of the Modern Quilts are pieced quilts,  I took my Modern a different direction, I did mine as a raw edge applique quilt.   The batting and the fabrics I used in this quilt were given to me by Hobbs Batting and Island Batik.  The Island Batik Fabrics I used was leftover fabric from the Fall 2018, Ditty Collection. 

I designed this modern quilt myself using the Sue Pelland Designs, Hearts, and More Templates.  If you are not familiar with the Sue Pelland Designs templates, they are applique templates for rotary cutting using a 28mm cutter to cut around the curves.  The Hearts and More Templates allows you to cut applique pieces, such as Hearts, Circles, Paisley, and so much more.  This is the first time that I got to play with this set of templates, and it was so much fun.

My design for this quilt was to make three different panels.  These panels will have Hearts and Circles of different sizes floating around in the panels. 

Sue Pelland recommends fusing MistyFuse Fusible webbing on the back due to the softness and thinness of the fusible webbing.  With MisyFuse you fuse it to the back of your fabric before you cut. 

Once your MistyFuse is cooled and not tacky you can then start cutting your shapes with your templates. 

Once all my pieces were cut and placed on my long panels I then pressed them down with a hot iron.

Next, I tacked the shapes down with a nice blanket stitch with my Auriful Thread that matches perfectly.  

Once the panels applique was done, I then added thin strips in between the three panels to piece them together.

Now it was time to do a little ruler work on the longarm using the Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Bleached cotton batting since my quilt was mainly white.

I had a hard time deciding on a type of quilting design I want to do on it.  I finally decided to do random swirling lines throughout the quilt top.  Finishing off with the same color of binding as the middle strip pieces.   

This quilt was so much fun to make and I loved playing with the Sue Pelland Rotary Cut Applique templates and look forward to doing more with them in the future.

June challenges are just around the corner, but if you would like to catch up on all the other Island Batik Ambassador projects for the May you can click on the links below.  

Carolina Asmussen ~Carolina Asmussen

Gene Black ~ Gene Black

Pamela Boatright ~ PamelaQuilts

Connie K Campbell ~ Freemotion by the River

Anja Clyke ~ Anja Quilts

Tina Dillard ~ Quilting Affection Designs

Becca Fenstermaker ~Pretty Piney

Jennifer Fulton ~ Inquiring Quilter

Barbara Gaddy ~ Bejeweled Quilts by Barb

Dione Gardner-Stephen ~ Clever Chameleon

Sarah Goer ~ Sarah Goer Quilts

Vasudha Govindan ~ Storied Quilts

Lori Haase ~ Dakota City Quilter II

Joanne Hart ~ Unicornharts

Mania (Magdalini) Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for Quilts

Carla Henton ~ Creatin in the Sticks

Stephanie Jacobson ~ Steph Jacobson Designs

Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs

Joan Kawano ~ Moosestash Quilting

Kim Lapacek ~ Persimon Dreams

Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood

Leanne Parsons ~ Devoted Quilter

Bea Lee ~ BeaQuilter

Toby Lischko ~ Gateway Quilts & Stuff

Bill Locke ~ Studio Bill Locke

Denise Looney ~ For the Love of Geese

Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights

Sally Manke ~ Sally Manke

Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack's Blog

Kathleen McCormick ~ Kathleen McMusing

Carol Moellers ~ Carol Moellers Designs

Karen Neary ~ Sew Karen-ly Created

Lisa Nielsen ~ Lisa Lisa and the Quilt Jam

Jackie O’Brien ~ If These Threads Could Talk

Laura Piland ~ Slice of Pi Quilts

Michelle Roberts ~ Creative Blonde

Vicki Schlimmer ~ Vicki's Crafts and Quilting

Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail

Sherry Shish ~ Powered by Quilting

Anita Skjellanger ~ Quilt in a not-Shell

Laticia "Tish" Stemple ~ Tish's Adventures in Wonderland

Jennifer Strauser ~ Dizzy Quilter

Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations

Terri Vanden Bosch ~ Lizard Creek Quilts

Alison Vermilya ~ Little Bunny Quilts

Sandra Walker ~ mmm! quilts

Suzy Webster ~ Adventurous Applique and Quilting

(Debora) Anne Wiens ~ Seams like a Plan

Geraldine Wilkins ~ Living Water Quilter

Janet Yamamoto ~  Whispers of Yore

See you next month,

Tina

"Designs to Inspire"

Adventurous Applique

I just finished my Island Batik project for April just in time.  This month's theme was "Adventurous Applique".  I started this project earlier this month and I finished quilting and binding this project this week.

In February, I picked up a new ruler set, with project book, for the Bloomin' Cogwheel Rulers. So I wanted to try something different this month to make a couple plates with the new rulers.  I had no real plan, just started looking at some of the plate designs in the book.  I knew I wanted to make something that was small, maybe something for a table.  After, deciding on a idea from the book, I needed to pick the fabric, which is very hard at times for me.  

Once my fabric was picked out I made a couple strip sets out of my Island Batik Stash builder rolls.

  

Using the grooves in the cogwheel rulers, I began cutting all my blades.  

Then I began to make the points on the alternating blades, and rounded the ends of the other blades. 

Once the points were made I started sewing all the blades together to make partial plates.  Which is a little different.  Each plate was made different, then placed on a piece of background fabric for the applique part.  

Using Superior Threads, Fantastico multi-color thread, I machine appliqued the plates and extra blades to the fabric.

The finished project looks like this, just little sample of what I can make from the Bloomin' Cogwheel Rulers.  I'm looking forward to getting away from applique, and getting back to piecing next month for May's Challenge.

Make sure you check out the other Island Batik Ambassadors fantastic projects for this month.

Nan from Purrfect Spots Designs

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 Seam 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 

Also, make sure you check out my first appearance in the QuiltMaker's 100 Blocks Vol 15, magazine due in the stores tomorrow May 1st. I have a cute little bear for you.  I will be blogging and giving away of one copy to one lucky person starting tomorrow.

Tina

#adventurousapplique #islandbatik

Homemade Light Table!

After several years of using my window as a light box and not wanting to spend money on a expensive light box. My wonder husband made me a wonderful new a portable light table box in just a few hours.

After a run to our local Home Depot he came back with a piece of plexi glass, several 3/8"x3"x24" Oak Balsa Wood sheets, and a couple lights.  

Out of these supplies he built this wonder new light box that I have been needing in a long time. 

Getting the lights to the brightness I need was a trick.  After several attempts with small portable lights we found some nice Bright LED Lights at Lowes.  I would of got 2 of the long lights but they only had one, so I have to go with the next size down.  These are nice since they link together so after I plug it in, I just have to one touch the button then they both light up. 
 



I have already used this box several times on varies applique projects.   

Would love your hear comments on this new toy in my studio. 

 Have a Great Weekend!

Tina

A New Applique Toy!

I have a new applique toy, and it is so much fun.  I pick up the Silhouette Cameo, and it so much fun to play with.  So far in the last couple weeks my applique projects have gone much faster.

As I'm designing in Adobe Illustrator I have save the template images as a SVG and the import the images in Silhouette.  Saving as SVG saves the image as its original size so I don't have to resize.

The Silhouette software is really easy to learn.  I found a lot of great information on internet and YouTube, if I needed a question answered.

The cutting mat is nice, it has a sticky surface to help keep the fabric or paper from moving.

To prepare the fabric, first spray the fabric with starch to get it stiff like paper.  Or you can use Terial Magic, which is a water soluble product that makes your fabric feel and act like paper, and stops the fabric from fraying.  It is easy to use, just spray, air dry, and iron.  After the fabric is ready, you can put on your fusible webbing.

Place the piece of fabric with fusible webbing down on the mat, but remember to remove the paper backing. Then place the mat in the Cameo, press the load mat button.

Then in the Silhouette software, tell the how you want to cut the design.  Then tell it to start and it will cut the pieces for you.

When the cutting is done you take the mat out and use the scraper to peel back the fabric off the mat carefully.

The pieces that are cut match the template pieces exactly in size, and have the fusible already on them so all I have to do is put them on the fabric.

In a couple hours, I cut over 200 pieces for my latest project. What a time saver.  I would have spent a day or two tracing, cutting the fabrics out.

I love my new silhouette! 

Back to work,

Tina