March It's All Up to You Challenge - Capped 60 Runner

March’s Island Batik Ambassador Challenge is called "It’s All Up to You," meaning the Ambassadors have a month to create any project of any size, theme, and technique using Island Batik fabrics. This gives us a chance to have a little fun this month.

What was I going to make this month? I knew I had the Sunlit Garden Strip Set and Coordinating fabrics, including Egg White from the Neutrals collection and Vibes from the Marvelous Multis. But what could I do with Strip sets? I wanted to make a new spring table runner for my coffee table.

While reviewing my Studio 180 Design Technique Sheets, I discovered a Star 60 technique that I enjoy working with called the Capped 60. I then opened Adobe Illustrator on my computer, where I kept all my Star 60 shapes, and located a project that needed a few adjustments for a table runner. Now that I had the design prepared, it was time to tackle this quick and easy project.

The project started with the creation of strip sets. I took half of the stack of fabric, cut the strips in half, and began sewing the strips together randomly, pressing all the seams open as I went. This strip set-making method is known as the Mirrored Image Capped 60.

With all my strip sets prepared, I began cutting my oversized Capped 60 units from the half-strip width sets.

Once they are cut out, I need to trim the sides and bottoms of the triangles to the size of the finished capped 60-unit size.

After trimming down the fabric, I divided the stack in half. I then began arranging the units and companion triangles, which I had cut from strips of the Egg White fabric. I randomly placed one stack of the units on one side, replicated that arrangement on the opposite side, and added the Egg White companion triangles down the middle to create rows.

I created half triangles from rectangles and used the Star 60 tool to complete the rows by adding them to each end. I carefully sew the triangles together to maintain my arrangement on the design board.

Pressing the seams is essential for keeping everything flat while I work with these units. Once I have sewn all the triangles into a row, I can add the half-triangles to each end of the row to square it off.

After assembling two rows, I carefully sew them together. I repeat this process for all the rows to create a long runner. To finish off the quilt top, I add a thin border.

I used Schmetz needles and Aurifil thread in my Bernina sewing machine to create the quilt top.

I quilted the runner using Hobbs batting on my Bernina Q16 sit-down machine, trying out a circle ruler for the first time. It took me a little while to learn how to use it, but once I found my rhythm, the process went quickly. Considering this was my first attempt, I am pleased with how the quilting turned out. For the back and binding, I chose Island Batik Vibes from the Marvelous Multis collection.

Thank you for joining me as I shared my March project. Be sure to check out the other Island Batik Ambassadors listed below to see what they are working on.

Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs
Renee Atkinson ~ Pink Tulip Quilting
Susan Deshensky ~ Lady Blue Quilts Studio
Brittany Fisher ~ Bobbin with Brittany

Kimberly Flannagan ~ Kimberly’s Quilts

Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts

Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for quilts

Kim Jamieson-Hirst ~ Chatterbox Quilts
Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs
Connie Kresin Campbell ~ Freemotion by the River
Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood

Denise Looney ~ A Quiltery
Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights
Susan Michaels ~ Dragonfly Fiberart
Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa’s Quilting Passion
Sarah Pitcher ~ Pitcher’s Boutique

Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail
Carol Stanek ~ Stitch with Color
Solomae Stoycoff ~ Cuddle Cat Quiltworks
Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations
Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt

Journey to Nebula - Rock Candy - Cutting the Star 60 Way!

 

Now that I have finished my Jaw Breaker pillow, it was time to move onto the next project in the Journey 2 Nebula Quilt Along.

The next project is Rock Candy Tabletopper.  This is a fun quilt that is made by combining diamonds and side triangles.  The pattern calls for the use of 5" charm squares. I choose to use black background Island Batik fabric and 6 Coordinating fabrics; all were cut into 2 1/2" strips.  The reason I used 2 1/2" strips over the 5" charm squares is that not every 5" charm square package is actually 5", and we needed to cut each of the squares in half.

I started cutting 36 diamonds from the 6 coordinating fabric strips using my Studio 180 Star 60 tool. 

Right Handed

Left Handed

Starting by trimming off a 60° angle off one of the ends of the strips.  

Right Handed

Left Handed

Next, I located the 2 1/2" diamond point guidelines and aligned the guidelines on the strip edges and cut. Continue to cut 36 diamonds from the coordinating fabric strips.

Right Handed

Left Handed

Finally, I trimmed off the tips by lining up the 4 1/2" horizontal line so that it lines up on the bottom of the diamond. 

Right Handed

Left Handed

Now it is time to cut out the background side triangle pieces. Placing the strip on your cutting mat.  If you are right-handed, you will be cutting from left to right. Left-hander will cut from right to left.  Position the 2 1/2" horizontal line of the tool on the bottom of the strip and the tip line on the strip's top.  Cut up one side of the strip and down the other.

Right Hand

Left Hand

Rotate the tool 180°, so the tip is facing you this time. Realign the guideline used previously on the top and bottom of the strip and align it along the trimmed edge. Cut the next triangle shape. Continue rotating, aligning, and cutting until you get 24 triangles. 

Now the fun part begins with arranging my pieces into a pretty table topper.  Stay tuned; I will be sharing my finish table topper soon.

Journey to Nebula - Finishing Jawbreaker pillow

I'm a little behind on my Journey 2 Nebula projects; life seems to change your plans when it involves quilting.  

The last blog post on my Journey 2 Nebula project was cutting Jawbreaker triangles using the Studio 180 Design Star 60 tool. Read the first post Here.

Then I arranged the triangles according to the directions spinning the triangles as you would be arranging your blocks for a One Block Wonder Quilt, so they make a shape, but you will also notice that they are also set up rows. Adding the extra pieces to fill in the gaps.

After I had the pillow top arranged with the triangles, it was time to start sewing the blocks together.  Starting with the first row, sewing each triangle to each other. 

Once I had the triangle pieces sewn into individual rows, I started sewing all the rows together to match up all the seams.

Once this was done, I trimmed the pillow top to be 15 1/2" square and add the border, and quilted it.  With this pillow top, the directions were to add a 2 1/4" binding to finish it off.

Here are the finished Pillow and the coordinating  Seaside table runner and Lucky Charm Pillow top. 

Now off to get my new Journey to Nebula project.

Tina

Journey to Nebula Quilt Along - Jawbreaker - Cutting Star 60 way

 

Week 5 in the Journey 2 Nebula has started with the making of the "Jawbreaker" pillow by Jaybird Quilts. When finished, this pillow will measure 20".  

This pattern is written by Hex N More Ruler by Jaybird Quilts, but I will be using the Studio 180 Design Star 60 tool to do all my cutting. I'm using fabrics from the Island Batik "Islander Batik" Collection that I have been using for the last 2 projects.

The pattern calls for eight 2 1/2" x WOF strips, so I pulled out eight coordinating strips that I could use as strip sets. 

Then I began making four strip sets.

Once my strip set was stitched, I press the seams open to reduce the bulk.

Right Handed

Left Handed

Now that I have my strip sets ready, it was time to start cutting the triangle pieces out using the Star 60 tool, starting by carefully placing the strip on your mat.  If you are looking for the direction on the 

Position the mark at the tip of the tool with the top of the strip set and 4 1/2" horizontal line on the tool on the bottom edge of the strip set. Right Handed quilters will move from left to right. Left Handed quilters will cut from right to left.  Trim up one of the sides and down the other to get your first triangle.

The cutting technique we will be using can be found in the Star 60 instructions under the Cutting the Side Triangles.  Link to the Star 60 PDF Instructions.

Right Handed

Left Handed

Rotate your Star 60™ tool 180°, so the tip of the tool is facing you. Aligning the tip line on the bottom edge and the 4 1/2" Horizontal line on the top edge of the strip set. Trim up the side. 

Continue this process of rotating and aligning with all the strip sets.

Now all my triangles are cut using my Studio 180 Design Star 60™ tool.  Now its time to play with the pieces and their arrangement.  Next week I will show you my finished product.

Tina

Journey to Nebula - Lucky Charm Finishing

 

Welcome back to my Journey 2 Nebula blog posts. I got a little behind on my blog for Week #3, finishing the "Lucky Charm" pillow.  If you would like to see how I cut my Half Hexagons pieces check out my blog post on Cutting the Star 60 way, HERE.

The first thing I did after I finished cutting out my pieces was to arrange them the way I wanted the pillow to look in the front. 

Once I had them all arranged, I still had 10 of the Half Hexagons leftover, which will be filled in on the sides.

I found the halfway mark on the Half Hexagon pieces and cut all 10 pieces vertically.

Then place them on the sides of the pieces.  I choose one color of the Half Hexagons to give them all a border effect.

I figured out a way to make the stitch of the row go faster and to stay organized.  I started by pulling two rows that I had placed on my small design board and placed them into stacks. 

I then started stitching the Half Hexagon pieces from each of the stacks one from the first stack.  Once the first pieces where sewn, I then grabbed pieces from the second stack.

Once I had the second match piece sewn, I snipped the first row pieces off and Pressed all the seams open.

Then continued the stitch on the next piece from the first stack. Repeating the steps over and over until the rows were complete, pressed thoroughly.  Then started sewing the next couple rows until all the rows were ready to be sewn together.

Once my rows were ready to be sewn together, the process of sewing the rows went fast.

My pillow-top is now complete, ready to quilted.

Here are my finished pillow and the back of the pillow.  I had fun machine quilting this project; these projects have been great for practicing my skills.  

I can't wait until today to start my next project in the Journey to Nebula Quilt Along.

Tina