Island Batik Ambassador's Creative Christmas Stockings Challenge

This month the Island Batik Ambassadors were challenge to make Christmas Stockings.  I recently received the Accuquilt Stocking Die and I knew it would be perfect to help me make my stocking.

When I was digging through my fabrics I found this pretty green and blue snowflake fabric.  It's not a traditional Christmas fabric, but I knew my snowmen would sparkle on it.

I decided to put snowmen on my quilt using the Accuquilt 2", 3" and 5" circle dies as well as the Holiday Accessory die.  

I then applied fusible to the back of some cream fabric as well as scraps I picked out for the accessories.  Finding just the right fabric for the carrot nose was fun.

I then applied the applique pieces and fused them in place.

I have a great love for rick rack.  It's such fun to use and provides a pop of additional color and texture.  I decided to carefully sew a piece into the stocking seam to add a little extra zip.  I'm glad I took the time because I love how it turned out!

To secure my snowmen I stitched about 1/16 inch away from the edges using a navy blue Aurifil thread.  I chose navy instead of black because I thought it was be a less stark contrast with the background fabric.  I also added eyes and mouth with a Pigma pen.

I also added a small loop of rick rack to the top of the seam to use as a hanger for the stocking.

All done!  Now to decide who to give it to so I can add a name.

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

100 Days of Scrappy Patchwork Day 4

This block feels like its exploding out from the center to me.  Like a firework.  It's made from my beautiful Island Batik scraps that I cut using my 5" Qube from Accuquilt.

Here is how I started the design.

Complete!

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

100 Days of Scrappy Patchwork Day 3

The first two blocks I made using my Island Batik scraps and my Accuquilt 5" Qube was a 3 unit by 3 unit block like a nine-patch.  For this block I wanted to explore what happened when I used those long skinny triangles to make sort of an outer frame.

Here's where I started off.

The dark gray here is a solid fabric.  It is still from Island Batik and great to work with.  It's fun to sprinkle it into these blocks.

I decided to add pink accent triangles to make your eye zoom around the block.

All done!

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

100 Days of Scrappy Patchwork Day 2

For this block I played around with square in a square units for the corners using my pieces cut from Island Batik scraps and my AccuQuilt 5 inch Qube.  I have discovered that I didn't cut enough center squares for these.  I'll need to cut more.  I also had fun putting that time green on the outside of the purple trapezoids.

And the completed block.  This is so much fun.  I can't wait to lay out the next block!

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

100 Days of Scrappy Patchwork Introduction

I've decided to embark on one of those 100 day journeys.  Maybe.  It might last 100 days.  Or it might not.  We will see when I run out of scraps (yeah, right), or I run out of patience or the quilt gets too big!  Maybe there will be more than one?

I have an overflowing Island Batik scrap bin.  So...what to do with it?  In the past I have cut all my scraps into 1 1/2" squares or 2 1/2" half square triangles.  I wanted to do something different.

I have all three AccuQuilt Qubes that are 5".  There are 16 die shapes that can be used together to create blocks.  I also have all of them at 8", but many of my scraps are small so I wanted to use a smaller size.  

I spent about 4 hours pressing all the pieces.  Then cut for 4 hours.  I haven't made it through a quarter of the scraps, but, well, I got tired of cutting!  And I wanted to sew.  I can cut more later as I see what I'm using up first.

I decided on gray for my background.  I cut lots of the different shapes in sets of 4 or 8.  I'm a symmetrical girl at heart and knew I needed to have an even amount of pieces.

Now it was time to play!  And it was such fun picking out this first block.

I started with the yellow center square.  Then I added the green and purple print.  Then the big purple triangles and finally some yellow and red in the corners (yes, that's a really light yellow).

I then had fun sewing it into it's finished block!

What fun!  Time to go pick out another block!  This is going to be fun.

I hope you get to quilt today.

Suzy

Alabama Beauty Accuquilt Die and Patterns!

Accuquilt has a new die for the Alabama Beauty block!  I designed two of the patterns that go with this beautiful curved pieced block that you can get on the Accuquilt website.  These quilts of course are make with beautiful Island Batik fabrics.

The first quilt is called Modern Alabama.  Who knew this pattern could look modern?

The second quilt is Spring in Alabama.  It was a really fun project to use up scraps.

I was amazed at how easily these curved blocks went together!

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

Island Batik Ambassador's It's In The Bag Challenge

This month the Island Batik Ambassadors are teaming with byannie.com to create bags!  I love when we get to create bags.  This year I selected the Switchback pattern and used fabrics from the gorgeous Baroque collection from Island Batik.

Here is the kit I received in my Island Batik Ambassador box with all the needed materials for my bag.

Here is the front flap all complete!  It's a good think I have tons of colors of Aurifil thread so I could match the threads to the fabric.

When the directions call for you to remove the zipper stop I get my husband involved.  Thanks honey!

For the top of the strap I decided to add some decorative stitching to hold down the edge because the wrinkles were driving me crazy.

By Annie's has great Add On Videos for this pattern which really helped me with the tricky steps.

Look at all the amazing pockets on the inside!

This bag can also be worn as a backpack which is most likely how I will choose to wear it.  

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy