Random Inspiration

I love how the pieces of this tree fit together.  Could be interesting to do a quilt this way.

I love this pattern!

Flooring at the airport.  There are some great textures in these tiles.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Island Batik Ambassadors A Piece Of Blog Hop and Giveaways!

It's my turn for the Island Batik Ambassadors A Piece Of Blog Hop!  

A Piece of...?  A piece of EVERYTHING in my case.  I received the amazing Little Sir, Little Miss collection which has 40, yes FORTY, fabrics in it.  It was a real challenge figuring out how to use all these amazing fabrics in one quilt.

I had fun taking a picture of this quilt on a beautiful fall day.  I love how the yellow leaves match the quilt.

There are a bunch of different patterns in this collection.  The half circles came in these colors:

Really fun dots!

Triangles

Stripes

And numbers!  They make this math teacher's heart happy!

I designed a quilt on Electric Quilter and then had fun putting in fabrics until I'd used all forty.  I really like the stripes on the outside of the quilt.  I think it's a fun texture.  And as always it's a blast to work with Island Batik fabrics.  They're beautiful to sew with.  Most of the pieces were of course cut with my Accuquilt Go Big! and sewn with Aurifil Thread.  Hobbs 80/20 batting is inside the quilt.

I'm offering a giveaway of five fat quarters from this collection!  To enter leave a comment below.  The winner will be drawn at the conclusion of the blog hop.

Island Batik is giving away a precut pack of this gorgeous collection.  Click the Rafflecopter link to enter! a Rafflecopter giveaway


I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

A Piece of... Blog Hop Starts Today!

Today starts the A Piece Of Blog Hop for Island Batik!  Sew exciting to see all the new collections.  This first one is one of my favorites.  I love all the dark pinks and purples combined with dark greens.  So pretty!  Check out what today's ambassadors have created.

Monday, November 4:

Janet Yamamoto

Emily Leachman

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

International Quilt Festival Day 2

I now have pictures of my five quilts hanging at International Quilt Festival!

A Formal Garden

Spring Gems

Ziggedy Zaggedy

Whirligig

Hexie Flower

Island Batik fabrics

Lunch today with the amazing Sarah Ann Dmith

I decided to play with new machines....here is some of my test stitching.

My final purchase! A new Handiquilter Capri! I'm sew excited!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

International Quilt Festival Day 1

I am having a blast at International Quilt Festival. 

Found my first quilt.

Found Karen Miller of Red Bird Quilt Co.

Found my Accuquilt peeps!

And Carolina Asmussen, fellow Island Batik Ambassadors.

Had a blast with Bethanne Nemesh

Got my bling for my ribbon.

Found more Island Batik Ambassadors

And my quilt in the Sapphire exhibit.

And my quilt in the small Quilt auction.

Two more quilts to find and more fun to be had today!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

International Quilt Festival's 45th Anniversary Sapphire Exhibit

International Quilt Festival Houston 2019 is this week!  Market is going on this weekend.  I arrive mid-week and I can't wait to go.  It's like waiting for Christmas, but even better!  The Quilt Show posted this picture this morning and I couldn't be more excited!  My quilt is hanging in the Sapphire Exhibit celebrating IQA's 45th show.



My quilt is in the forth column, bottom quilt.  Below is a closer picture.  I must admit I made this quilt with the hope and dream of it being hung for this exhibit.  I remember the Ruby exhibit 5 years ago and remember thinking that next time I needed to have a quilt in the exhibit.  My mom has one too, though it isn't in this picture.  

This quilt is called Whirligig and you can read more about it's creation here.  The fabric is all Island Batik.  It's called the Indigo Morris collection.  I had a blast creating a modern looking quilt.  I knew there would be lots of traditional quilt entered, so I decided to go a different route on purpose.  I am really pleased with the results and I can't wait to be in Houston and see it in person!

Be prepared for lots of Houston pictures later this week!  I can't wait!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Let's Talk Needles for English Paper Piecing

I am a Bohin hand needle girl.  I have plenty, but will be buying more at International Quilt Festival next week anyways!  I need to try new kinds after all.  So today I started stitching my Brimfield Blooming Star.  I decided to try out needles after the first piece was hard to stitch.  The needle didn't seem pointy enough to slide through easily.

This got me wondering why.  So I decided to try out every kind of needle I had in my hand stitching bag.  Turns out there were four kinds:  Applique size 9 (the biggest), Applique size 10, Applique size 12 (the finest), and  size 10 betweens which are much shorter in length.  The size 9 was a bust.  The 10 was better.  I then tried the betweens.  They were nice and sharp, but shorter than I personally like to work with so they weren't for me.  However, if you like short needles they should work well for you. 

Here's the pieces I was sewing together with my favorite Island Batik fabrics of course.

I then tried the size 12 applique needles.  The eye of  the needle is very small, but it went through the fabric like butter, so it's worth a little trouble threading.  I was using 50 weight Aurifil thread in a matching color to hide my stitches.

When sewing this curve I tape the front with painters tape (it removes without leaving any residue) to hold my pieces in place while I stitch.  It works like a charm.

Here's the back side.  You can see that I used a flat back stitch as that's the easiest way to do curves while doing English Paper Piecing.

In summary:  

• Use tape to hold together curved pieces while you are sewing your EPP with a flat back stitch
• I prefer size 12 applique needle for making my stitches 
• I use matching thread to help hide my stitches

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy