Color It Red Blog Hop!

It's always such fun to participate in Carol from Just Let Me Quilt's blog hops!  This time the theme is color it red.  Simple....just has to be red.  I decided to play with this theme and create an all red flower.

I've been playing a lot lately with using nontraditional fabrics in my applique.  It's fun to try something different and to get different effects.  This flower has two different kinds of velvet (see the light orangey petals with the curves?  Velvet. 

I also has a bunch of different kinds of leather.  Look closely below.  You can see the curvy velvet.  The triangles just below it are leather as is the curve at the top.  The big dark piece in the flower?  Suede leather.  In fact, I think there are six different red leathers in this piece.  Can you tell I've been collecting? LOL..

Look closely...how many different fancy fabrics can you spot?  I also had fun doing all the blanket stitching in the same red thread.  That saved so much time!

Follow me in all my adventures in my Facebook Group Machine Applique Adventures.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Be sure to check out my fellow hoppers:

February 17^th

Creatin' in the Sticks

Websterquilt

Vroomans Quilts

Hill Valley Quilter

Selina Quilts

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Samelia's Mum

February 18^th

Ms P Designs USA

Podunk Pretties

DayBrook Designs

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Bumbleberry Stitches

Sew Many Yarns

Karen's Korner

Stitchin At Home

February 19^th

MooseStash Quilting

Quilted Delights

Everyone Deserves a Quilt

Storied Quilts

Just Sew Quilter

Kathy’s Quilts

Just Because Quilts

Words & Stitches

Scrapdash

February 20^th

Life in the Scrapatch

Songbird Designs

High Road Quilter

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Patchwork Breeze

Lynn's Blog

DesertSky Quilting

Seams To Be Sew

February 21^st

Just Let Me Quilt

Quilt Fabrication

Beaquilter

All Thingz Sewn

Karrin’s Crazy World

Den syende himmel

Daughters of Dorinda

Quilt to the Edge

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Island Batik Ambassador's Log Cabin Blog Hop

This month the Island Batik Ambassadors were challenged to use some gorgeous new collections to make Log Cabin quilts!  I received the amazing Color Pop collection designed by Kathy Engle.

I immediately knew I wanted to make four HUGE log cabin blocks.  Each of these measures in at 30 inches!  I had nine colors planned for my center star, but I needed to fit in the blues so some of the strips got cut shorter and blue squares were added to the ends.  Thank goodness I had my Accuquilt GO! Big to help me cut all the 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 inch strips.

The fabrics are so luscious!

I made some four patches and slowly started building my blocks...I used Schmetz Chrome Microtex needles for the first time.  WOW.  They slid through the batik like butter.

Then my Handi Quilter Capri and I had some fun.  This is only the second quilt I've completed on my new machine.  I had a lot of fun quilting huge white feathers on the stars.

I was struggling with deciding what color to put on all those skinny 1 inch strips when my mom, who is a long arm quilter, suggested white as it would look like a large snowflake.  I'm so glad I took her suggestion.

In the background white areas I quilted large spiral centered flowers.  A fun and easy fill as the flowers were 6-8 inches across.  I had a lot of space to fill.  This quilt of course use Aurifil Thread and my favorite Hobbs 80/20 batting.

It's hard to get outdoor pictures on cold snowy Minnesota days where the sun goes down shortly after I have returned from work.  I was able to snap this one on our snow pile on the side of our driveway.  We got 7 inches of snow last weekend so things are looking pristine right now.

Island Batik is having an amazing giveaway on their blog...click here to enter and scroll down to the bottom of their post!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Enchanted Forest Quilt Complete!

It's done!  My VERY FIRST quilt completed on my Handiquilter Capri is finally finished.  It took me a while to get around to binding it.  It features Island Batik's Enchanted Garden collection

I had a blast quilting.  I did swirls, mushrooms, arches, continuous curve...

I used Glide thread and Hobbs Batting (my favorite 80/20 blend). 

Oh how I love that my machine can keep up with me!  And I can do huge swirls and not have to overworry about stitch length.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Island Batik Ambassador Unboxing!

I am so excited to share that I am an Island Batik Ambassador again for 2020!  Island Batik is such a great company to work with and we have some amazing products to play with this year.

Thank you so much to the following sponsors of the 2020 Island Batik Ambassador Program!

Stay tuned for more to come...

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Island Batik Ambassador's Lets Get Scrappy Challenge

Scraps.  Every quilter has them.  Some of us have mountains, some have them color coded by bins.  I have a small 6 inch square cube (it's actually a Missouri Star cardboard box) that I only keep my Island Batik Scraps in.  When the occasion calls I use them and create!  Or when it overflows...

I must admit that I only save my Island Batik scraps (I love being an Island Batik Ambassador).  They're so precious!  My other scraps are often donated to friends who like scraps, but my Island Batik scraps are saved and cut. 

It all started when I got my GO! Cutter from Accuquilt.  Suddenly I could cut fabric like never before.  I discovered that cutting 1 1/2" squares using my strip cutter was slick!  And so began the obsession.  I now cut them all the time from all my Island Batik scraps.  I have cut THOUSANDS.  I'm not exaggerating!  It's just too easy and too fun to play with.  

The one exception is neutral fabrics.  I don't always want squares, so I cut these down into 1 1/2" strips that I can subcut later once I know what size I will need.  I'm proud to say that the ONLY fabric I cut that wasn't in my scrap bin for this quilt was the border and the dark blue squares!  Like I said, it's become an obsession.

I started with some blocks.

That got made into larger blocks...

That got sewn together and quilted! I decided all those thin 1" finished areas need large circles so you could see how thin they were.  I then filled the larger open squares with feathers and left the blue and colored squares alone.

I can never get enough feathers.  Or enough Aurifil Thread and Hobbs 80/20 Blend batting!  They're the best!

Scrap quilt complete.  The problem?  I used less than half the squares I cut!  Oops.  I guess I'll have to design another quilt using small squares soon.

 I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

The Winter Blues Blog Hop!

I love blue!  And I love math and that's what lead me to this design.  When I was a kid I love to connect straight lines to make them appear to be curves.  I drew this pattern up in Electric Quilt and then went about paper piecing it.  This quilt uses an Island Batik collection called Indigo Morris.  It of course has my favorite Hobbs Batting inside (80/20 blend in this case).

Thanks Carla for getting me enthused to make this project!  Your blog hops are such fun.

I decided to use this beautiful blue variegated Aurifil that I've had for a long time, but still had a wrapper on it.

I love to free motion machine quilt. I can't seem to stop once I start.

Feather fun.

Continuous curve on some interesting angles.

Here's the back!

Come back soon!  Or join my Machine Applique Adventures Facebook Group so you don't miss any posts.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Be sure to check out all the other amazing quilters on the hop!

Monday, January 20th

Just Let Me Quilt

Bumbleberry Stitches

QuiltFabrication

Mary Mack Made Mine
VROOMANS QUILTS
Just Because Quilts
Kathleen McMusing

Den syende himmel
Beaquilter

Tuesday, January 21st

Quilted Delights

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Farm Quilter

Homespun Hannah's Blog
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Quilting & Learning: What a Combo
Life in the Scrapatch
PamelaQuilts
Home Sewn By Us

Wednesday, January 22nd

Little Bunny Quilts

For the love of geese

The Joyful Quilter

Ms P Designs USA
Quilt Schmilt
Karen's Korner
Made By Marney
Podunk Pretties
Sunshine in the Attic

Thursday, January 23rd

Websterquilt

Songbird Designs

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Storied Quilts
Patchwork Breeze
Seams To Be Sew
HeARTsCreations
Becky’s quilts and adventures
DesertSky Quilting

Friday, January 24th

MooseStashQuilting
Selina Quilts
LimeLeaves Design
Karrin's Crazy World
Sew Many Yarns
Domestic Felicity
DayBrook Designs

Creatin' in the Sticks

Clamnation - Construction

I had a blast taking my second class from Karen K. Stone in Houston this year.  It was called Shellfire and Clamnation.  It was such fun learning how she creates clam shells and appliques them together.  

I started out with a pack of Island Batik 10 inch squares called Pressed Petals.  I made these fun clam shell starters.

Then she taught us to add a 1/4" flange on the clam shells.  In my infinite wisdom (or not) I went down to the show floor in Houston and bought a bunch of silk to use as the flanges and some for the background too.  When in Houston after all...

Later at home I started playing with different arrangements for my clam shells.  I wanted to do a modern take on clam shells.

The silk is a dark, dark blue.  So luscious.  I sprayed LOTS of starch on it to keep it stiff for working with.

It's getting assembled.

Here's me and Karen in class.

 

And my final top before basting.  It's a bit sunny in this picture so the colors are a bit brighter than the actual quilt.

Come back soon to see the quilting!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy