Wednesday, February 22, 2023

100 Days of Scrappy Patchwork Day 13

It's a snowy day here and a great day to keep working on my Scrappy Patchwork blocks made with my Island Batik scraps and cut with my 5" Accuquilt Qube.  It's been a while since I posted because I've been busy with recovering from Covid and some secret sewing projects.

I decided to start playing with radial symmetry.  I think this is my favorite block yet.  I keep thinking about what it would look like as a whole quilt top.  Hmm.  Thoughts for later.

I started with the bright orange/cheddar scraps.


Then I added in a dark gray because that's what color is on those orange scraps.


I then added a darker orange center and a dark purple for a pop.


Next came lighter purple outer triangles.


And then a second set of outer triangles.


Block complete!

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

Thursday, February 9, 2023

Island Batik Ambassador's All Puffed Up Blog Hop and Giveaway!

It's my turn for the Island Batik Ambassador's All Puffed Up Blog Hop.  I must admit that when I read about the challenge I wasn't too excited as puffy quilts have never appealed to me.  However, I found a tutorial that showed how to make a stripy puffy quilt which seemed easy enough to do.


I started off by cutting 3 1/2" strips from each fabric in the gorgeous Exuberance collection by Teb Tucker's Studio 180 Design using my Accuquilt GO BIG! fabric cutter.  The fabrics in this collection are just gorgeous.  I love all the deep pinks and blues. 

I then sewed all the strips together to create a long piece of fabric for the top.  Next I taped the backing fabric to my kitchen table.  Then I layered the top right on it and pinned it together with regular fabric pins.


Next I stitched in the ditch down each seam making sure to do a nice locking stitch at the beginning and the end using my favorite Aurifil 50 weight thread.


Now it was time to stuff it with polyester stuffing!  Since this was long and puffy I needed help to get the stuffing all the way down the tube.  I ended up using a 1/2" wooden dowel rod I found in my parent's basement.  It worked well but it still took me 10-15 minutes to stuff each tube.  And there were 21.  


After many hours of stuffing I was finally finished.  With the rigidity of the end product (note to self, don't stuff it so full.  OOPS.), I finally decided on a simple zigzag stitch to finish the edge because other than a TON of hand sewing it was the only way.  Fortunately my Schmetz Microtex Needles handled the job without any problems.  I then took it out to our bazillion inches of snow in our yard for it's photo shoot.  These fabrics are so yummy.




My husband is excited to use this when he goes winter camping as a sleeping mat so I suppose it is only appropriate to have a picture of it in the snow.


I am giving away a scrap bag of Island Batik fabrics!  It has some from the Exuberance collection and lots of others too.  For a chance to win leave a comment about your favorite color combination to use in quilts.  A winner will be picked on February 28th at noon.

Island Batik is giving away two gorgeous fat quarter stacks this week!  Be sure to click on the Rafflecopter link below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy