Island Batik Ambassador's Creative Borders and Binding Challenge

I adore being an Island Batik Ambassador.  Their fabrics are luscious and I get to stretch creatively to meet the monthly challenges.  This month is no exception.  When I realized it was creative borders and bindings my brain went right over the borders and straight to the binding.  I have been staring at many new show quilts from big name quilters that have AMAZING edge finishes.  To keep up with the best of the best on my show quilts I wanted to try it.  Now I have a reason to do something small and experiment!

I started by making this small 20" quilt with the new Blue Moon collection from Island Batik.  The colors and fabrics are so much fun!  I love the blue double dotty print and the dark purple birch tress that I turned into a "stripe" in the large points.  I then added a border of purple triangles and was set to quilt. This quilt has Hobbs Tuscany Polyester batting in it to give it loft and because it's white and the background fabric is white.  A good match.  

Aren't the patterns of the batiks great?  I love the lighter purple which looks like wood grain too.  The background fabric is this same print in white.  I started by quilting the center circle in bubbles.

It's easier to see from the back...

I did a plant like idea in the points and repeated it triangles.  I also did a bubble stack on the dark purple birch fabric to enhance the stripy quality of it. (see above photo)

I then quilted feathers coming out of each point to fill the space and the did some straight line quilting around the edge.  I like to do this so that when I add the binding the edge of the quilt is firm and doesn't stretch.

The back of the final quilt.  I adore feathers.

Now to attach the clam shells in the binding.  But how?  I realized finally that the answer was in the quilt as you go challenge.  I tried it and it worked like a charm.  Putting the tails together at the corners was a bit of a challenge, but I figured it out.

 And it will get better....

Aren't the cute?  Since I started with fat quarters I didn't have enough fabric to do them all the same, but necessity is the mother of invention so I made them a variety of fabrics and I love it!

I can't wait to play with this idea more....thoughts are percolating!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Island Batik Ambassador's Quilt as You Go Challenge

When I looked at this year's Island Batik Ambassador list I must admit that Quilt as You Go (QAYG) was the one I found most daunting.  Why?  Simply because I have never done it before.  Ever.  In 30 years of quilting!  

So what to do?  The same thing I do when a student in my third grade classroom asks a question I don't know the answer to...ask "Professor Google."  I found videos from Leah Day, Missouri Star, and many others.  I watched them all.

I decided I liked Leah Day's approach and went with it.  I also happened to be in an art gallery as I was starting to ponder this challenge and I saw a three panel painting.  I knew that's what I wanted to do.  Make three panels and then stitch them together QAYG style.  It turned out well and I would do it again having successfully survived the experience.

Here's one of the three panels all quilted up.  In looking at it from far away now I wish the green was a little stronger, but such is life.  I must admit I did not make a pattern for these flowers (shocking as I usually do).  I just free cut petals and leaves.  The extra curl I cut out from the bottom of the stem ended up at the top of the flower and me being me, it needed a few dots.

After following Leah's method I decided to do a blanket stitch on my sashing strips.  I used a different machine than I usually do for blanket stitch and found that I should go back to my usual as I'm used to how that one does blanket stitching.  Next time.

I was trying to decide what color to use for sashing.  People kept telling me to use green.  I decided it was too much contrast and went with a lovely blue.

I also decided that the quilt needed more red so I added some really fat red rick rack I found at my local quilt shop.  It's the perfect addition.  A tutorial on how to do that will be coming next week.

And the final quilt!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy