Island Batik Ambassador's New Beginnings Blog Hop

Welcome to DRIZZLE, one of the new collections from Island Batiks!  (I sure wish it was drizzling instead of 8 degrees with a -5 windchill here in Minnesota!)  I used the lovely Drizzle collection to make my new quilt Wonky Spiral.

I started out my project with this gorgeous collection of fabrics from Island Batiks, Drizzle.  I knew I wanted to make a design featuring as many of them as I could because they're all so beautiful!  This Wonky Spiral quilt I designed uses 16 different Drizzle prints.  I started by laying them out in a circle tyring to balance the colors.  The dark purple went across from the dark purple, etc.

I then drew my design and paper pieces out in Electric Quilter 7 (EQ7) and off I went.  Now I must admit that as I was sewing the rings together my husband made a comment.  My original intention was to sew the rings together so that they formed a wave like this:

My husband said I should off-set them by one.  So I tried it and found that it was much more interesting to my eyes.  A very interesting variation that I'm glad I tried out!

Here's the top all finished and pinned for quilting.

I decided that I didn't want to quilt a ton on the lovely Island Batik Drizzle fabrics so I quilted back and forth waves radiating out from the center circle.  You can see what I mean in the picture below.

The wonderful husband also bought me Bethanne Nemesh's book on Nemeshing for Christmas.  It wasn't the one I'd asked for, but I loved it!  So I decided to try her technique on the white space in this quilt.  I can't give away all her secrets, but suffice it to say, it was easy and fun to do.  I then did some matchstick quilting around it to make the feathers pop even more.

Here are a few more more pictures of the quilting.

And the final quilt!

Island Batiks is giving away TWO lovely batik bundles as a part of the New Beginnings Blog Hop.  Be sure to enter using the link below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I am also giving away 4 fat quarters of Island Batik fabrics!  To enter click on the link below!  The drawing will be held at the end of the blog hop on February 1.  (The lucky winner will find out on Groundhogs Day!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here is a complete list of the Island Batik Ambassadors participating in the New Beginnings Blog Hop

Friday, January 6 – Hop Introduction! 

Island Batik 

Monday, January 9 – Coastal Mist

Stone Cottage Quilts

Tuesday, January 10 – Dotalicious
DelLillians
Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting
PamelaQuilts
Inchworm Fabrics

Wednesday, January 11 – Drizzle
Webster Quilt

Thursday, January 12 – Fifi and Fido + Happy Hounds
Mary Mack Made Mine
Quilting Affection

Friday, January 13 – Fresh Catch
Bejeweled Quilts by Barb

Monday, January 16 – Glowing Embers
Purrfect Spots Designs

Tuesday, January 17 – Lake Life
Freemotion by the River

Wednesday, January 18 – River’s Edge
Ark Angel Creations
Jennifer Sewing

Friday, January 20 – Blushing Blooms
Desert Bloom Quilting

Monday, January 23 – Gone Fishin’
Maria Michaels Designs

Wednesday, January 25 – Surf and Sand
The Patchwork Pearl
Beaquilter

Thursday, January 26 – Twilight Blush
KISSed Quilts

Friday, January 27 – Happy Harvest
For Quilts Sake

Monday, January 30 – Jolly Holly
Kauffman Designs

Tuesday, January 31 – Frost
MooseStash Quilting

Wednesday, February 1 – Merry and Bright
Patchwork Breeze
Sally’s Quilting Corner

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

Shoe Inspiration

Shoes are always inspiring, but a recent trip to the shoe store had some amazing patterns!  I hope you're as inspired as I am.

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

Giraffe Fabric

I bought fabric because it reminded me of a giraffe.  Doesn't it?  I know it's blue and pink, but the print seemed just perfect to me.  So I drafted a giraffe pattern and added orange and blue to set it off.  I then used a tiny blanket stitch to go around all the pieces.

Usually when I'm appliqueing I apply one piece at a time and then add the next layer.  With the tiny pieces in the giraffe's face I didn't want them to be in the wrong place so I layered the whole thing at one time and it worked out well.  I think that I can do this when the design is relatively small.  If you do this on a block that's really big like 30 x 30 pieces start falling off as you rotate it around under the needle.

Isn't he cute?  I show you how I quilted him next time,

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Free Motion Friday - Black and White Flowers - The Quilting!

For Free Motion Friday today I have a quilt I quilted with one of the new patterns I stitched during the Brick Wall Quilt Along.

I used the pattern Curl Echoes.  It's one of my favorites and was great to really sink the back of my Black and White Flowers quilt.

I must admit that I bought 3 different border fabrics for this quilt.  Did I use any of them?  Nope.  They didn't work!  They were too busy and distracted from the center of the quilt.  So, I decided to leave if off.

Her is the finished quilt.  I really meant to take a closeup, but I forgot.  And of course, where is the quilt?  It's having it's sleeve put on a by a friend of mine.  Oops.  I thought for sure I had some closeups.  I'll post more pictures of it close-up next Friday as well as a new pattern.

Gotta love the cute photo bomber! 

Here's a peek at my new quilt for the Island Batik Ambassadors New Beginnings Blog Hop which starts today!  My post will go up Wednesday.

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

Putting together the Black and White Flowers

I decided to cut my Black and White flowers into hexagons and put them together with triangles.  Some lovely friends helped me decide that the majority of the triangle should be black dominant fabrics.

A first try at laying out the black triangles.

Rearranged for better balance.

The sewing is started!  I can't wait to get it all together.

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

Get Ready to be Inspired by the Island Batik Ambassadors New Beginnings Blog Hop!

I can't wait to share with you what I've been creating for this blog hop!

Here's the schedule by name of the collections.  I got the fabulous DRIZZLE collection which is all cool greens, blues, and purples.  It's fabulous.  Check out the names of some of the other collections.  They are so much fun!

Wednesday, Jan 4 - Coastal Mist

Thursday, Jan 5 - Dotalicious

Friday, Jan 6 - Drizzle

Monday, Jan 9 - Fifi and Fido AND Happy Hounds

Tuesday, Jan 10 - Fresh Catch

Wednesday, Jan 11 - Glowing Embers

Thursday, Jan 12 - Lake Life

Friday, Jan 13 - River’s Edge

Monday, Jan 16 - Sweet Nectar

Tuesday, Jan 17 - Blushing Blooms

Wednesday, Jan 18 - Gone Fishin’

Thursday, Jan 19 - Pressed Petals

Friday, Jan 20 - Surf and Sand

Monday, Jan 23 - Twilight Blush

Tuesday, Jan 24 - Happy Harvest

Wednesday, Jan 25 - Jolly Holly

Thursday, Jan 26 - Frost

Friday, Jan 27 - Merry and Bright

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

A New Year's Review and New Goals

It has been a fabulous year for me.  As it's the first day of 2017 it seems like a good day to think about all I've accomplished and what's next.

So, here we go!

Accomplished in 2016:

1.  I became an ambassador for the amazing Island Batiks!  I hope to be one again in 2017!  For them I created a ton of fun quilts using their gorgeous fabric.

2.  I published my first quilting book!  Folk Art Quilted Traditions

3.  Technically this happened in 2016 (I did it yesterday), but it's really for 2017.  I now have a MN tax ID and a card reader and paypal account for selling my book!  Let me know if you'd like a copy and I will send you a Paypal invoice.  You can find my email on my contact me page at the top of my blog.

4.  I was asked to create a quilt for the small quilt auction at International Quilt Festival Houston.  It was an honor and it sold for over $100 and I got to meet the lovely woman who purchased it!

5.  Meeting a lady who had already purchased my book and fabric for the quilt and was starting to get ready to make my quilt in Houston!  She made me day,  We were equally excited to meet each other.

6.  Making connections in the quilting industry with Hobbs, Island Batiks, Superior Threads, and WonderFil and connecting with other fabulous quilters too,.

7.  Making my first English Paper Pieced top by machine.  Yes, you read that right!  By machine.  It was so much easier.  I definitely need to play with this more!  Here's a preview....more to come in the next few weeks.

8.  My first applique quilt along....the Flower in a Pot series (link at the top of my blog)

9.  Started my first Machine Quilting Quilt Along...the Brick Wall series and Free Motion Fridays (link at the top of my blog)

10.  My three show quilts that have been traveling have done well.  Harmony's Loop took a prize at Paducah Quiltweek, my group quilt Midnight Dreams took first place in Houston at IQA, and Kaboom! took Best Machine Quilting at the Minnesota Quilter's show.

For 2017:

1.  Write a pattern for Island Batiks

2.  Try to get articles/patterns published in magazines (I have one coming out in the March/April issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited!  I can't wait to see it and share it!)

3.  Finish that show quilt that's been sitting still for the last 6 months.

4.  I will have my first solo exhibit of some of my blog quilts at the Minnesota Quilter's Show in Duluth in June :)

5.  I will be teaching/lecturing at local quilt guilds here in MN and in WI.  I'm excited!

6.  Hopefully I will start teaching at Forever Gifts Boutique in Prescott, WI.

7.  Use Paypal and my card reader correctly and hopefully enough to justify the initial expense

8.  Think about what's next....another book?  An online class?  There are thoughts, but what do I really want to do?  I'm not sure yet...

9.  I have a piece of embroidery I want to do a "quilting vintage" quilt with

What I do know is that I want to keep quilting and exploring new things.  It's what I love to do with my art.  I like to stretch myself and explore and make beautiful art.  

Island Batiks has a giveaway on their blog right now.  Check it out:

http://www.islandbatik.com/news/index.php/fresh-catch-giveaway/

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy