What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Welcome to my stop on the Island Batik + Accuquilt Irish Chain BlogHop. 

Directive - Create a stunning quilt using the GO! Irish Chain Die from AccuQuilt!

Here is my response!

A Stunning Finish, as requested!

But let's start at the beginning. 

The Challenge

Fusion  by Jerry Khiev for Swan Amity Studios

Inspiration Board

Accuquilt Die to make 10" Finished Irish Chain Block

Dull

Meh

Whatever

I have always used the Irish Chain as an alternate block, not the focus block. Naturally, I was ...

 Last year, Aurifil introduced their very first Advent calendar.  It was an overwhelming success and customers were so delighted that Aurifil has decided to continue the tradition. Il Borgo, Aurifil’s 2025 advent calendar is designed to capture the magic of the season through a maker’s lens. It invites quilters to rediscover the joy of anticipation — one colorful surprise at a time. Behind each door awaits a perfectly curated spool of Aurifil’s premium 100% cotton thread, ready to spark inspiration, creativity, and a few joyful moments just for you. It’s a celebration of craftsmanship, nostalgia, and the ...

March’s Island Batik Ambassador Challenge is called "It’s All Up to You," meaning the Ambassadors have a month to create any project of any size, theme, and technique using Island Batik fabrics. This gives us a chance to have a little fun this month.

First challenge for 2025 for Island Batik Ambassadors Program. This month we had to use the Studio 180 Design tool we received in our Ambassador box in order to make a table runner or bed runner!   

Πρώτη πρόκληση για το Πρόγραμμα των Πρεσβευτών των Island Batik. Αυτόν τον μήνα έπρεπε να χρησιμοποιήσουμε το εργαλείο από το Studio 180 Design που πήραμε με το κουτί που μας έστειλαν, προκειμένου να κάνουμε ένα ράνερ είτε για τραπέζι είτε για κρεβάτι!   

We had to use the Fall 2024 fabric bundle and as many collection SKUs as possible. While using the tool, we had ...

First challenge for 2025 for Island Batik Ambassadors Program. This month we had to use the Studio 180 Design tool we received in our Ambassador box in order to make a table runner or bed runner!   

Πρώτη πρόκληση για το Πρόγραμμα των Πρεσβευτών των Island Batik. Αυτόν τον μήνα έπρεπε να χρησιμοποιήσουμε το εργαλείο από το Studio 180 Design που πήραμε με το κουτί που μας έστειλαν, προκειμένου να κάνουμε ένα ράνερ είτε για τραπέζι είτε για κρεβάτι!   

We had to use the Fall 2024 fabric bundle and as many collection SKUs as possible. While using the tool, we had ...

Hobbs Batting, a long-time sponsor of Island Batik, provided us with various types of batting to assist with the finishing process of each project.

As an Island Batik Ambassador, one of the perks is receiving two boxes each year from Island Batik and ...

And now to Part D of my posts on Kokomo (Stars Upon Stars)

D. Hand Quilting

And now to Part C of my posts on Kokomo (Stars Upon Stars)

C. Assembly

Island Batik November Challenge requires us to make a Dresden Quilt using our assigned Summer 2024 collection.

Here is my response. I have named it "Like It Or Not" (LION). LION finished at 45" by 46".

Vintage Fans, 45" by 46"

I received Peach Blossom,  an original collection by Claudia Pfeil. 

Fabrics

There are so many options for Dresden Plate designs. I could use a skinny Dresden Ruler (12 degrees) to make 30 blades per circle or a double Dresden (36 degrees) to make 10 wide blades per circle. I chose the 18 degree ruler. 

I wanted to make a ...

This is Part B of a series of posts explaining how I make my version of Stars Upon Stars.  

B. Planning the colours

 1. External stars in the blocks. 

A key design feature of the original Stars Upon Stars quilt is that each block is unique.  I decided replicate that idea by using different fabrics and colours for the external stars of each block. I opted for tone on tone fabrics in most cases, and tried to use every colour within my limited colour range - blue, aqua, green, pink, orange and yellow.  If I repeated a colour I used a ...

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my Kokomo quilt.  As promised I'm going to explain more about how I made it - both for anyone thinking about making one themselves, and for my personal record, because after all, that's what blogs are for.

A. Fabric selection

Where do I even begin to describe my happiness with how this quilt has turned out?

I'm thrilled with it and I'm not going to let it out of my sight.  I've even considered sewing an Apple AirTag into it so if it goes missing I can track it down! I've spent so many hours making this quilt but I've enjoyed them all. 

I started this quilt back in January 2020.  I've spent four years working on it in the background.  I haven't once put it on social media or even shown my ...

As the daylight hours decrease and the darkness envelops the northern hemisphere, Hindus all over the world celebrate Diwali - the festival of lights. You may have seen the newish British Prime Minister and his family celebrate Diwali at 10 Downing Street.

I have talked about my Diwali Memories and I made my first Diwali Quilt last year. 

This year when Island Batik gave us the choice to make a quilt project "celebrating" our favorite holiday, I knew instantly that I will be making a Diwali Quilt, using a fabric collection called Celebrate!!! Could there be a more appropriate fabric line ...

We’ve stitched up a surprise for you all here at Fat Quarter Shop. We’re doing some redecorating and we have some spools that are looking to go out into the Threadiverse and find some new homes! Find out all the details of The Great Thread Giveaway in today’s blog post.

Fat Quarter Shop is excited to give 60 lucky winners some of our favorite 50wt Aurifil threads from the thread wall in our studio! You may have seen it in the background of videos on Fat Quarter Shop’s Youtube Channel!

Aurifil 50wt thread is the most ...

It may be Thanksgiving where you live, but I've just finished my Halloween quilt!  I've called it "Spooky Darlings" after the fabric range that I used.  

I only had a fat eighth bundle to play with so I made the biggest triangles that I could and combined them in alternating dark and light rows ...

Time to finish our wool stitch along project. I hope you had time to get your bases done with the apple appliques and buttons. Today we finish it off with a bit of embroidery and some seed beads. When we left off, we were here.

Get out your floss and beads, finding some green to match your leaves, along with red and gold seed beads. If you don’t have seed beads, you can do french knots with the appropriate color floss for a similar look.

Place the piece on a countertop. Center a Mason jar ring on the wool ...

This week I started hand quilting my Licorice Allsorts quilt.  

The guild I belong to, Capital Quilters in Wellington, New Zealand will be holding an exhibition in May 2024 and I ...

 I'm on my way back to New Zealand today but here's one more blog post prepared in advance.  this is my Shuttles quilt that I made to showcase some of my beautiful Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  You can read all about it here. 

And I hand quilted it with bright yellow Aurifil 12 wt.  

Now it’s time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog ...