What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

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 ...

Let me introduce you to Olivia.

Olivia likes the outdoors!

This is such a beautiful collection with a wide range of values from light yellow, through medium red and orange all the way to deep purple. I love these warm colors. Look for Buds and Blooms Layer Cake in your local quilt store.

Here are some more pictures.

Breezy Day

Glowing Fabrics

Gorgeous Fabrics

To make Olivia, you need one layer cake, one focus fabric and ...

Meet Nilsa. She is my newest finish and a pattern is available now.

At 60" by 83", Nilsa can be a Mercyful Quilt. The pattern can also be used to make a Quilt of Valor.

Nilsa, 60" by 83"

I used the Island Batik collection - Blushing Garden to make Nilsa. 

Have you seen Blushing Garden? It is a beautiful collection with my favorite colors - red, pink and gold. Even a bit of teal to brighten things up. They are beautiful and sunny!

Island Batik's November Challenge and Blog Hop is sponsored by ByAnnie. 

I chose the project - Room with a View.  I chose to make all three sizes. 

The pattern and all supplies including vinyl, mesh, Soft and Stable, zippers etc. were provided, thanks to our generous industry partners at ByAnnie.

Supplies

I received fabrics from the Morris Mist collection. 

Morris Mist is a signature collection by Kathy Engle for Sherry Shish of Powered by Quilting. 

It should be shipping to a quilt stores in November 2023.

The Fabrics

ByAnnie patterns are very detailed with excellent step-by-step directions.  Once you make ...

Here is the Stairway to Heaven...

Stairway to Heaven

I really enjoyed working with these gorgeous fabrics from Island Batik Foundations.

Nature Inspired?

Stairway to Heaven was published in Annie's One Day Quilts.

One Day Quilts

Published

Choose fabrics carefully and let them do the hard work while you enjoy the compliments :-) 

Thanks to Island Batik for providing the fabrics and Thanks to Annies for publishing the pattern/quilt.

Quilt in Magazine atop the Quilt :-)

Here are some more pictures.

Lighting up my yard

Quilting ...

The September Island Batik Challenge and Blog Hop is called Pieced to Perfection. We were required to make a paper-pieced project at least lap sized, using as many different fabrics as possible from our assigned collection.

I received Chromatic. It is an original collection designed by Deb Tucker of Studio 180 Designs.

Chromatic Bundle

Chromatic Fabrics

Bromeliad Garden

I chose "The Palm" block from EQ8 Block Library (under Old favorites). 

The on-point layout uses 24 blocks. I used 21 (out of the 22) fabrics from the Chromatic collection. I used three fabrics ...

This week, we received the remaining supplies from Island Batik and I am happy to share them with you.

Solids - Four yards each of White, Dark Gray, and Black 

Summer Precut - 2.5" Strips of Vintage Charm. This is a Signature Collection designed by Kathy Engle for  Terri Vanden Bosch of Lizard Creek Quilting. It comes with matching yardage, two yards each of Valentino (dark pink) and Dandelion Crumbs (beige).

Stash Builders - 5" strips, 20 per pack.

Angela has announced the color for August. It is Yellow :-)

I love Yellow. It is the color of warm sunshine and flavorful curries ...

It is hot and humid. Fortunately I am well-prepared to stay (and entertain myself) indoors.  That is where Island Batik's second shipment of goodies is supremely helpful :-D

Here is the "Set" of Unboxing Video showing Nihal on the left and Wednesday on the right.

Unboxing Video - Set up

It is good to be an ambassador!  Here is the link to the Unboxing video.  There is an oops in there and I left it as such. We are only human!

I start with the generous box of batting provided by Hobbs.

Thermore Batting - Light and Very Thin

Premium Wool ...

The Island Batik June Challenge reads as follows:

Use one of your precut bundles and play with the versatile Flying Geese blocks to create a fun quilt or table runner! Your project must use Flying Geese blocks as the focus but you can combine other blocks to enhance the project. 

Now, I am not a fan of Flying Geese Blocks. The construction is a fiddly multi-step process, regardless of the method you choose.  Even when the method works for you, you need a specialty ruler for precision points. In my opinion a flying goose block is made up of two ...

Positivity Grows!

Positivity Grows

Then I had another thought. What if the leafy stems had a flower on the top?  That thought led to this Layout Option - Positivity Blooms!!!

Positivity Blooms

Positivity Grows has 32 Leaf Blocks.

Positivity Blooms has 27 blocks - 23 Leaf Blocks and 4 Flower Blocks. Five blocks are left blank.

Let's discuss each one of these in some detail.

Positivity Grows is simple. It is soothing, has universal appeal and is gender neutral. Green is a neutral color. However, the leaves don't have to be green.  Check out the ...

I had imagined the Positivity Quilt in green. Something like this.

In Pin Dot Floral

But leaves don't have to be green. So I mocked up a few different colors. Here are the positibilities!

In English Lavender

In Juicy Mosaics

In Porcelain Blue

In Modern Opulence

In Sunset Plains

And the big reveal. Drum roll, please...

Scrappy Rainbow (Island ...

The fabrics shown in this post were given to me by Island Batik.

December’s challenge is to explore the world of 3D by using optical illusions, textures, trapunto or whatever else will make your quilt pop into life! I chose to make Pyramid Power, a pattern by Running with Scissors & Studio 180 Design. I think the design looks like perfectly folded boxes that must contain wonderful chocolates inside.

It is a bright sunny day here in Central NY and a balmy 11 degrees outside!

This pattern uses Studio 180 Design Corner Pop II & Corner Pop III. These tools give ...

The fabrics shown in this post were given to me by Island Batik.

Last January Island Batik gave me a secret bundle to hold onto till November, it was Tropical Escape shown above. I sat and looking at the bundle of gorgeous fabrics, waiting for them to talk to me. The goal is for me to introduce the Tropical Escape fabric line by making a quilt showcasing as many of the 20 fabrics as possible.

I decided to use Studio 180 Design’s BlockBuster pattern #29 Pointsettia. This block requires the Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star, Split Rects and ...

The fabrics shown in this post were given to me by Island Batik. It’s Island Batik Ambassador Challenge time Again! October is “Top it Off” month.

I was charged with making a table topper any size, any holiday, but must include “applique techniques”. Last month I made a child inspired quilt, I was supposed to use my “BOB” (Block on Board) die from AccuQuilt. My BOB was Cleopatra’s Fan. Somehow I messed up and did not use my Cleopatra’s fan die in my design. So, I decided to combine it with my October challenge in an effort ...