Quilt in a Day – Blue Bear Quilts

Posted on June 15, 2023June 15, 2023 by Reed — 4 Comments

Island Batik Ambassador- June 2023 Project- Twisted Tango Table Runner- Part of the Fly Away Challenge

The Island Batik Ambassadors are going up, up and away. This month’s challenge is called Fly Away and the Island Batik Ambassadors are making whatever project they want using flying geese with Island Batik fabric. Flying geese are a very popular quilt block unit and I am sure you will see many creative ways to use this unit in your quilts. Links to the other Ambassador’s blogs may be found at the bottom of this post.

Since I could use any Island Batik fabric I wanted, I selected their Baroque collection of 10″ squares. Island Batik fabrics may be found at your local quilt shop that carries Island Batik, such as Fabric Smart in St. Petersburg FL. You may also find them online at www.fabric-smart.com or call them at 727-914-8850. Another online option for you to shop for this fabric would be Hancocks of Paducah: Hancocks of Paducah

The Baroque collection, from Island Batik, I was given, has many beautiful jewel tones and the collection was paired with a light and dark blue batik. These colors are just so bright and vibrant.

The quilt I made, Twisted Tango Table Runner, is a large table runner- 22″ x 54.” The dark blue sky pieces created twisted shapes, or dancers, that appear to be doing the tango. They are framed with the colorful jewel tones and the light blue. The light blue inner border and dark blue outer border bring it all together in perfect harmony.

I used my Electric Quilt 8 software to design this quilt.

The photos, below, are alternative versions I thought of doing. In the first one, the jewel tones would have created a solid ribbon across the runner, but I did not have enough fabric to choose that option. In the second alternative, the dark blue fabric would have become the geese and the jewel tones would have been the sky, creating more of a 3d pyramid look. I like Alternative 2, but I felt that the one I chose was a bit more modern.

The easy part about making this runner is that the tool I used to make the flying geese units allows you to make 4 perfect units at a time and since this required quite a few units, I was very happy about that. The tool I used to accomplish this is the Quilt in a Day Mini Flying Geese Ruler. A rotating mat is also very helpful for turning the units when you are trimming them.

To start out, you need a large square, which is the sky and a small square which is the goose, or center triangle.

Then you pin the two fabrics together and cut them diagonally as shown in the picture below.

Next, you sew the edges that you just cut with a quarter inch seam. This method is slightly different than the Quilt in a Day method in that it eliminates the step of having to draw a line down the middle first.

The two pieces are pressed to the dark

Those squares are then placed right sides together and the seams are not nesting, but are offset. You are lining up the outside lines of the squares and not the seam lines. The light and dark pieces are touching each other when they are placed together. The pieces are then pinned together like before and then cut down the middle diagonally. Finally, you sew with a quarter inch seam along the edges you just cut.

Press to either side. To get this unit to lay flat, it is necessary to clip to the seam line where there was an overlap between the two seams.

Finally, you take the Mini Flying Geese Ruler and place the green lines for the goose on the goose seam lines of the unit and cut the unit in half. Then you trim the other three sides of the unit by rotating the mat. The ruler stays in the same spot the whole time with the green goose seam lines on top of the goose seam lines in the unit. When you have trimmed up both of the squares, you end up with four perfectly trimmed up flying geese units.

Once all of your geese are trimmed up, they are sewn together in rows and every other row is offset by half of a block. Those are called half drop blocks. When sewing the units together, it helps to nest the seams and then clip to the seam line so the units lay flat.

Because the alternate rows were half drop blocks, it is necessary to trim up the sides of the runner so they are even.

Finally, It is necessary to measure your quilt top’s width and height in three places and make your borders the average of those three numbers so that your quilt, or table runner, top will be nice and square. One of the final things I did was to layer the top with a batik backing and a layer of Hobbs Premium 80/20 Batting and then pin basted the table runner together. I quilted it by outlining the dark blue dancers and the independent dark blue triangles. Finally the dark blue binding was machine sewn on.

Here is the finished Twisted Tango Table Runner.

For further details, I have a YouTube video about this quilt. Here is a link to the YouTube video where you can watch and see more details of how I made the table runner: Making a Making the Twisted Tango Table Runner

If you like the video, please be sure to like it, share it with your friends and subscribe so you don’t miss any upcoming videos.

The supplies I used to make this project were provided by:

Island Batik Baroque collection batik fabrics.

Aurifil 50 wt Thread- Passionflower Color Builders Set

Schmetz 70/10 Quilting needle

Hobbs Batting Hobbs Thermore Batting

Thank you Island Batik, Aurifil Thread, Hobbs Batting and Schmetz Needles.

If you are on TikTok, be sure to check out the video I have posted about the quilt. (Look for Blue Bear Quilts)

Also, please follow me on Instagram (Blue Bear Quilts) as that is where I occasionally have giveaways.

Blue Bear hopes you like this Twisted Tango table runner. Please let him know how much you love it by writing to him in the comments!

The other amazing Island Batik Ambassadors are also posting their June flying geese projects. Check out their projects by clicking on the links next to their names to be directed to their blog posts.

Emily Leachman, The Darling Dogwood

Sarah Pitcher, Pitcher’s Boutique

Claudia Porter, Create with Claudia

Brenda Alburl, Songbird Designs

Elita Sharpe, Busy Needle Quilting

Reed Johnson, Blue Bear Quilts Thanks for stopping by!

Suzy Webster, Websterquilt

Preeti Harris, Sew Preeti Quilts

Renee Atkinson, Pink Tulip Quilting

Denise Looney, For the Love of Geese

Gail Sheppard, Quilting Gail

Anorina Morris, Samelia’s Mum

Sandra Starley, Textile Time Travels

Susan Deshensky, Lady Blue Quilts

Randi Jones, Randi’s Roost

Brittany Fisher, Bobbin with Brittany

Lisa Pickering, Lisa’s Quilting Passion

Victoria Johnson, Forever Quilting for You

Mania Hatziioannidi, Mania for Quilts

Lana Russel, Lana Quilts

Pamela Boatright, Pamela Quilts

Jennifer Thomas, Curlicue Creations

Maryellen McAuliffe, Mary Mack Made Mine

Leah Malasky, Quilted Delights

Connie Kauffman, Kauffman Designs

#islandbatikambassador #islandbatik #iloveislandbatik #hobbsbatting #aurifil #aurifilthread #schmetzneedles #doyoueq #Janome #electricquilt #eq8 #HancocksofPaducah #fabricsmart #flyinggeese #flyawaychallenge

Posted on December 12, 2022December 11, 2022 by Reed — 32 Comments

Island Batik Ambassador- December Project- Reach For the Stars Quilt- Part of the Lone Star Blog Hop

Happy Holidays! This month’s blog hop is called Lone Star as the Island Batik Ambassadors will all be making a lone star quilt using different fabric collections from Island Batik. I love the look of Lone Star quilts and I know you are going to see some awesome quilts with this month’s Island Batik blog hop. Since this month is a blog hop, you can check out the Island Batik blog and enter each week to win a fat quarter bundle of some of the fabrics that the Ambassadors are using in their projects. I will show the other fabric collections later in this blog along with a link to the giveaway from Island Batik and links to other ambassador’s blogs.

I have always liked lone star quilts and yet I have never made one. A very special lone star quilt that I saw in South Dakota is part of the Dignity Statue. This statue is massive. The Dignity Statue is a tribute to the Lakota people of South Dakota. The image of the star quilt is a reminder of the importance of generosity in Lakota culture and is one of the most valued gifts one can receive. Also, if you are looking for some additional inspiration for Lone Star quilts, there are a lot of them featured in the 24th issue of Quiltfolk, which is about South Dakota quilters.

The December project was to make a lone star quilt using an upcoming fabric line from Island Batik. I love the fabric I was given to use: Copperfield by Claudia Pfeil. Just look at this gorgeous collection of batik fabrics. The Copperfield collection may be found at your local quilt shop that carries Island Batik, such as Fabric Smart in St. Petersburg FL. You may find them online at www.fabric-smart.com or call them at 727-914-8850.

The quilt I made is called Reach For the Stars. It is a large lap sized quilt- 58″ x 58.” This striking quilt has shades of orange and shades of green on a white background. It’s a more modern lone star in that it has numerous white diamonds that create an open, lacy look to the main star. I live near Central Park- no, not that Central Park, and every year the whole park is lit up with holiday lights and they have a carnival with amusement rides. It was the perfect location to take pictures of this quilt.

Here is a closeup of the Copperfield batik bundle I was provided. What a beautiful selection of orange and green batiks.

These are the fabrics I chose from the collection to incorporate into my quilt along with white background fabric.

I used my Electric Quilt 8 software to design this quilt. This is what the quilt looked like in the software. This combination of fabrics, with this layout, causes the main star in the quilt to radiate outwards. I think it has this effect even more so in the actual quilt.

Now that I had the fabrics and the design, I had to figure out how I was going to make this quilt as I had never made a lone star quilt before. Thanks to my good friend, Eleanor Burns of Quilt in a Day, and her book, Radiant Star Quilts, I knew that I would be able to successfully make this quilt.

You probably know that Eleanor is a stripper and one method for making a lone star quilt involves sewing strips together. The other method is to sew lots of diamonds together. I wanted to use the strip method in the Quilt in a Day book. You need a lot of strips, so I got out my Creative Grids Stripology Ruler and quickly cut out all the strips I needed to make this quilt.

In the next step, the strips have to be sewn together in a certain order to create the diamond points of the main star. Each subsequent strip is offset downward, which creates a 45 degree angle at the end of the strip set. When sewing multiple long strips together, it is a good idea to reverse directions when sewing the subsequent strips on; i.e., start at the bottom instead of the top on every other strip. This helps to prevent bowing in your strip sets.

To create the diamonds, the strip sets are then cut at an angle. This creates biased edges on the newly cut strips and you have to be careful to not stretch them when pressing and/or sewing. You trim the end at a 45 degree angle and then make subsequent cuts that are the same size as your original strips, which in my case was 2.5.”

There were three or four different combinations of strip sets that had to be sewn together and then cut at an angle. You then have to match up the correct angled strips next to each other and sew them together. This requires a lot of organization so that you have sewn the correct strip sets together and then are sewing the correct angled strips together. The Quilt in a Day book was well written and following the detailed instructions helped with the organization.

One sign of a well made lone star quilt is that all those diamond points are nicely lined up. There are a lot of intersections to be matched up. In order to accomplish that, it is necessary to mark the quarter inch seam on the strips at the intersections and then hold them together with pins. It’s definitely more work, but you can see from the previous photo, that that extra effort results in nicely matched points.

For the smaller inset stars, I was able to cut the strips sets at an angle with the Stripology Ruler, which has 45 degree lines on it.

The corner stars were created with a unique placement of the diamonds, which created an outline of a star. In order to get the corner stars the correct size, it was necessary to add setting triangles and then cut the squares down to size to match the length of the diamonds in the main star.

One of the more challenging aspects of making the quilt was adding the setting corners and setting triangles. They are made the correct size by measuring the length of the diamonds in the main star. Then they are sewn with inset seams. This is accomplished by marking where the quarter inch intersection is located and sewing slow to not stretch the biased edges of the pieces. You are also working with a large quilt top at this point, so there is a lot of fabric to maneuver under the needle.

I like to piece the backing of my quilts with left over fabric from the quilt I am working on. Using many of the large leftover pieces quickly made a backing for the quilt.

The theme of the quilt is stars and thus I picked a quilting design with swirls and stars. When a quilt has a lot of sharp angles in it, it is good to pick a quilting design with curves in it as this will not compete with the quilt.

My long armer for this quilt was Kim from Sunshine quilts. She used a really fine white thread which allows the quilting to pop in the white background areas but does not overtake the colored fabrics in the main star design. Didn’t she do a fantastic job? Here is a link to her Facebook page if you would like to bring, or send, your quilts to her: Sunshine Quilts.

Finally, it was time to bind the quilt and I used a green from the Copperfield collection. My Betty Bobbin sure comes in handy for keeping the binding neat while I am working with it.

The supplies I used to make this project were provided by:

Island Batik Copperfield collection.

Aurifil 50 wt Thread

Hobbs Heirloom Premium 80/20

Schmetz 70/10 Quilting needle

Prairie Spirit Alpacas alpaca wool pressing mat

Thank you Island Batik, Aurifil Thread, Hobbs Batting, Prairie Spirit Alpacas and Schmetz Needles.

If you are on TikTok, be sure to check out the video I have posted of me with the quilt. (Look for Blue Bear Quilts)

Blue Bear hopes you like this quilt. Please let him know how much you love the this quilt by writing to him in the comments!

The other amazing Island Batik Ambassadors are also posting their December Blog Hop Lone Star quilts. Check out their projects by clicking on the links next to their names to be directed to their blog posts.

December 5

Maryellen McAuliffe, Mary Mack Made Mine

Gail Sheppard, Quilting Gail

December 6

Megan Best, Bestquilter

Brenda Alburl, Songbird Designs

December 7

Preeti Harris, Sew Preeti Quilts

Emily Leachman, The Darling Dogwood

December 8

Jennifer Thomas, Curlicue Creations

December 9

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 1 and Giveaway

WEEK 2
December 12

Reed Johnson, Blue Bear Quilts. Thanks for stopping by!

Suzy Webster, Websterquilt

December 13

Gail Renna, Quilt Haven Threads

Jennifer Fulton, Inquiring Quilter

December 14

Denise Looney, For the Love of Geese

Claudia Porter, Create with Claudia

December 15

Leah Malasky, Quilted Delights

Andi Stanfield, True Blue Quilts

December 16

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 2 and Giveaway

WEEK 3
December 19

Mania Hatziioannidi, Mania for Quilts

Michelle Roberts, Creative Blonde Gifts

December 20

Pamela Boatright, Pamela Quilts

Connie Kauffman, Kauffman Designs

Sandra Starley, Textile Time Travels

December 21

Jane Hauprich, Stitch by Stitch Custom Quilting

Lisa Pickering, Lisa’s Quilting Passion

December 22

Brianna Roberts, Sew Cute and Quirky

Anorina Morris, Samelia’s Mum

Elizabeth DeCroos, Epida Studio

The giveaway of the Blog Hop started on Friday, December 2nd. Each week two lucky winners will each get one Fat Quarter bundle of a complete Island Batik collection. This week, it is Heartland or Emperor’s Treasures by Kathy Engle! To enter for your chance to win one of the two prizes above, follow the simple Rafflecopter prompts below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway ends on December, 16th at 11:59 pm PDT. Two random winners will be notified by email on December, 17th and announced on our Facebook page on December, 20th. If the winners do not respond within the first three days after being notified, two new random winners will be chosen. Please check your spam folders!

Make sure to follow Island Batik on social media to hop along with the Lone Star Blog Hop. Be sure to check out the Island Batik Blog.

#islandbatikambassador #islandbatik #iloveislandbatik #hobbsbatting #aurifil #aurifilthread #schmetzneedles #doyoueq #Janome #lonestarbloghop #creativegrids #quiltfolkmagazine #electricquilt #eq8

Posted on October 15, 2019 by Reed — Leave a comment

New Patterns Aplenty

It has been a busy summer at Blue Bear Quilts. We taught our Pixie Party Quilt and Quilt in a Day’s Autumn Leaves table runner, in August, at Affinity For Quilts in White Bear Lake Minnesota. Everyone had a great time and some beautiful quilts are in the making.

While we were in Minnesota, we ran into the editors from one of our favorite magazines. Quilt Folk. They were kind enough to pose for a photo. If you have not discovered this magazine, you need to. It has gorgeous pictures of quilts on premium matte paper and really interesting articles about everything Quilt Folk might be involved in. We also went to the Great Minnesota Stae Fair and I had to have photo with my favorite lumberjack, Paul Bunyan.

We had a couple more of our quilt designs show up in magazines. Canoe Junction made the cover of the September/ October issue of Love of Quilting magazine. It uses Flower Garden Gatherings Fabrics from Moda. Winter Visitor is featured in the November/ December issue of McCall’s Quilting magazine. It uses the Cardinal Woods flannel collection from Northcott Fabrics.

Speaking of lumberjacks, don’t forget about our Quilt Cruise to Alaska’s Inside Passage June 6-13, 2020 aboard the Holland America Eurodam. We will be making the beautiful Northern Star Garden Quilt, a pattern that was designed exclusively for this cruise. It involves shapes that have been precut for you with Accuquilt, a no tear-out the paper, paper pieced center star and Hawaiian (should be called Alaskan) appliqué snowflakes in the border. A different technique for each day were are quilting, while the ship is at sea. When the ship is at sea, it is up to you as to how much time you want to spend sewing. When the ship is in port, you will be able to go into the the ports of Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka and Victoria, BC with your family and friends. This is a trip of a lifetime to one of the most beautiful places on Earth. The trip is over half full, so don’t miss out and sign up today. Here is the link if you are interested in joining us on this cruise. https://quiltretreatatsea.com/quiltinginthewild/

We have created some wonderful free patterns for Accuquilt, which we hope you will enjoy making. They all were designed with Timeless Treasures Fabrics. Speaking of which, we have several new patterns, which will be making their debut at Fall Quilt Market for Timeless Treasures Fabrics. More to come on these patterns at a later date. A couple of them do involve panels, however. The first Accuquilt pattern is Antique Americana, which involves the use of the Hattie’s Choice die. Here is the link for the pattern. https://www.accuquilt.com/go-antique-americana-throw-quilt-pattern.html Then, we have Orange Cream Soda which involved the use of the Studio 6″ setting triangles. Here is the link for that pattern. https://www.accuquilt.com/studio-orange-cream-soda-throw-quilt-pattern.html Sherbet Dreams involves the use of the Glorified Nine Patch die. Here is the link. https://www.accuquilt.com/go-sherbet-dreams-throw-quilt-pattern.html Love Letters uses the Studio 8″ setting triangles. Here is the link for Love Letters. https://www.accuquilt.com/studio-love-letters-throw-quilt-pattern.html And finally, Fall is Coming, which uses the Studio 8″ setting triangles. The link to Fall is Coming. https://www.accuquilt.com/studio-fall-is-coming-throw-quilt-pattern.html

Last, but certainly not least, we have two new patterns making their debut with QT Fabrics at Quilt Market, In Houston, October 2019. They are Fit For a King, which utilizes the Accuquilt Hattie’s Choice die and Kings and Queens. You will be able to purchase these patterns from QT Fabrics, if you are a quilt shop and also from our website, very soon. Fit for a King uses QT Fabrics basic lines, Quilting Illusions and Color Blends. Kings and Queens uses a fat quarter bundle from QT Fabrics Illuminations collection, which will be arriving in shops around April 2020. Kings and Queens pattern is perfect for those fat quarter bundles you would love to turn into a beautiful quilt.

Well, that’s it for now. Happy Quilting till we come back and share more of what’s happening at Blue Bear Quilts.

Posted on August 30, 2018 by Reed — Leave a comment

Busy Summer

It has been a very busy summer, designing new quilt patterns, teaching classes, attending a Niece’s wedding, designing quilt patterns for magazine submissions and entering a contest.

We entered the Accuquilt Block Design contest again this year. They should be announcing the winners very soon. Here are a few of the blocks that I entered this year. Thank you to everyone that voted for my blocks. I appreciate it very much!

Before attending a wedding, we went to a family farm, in Northern Minnesota, and I was able to walk across the Mississippi River, in Itasca State Park. This is where the great river originates and it is very narrow and shallow, enabling you to walk across. I would not try that in New Orleans where it is deep and wide. I also saw amazing sunflower fields and llamas.

My Niece got married this August in Stillwater, Minnesota. It was beautiful wedding at a flower farm and the rehearsal dinner was on a riverboat. I also went to the Como Park Conservatory, which has amazing floral displays.

I taught a Quilt-in-a-Day class on Kylee’s Kite at Bear Patch Quilting Company in White Bear Lake Minnesota. Everyone had a great time. Several students brought in their completed tops from this year and last year.

Student's Kylee's Kite — Student’s Kylee’s Kite

Student's Bear in My Watermelon Patch — Student’s Bear in My Watermelon Patch

I can’t reveal the quilt designs for the magazines yet, or several new patterns I developed with QT Fabrics. However, I can show you the Northwoods Holiday Medley Placemats that were designed for Accuquilt and the pattern is available as a free download on their website https://www.accuquilt.com/go-northwoods-medley-holiday-placemats.html

I can also show you our latest pattern, Kaleidoscope, that was designed with QT Fabrics. This pattern is available on our website, Craftsy, and coming to a quilt shop near you soon.

It is going to be a busy fall writing patterns and making a sample quilt for QT Fabrics that will be displayed at quilt market this November, utilizing a new line of fabrics for them.

Also, Blue Bear will be teaching on a cruise in 2020. We are very excited about this and hope to be able to provide you with details soon. When it is this far out, it will give you lots of time to plan and save for a quilting cruise. We are so excited to have the opportunity to quilt and cruise with you! Stay tuned.

Posted on May 9, 2018 by Reed — Leave a comment

Secret Sewing Projects

At Blue Bear Quilts, we have been very busy getting ready for the summer 2018 classes. We also have been working on some secret sewing projects for Accuquilt that we can’t wait to share with you. We also have been designing patterns with QT Fabrics. Hopefully, we will be able to share these projects with you very soon.

Here are some of the exciting classes that we have coming up this summer. We will be offering a Triaxial Weave Pillow at Keep Me in Stitches on May 22& 29 in Tampa and July 12 & 19 in Largo. This is a weaving project that has little sewing and offers many creative ideas to incorporate into your sewing projects like garments, bags, and quilts.

We have an exciting Electric Quilt 8/ Accuquilt Event coming up at Keep Me in Stitches on May 25 & 26 in Tampa, and June 22 &23 in Largo. In this two-day event, you will learn the basic functions of EQ8 and learn how to create the “In the Jungle” quilt in EQ8 incorporating Accuquilt die shapes. The second day, we will cut out the quilt pieces using an Accuquilt cutter and die and sew the quilt together.

Finally, at Keep Me in Stitches, we have an Accuquilt party called “Patriotic Windings Ways,” perfect for the 4th of July, on June 8 & 9, in Largo, and June 15 & 16 in Tampa; a 3D Pinwheel Serger Blanket for the Baby Lock Serger Club, and the Bright Hope Quilt, in Tampa, on June 7 & 14th, and, in Largo, on August 20 & 27th.

At Happy Apple Quilts, We are offering “Hawaiian Stars” on May 31st and “Box of Chocolate Covered Cherries” on June 28th.

Country Quilts and Bears in Clearwater will have two offerings this summer. The first is our Accuquilt block contest fan favorite, “Not Your Grandmother’s Flower Garden” on May 23 & 30 and then “Water Wheel,” on July 14th, A Quilt in a Day Pattern.

At Bear Patch Quilting Company in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, on August 8th, we will be teaching a Quilt in a Day pattern called “Kylee’s Kite,” which we have put a modern spin on it with black and white fabrics and lots of geometric quilting.

Finally here are some photos from classes that we held this last session: Zippered serger pouch, Wonky Heart Pillow, Hawaiian Stars, and Snapshots Quilt.

Posted on September 21, 2017 by Reed — Leave a comment

Drumroll Please! Announcing the Grand Champion Prize Winner of the Accuquilt Block Design Contest.

I entered several blocks in the 2017 Accuquilt Block Design Contest. By popular vote, these two entries were the most popular.

Here were my other entries:

But the Grand Champion was my Purple Rose. It will be unveiled on the billboard outside the Accuquilt headquarters in Interstate 80 for an entire year. I am in the process of designing a quilt and a pattern for this block, which will be available in our shop.

I also entered this contest in 2016 and here were my entries from that year.

But the one that won Fan Favorite was Not Your Grandmother’s Flower Garden a.k.a. What Happens When Grandpa Tells Grandma No More Trips to the Fabric Store.It was designed with the Accuquilt Dresden Plate Die and Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

As a result of winning Fan Favorite, I was honored with a trip to Julien California to spend a week with Eleanor Burns, from Quilt in a Day, at her Fall quilt retreat at Camp Cedar Glen in the mountains. It was a wonderful time for which I am forever grateful.

Here are some photos from that trip.