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Island Batik Ambassador- February Project- Row by Row Quilt

Timberland Tumble Quilt

I have completed my February project as an Island Batik Ambassador and I am so excited to share it with you. This month is a blog hop and if you check out the Island Batik blog, you can 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 post and there will be a link to the giveaway from Island Batik.

Row by Wow Blog Hop
Row by Wow Blog Hop

 

The February project was to make a row by row quilt using an upcoming fabric line from Island Batik. I was so excited when the fabric I was given to use was Evergreen and Pine by Kathy Engle. Just look at this gorgeous collection of green and tan batik fabrics. The Evergreen & Pine Batiks 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.

Evergreen & Pine
Evergreen & Pine

The quilt I made is called Timberland Tumble. It is a large lap quilt size 56″ x 77.” This is a striking quilt with a different block in each row. I think it is sometimes difficult to come up with fabrics and quilt patterns that would be appropriate to make for a man, but I feel this quilt accomplishes that and would be an awesome quilt to make for the men in your life. This quilt is easy to make as it is composed mainly of half square triangles, a few squares and maybe a quarter square triangle or two.

Timberland Tumble Quilt
Timberland Tumble Quilt
TT location
TT location

I will have a pattern coming out in March 2022 for this quilt after the testers are done testing the pattern.  The batik bundle I was provided was the Evergreen and Pine collection by Kathy Engle. Look at this glorious selection of green and tan batiks. These fabrics were so beautiful that it was really hard to cut them up.

Evergreen and Pine
Evergreen and Pine
E&P
E&P

Row by Row quilts are made with rows of quilt blocks, with each row distinct from the others. I decided to showcase the wide world of blocks that can easily be made from half square triangles. Although all of these blocks can be made from half square triangles, and a few squares and quarter square triangles, I did construct a few of the blocks using larger quarter square triangles and trapezoids as I wanted to showcase the fabric and have less seams to sew after cutting the pieces with my Accuquilt Go! Big Cutter. Here is a picture of using the Accuquilt cutter to cut out some of the shapes.

Accuquilt cutter
Accuquilt cutter

You can see that it makes beautiful cuts which are so easy to piece together. Also, I love the fact that there are no dog ears to trim and if you do a really accurate job of sewing your 1/4″ seam, there is nothing that needs to be trimmed. This really saves a lot of time and effort.

I downloaded the images of the fabric collection into my Electric Quilt software, which is the software I use to design quilts. This is what the quilt looked like in the software. I have included a couple of close ups of the blocks with the gorgeous Evergreen and Pine fabric in them.

TT EQ8
TT EQ8
row 10
row 10
row 5
row 5
row 6
row 6

I also like to often piece the backs of my quilts, which I did for this one. I used some of the fat quarters that I did not use in the quilt to add some interest to the back of the quilt. Here is picture of the back. If you are on TikTok, be sure to check out the video I have posted with me and the quilt. (Look for Blue Bear Quilts)

back of the quilt
back of the quilt

To quilt the quilt on my Bernina 770 QE, I did stitch in the ditch with the edgestitch #10D foot, which was easy to do as there was a square grid of the half square triangle shapes. I used black 50 wt. Aurifil thread on the front and a tan on the back. Schmetz Needles sent the Ambassadors some of their needles and I used a 70/10 quilting needle. I used Hobbs Premium Polyester Poly-down batting. I had never used this batting before and it was very easy to quilt on my Bernina. Hobbs Poly-Down Batting is made with very fine, white, denier polyester which enables the batting to provide a soft feel and lovely drape. It is prized by machine quilters for its wonderful loft which accentuates quilting details. It is also very light weight.

Polydown_batting
Polydown_batting

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Island Batik Evergreen and Pine for the top and Pearl for the backing.

Aurifil 50 wt Thread (black and Tan)

Hobbs Premium Polyester Poly-down batting

Schmetz 70/10 Quilting needle

Accuquilt Go! Big Cutter and 6″ Qube

 

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

Island Batik
Island Batik
Aurifil Thread
Aurifil Thread
Schmetz Needles
Schmetz Needles
Hobbs Batting
Hobbs Batting
accuquilt
accuquilt

Blue Bear is sending you some love for Valentine’s Day. Please let him know how much you love the quilt by writing to him in the comments!

TT Quilt with heart
TT Quilt with heart

Be sure to check out the Island Batik Blog at https://islandbatik.com/row-by-row-blog-hop-week-one/ where you can enter to win a fat quarter bundle. Check it out! a Rafflecopter giveaway  Citified and Contempo are the two fabric lines that are being given away this week. Good luck!

week two prize
week two prize

The other amazing Island Batik Ambassadors are also posting their February Blog Hop quilts. For this week in the blog hop, on Tuesday, Suzy Webster and Connie Kauffman posted on the Contempo fabric line and on Thursday, Brianna Roberts and Sandra Starley will be posting on the Graphic line from Island Batik. Check out their projects by clicking on the links next to their names to be directed to their blog posts.

Be sure to check out the other amazing Row by Row quilts (I have seen some amazing quilts so far) and all the fabulous new Island Batik Collections!

January 31:

Jennifer Thomas, Curlicue Creations
Denise Looney, For the Love of Geese

February 1:

Pamela Boatright, Pamela Quilts
Andi Stanfield, True Blue Quilts

February 2:

Megan Best, Bestquilter

February 3:

Maryellen McAuliffe, Mary Mack Made Mine
Brenda Alburl, Songbird Designs

February 7:

Emily Leachman, The Darling Dogwood
Leah Malasky, Quilted Delights

February 8:

Suzy Webster, Websterquilt
Connie Kauffman, Kauffman Designs

February 9:

Reed Johnson, Blue Bear Quilts

February 10:

Brianna Roberts, Sew Cute and Quirky
Sandra Starley, Textile Time Travels

February 14:

Michelle Roberts, Creative Blonde
Jane Hauprich, Stitch by Stitch Custom Quilting

February 15:

Claudia Porter, Create with Claudia

February 16:

Anorina Morris, Samelia’s Mum
Preeti Harris, Sew Preeti Quilts

February 17:

Elizabeth DeCroos, Epida Studio
Gail Renna, Quilt Haven Threads

February 18:

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 3 and Giveaway

February 21:

Gail Sheppard, Quilting Gail
Jennifer Fulton, Inquiring Quilter

February 22:

Mania Hatzioannidi, Mania for Quilts
Lisa Pickering, Lisa’s Quilting Passion

#islandbatikambassador #islandbatik #iloveislandbatik   #hobbsbatting #accuquilt #accuquiltgo #aurifil #aurifilthread #schmetzneedles #doyoueq #bernina 

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Island Batik Ambassador- January Project- Step by Step Quilt

South Seas Shuffle Quilt

I am so excited to be an Island Batik Ambassador for 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each month, I will be sharing a different project using upcoming fabric lines from Island Batik.

Unboxing video
Unboxing video

 

If you would like to see my unboxing video, where I show all of the fabric and batting Island Batik and Hobbs sent to me, here is a link to my YouTube video: https://youtu.be/Q-MN2HbI6dg. Be sure to subscribe and click the bell so the you will be notified when I post more videos.

For the month of January, the challenge was to create a step by step quilt using the Island Batik basic line of Gradations.

01 - Step by Step Challenge
01 – Step by Step Challenge

 

The quilt I made is called South Seas Shuffle. It is a large lap quilt size 56″ x 62.”

South Seas Shuffle Quilt.
South Seas Shuffle Quilt.
South Seas Shuffle Quilt
South Seas Shuffle Quilt

 

This is a modern quilt using the traditional flying geese block. It’s modern in that the geese are going in many directions, there are large white negative spaces and there are partial seam blocks in the construction of the quilt. I will have a pattern coming out in February 2022 for this quilt after the testers are done testing the pattern. I also will have a YouTube video for how to sew the partial seam block unit in this quilt. The batik bundle I was provided was Brilliant Blues. Look at this glorious selection of blue batiks. Island Batik developed ten different colorways of gradations with 20 steps in each. There are so many quilt projects that make use of gradations in color and value. Yardage for the Gradation Batiks 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.

BB Bundle
BB Bundle
Brilliant Blues
Brilliant Blues

 

The idea behind the step by step challenge was to incorporate the gradation of light, medium and dark colors into a quilt. Sometimes it is difficult to determine if a color should be placed into the light, medium, or dark category. In order to do that, it helps to place them next to each other. If it is still too difficult to determine, a little trick is to take a picture of them and then use the filters in your phone’s camera app to turn the picture into a B&W monochromatic picture. Then it is easier to see the differences in values. Squinting at the photos and fabrics helps as well. In the photos below, it looks like the 1st and 3rd batiks might be about the same value, but in the B&W photo, you can see the the 3rd batik is clearly lighter that the 1st. So in the color photo, the 1st batik is the dark, the 2nd and 3rd are the mediums and the 4th batik is the light value. The value of a fabric can change when you place different lights and darks next to it.

Color values
Color values
black and white image
black and white image

 

I downloaded the images of the fabric collection into my Electric Quilt software, which is the software I use to design quilts. This is what the quilt looked like in the software.

South Seas Shuffle Quilt in EQ8
South Seas Shuffle Quilt in EQ8

 

I used the measurements of the Accuquilt Flying Geese die to create the size of the blocks. Then the EQ8 software told me how much yardage I needed of each fabric and gave me the rotary cutting diagrams for the non-Accuquilt pieces.

Each one of the flying geese blocks has a blue batik with a light, medium and dark value. This creates the gradation in colors. I cut the blue batik quarter square triangles, which are in the flying geese blocks, using the Accuquilt cutter and die. Since the Accuquilt cutter and die cuts off the dog ears, it is easy to line up the pieces for sewing and there is no trimming that needs to be done after the pieces are sewn together.

 

When the quilt top was all sewn together, I took it outside to let the sun shine through the quilt as I knew these brilliant blue batiks would sing in the sunshine and wow did they.

SSS see through
SSS see through

 

Looking at this photo on my iPhone, I discovered something new called Lookup -Artwork. When I clicked on that, it showed me different artist’s works that were similar in feel to my quilt. I was amazed by what they came up with, so I though I would share those other artist’s works with you.

Other's Artwork
Other’s Artwork
Other's Artwork
Other’s Artwork
Other's Artwork
Other’s Artwork
Other's Artwork
Other’s Artwork
Other's Artwork
Other’s Artwork

 

 

 

To quilt the quilt on my Bernina 770 QE, I did stitch in the ditch with the edgestitch #10D foot.

Stitch in the ditch quilting
Stitch in the ditch quilting

 

I did some quilting in the negative white spaces to mimic the flying geese that were in the other blocks. I used the Creative Grids “Chevy” ruler, designed by Angela Walters, to do this quilting.

Negative space quilting
Negative space quilting

 

I also wanted to do some echo quilting, which means quilting next to the seam lines, within the blue flying geese. So, I switched to a blue Aurifil thread and then used the Line Tamer ruler by Fourpawsquilting.com to get straight lines with my echo quilting.

Four Paws ruler
Four Paws ruler
Echo quilting
Echo quilting

 

I used a new Schmetz 70/10 quilting needle. Using new needle on a new quilting project just makes your life so much easier.

 

I used Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Bleached batting as the quilt top had a lot of white in it and I did not want the batting to show through the fabrics. This batting was very easy to quilt on my Bernina. It is fairly thin and gives your quilt a beautiful drape and also lays fairly flat. It is also light weight and breathable so it makes a good batting for a summer quilt or if used in a warmer climate.  It’s loft is 1/8″; it’s shrinkage is 3-5% and the maximum stitch distance when quilting is 4.”

HobbsHeirloom8020Bleached
HobbsHeirloom8020Bleached

 

What I liked about using Island Batik fabrics:

  1. The colors are so vibrant.
  2. There is a wonderful texture in the fabrics.
  3. They have very little fraying after they have been cut.
  4. They produce very little lint in your sewing machine.
  5. They are tightly woven, yet very light. I had been working with the batiks for awhile and then switched to regular quilting cotton. I thought the quilting cotton was so heavy that I had a double layer, but I did not. The light weight of the batiks would make for an overall lighter quilt, depending on your batting and how much quilting you put onto the top.

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

Island Batik Foundations Fabrics: Brilliant Blues, White, and Black for the top and Pearl for the backing.

Aurifil 50 wt Thread (white. black and blue)

Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Bleached Batting

Schmetz 70/10 Quilting needle

Accuquilt Go! Big Cutter and die #55456 Flying Geese 

 

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

Island Batik
Island Batik
Aurifil Thread
Aurifil Thread
Schmetz Needles
Schmetz Needles
Hobbs Batting
Hobbs Batting
accuquilt
accuquilt

 

 

Blue Bear likes this quilt because of its fabulous blue colors. He hopes you like it too!

Blue Bear with quilt
Blue Bear with quilt

The other amazing Island Batik Ambassadors are also posting their first quilts of the year. They are all making wonderful gradation quilts in a rainbow of colors. Check out their projects by clicking on the links next to their names to be directed to their blog posts.

Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs

Megan Best ~ Bestquilter

Pamela Boatright ~ Pamelaquilts

Elizabeth DeCroos ~ Epida Studio

Jennifer Fulton ~ Inquiring Quilter

Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts

Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for quilts

Jane Hauprich ~ Stitch By Stitch Custom Quilting

Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs

Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood

Denise Looney ~ For The Love Of Geese

Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights

Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack Made Mine

Anorina Morris – sameliasmum.com

Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa’s Quilting Passion

Claudia Porter ~ Create with Claudia

Gail Renna ~ Quilt Haven Threads

Brianna Roberts ~ Sew Cute And Quirky

Michelle Roberts ~ Creative Blonde

Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail

Andi Stanfield ~ True Blue Quilts

Sandra Starley ~ Textile Time Travels

Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations

Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt

#islandbatikambassador #islandbatik #iloveislandbatik 

 #hobbsbatting #accuquilt #accuquiltgo #aurifil #aurifilthread #schmetzneedles #doyoueq #bernina