Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Another Island Batiks top finished

Hi!  First, I wanted to share a photo of sunset behind my house.  I live in the Pocono Mountains, and my almost 1/2 acre lot backs up to a large undeveloped subdivision.  I'm minutes away from Tobyhanna State Park, and the game lands, so basically, this undeveloped subdivision is an extension, with all the trees and animals that live in these mountains.  I've seen wild turkeys, hawks, lots of deer, bears, and even a wild cat (Mountain Lion or similar) and a fox, plus quail and lots of squirrels and chipmunks.  I love the quiet and the coolness of the trees around my house.  It's a very pretty area.

As you can see, the trees have not quite begun budding for leaves.  I think it's later than usual, but we've also had much more snow and colder temperatures than usual.  Some of my perennials are beginning to show, but the daffodils and hyacinth and tulips are not visible yet.  This photo was from a few days ago.  It's pouring today, and will probably snow again before tomorrow morning.  Yes, on April 15.  Not totally unusual, but rare.

I wanted to play with some of the beautiful Island Batiks I have.  I've made a few Zig A Zag patterns with the strip packs, but wanted a change.  I like different designs, just to change things up.  


This is a Mango Salsa strip pack from Island Batiks, with additional fabrics for the setting triangles and borders.  I think the outer border is also Island Batiks.  I hope to have time soon to get this quilted.  The colors are very bright and vibrant.  It's just happy.  


Today's finish is in purples and aquas.  I love the border!  The Island Batiks Strip Pack is called Orchids.  I added a dark purple batik frame, pale aqua lattice, and purple tile printed border.  I tried to get the tile designs to match in the corners.  I LOVE this.  I can't wait to quilt it.  I have more strips left from this pack, and will be making something else with it.  The pattern is called Braid In A Day by Quilt In A Day.  I pieced the braids on my 1954 vintage Singer 15-91.  I need to choose backing and get this layered.  This is just another fun way to use 2 1/2" strips.  


Aren't the Island Batik strips gorgeous?  It's fun to play with pretty fabrics  The light color lattice (the area between the braids) is really a light aqua.  It has more color than this photo shows.  

One more, with detail of the corner. 

These will be quilted soon, and listed in my Etsy shop.

Next project is the tunics for the Quilt performance at the Lehigh Valley Charter Arts school production in May.   This portion of the presentation represents Beowulf.  The girls need costumes that represent the different parts of the poem.  After the tunics are done, I can quilt again.  

Thanks for visiting!

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