Sunday, August 13, 2017

August Quilt As You Go Challenge and More

Hi.  Are you shocked?  I am!  I'm actually sharing a finished project!  One started for August, and actually done before 2 weeks are up! I'm so glad that the Island Batik Ambassador Challenge for August was Quilt As You Go.  

I've done a Quilt As You Go braid table runner before, in prints.  I knew the design would be pretty in batiks, as well, and decided to search for the pattern.  Yup, it was a search.  I knew where it was before I moved in January 2016.  I thought I knew where it was here.  Nope, but I did find it.  I grabbed some left-over pieces from Lake Life (I'm using it for a Triple Irish Chain) and got to work.  The pattern is GE Designs Braid Runner by Gudrun Erla.  
It uses 2 1/2" strips plus center square and borders, and is fairly fast and easy.  

Here's the start, with the fabrics cut, and I'm about to open the Aurifil Artisan cone of thread, because I thought it was a perfect match.  I put my walking foot on my machine, and figured out where a 1/4" seam line would be using the inside edge of the foot.  The backing is some olive green fabric I had, and I used a piece of Warm & Natural for the batting.  



 Just had to borrow Mom's table and her great vintage green ceramic vase for a photo.  Doesn't actually go with the lavender table cloth, but the vase looks great. 
It's actually finished!  Quilted.  I added feathers to the border.  I may go back and add something to the center square, but the strips are sewn together, over the batting, so they don't really need addition quilting.  Warm & Natural only requires stitching every 8 to 10", so this doesn't need more.  I did want to add to the border, though, and love doing feathers. Mine measures 55 by 17 1/2" because I made the inner (orange) border 2" instead of 1 1/2. 

Yes, it's actually a complete finish for the challenge, before the end of the month.  I'm so proud of myself, and glad I picked this pattern.  

In addition to that, I also did the first block for the #IwishyouamerryQAL.  Many of the Island Batik Ambassadors are doing it, and also choosing non-batik fabric.  But I happen to have some great Island Batik Christmas pieces floating around right now, and rather than search for the box of Christmas fabrics, decided to use what was out.  If you haven't seen the rest of the blocks, check out the Facebook page for more inspiration.  I used Aurifil 50wt 5001 Ocher Yellow for the gold ring, 2890 Very Dark Grass Green for the green snowflake print, and 2250 Red for the fun fancy stitching on the red reindeer print.  The reindeer were too large for fussy cutting in this block, but I'm saving one in case I can use it on another block.  I also decided to test some Terial Magic I had won on a blog hop.  It's a spray that makes the fabric really stiff.  I did a light spray, made sure I scrunched it through, and then ironed it dry.  It made the fabric stiff enough that I didn't need stabilizer while doing the stitches.  It's interesting, and I do like how it came out.  When I wash the quilt, it will come out, and feel like the rest of the blocks.  No stabilizer to remove from behind, so it saved some time.  Nice!



I can't wait to finish more stuff soon.  It feels so good.  I'm planning to vend my quilts and sewn items at our church's Spirit Day on September 16, so need to get as much done as possible for that.  I'll catch up when I can.  

Oh, Random.org picked #4 for my winner of my pattern on my last post.  I'll contact the person and ship that out.  Thanks for reading and commenting.  I appreciate it.  

Maryellen