Saturday, March 3, 2018

Mini Love with Island Batik

Hi!  I know this is late, it's February's challenge, but better late than never.  

I'm so thrilled to be an Island Batik Ambassador again.  It really is the best thing!  I get tons of fabric (okay, 22 lbs) and get to make things with it.  And getting Aurifil thread is wonderful.  

Before I get the photos of my mini, I wanted to share about my experience last week.  This started back in September, 2017.  I sell my quilts, and do the craft/vendor fair at our church's Spirit Day. A woman came with her daughter, looking for a quilt for the granddaughter's bed.  They picked one featuring Island Batik fabric I had purchased.  I mentioned being an Ambassador and Aurifil Artisan. She said that she's also a quilter, but couldn't make a similar quilt for my price, so they purchased it.  (Yay!!)  A few days later, I got an email from Pieceful Patchers Quilt Guild in Williston Park, asking me to do a presentation and show quilts, related to being an Ambassador and Artisan.  In preparation for this, I wrote to my contacts at both companies and asked for handouts.  Aurifil provided brochures, as well as small spools of thread for each member, and a 12 spool kit for a raffle prize.  Island Batik sent a Stack of 10" squares, a Strip Pack (2 1/2" strips) and a Stash Builder pack.  My talk was well received, and they were totally thrilled with the raffle prizes.  It made for a really fun night, and I'm also really grateful my friend Christine attended, and videotaped it.  She also tried to set up a small PowerPoint slide show I did of sold quilts, but the borrowed projector didn't agree.  I'm so grateful to both Island Batik and Aurifil for helping launch this new aspect of my business.  I can't wait to do it again, and the group may ask me to teach a class next year.  They want one of my projects as a pattern.  
Yay for me!  

So, in prepping for that, I've finished a few older challenge pieces, so yay for me again.  UFOs off the list are a wonderful thing.  But that also explains why I'm late with this.

When Island Batik asked for #MiniLovewithIslandBatik, I didn't know what I wanted to do.  But I do have a large tote of fabric from prior years, plus stuff I purchased, and looked through it.  Then Island Batik did the hop for Blue Moon and Marie Bostwick's "The Promise Girls" novel and I really wanted to make Stormy Stars.  Avery, one of the sisters in the book, is a mermaid. I love all of Marie's books, and really enjoyed reading this one.  Stormy Stars is designed by Deb Tucker, Studio 180 designs.  The pattern is free (there's a link on that blog post).  I loved how it looked, and would love to make the Blue Moon version of the full size quilt.  I thought about choosing other colors, but when looking through the box of fabric, I found this turtle print from the Boondocks collection, I think from 2014.  I figured Avery's mermaid would love a turtle quilt!  

I played in EQ8 to figure out the placement of different fabrics, based on what I had available.  I came up with this version. 


The turtle fabric is in the border and center star design and I fussy cut some of them for the smaller squares.  The royal blue has waves, and the green dot is from the 2017 Foundations group.  

 The other green, with purple accents, is from the scraps of the Funky Friends hedgehog, and the light blue around the waves is from a stash buster roll.  

I did have a few issues getting this right.  When I first printed the pattern, I used regular paper.  I have Carol Doak's foundation paper, though, and printed enough of the blocks for the units, on another day.  Then I made 4 of the units, and was trimming them when I realized they were 3/8" smaller than they should be.  When I printed just the foundation paper, the printer made it fit, instead of printing full size.  I had to remake those units, after printing all the foundation papers again.  Yup, first set in the trash, so they wouldn't get used.  Then I realized I had not cut enough fabric, and had to cut more.  Then I realized I miscounted the units, and had to print more.  Most of the sewing went well, until tonight, adding the border.  I had put one border on with the Triangle in a square blocks the wrong way.  I just took off those blocks, sewed them back on the right way, and finished the border.  So, this needs a backing and quilting and binding, which may happen soon.  I have a few deadline things to do, first.  

One more thing!  The challenge said under 24".  I know it's a request, and many of the Ambassadors did very well with that.  Me?  Not so much.  This is 27".  But this closer to the right size, compared to my challenge piece from last year.  

I'm considering the 24" just a suggestion, and the fact that I used a pattern from Island Batik's blog should count for bonus points, right? 

You should check out the other Ambassador's posts featuring their minis.  Lots of fun inspiration.  Now to March's challenge, something new to me.  What haven't I sewn yet?? Not much! 

Thanks for stopping and reading.  
Maryellen



3 comments:

Vicki in MN said...

Beautiful! I think you still pass at 27";)

Barb Neiwert said...

27" works in my book! It's a very pretty quilt top. Fun, fun!

Barb said...

Love it