Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Ready Set GO! Baby Quilt Challenge with Island Batik


The April Island Batik Ambassador Challenge was to use the Accuquilt Ready Set GO! Die cutting system to make a baby quilt.  I've had a GO! for years, but was delighted to receive this along with the fabric for this year's Ambassadors.  I loved looking through the book by Eleanor Burns for the GO! cutter and CUBE die system.  It has lots of eye candy and suggestions, and all the math, I mean ALL the math is done for you.  Want a block in a 6" and need to know how big to cut the strip to place on the die?  It's there.  What about making it a 12" block, or 8" block?  Yup. everything you need to do to assemble any of the 72 blocks in a multitude of sizes is right there.  It's SEW easy!  



I drew the block in EQ8 and played with the options.  I did with and without sashing. I liked the secondary design of larger pinwheels so I picked the Peace and Plenty block without sashing.  I also picked Peace and Plenty because I thought the name was great for a baby quilt.  Better than "Mosaic #6" which was the other block I wanted to try.  I wasn't sure which fabrics I would choose until I dug through the bins of Island Batik fabric. So the EQ8 design just used 4 colors.  I've been an ambassador for a few years, and also purchase fabrics.  I keep them all together in a few tubs, and make sure I don't mix them with older, non-Island Batik fabric.  I can usually tell if one is NOT IB, because the colors are not as clear, and the fabric is thinner and lighter.  Island Batik is really the best.  

I picked the butterfly design for the border, and had just enough for 4 1/4" strips for 4 sides.  It was just shy of 18", left from another project.  I pulled the pinks and then aqua and deep sky blue for the other pieces.  I loved finding all the matching Aurifil threads for this, too.  It's also my favorite for quilting and piecing.  I opened the 8" CUBE and pulled out dies 4 and 5, and cut 2 strips of each color in the size recommended, and soon had a pretty pile of triangles, already matched and ready to sew.  I made sure when I placed the fabric on the dies that I had the best sides of the correct colors, right sides together, and ran them through the GO! cutter.  384 pieces cut in minutes. 


BUT I didn't read the directions very well the first time, and had to unsew some half-square triangle units, to make them side triangles for the Quarter Square units.  Once I figured out the correct side to sew, and the order to sew the units, I actually did them quickly, and within a few hours had all the smaller units sewn, and all the blue/green units sewn and pressed.  I chain pieced the pinks so that they were ready to make the center units.  


The next step was to press the units so the center seams spun, and then add the blue/green corners.  Since I had used a light and darker pink, and the opposite light/dark from the book for the corners I again had to do some re-pressing so that the seams would all nest.  Once that was done, the blocks were done in minutes.  I did 16 blocks, and then webbed the top.  I finished the rows and added a darker pink inner border, and sewed the butterfly border on today, so I could get some photos and write this post.  

I'm planning to use a grey Minkee type fabric for the back, since I have it, and Hobb's Heirloom cotton batting, and the darker pink for binding.  

I'm going to wait to quilt this until I get my Handi-Quilter Amara long arm.  I'm hoping it will be soon, but I'm waiting for the check tor the prize I won as a Wheel of Fortune viewer.  If I can get the computer part financed, I hope to get that at the same time, if not I'll save up for it.  My salesman/friend, Fred, from Pocono Sew and Vac is hoping that there's a deal that benefits both of us, so he'll call me as soon as he gets the info.  He's also looking into getting Red Snappers to sell in the shop, and I'll be getting those, plus the ruler base and foot, and a few rulers.  I plan to have a BLAST learning and playing with this.  So, I'm saving tops to quilt!  I'm so glad I have a good selection of Aurifil thread.  It's going to be great!  

Some more photos for you.



 I really liked that you couldn't easily determine the block. Is it the pink set on point next to a blue/green pinwheel?  No, a pink center with blue/green triangle corners.  

I had fun picking the colors, and think they really do look great with the border, even though they are not part of the same collection.  That's the beauty of Island Batik, too.  There's always something that matches. 

Thanks for visiting, and please check out the other Island Batik Ambassadors as they share their Ready Set GO! baby quilts.