Island Batik Create for a Cause Blog Hop and Giveaway

   

Okay, that's a little teaser and hint to the idea behind my quilt.  Welcome to my day on the Create for a Cause hop, with Island Batik Ambassadors.  The fabric collection I got was Melody, designed by Claudia Pfeil for Island Batik. 

This collection was in my Ambassador box in January, and will be in quilt shops soon.  It's a gorgeous mix of pink, purple, plum, and shades of green.  The tjaps (chops) have gorgeous feather quilting designs, and vines, plus circles and squares.  

This just spoke Flowers to me.  Happy Spring flowers.  Our objective this month is to make a quilt that will be donated to a charity.  I was stumped!  I knew I wanted to make something large, at least a throw size, and it needed to have flowers in a field of grass.  Which charity?  I'm still not actually sure which charity I'll be able to donate this to.  I'm contacted my church, and a local nursing home that does raffles, but haven't heard back yet.  The nursing home is one where my dad volunteered for many years.  Mom's nursing home doesn't do raffles, so I can't donate it there.  I also contacted my high school, and they would love to accept it, but aren't doing raffles or auctions at this time because of Covid.  I would love for the proceeds of this to go towards tuition for a smart girl that would benefit from being a student at Sacred Heart Academy.  It should bring in a nice sum of money if raffled or auctioned.  

So, without really knowing where I could donate it, I was stumped on the design, except that it needed to look like flowers.  I played around in EQ8 and drew something that looked like petals around a center.  I picked the 7 favorite pink/purple pieces, and 6 of the greens, plus the Circles in green, which was the 2 yard light piece included in my Ambassador box, plus some Egg White for background.  When I drew the block, I knew I was going to use the Corner Beam tool from Studio 180, plus the Flying Geese ruler by Quilt in a Day.  I was thinking of doing a pieced center with yellow and green, but decided to just use the collection colors, and a full square (faster that piecing one).  

So, 13 blocks later, plus 12 squares of the variety of greens created the center.  I used a border of the green circles, and then finished with a nice wide border from the dark coordinate in the box, the Vine in Dusk fabric, which is also the center flower.  The Flying Geese units are stitched to a rectangle of the same fabric, to make the petal shape.  Let's just call them Star Flowers, and the quilt is Garden Melody. 

Garden Melody measures about 80" square, and would be so pretty on a twin or full size bed, or hanging on a large wall.  I quilted it with Aurifil Forty-Three in 4660, Pink Taffy, a variegated thread that picks up all the colors of cotton candy to fuchsia.  It looks great on the green fabrics, too, and blends into the border.   I used the panto Maggie's Rose from Urban Elementz on my Handi-Quilter Amara with Pro-stitcher.  If you think you want to make something similar, let me know and I'll write the pattern.

The backing is a grey swirl wide back, and batting is Hobb's Heirloom Cotton with scrim, one of the queen size battings they added to our Ambassador boxes.  And I always use Schmetz needles, and love Microtex for piecing with batiks.  It's the best and lasts so long, even with doing multiple layers of binding, batting, top, and backing.  

I went to Hick's Nursery to get some photos, because the weather was too overcast and snowy for outdoor shots.  Thanks to the staff person who volunteered to hold this for me!  

Here are some other fun shots.  

Look, a garden bench painted to match!   I had to stop for another photo, lol.  I think the guy behind me on line thinks I'm nuts!! I had purchased a few house plants and a flower pot, and had just folded up the quilt.  Had to unfold it, toss it on the bench, grab the camera, then fold it again, lol.  

On my queen size bed.  It's a little small for it, or will need pillow shams.  

This fabric is my favorite in the collection.  It's one of my favorite colors, with my favorite.  I posted on Instagram that my shirt matched this the day I was sewing this block, and I do have nail polish to match, too. 

A little of the tread detail in quilting.  The color change is fun, and adds a pretty touch to the fabrics.  

Island Batik is having a give-away on their blog, and here's the Rafflecopter widget.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can win Mystery, the other collection by Claudia Pfeil.  It has similar tjaps, but features other colors. 

Please leave a comment on my post to enter to win some fabric from me.  I'm not sure what I'll share yet, but you'll be happy, as I'll stuff a flat rate envelope with Island Batik.  A US winner will have free shipping, and if you are from another country and agree to cover the difference in shipping, you can enter too.  This give-away will close on February 21, 2021.  Please sign up for emails of my blog posts, and consider following me on Facebook and Instagram!  Thanks!

Please visit this week's blogs for more inspiration, and to enter give-aways on their posts.  

February 8:

• Megan Best, Bestquilter
• Elizabeth DeCroos, Epida Studio

February 9:

• Jennifer Fulton, Inquiring Quilter
• Emily Leachman, The Darling Dogwood

February 10:

• Maryellen McAuliffe, Mary Mack Made Mine (You're here!  Thanks for visiting).  
• Jennifer Eubank, Archipelago Quilting

February 11:

• Michelle Roberts, Creative Blonde
• Gail Sheppard, Quilting Gail

February 12:

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 2 and Giveaway

Thanks so much for visiting!   Have fun on the hop, and get some good inspiration.  

Maryellen