Thursday, February 3, 2022

Row by Row with Island Batik and Chantilly

 Hi, and welcome to my day on the Row by Row blog hop, featuring Chantilly by Kathy Engle for Karen Overton of The Quilt Rambler. Island Batik provides the Ambassadors with bundles and yardage, plus needles from Schmetz, Aurifil thread and batting from Hobb's to enable us to make gorgeous creations. This month we were asked to use a collection that will be in shops soon, and create a Row by Row quilt, about lap size. Believe me, with so much fabric I could have gone bigger. But a few months ago a friend from high school asked me to make a baby quilt for her assistant. She wanted something special for a gift, and asked that I do something with flowers and butterflies. When I saw this collection, I thought it would be so pretty for a baby quilt and that rows of flowers and butterflies, designed using EQ8's foundation pieced blocks and stars, would be sweet. After I got the main idea for the design, I checked with my friend, and she loved it.


Along with the half yard bundle, I also received 2 yards of Rain and 2 yards of Teal.  
This collection is so pretty!  It has gorgeous tjaps (chops) of lace inspired looks, with leaves, dots and swirls, and you'll occasionally find tiny hearts among the dots.  The leaf print with small dots and others that look like they were printed with lace are gorgeous.  I loved the aqua and blue on white, as well as the deep wine, purple, pinks and bright blue.  I added some Almond neutral for the background of the flowers, and used Rain for the separator rows, with Teal as an accent in the stars and for the border and binding. 
EQ8 version, before choosing exactly which fabrics I would use.  A few minor changes, but very similar. 


As I mentioned in my last post, I'm dealing with a major medical issue, and the last few weeks have been filled with more exams, (healing well) referrals for the next steps, and research and more exams for that.  As I worked as much as I could on this quilt, it's not done yet.  And if anything could have gone wrong, it did.   Make the tulips, okay, but there's a printing issue, the printer didn't like the foundation paper.  I added a funny post with alliteration to Instagram "Peeling paper from purple and pink posies." 

 I finally get that done, and then work on the daisy flowers.  Those actually went pretty well.  I still can't find the flower die I think I have, and had an idea to do something like a Dresden plate, but getting the angle and size right for a 5" block wasn't easy to figure, so I used the Accuquilt GO! Feathers die, the straight side.  I had planned more petals, but they didn't fit, so 6 per flower worked.  I cut out the circles for the center by hand (Cornmeal from the Basics collection).  Paper backed fusible made that pretty easy, and I used 2 different applique stitches on my machine to accent them, with different thread colors.  . 



My garden is growing, while there's a blizzard hitting Long Island. 

I added the Rain strips to separate the rows, and ended up having to take off a whole strip to remeasure and sew it back on.  Oh, had to make over a few stem blocks because the fabric was cut too small (out of practice error, and too many other things on my brain).  

Butterflies next.  EQ8 suggested the foundation shapes, so I printed out enough to make 5 butterflies on foundation paper.  The angles and piece shapes were strange, and measurements for an 8" block were not fun, so foundation piecing was the best way.  But EQ's suggestion made a really strange Y seam.  I looked at the original plan and figured I could learn how to separate the shapes better so it went together in 3 rows instead.  Yes, more printing and throwing out the originals.  I really don't like making mistakes on specialty papers, but this was a better solution. 

I asked if anyone could predict what this would become, and no one guessed the tops of the butterfly blocks. 

Butterfly body center is a scrap of Solid Black.  The center sections were not fun to sew, and I had to recut the fabric to make it fit, even though I had measured and thought it would work.  I'm so grateful I got 1/2 yard of each.  And isn't that background floral so pretty?  

I hand embroidered the antenna for each butterfly using 6 strands of a charcoal grey Aurifloss, and a simple stem stitch.  I didn't even draw lines first, just made each one a little different.  

Finally I was able to work on the Star blocks, aka Mosaic #19.  I grabbed my Accuquilt GO! 8" Qube for cutting all the pieces.  I wanted to make one star like a sun, so cut that with Cornmeal and Butter, and the upper stars I used a mix of the blues with a white/flower background so it would look like sky with clouds.  For the bottom row I added some purple and green, with accents of teal for the corners, to look a little more like grass and a flowery field.  

I finally got the top assembled and was going to try to quilt it.  But just as I was about to start, I realized I had loaded the minkee backing the wrong way, and would need to take off the basting, remove the batting and top (luckily, it's only basted) and take off the backing and reload it all.  If I had gone ahead, I would have run out of backing before the top was done.  Good thing I checked before hitting Start.  So that's why it's not quilted yet, and the photos are not perfect and pretty.  I gave up, lol  I'll provide a new post with pretty photos when it's done.  I'll be using French Lilac variegated thread from Aurifil, 40-3 weight for quilting.  I also have to unthread the long arm to actually make bobbins, which I forgot to do before threading.  My brain doesn't seem to be working well, but I know it's stress related, and I hope to be back to a better place soon.  

I ended up using all 20 fabrics in this top, and think it's so pretty.  I plan to use a Daisy design for quilting, and the backing is a gorgeous soft rose cuddle, as you can see in the photos, with the stitching I need to take out, lol.   It measures about 47 by 53", and I'll be using Hobb's Heirloom cotton batting with scrim for the middle.  Pieced with Aurifil 50wt, and applique is also Aurifil 50wt.  Schmetz needls were used for piecing, and a non-stick was used for applique.

Thanks so much for reading this far.  I do hope that you follow me on Instagram, subscribe to my blog, and follow me on Facebook.  Please let me know in the comments, and I'll pick a comment to win a few fat quarters from Island Batik, after the hop is over.  If you live outside the US, and agree to help defray the difference in shipping, please enter.  I'll make sure the flat rate envelope is extra stuffed.  I'm not sure what the prize is, but if you have a favorite color, I'll try to make sure you get it. 

Island Batik has a give away, too.



Please check with the Ambassadors posting this week, as well.  Their projects are sure to inspire you.  If you're looking for any of the collections shared this week, please check with your local quilt shop, or ask me and I'll see what I can get.  I have some of them in 10" squares and strip packs for sale in my Etsy shop.  

January 31:

Jennifer Thomas, Curlicue Creations
Denise Looney, For the Love of Geese 

February 1:

Pamela Boatright, Pamela Quilts
Andi Stanfield, True Blue Quilts

February 2:

Megan Best, Bestquilter

February 3:

Maryellen McAuliffe, Mary Mack Made Mine
Brenda Alburl, Songbird Designs

February 4:

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 1 and Giveaway