Forever Quilting 4 You

Island Batik August 2024 Challenge

For the Island Batik August challenge, we were tasked to create a mini quilt. Some might exclaim “Woo-hoo!” or “I’m so excited!” But for me the opposite is true – fear and dread set in, and I start to sweat… it’s not pretty. I think I’m not good at making mini quilts, although my sister thinks they are amazing! No matter how much I try to get them to come out straight and/or square, I just seem to always miss the mark, which is an itsy-bitsy-teenie-tiny mark. So, when I’m off by a thread width on each block, by the time I get to the end of the row, depending on how many blocks there are, it could be off by a quarter of an inch… yikes! When it comes to a mini quilt a quarter of an inch is a big deal, kind of like the Grand Canyon.

 I began wondering how I was going to accomplish this challenge. After thinking about it for a bit I took another look at the brief instructions that came with the challenge and realized that there weren’t very many restrictions on what we could do, which made it somewhat less worrisome. I then thought about what my favorite quilting technique is and… do you remember? Paper piecing! Once I decided on that, I then pondered over what pattern to choose, thinking about patterns I’ve wanted to make but always put it off. So, I took to EQ8 to find a pattern that I could make into a mini quilt. Keeping in mind that it could be no larger than a 24” square, I thought “with paper piecing I can handle this size;” hahaha! Famous last words! As I searched through the 100’s of designs in EQ8, shiver me timbers! I found it! The Storm at Sea! I’ve always been captivated by this quilt pattern but always put off making it. Well, this time I decided to give it a try, hoping that it would’t turn into “the perfect storm,” you know, the kind that is particularly bad, arising from a number of negative and unpredictable factors? As if that has never happened with any of the previous challenges I’ve undertaken.

After choosing the pattern, I then looked through the box of fabrics Island Batik sent to me in July and spotted one of the fabric lines I had specifically requested, the 10” layer cake bundle of Peppermint Sprinkles. Woo-hoo! Now I got super excited! You might be thinking that this line of fabrics would consist of only red and white fabrics, but guess what! There were a few light teals in it as well! I also considered the 4^th of July line, but when I looked closer at the Peppermint Sprinkles, I saw reindeer, snowflakes, pine trees, stars and swirls, and holly leaves, bringing me right back to Christmas, which is my favorite kinds of fabric!

Having chosen the rich colors of this Christmas fabric, I uploaded the color swatches into EQ8 so I could start coloring my waves at sea. As I started, it was easy sailing. But on the horizon, I saw a storm a-brewin!  I saw that I had assigned the colors to the wrong spots and quickly became overwhelmed. To stave off the “perfect storm,” I started over, taking it slow, looking at the pattern more closely. It took me a bit of time, but I realized that the original Storm at Sea was divided into four parts, so I turned each section a quarter of a turn to create each corner. By doing that, coloring the quilt layout started to fall into place, but wait! I could see the perfect storm was yet again brewing on the horizon. I realized that after I had finished coloring the layout I had no idea how many of each block I needed to print in order to create this mini wave. After a couple more deep breaths (without scuba gear or a life jacket) I thought “there has to be an easier way to do this than what I’m doing!” I stepped away for a bit and when I returned, I saw clearly that, like the coloring of the layout, the block pattern had also repeated itself four times. Getting back on course I once again avoided the perfect storm, well, for the time being anyway.

To help navigate the correct color placement of the fabrics when I start sewing, I printed the color layout and the foundation units both in color. (What a great idea; I added this to my toolbox.) With everything I needed, I started piecing the units together. Let me point out that just because it is a “mini” quilt doesn’t mean that it was a “mini” project. It doesn’t take any less time to create and sew a mini quilt than it does a full-sized quilt. Itsy-bitsy-teenie-tiny pieces are just as much work if not more than large ones. I began gluing, trimming, stitching, starching each seam, and pressing with my Oliso iron, made possible by Island Batik’s partner, Oliso, who gave each ambassador one of their irons. After completing each unit, I trimmed them and removed the foundation papers. If that wasn’t a mess, I don’t know what is. There were itsy-bitsy-teenie-tiny bits of paper everywhere! Eeegads! Once that was out of the way, I started sewing the units together in quarter sections. Boy that was challenging! I realized that I had sewn the pieces together wrong after noticing that the colors were in the wrong place. I grabbed my seam ripper – my favorite thing to do … NOT! I ripped out the stitches and sewed the pieces together again. I’m back on course, with one of the quarter sections stitched together I only had 3 more to go! Ugh!

After many hours and several cups of iced coffee I was able to see the lighthouse in the distance, albeit dim. When only sewing an inch or two at a time the progress is really slow, idle speed. I thought I had reached my final destination, but out of nowhere, I saw in the distance that the perfect storm was once again brewing! As I was admiring my work, I realized that I had made another mistake! Crap! For only a minute I thought “the pieces are so small no one will ever see the mistake, I don’t need to take it out, I’ll just leave it as is.” Well, I really tried to let it go, but I just couldn’t! I would always know that the mistake was there and that would really bug me. I ‘ve always said that any day of the week I would happily rip out everyone else’s mistakes instead of having to rip out my own. Unfortunately, by not being able to let it go, I had to rip out my mistake, turn it around and sew it back together the right way. I finally finished my mini-Storm at Sea, “x marks the spot,” my voyage is complete, and ultimately avoided the “perfect storm.” But nonetheless, I hope that I don’t have to complete another mini-quilt challenge ever again, or at least anytime soon.

So, what did I learn this month?

Being an Island Batik Ambassador lets me do things I’ve always wanted to but didn’t have a reason to make it.

Using a fabric line that I fell in love with is such a joy and honor, especially when it’s given freely from Island Batik.

I remembered why I am not a fan of mini quilts, but I survived this one and still have all my hair!

I love the idea of a challenge each month because it really does stretch my limits, but in a good way.

Thank you to all our sponsors who made this month’s challenge possible:

Island Batik for the Christmas fabric line, Peppermint Sprinkles

Aurifil thread for the great spool of light gray thread

Oliso Iron for the great pressing it does every time

Hobbs Thermore batting, this one is new to me but quilted up like a champ

A special thank you to Susan Zubillaga for the donated quilting, I love it!!

Until next time, what is on your sewing table today?

Victoria aka Tori