Forever Quilting 4 You

This month brings another challenge to the Island Batik Ambassadors. We were tasked with making a thread painting quilt, lap size or larger.

What is thread painting you ask? It is the process of finishing the edges of fabric with thread, either matching or otherwise. For me I will machine applique this project; I have done machine appliquéing a ton of times over the years, so this month’s challenge wasn’t too scary. But as usual, deciding what I wanted to do for this project was another thing.

As you may have figured out by now, I’m an avid internet surfer, always looking for something new, unique, inspiring and challenging to do. So, naturally I found something I fell in love with and saved a picture to my Project folder. Coincidentally, after saving the picture I opened the folder and saw that I had previously saved a picture of a similar design I had seen in Accuquilt (which is one of the sponsors in partnership with Island Batik). So metaphorically speaking, I killed two birds with one stone. So I logged into Accuquilt’s website and found the pattern for my design! I was excited to see that not only did I find the pattern, but it was also available for purchase and download, so I ordered it! I also had to purchase the die that was needed to complete the pattern. Once I ordered the die I had to wait to receive it in the mail.” How nice it would have been if I could have downloaded the die, too! Who knows, with modern technology, I’m thinking this will be something we’ll be able to do in the future!

Fortunately, the die arrived in a couple of days and I started designing the quilt; thank you Accuquilt for shipping it so quickly. First thing first, deciding what fabric to use. I chose the beautiful pastel half-yard cuts of fabric that were in the half-year shipment from Island Batik a few months back. To say that I was in love with this fabric line was an understatement! This fabric bundle is called Tranquil Moments, and it is absolutely beautiful! It was a welcome change from all the rich colors I’ve been using in past projects. I also received two 2-yard cuts of coordinating fabrics; one was from the fabric line itself and the other was a rich blue that I could use in any project of my choosing.

After picking these two coordinating fabrics, as lovely as they were, I had another bright idea for my project. I decided I wanted to save these two coordinating fabrics for another challenge. Instead, I wanted to use white fabric for the background. Bummer! That meant I had to go through the box of fabrics again to find the white fabric, which by the way is always in stock. Man! The suffering I must endure as an Island Batik Ambassador (*wink*wink). After choosing my fabrics I needed to grab my Accuquilt. As I was going to get the Accuquilt I reflected on the thoughts I had when I first received it from Island Batik, “What in the world am I going to do with this?” So, I let it sit in my kitchen until I was “forced to use it!” But after that first time using it, to my surprise I realized how handy it was and how easy it made cutting the same shape and size of fabric. It turned out to be a very handy tool.

So before I started to cut the pieces I counted how many I would need for my project. Wow! I needed more than 100 pieces! It took me about an hour to cut all of the pieces using the Accuquilt. Had I cut them by hand, it would have taken me several hours to get it done. Having the Accuquilt has turned out to be a blessing in disguise; it reminded me just how much I appreciate Island Batik providing so many different items to help complete our challenges. It is a time saver, indeed!

I was still waiting to receive the pattern I ordered from Avvuquilt and growing more impatient. As days went by and still no pattern, I decided to start working on the quilt, without the pattern. I started by laying out the center circle, which was simple enough. I then started laying out the outer design and realized that without the pattern I wasn’t sure about the layout of the outer design. So, I grabbed the picture I had printed to use as a guide (which I do for every project) and tried to follow that. As it came together, I grabbed my glue stick and started gluing the pieces to the background fabric in preparation to start the applique process. I chose matching Aurifil thread… wait, matching thread? What was I thinking?! Once I started thinking clearly again, I needed to find more thread. I never grow tired of having to search through the treasure trove of goodies I receive from Island Batik. Searching, I found my stash of Aurifil thread and picked out assorted colors to complete the collection that I was looking for.

Ready to start the appliqueing process, I set the right stitch length and width on my machine and started sewing around those hundreds of pieces I had previously glued down. I then took a picture of the screen on my Bernina to document the stitch length and width just in case I didn’t finish appliqueing the pieces that day. When I was ready to start sewing again I was too lazy to get my phone and started to sew thinking I had left the stitch settings as they were the last time I worked on the quilt. Sure enough, when I took a closure look at my progress, you guessed it, the settings were not the same. Although it was second nature to grab my seam ripper, since the thread was painting and I was the only one who would notice it, I overcame the urge to grab my seam ripper and continued sewing. I know! It surprised me too! Not ripping out a seam or two during a project seemed really odd. But I let it go!

The next day when I started to sew, I remembered to use the right stitch settings, and what a difference! It was so much prettier than the last time. But like I said, I’m the only one who will notice it, so if someone does notice it and says something about it… well, I won’t tell you what I would usually say in response. Instead, as my mom always told me, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.”

After many more days of sewing, sometimes at night when it was quiet and sometimes with my fellow ambassador Carol Stanek over our portal, I finished this month’s challenge. I stood back and took a look at it and was really pleased with how it turned out, even without using a pattern!

So, you might be wondering “Wait! What do you mean without using a pattern? What happened to the one you purchased?” Well, there’s a story behind that. Remember when I was getting frustrated waiting to receive the pattern by way of “snail mail” and started working on my design and proceeded to put the quilt top together and then finished it? Somewhere along the way I was talking with another ambassador about my frustration and impatience with not receiving the pattern, and having to figure out how to put the quilt top together without it? During this conversation she mentioned that I could have checked online at Accuquilt to track my order to find out when it would arrive. Well I did that after getting of the phone, and yup! I had forgotten that I ordered it online and found it sitting in my downloads file in my account on the Accuquilt website!!! Oh my! Can you say senior moment?! Had I remembered I had ordered the downloadable pattern and that it downloads as soon as it’s paid for, I would have had the pattern help guide me through the layout! It would have saved me lot of time and extra work! It was sitting there in Accuquilt all along, waiting for me to print it! I laughed when I realized this! Laughing at myself is so refreshing and something I now do often. It’s so much better than wasting time and energy being upset with myself because I forgot something! But it can also have an undesirable effect; you know, my sister once wet herself from laughing so hard! Thank goodness I’m not as old as she is!!!

I still had the binding to do, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to use. Oh my goodness, one more trip to the box of goodies! In the bundle of half yard cuts of fabric I found one that had all the colors I used in my quilt top, so that’s what I used to tie it all together.

Don’t you just hate it when this happens?

I will make this quilt top again and use the pattern next time just to see how I did on my own compared to how I would have done using the pattern, just for giggles!

This challenge was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it very much, even with spending so many days stitching around all of those 100+ pieces.

So, what did I learn with this challenge?

When I order a downloadable pattern, it is downloaded instantly upon receipt of payment, and I should print it right away!

Using pastel fabrics was a welcome change and I really love them!

Accuquilt is a really helpful tool, and I will look for more ways and opportunities to use it in the future.

Even though my stitch settings were not the same over the whole quilt, I still love how it turned out!

Thank you to our sponsors who provided the great supplies:

Island Batik, Hobbs batting, Aurifil Thread, Accuquilt for the amazing die, Schmetz Needles, Bernina

Until next time what is on your sewing table today?

Victoria aka Tori

#hobbsbatting #hobbsinside #aurifil #aurifilthread #schmetzneedles #bernina #olfacreates #cloverusa #oliso #omnigrid #accuquilt