Beat The Heat - Blog Hop

Today is my day for the Island Batik Beat the Heat Blog Hop featuring  the Spring 2019 fabrics from Island Batik.   My fabric line to share with you is Graphic Gems.  This collection won my heart.

So how do we "Beat the heat" in Alabama?

We have lots of methods.  One classic way is to enjoy the early morning cool and the late evening cool.  And I am going for the late evening way of beating the heat.   It is a true delight to take a blanket - or better still a quilt - outside to place on the ground (or perhaps a truck bed.)  Then we lay out in the cool(er) breeze of the evening and look at the wonder of the stars.  To me, stars have always shown the magnitude of creation.  So, my creative soul chose to make a star quilt with these lovely fabrics.  

I used the AccuQuilt Go! Qube 8" set and the two companion sets (Angles and Corners) to make my stars.  Lots of pieces were carefully but quickly cut and laid out into blocks.

These were sewn together to make 12" finished blocks. Since the 8" Qube makes 4"sections, it was simple to use those sections to make a 12" block.

I love the richness of the colors and how the patterns in the batiks play together so well.  The low volume "whites"  really add interest to the background in this block.

As I had planned the quilt in Electric Quilt 8,  I printed out one of each block to make the sewing easier.  I didn't sew the wrong pieces together using this method.

I hope you have been noticing the lovely visual textures and designs of these batik fabrics.  There are rich darks and  amazingly rich colors.  And I have to share my favorite fabric(s) in this line.

Yes, I love these Gears fabrics.  The gears, propellers and concentric circles make my heart just sing.  I particularly love the lower one because of the multiple colors in the fabric.

Have I talked and teased too much already? I have a lot of glamour shots of this lovely quilt.  So let's look.

 The quilting is a simple stipple design done on my domestic machine with an off-white/bisque Aurilfil thread.  The batting is Hobbs Cotton Batting with scrim - one of my favorites for quilting on my domestic machine. This quilt has been washed to get the lovely "crinkly" texture that makes me so happy.

Stars in the Southern Skies

You know you wanted to see the backing  

 For the backing I used two of the fabrics from the quit and added a different Island Batik fabric called Raindrops in Grape from the "All A Flutter" collection that I purchased specially for this quilt.  you should know that various lines of fabric from Island Batik play very nicely together.

A puppy was playing with her owner in the park and she came to give her approval to the quilt. She was so sweet!

How about a few close-ups?

For the binding I also used the Grape Raindrops fabric, but I added a flange with a teal from the Graphic Gems collection.

Here are a some closeups of some of the blocks. You get the opportunity to 

enjoy some of the fabrics up close also.

I even added a few raw edge appliqué stars in the "blank" areas in the top and bottom rows. 

The fabrics for this project were provided by Island Batik.  The batting was provided by Hobbs Batting an industry partner for the Island Batik Ambassador program.  Some of the thread was provided Aurifil - an industry partner.  The Go! Cutter and some of the dies used were provided by Accuquilt - another industry partner.  Thanks so much to all of you.

You should really visit all the stops along this blog hop.  You will be blessed with inspiration.

The official Island Batik Blog is having a giveaway each week of the hop. Below is the current widget for the giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also check out the other Ambassador's posts as some of them are having giveaways also.

Monday August 5

Leanne Parsons - The Devoted Quilter

Sherry Shish - Powered by Quilting

Tuesday August 6

Bill Locke - Studio BIll Locke

Lisa Nielsen - Lisa Lisa and the Quilt Jam

Wednesday August 7

Sandra Walker - Mmm! Quilts

Terri Vanden Bosch - Lizard Creek Quilts

Thursday August 8

Pamela Boatright - Pamela Quilts

Kathleen McCormick - Kathleen McMusing

Monday August 12

Karen Neary - Sew Karen-ly Created

Carol Moellers - Carol Moellers Designs

Tuesday August 13

Michelle Roberts - Creative Blonde

Laticia "Tish" Stemple - Tish's Adventures in Wonderland

Wednesday August 14

(Debora) Anne Wiens - Sweetgrass Creative Designs

Gene Black - Gene Black (you are here) 

Thursday August 15

Tina D Dillard - Quilting Affection Designs

Bea Lee - Bea Quilter

Monday August 19

Joanne Hart - Unicornharts

Carla Henton - Creatin’ in the Sticks

Tuesday August 20

Connie Kauffman - Kauffman Designs

Vasudha Govindan - Storied Quilts

Wednesday August 21

Vicki Schlimmer - Vicki's Crafts and Quilting

Mania (Magdalini) Hatziioannidi - Mania for Quilts

Thursday August 22

Gail Sheppard - Quilting Gail

Monday August 26

Maryellen McAuliffe - Mary Mack's Blog 

Jennifer Strauser - Dizzy Quilter

Tuesday August 27

Connie K Campbell - Freemotion by the River

Joan Kawano - Moosestash Quilting

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Value Makes a Difference

While playing with some more orange and purple fabrics I made two versions of a particular block.  More about the block later, but first let's take a look.

You can clearly tell that  one has higher contrast than the other. But you can see the design.  But suppose you were colorblind...  To simulate that, I changed the photo to grayscale.

The one on the right appears to be all one color. This is the difference that value plays in quilting. In either version of the photo, the block on the left is nicely contrasted and would even show well in dim light.  But, in dim light the block on the right would look "fuzzy" and lack definition.
The old saying is: "Color gets all the credit, but value does all the work."  I hope you can see the truth in that by looking at these blocks.
 If you are uncertain about picking value you can use a value viewer or if you have a smart phone, just take a photo of the fabrics together.  Most phones have an option of converting the photo to black and white.  If not, there are plenty of free apps that will do it.

That said, I will still use the bland block in the final quilt (unless I end up with an extra block.)

This block design is one that I found on Pinterest (I think.)   But there it was made with all half-square triangles.  I quickly saw that I could use the Accuquilt Go! Qube set to make an 8 inch version using the parallelogram  and the half square triangle. That removed eight seams per block. It did take a bit of thinking to figure out how to do the construction.  But it turned out to be easier than I initially thought.

I am considering doing a tutorial for this block using the Accuquilt Qube set.  I just wonder how many people would be interested in seeing it.

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

A New Video -Accuquilt Go! Cutter

Over the weekend,  I was planning to cut some 2 1/2" squares from some layer cake and charm pack squares.  So I decided to do a video showing my method using the Go! cutter and the 2 1/2" strip die as well as the Go! Qube die for 2 1/2" squares.

This video has also been added to the Tutorial Video tab so that you can find it again easily.
You can also subscribe to my YouTube Channel to be notified when I have new videos.

I have added social media buttons on the left hand sidebar for your convenience.  I hope you like the blog redesign.

I have also added a page tab with all of the current Island Batik Ambassadors and blogs/websites.
Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Scrap Busting

It is amazing how scraps build up when you are a quilter.  Some, rare quilters, are able to throw them away. I am not that type of quilter. Some quilters have bags of scraps hidden away for the "someday" when they will use them to make a scrap quilt. 
Of course they keep buying fabric and collecting yet more scraps. I have been that type of quilter lately.  Early in my quilting I used scraps. People gave me scraps.  Now I have bags of scraps. 


Don't get me wrong, scraps are good.Keep your scraps, but don't SAVE them, bust them!  When I realized that I had to cut extra pieces for the quilt along blocks that I made too short, I made a decision.  I decided to cut some scraps while I had my AccuQuilt GO! set up and the value die was working anyway. 


So, I ironed a couple of scraps and cut some 2.5" squares while I was cutting the half square triangles.  Then, while sewing the pieces for the quilt along block, I used the square to sew on, sew off.  I normally have been using little scraps as "Thread Rats" to keep the points from clogging up when I start a triangle.  


I finished the extra parts of the quilt along block. The iron was still set up, ready to go. The bag of scraps was right beside it.  I decided to iron the entire bag of scraps then cut them up. 


I was surprised at some of the sizes of the "scrap" pieces as I was ironing.  I got my GO! cutter and some dies and put them out. I set up a scrap busting shop.


I started cutting. I cut 2.5" squares and half square triangles.  I cut more half square triangles in 3.5", 4.5" and 6.5".   I cut some quarter square triangles that will make a 4" finished block.  I even cut a few 4.5" squares. 


Here are the finished stacks:

I sat watching a movie and sorted them by lights and darks. There are a LOT of pieces there.  I still have more bags of scraps that need busting.  I will sew the half and quarter square triangles into square blocks.  I will sew the squares into four patches or nine patches.  Eventually I will have a truly scrappy quilt made as "extras" that were sewed in between pieces of other projects.  I won't have to cut the thread, or use a thread rat when I need to take pieces to be ironed, I will just sew a couple of these together and leave it under the presser foot while I go iron.  Then when each one comes out it goes into a stack for that scrappy quilt.  

As an added bonus, those scrap bags will start to diminish. 

How fun is that?

Go Dies

Today I saw someone mention the Accuquilt GO! 12" finished block die set.  I looked it up to see which ones I owned already. I have a total of 15 dies for my GO! cutter, but I  only have 3 of the 8 dies in that set.  Still I have a healthy collection of dies.  I thought I would put my "cataloging" of them right here so I can see it when I check the "Deal of the Day" on Accuquilt.com   I know that I can always edit the post to keep it up to date. I wish my fabric was this well organized! 

v    Dies I own

        ¨ Dies I don’t have but would  like to have

12" Finished Block Die Set

¨    GO! Square-6 1/2"

¨    GO! Square-3 1/2"

v    GO! Triangle-6 1/2"

v    GO! Triangle-4 7/8"

v    GO! Half Square-3" Finished Triangle

¨    GO! Square-4 3/4"

¨    GO! Parallelogram- 3 3/4" x 3 1/2"

¨    GO! Rectangle-3 1/2" x 6 1/2"

Other Dies:

v    GO! Half Square-4" Finished Triangle

v    GO! Quarter Square-4" Finished Triangle

v    GO! Triangle inSquare-3" Finished

v    GO! Tumbler 6 ½”

v    GO! Circles

v    GO! Drunkard's Path-3 1/2" Finished

v    GO! Chisel

v    GO! Square 5”

v    GO! Value Die (2 ½” Square, 2 ½ “ half square triangle, 4 ½” Square)

v    1 ½” Strip Die

v    2 ½” Strip Die

v    4 ½” Strip Die

¨    GO! Triangle-Isosceles-5"x6" 

¨    GO! Tumbler-3 1/2"

I also pondered dies that I might like for them to develop.  I would love a smaller chisel die, but honestly I can't figure out what dimensions I would want it to be.