Blossom - An Island Batik Challenge Quilt March 2025

 

As an Island Batik Ambassador, we receive monthly challenges to create original projects using beautiful Island Batik fabrics that are currently shipping to quilt shops.  I decided to use the same collection that I used for the February challenge, Petal Poetry, as I had not used all of the fabrics and I wanted to showcase them a little better. I originally made about 70 blocks which used all of the fabrics, but I was not happy with the layout. It was too cluttered. So I used about 33 here and I have enough to do another quilt which will look very different as the greens are more dominant in those blocks. This quilt has all the greens but features the purple and blue fabrics as the focus.

I decided to create a kaleidoscope block using one of the Studio 180 Design tech sheets for a cyclone block using the Tucker Trimmers. Love the Tucker Trimmers as you can square up or cut accurate segments on just about anything! Deb has some great videos as well as patterns for this technique on her website so check it out!

To start, I created strip sets which I then cut my wedges from using the Tucker Trimmer III.  My blocks finish at 8" so I used 2" strips for my strip sets.  It's important that your 1/4 inch seam is accurate when doing strip sets so that your wedges will all come out the same size and line up in the center. 

I used a seam guide to make sure my strips stayed nice and straight as I fed them through the machine. Of course Princess Luna was on hand to closely inspect the strips as I sewed them. Her inspection station is the top drawer in my sewing table with her special cat princess blanket which she does not allow her brother to use. A true princess! LOL

Once we passed inspection, it was time to move all the strip sets over to the ironing board.

Pressing is important. I usually align my strips with the edge of my felt pressing pad to make sure they are straight and do not distort or curve when pressed. As these blocks have a lot of seams and use 8 wedges which need to come to a perfect point in the center, I opted to press all seams open. I like to use these pressing sticks from the Strip Stick Company. I have them in different lengths. Very handy!

Next the segments were cut from the strips sets and the triangles cut, then trimmed into wedges.

I kept all my wedges together in groups of 8 (one block) and sewed pairs together. Really great thing about these blocks are that there are no matching seams when joining the wedges. How great is that! This part of the process actually went pretty quick!

I like to chain sew whenever possible so everything stays together and you save some time. Once the pairs were all sewn, they needed to have the seams pressed open. I like to use a wooden clapper and a felt mat and steam to make the seams as flat as possible.

When you are matching up the pairs and sewing them into the blocks, put a pin through the center intersections to line them up for perfect center points.

 Once the pairs were all sewn, they needed to get trimmed again using the Tucker Trimmer III. This insured a true 90 degree corner. Once all the pairs were trimmed, it was easy to go back and sew 2 sets of pairs together to create half the block, then sew the halves together to create the full block.  Once that was done, all seams were pressed open and they need one more trim on the Tucker Trimmer III.

Once that was complete, I added triangles on the corners then squared the blocks to 8 1/2"

I ended up make around 70 blocks as my original plan was to just join them together into rows but it just seemed to busy and cluttered when I had it up on the design wall so I changed the layout.  I really wanted it to be like a blossom with layers and some depth to the center so I used a fractured layout just in the center, splitting the blocks around the middle in half.

I like lots of negative space and I really felt that a border was not needed so I did a flanged binding with just a small peek of color to offset the quilt.  Here's a few pictures of the final!  

That's it for this week!  Be sure to check out the blogs for the other ambassadors. There were some really amazing projects created this month!  Until next time, happy sewing!

Best

Sue

• Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs
• Renee Atkinson ~ Pink Tulip Quilting
• Susan Deshensky ~ Lady Blue Quilts Studio
• Tina Dillard ~ Quilting Affection Designs
• Brittany Fisher ~ Bobbin with Brittany
• Kimberly Flannagan ~ Kimberly’s Quilts
• Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts
• Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for quilts
• Kim Jamieson-Hirst ~ Chatterbox Quilts
• Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs
• Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt
• Connie Kresin Campbell ~ Freemotion by the River
• Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood
• Denise Looney ~ A Quiltery
• Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights
• Susan Michaels ~ Dragonfly Fiberart
• Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa’s Quilting Passion
• Sarah Pitcher ~ Pitcher’s Boutique
• Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail
• Carol Stanek ~ Stitch with Color
• Solomae Stoycoff ~ Cuddle Cat Quiltworks
• Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations 

Cupid's Arrow - The Finish

 Hello Everyone

We have everything made so let's put it together!  The only things we need to cut will be the outer borders. Then of course you will need to decide on backing and binding. We'll complete here with just the top but I will post mine once it is quilted and I would encourage you to do the same. 

Below is an exploded assembly diagram.

Sew the 4 rows across starting and ending with a Checkerboard square.

1st Row:  Checkerboard Block, 'L' Block, Star, Heart, Star, Checkerboard Block

2nd Row: Checkerboard Block, Sar, 'O' Block, Star. Heart, Checkerboard Block

3rd Row: Checkerboard Block, Heart, Star, 'V' Block, Star, Checkerboard Block

4th Row: Checkerboard Block, Star, Heart, Star 'E' Blcok, Checkerboard Block

Next, measure the sides of your quilt. Sew a 1 1/2" wide by your length strip to each side.  In a perfect world, this measurement is 40 1/2". 

Take the remaining 8 Checkerboard blocks and sew them into rows of (4) each. Use the diagram for reference to insure they are in the correct order.

Sew a 1 1/2" wide x 40 1/2" strip to the top of each. Sew the small heart blocks to each end.  All the hearts are facing up so be sure to sew them correctly nto the Checkerboard Borders just made.

Sew these borders to the top and bottom. To help the seams nest, it is easy to spin some of the seams on the Checkerboard Blocks so that they match the center quilt rows.

Cut (4) strips from Background 2 1/2" x WOF.  Subcut from these strips (4) 2 1/2" x 12 1/2" and (6) 2 1/2" x 10 1/2" pieces.

The Arrow side borders are:  Arrow Block 2 1/2" x 10 1/2" Background, Arrow Block, 2 1/2" x 10 1/2" Background., Arrow Block. Make the borders, then sew in place. Press away from the border.

The Arrow top and bottom borders are 2 1/2" x 12 1/2" Background, Arrow, 2 1/2" x 10 1/2", Arrow, 2 1/2" x 12 1/2". Sew in place then press away from the border.

Outside Border:

Background:    Cut (6) 2 1/2" x WOF

Sew (3) strips together on a 45 degree angle. Measure the sides of yor top and cut the border pieces from the strips et. Sew in place and press out to the border. 

Repeat for the top and bottom borders.

In a perfect world, the side borders would measure 54 1/2" and the top/bottom borders would measure 58 1/2".

You are finished! Layer, quilt and bind as desired. I am quilting mine with a swirl pattern and adding a pink and white flanged border. I will cover flanged machine binding in another blog so stay tuned.

Thanks for dsewing along!

Sue

 Island Batik Ambassador Program 2025 Box 1 Reveal!

Hello Everyone

Happy January! A bit blustery and cold here in lovely New Hampshire. A good day to sew. And I have some fabulous new fabric to sew with thanks to the #islandbatikambassador program. I did a video and posted it on Facebook on the Dragonfly Fiberart Pattern Company page which was super scary for me. I do live stuff but recording and editing is another thing entirely.  In any event, thought I would share closeups, especially for those not on FB.

So a very fun item in my box was a new M3Pro iron with silicone pad, I was just looking at these as a bunch of the ladies in one of my guilds just ordered them. These are the little ones that sit by your machine and they also sent a nice travel bag,

The fabric was lovely! Had these cute little Stash Builder rolls. It is 5” wide strips of multiple colors rolled up together. 2.8 Yards in those little packages. These will be giveaways on the blog during the next few months so stay tuned!

Also received these great Stackers! (10” squares) Neutrals and Sunlit Garden. There was also coordinating fabrics with the Sunset Garden Bundle.

The fabric bundle below as all ½ yard cuts and you will be seeing a fun sew-along project in May using these fabrics as well as some coordinating pieces. I can’t wait! My project is all designed, now just to get it made.   The collection is Petal Poetry and it will be in quilt shops in February 2025. 

And the fabric just kept coming out of that box! Look at these awesome fat quarter bundles!

This one is Daisy May. How cute is that?

This one is called Flower Pot. 

Beautiful Aurifil Threads! My perfect piecing thread.

A bag of goodies complements of Schmetz Needles had the needle guide book, 3 packs of needles and a luggage tag also with the needle coding chart.  Perfect way to identify those mystery needles not in their package.

Also a huge piece of neutral foundation as well as these great basics in black, white and gray. Perfect backgrounds!

This great bundle of ½ yard cuts from the Island Batik foundations line. Perfect blenders for the other fabrics in the box.

And last but not least, this great 2 ½” strip pack called Tantalizing Teal. I am tempted to keep it as it is in my favorite colors but it will be a giveaway on the blog in the coming months.

Whew! That was quite the box! My head is spinning with all the projects I can do with them. I know, already had a lot of projects in the works, but what’s a few more LOL! Thanks for sharing my box and we’ll see you next week.

Happy New Year

Sue

Follow on Social Media

#islandbatik #islandbatikambassador #iloveislandbatik @Aurifil @SCHMETZneedles @Oliso;

Be sure to checkout these other Island Batik 2025 Ambassdor Blogs: 

Brenda Alburl- https://songbirddesigns.blog

Renee Atkinson- https://wordpress.com/posts/pinktulipquilting.studio

Susan Deshensky- www.ladybluequilts.com/blog

Tina Dillard- https://quiltingaffection.blogspot.com/

Brittany Fisher- Www.bobbinwithbrittany.com

Kimberly Flannagan- 

Preeti Harris- https://sewpreetiquilts.blogspot.com

Mania Hatziioannidi- www.maniaforquilts.com

Kim Jamieson-Hirst- https://www.chatterboxquilts.com/blog

Connie Kauffman- Kauffmandesigns.blogspot.com

Connie Kresin Campbell- https://conniekresin.com/

Emily Leachman- https://thedarlingdogwood.blogspot.com/

Denise Looney- https://quiltery.com

Leah Malasky- www.quilteddelights.com

Susan Michaels-https://dragonflyfiberart.blogspot.com/

Lisa Pickering- https://lisasquiltingpassion.blog/

Sarah Pitcher- www.pitchersboutique.com/blog-1

Gail Sheppard- https://quiltinggail.com/

Carol Stanek- stitchwithcolor.blogspot.com

Solomae Stoycoff- https://cuddlecatquiltworks.com/blogs/island-batik-ambassador-blog

Jennifer Thomas- https://curlicuecreations.com

Suzy Webster- www.websterquilt.com

Autumn Leaves Table Runner Free Pattern

 Hello Everyone!

I a new, fun Autumn project for you.  It is called Autumn Leaves and it is a lovely table runner to grace your homes for the season.  

I really had a lot of fun making this one.  The leaves are super simple and the border is all flying geese.  In the instruction, the fast four method of making flying geese is detailed.  I had a little fun with reversing the colors on a few of them so we have geese flying and chasing, creating the chevron effect.  I couldn't decide which I like better so I did one side traditional geese and the other side the chevron geese.  

Here is a close up of the leaf block.  These blocks finish at 10" so you can easily make your runner as long or short as you like or even make some matching placemats simply by adding geese to the right and left sides!

I hope you enjoy making it as much as I did!

Autumn Leaves Runner Instructions

Happy Fall!

Sue

Dragonfly Fiberart Pattern Company  www.dragonflyfiberart.com 

 Half Square Triangle Fun

There are so many different ways to make a half square triangle. Tonight on my sampler group sew, we explored a couple of different ways and I thought it would be nice to post the cheater chart with the sizes to cut the square for 8 at a time. I have done the math for you up to 8" finished but if you need larger, the formula is there for your reference.  I always add a 'fudge factor' to my cut size. For example, we were sewing 2 1/2" half square triangles to finish at 2".  The chart tells me to cut a 5 3/4" square but I added 1/4" and cut two 6" squares.  This gave me a little wiggle room to trim to perfection in case my seams were not perfect.

Finished Block Size	Minimum Size of Squares To Cut:*	Trim Pieced Block To:
A	A x 2 + 1 ¾”	A + ½”
1”	3 ¾”	1 ½”
1 ½”	4 ¾”	2”
2”	5 ¾”	2 ½”
2 ½”	6 ¾”	3”
3”	7 ¾”	3 ½”
3 ½”	8 ¾”	4”
4”	9 ¾”	4 ½”
4 ½”	10 ¾”	5”
5”	11 ¾”	5 ½”
5 ½”	12 ¾”	6”
6”	13 ¾”	6 ½”
6 ½”	14 ¾”	7”
7”	15 ¾”	7 ½”
7 ½”	16 ¾”	8”
8”	17 ¾”	8 ½”

 *ADD ¼” to the cut size of the square to allow a little fudge factor for trimming to perfection!

Once you have cut the two contrasting squares, layer them right sides together.  Draw a line on the diagonals, corner to corner.  Your block should have an 'X' on it.  Sew 1/4" to either side of the lines.  (Sew lines are the Blue dotted lines on diagram)

Cut lines are the Solid Black lines on the diagram. When the sewing is completed, line up a ruler to cut vertically straight through the middle of the block.  Without moving the sections, now place the ruler horizontally through the center and cut.  Again without moving the sections, place your ruler on the diagonal line corner to corner and cut between your seam lines.  You now have 8 half square triangles. Tip:  If you have a spinning cutting mat, it will make the cutting easier.

Press open to the darker side.  Now square your triangles to perfection using the TRIM block dimension in the chart.  When sewn into the quilt, your block will be the Finished block dimension in the chart.  My favorite ruler for trimming is the BlocLoc ruler but any square ruler will work.  Just be sure you are lined up on the diagonal seam.

    

Happy Sewing!

Sue

PS.  Be sure to visit our web site for great patterns, rulers, tools and more!