The Macaws wall hanging has been quilted. This is one of those projects that gets worked on a little bit between all the deadlines. I love the look of the swirl quilting. I hope I can find some time to finish it up soon. This Elizabeth Hartman pattern and fabric was from the April 2020 Quilty Box.
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This is an affiliate link. Clicking this link will not affect the purchase price. However, if you do make a purchase, I may receive a commission. Thank you.
Meet Morning Star. This is my Island Batik Ambassador challenge project for June.
This month's theme is Spread Love and Joy with Accuquilt. The guidelines are to create a gift of comfort, using the Accuquilt die we received in our first ambassador box of the year combined with designs from the 8" Qube dies.
Note: The materials used to create this project were given to me by Island Batik and industry partners Accuquilt, Aurifil, Hobbs, and Schmetz.
I was super excited to receive the Morning Star die. It's fabulous! It looks a little intimidating with all those triangles, but the pieces fit together perfectly. That's the beauty of Accuquilt. The die cuts are so accurate that it is hard to mess up the piecing!
I designed my Morning Star quilt in EQ8. There are so many beautiful options you can make with this pattern. The angles that the triangles are set in this block give your quilt the illusion of curvy circles. This is one of the three blocks that went into my quilt. I used Aurifil thread and Schmetz needles for all the piecing.
This is another one of the blocks I made. I used Island Batik's solid black, plus fabrics from my stash. Many of the fabrics I used are from the Mystery collection, one of my all time favorites. It has so many gorgeous purples, greens, and blues.
Even though I had a planned out design, it was fun to play with the blocks on my design wall and see what else I could create.
This one reminds me of the spinning blades of a ceiling fan.
I love, love, love the way the Morning Star blocks look together. However, the second part of this challenge was to incorporate a design made with the 8" Qube Accuquilt dies. I didn't want to lose the circular effect of the Morning Star blocks, so I decided to make a pinwheel border with the Qube dies. This photo shows my pinwheel blocks in progress.
I quilted Morning Star with Hobbs Poly-Down Premium Polyester batting. It was my first experience using this batting. It's thicker and puffier than cotton batting, and great to use if the quilt's recipient has any allergies to other types of batting. I noticed that my quilt was softer and more foldable using this batting as well.
I quilted in an allover spiral design.
The center section of the quilt after quilting.
A corner of the quilt showing the Pinwheel border. I used my Accuquilt 2-1/2" strip die and 1-1/2" strip die to cut the blue borders.
Picnic under the oak trees, anyone?
Pretty folds.
I used Island Batik solid black for the backing of this quilt. It coordinates well with the front, but shows every little bit of lint, cat hair, quilting imperfections, and anything else that touches it! I think I'll stick with busier designs for the back from now on. I love Island Batik solids, just not for backing fabrics.
I made my binding with two different blue fabrics. They match so well in color I can barely tell them apart.
This quilt is meant to be a gift of comfort. To meet that requirement I'm gifting it to my Mother. My Dad had a serious fall a couple of months ago and she's been an amazing caregiver during his ongoing recovery. I know you're probably reading this Mom. I love you. I hope this quilt brings you comfort. It will be on it's way to you soon.
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Have you seen my new hexagon EPP (English Paper Piecing) project yet? I've posted a few in progress pics on Instagram and Facebook recently. I've just begun stitching the pieces together. This is how it all begins. I like to cut out my hexagon shapes with the Accuquilt die. I favor the smallest size.
For this project, I cut all my fabrics from my Island Batik stash.
I cut out a variety of sunset colors, pinks, yellows, oranges.
A variety of blues, some stormy, some twilight.
And black too, some solid, some not.
More sunset hexies. Can you guess what I'm making?
This is about one third of the hexies I basted, separated into three colors, and organized in a cross stitch floss box. I like this size hexagon because they fit so well in these boxes. Someday maybe I can have a different box for each color, like an artist's palette, ready to "paint" any design I dream up. That's the goal ~ to turn all my scraps into basted hexagons, ready to stitch. I'll be posting updates periodically as I work on this project. It's a slow one. I hope you enjoy watching it come together as much as I do.
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