This month's theme for Island Batik Ambassadors is Celebration. I made a variation of my Blue Fairy Frost pattern for this challenge.
Disclaimer: The products used to make this quilt were given to me by Island Batik and industry partners.
The Celebration challenge asked us to create a project based on a holiday. I stretched the parameters a bit by making a Wedding quilt. A Wedding is a celebration! And I'm celebrating this month!
This is my son Gavin and his wife, Mariah. She is wonderful and I'm so happy to be joining our families together. They were married on December 16th. I told them earlier this year that I would be making them a quilt to commemorate their wedding. They requested Carolina blue for the color scheme.
For their quilt I used Island Batik's new Porcelain Blue fabric collection, and the Morning Star die from Accuquilt.
To find a quilt shop near you that sells Island Batik fabric, try the store locator tool.
This quilt is made using lots of triangles! I cut out 768 of these white triangles, plus 192 white corner triangles for this quilt. I can't imagine cutting all these triangles without the Accuquilt Morning Star die.
I also cut out 768 blue triangles in different shades of blue.
I divided the blue triangles up into four groups, from palest light blue, to dark midnight blue.
The triangles are sewn together into what I think of as "pizza slice" units, then you sew the slices together into a "pizza", and add the four corners.
As I sewed this massive project, I played with the pieces on my design wall and came up with a few idea for future projects. I like this pattern that just uses the bottom sections of "pizza slices".
This combination makes some striking blocks. I might use this idea in a future quilt.
These are the actual blocks for the wedding quilt. This is four blocks together to create the pattern. I made 48 blocks, and put them together into 12 four block units. It took a lot longer than I anticipated. I have not sewn a quilt this large in quite some time. Everything went together smoothly with my favorite Schmetz needles.
This photo shows the quilt after quilting. I quilted a loopy meander.
I went out and purchased this new spool of white Aurifil thread at Quilt Lizzy to quilt this project. Look at how much thread I used! This is a big quilt!
Four blocks, quilted. I used Hobbs Cotton Batting with Scrim.
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It's my day on the Island Batik and ByAnnie.com It's in the Bag Blog Hop. Welcome. I made the Tools of the Trade bag in two sizes.
Disclaimer: The products used to make this project were given to me by Island Batik and Industry Partners.
This month the Island Batik Ambassadors were challenged to make a ByAnnie bag. We were able to choose from any ByAnnie pattern that included an Add-On Video Tutorial. Annie sent us complete kits with everything we needed to make our bags. We also chose the fabrics that we wanted to use for our bags from the collections we were each assigned for the blog hop.
This is Porcelain Blue! It's the fabric collection that was all wrapped up as a "surprise" from my unboxing video earlier this year. A full range of blues from palest morning mist to deep midnight! I will be using these fabrics for my December challenge as well. They should be arriving in local quilt shops now, so keep a lookout! Click here to find a store near you.
The ByAnnie pattern Tools of the Trade makes two fairly large artist portfolio style bags. The large bag is 21" x 26-1/2" x 5-1/2". The small bag is 14" x 20" x 3-3/4".
If you've never tried a ByAnnie pattern before ~ let me tell you ~ they are wonderful. ByAnnie patterns are extremely well written. Each detailed step has a little box to check off as you sew along. The accompanying add on video is super helpful for tips to get you through any tricky parts. Annie also has many helpful videos on her website to help you with zippers and other techniques for her bags. I also love that her patterns come with a sheet of tags to copy and label each piece so you don't get anything mixed up. I copy my labels onto a piece of sticker paper and just stick them onto my fabric. Easy-peasy!
One of the first steps to making a ByAnnie bag is quilting the main fabric and lining fabric with a piece of Soft and Stable in between. This gives the bag a sturdy body and professional look. You can choose to quilt any design you like, but I went with the standard straight lines. I used Schmetz needles for this project. I used a standard microtex 90/14 for most of my bag, but switched to a leather/jeans needle for the thicker parts.
What is this zipper madness? I was a little stumped by this step, but it really does work out. If you are making Tools of the Trade and get to this part, don't worry.
Here's a pic of the large finished Tools of the Trade bag.
This is the small Tools of the Trade bag. I love them both! I plan on hanging them on hooks in my quilt studio so they will be ready to grab and go for any sewing related outing I may have.
Back view of the Tools of the Trade bags.
Here's a peek inside the small bag. There are many sectioned pockets and mesh to store sewing supplies or any other supplies you may need.
The other side of the bag features a large mesh zippered pocket. I'm thinking this will be perfect for carrying whatever project I'm working on.
Here's an example of some of the items you could store in Tools of the Trade. A cutting mat, rotary cutter, ByAnnie pattern, scissors, Aurifil thread, an Island Batik 2-1/2" strip pack, and anything else you may need. Just use your imagination! And this is the small bag. You could really go crazy with the large bag. You can fit a full size ruler and large cutting mat into that one!
I put a stack of 10" precut squares into the mesh zipper side. More beautiful blues! I need to make something with these soon.
The front of the bag has this handy pocket with an additional zippered pocket section on the front of it.
There is also a triangle ring on each side of the bag, handy for clipping on anything you need quick access to.
Tools of the Trade
Project Stats:
Pattern: Tools of the Trade byAnnie.com
Fabric: Porcelain Blue by Island Batik
Needles: Schmetz
Please be sure to visit the Island Batik blog and enter to win some fabric from one of the new collections!
Also, visit my fellow ambassadors to see what they made for the It's in the Bag Blog Hop. Here's the list:
Note: 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.
