Hello and welcome to my day on the Island Batik Ambassador and Deb Tucker Studio 180 Tool Craze Blog Hop! This is my quilt, Brilliant Bijou.
Disclaimer: The products used to make this project were given to me by Island Batik and industry partners.
For the Tool Craze Blog Hop, we were challenged to use our "surprise" fabric collection we received in our January Ambassador boxes. Do you remember that? We were to pair it with the Studio 180 ruler we received as well. Additionally we were required to make a project that included at least 30 units made with the ruler, in two different sizes and as many of the fabrics from the new fabric collection as possible. That's a lot! I'm always up for a good challenge.
The fabric collection I received is Sorbet by Claudia Pfeil. It was paired with the Diamond Rects ruler. The Sorbet fabric should be hitting quilt shops now. If you live in my area, you can get Sorbet at Bernina World of Sewing in Raleigh, NC.
There are too many shops to list them all, but here are a few others that will have Sorbet:
El Friede's Fine Fabric in Boulder, CO
Keep Me In Stitches in Tampa, FL
Colchester Mill Fabrics in Colchester, CT
Heartfelt Quilt Shop in Spearfish, SD
Quilter's Quarters in Cottonwood, AZ
To find a shop that sells Island Batik fabrics near you, try the Store Locator.
I haven't made a lot of quilts with diamond shapes in the past. I'm a little intimidated by the angles. The Diamond Rects tool was easy to use. Look at how nicely the diamonds cut out. The tool comes with detailed instructions. Additionally you can access videos at Deb Tucker's website.
The tool also easily cuts out the side triangles for the unit. I used Island Batik's Merlot fabric for many of the side triangles.
After you cut and sew each unit, you use the ruler to trim the Diamond Rects unit down to the size you need. Easy peasy!
I made 32 Diamond Rects units for the blocks for the center part of my quilt. Look closely. Can you tell that they are a Storm at Sea variation?
The blocks came out great! But I still had to make Diamond Rects units in another size to fulfill the challenge requirements. I decided to make a sparkling diamond border for my quilt. I made 80 more Diamond Rects units for the border.
I snapped this fun pic with them all up on my design wall. They look kind of like a stained glass window to me. I used a variety of fabrics from the Sorbet collection for the diamonds and mixed them up randomly.
Here's a few more pics of Brilliant Bijou from the photo session. It was a little windy on picture day, so it's not hanging perfectly flat, but almost!
I used Aurifil thread color 2520 for the piecing, and Aurifil thread color 1243 for the quilting.
I used my favorite, Schmetz needles for this project.
The batting is Hobbs Poly Down which is nice and light for a summer project. It has a beautiful loft for quilting.
Look at that gorgeous fabric! I really love this collection. Some fabrics just make my heart happy.
Brilliant Bijou relaxing on the front porch.
Quilting close up. I did my standard loopy meander.
I used Island Batik's solid black for the backing.
I usually match my binding fabric to my outer border, but I had one fabric left that was unused in my quilt, so it became the binding fabric. I really love the way it looks! What do you think?
Brilliant Bijou quilt.
Brilliant Bijou
Quilt Stats:
Quilt Size: 50" x 50"
Block Size: 9" x 9"
Fabric: Sorbet by Claudia Pfeil for Island Batik
Thread: Aurifil 2520, 1243
Batting: Poly Down by Hobbs
Ruler: Diamond Rects by Studio 180
Needles: Schmetz
Designed in EQ8
I'm giving away a 5" charm pack of 17 of the fabrics from the Sorbet collection. To enter, scroll all the way to the end of this post and leave a comment. To make it fun, let me know what your favorite flavor of Sorbet is! I love raspberry myself. I will draw a winner randomly at the end of the blog hop. Open to US residents only, due to postage costs. Please be sure I have a way to contact you, should you be the lucky winner.
Have you been enjoying the Tool Craze blog hop? Be sure to visit all of the Island Batik Ambassadors to see the new fabric collections and what everyone made with their Studio 180 rulers. 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.
Snowflake is my August Island Batik Ambassador project.
Disclaimer: The materials used to make this quilt were given to me by Island Batik and industry partners.
This month's challenge is Try a Tool. Each one of the ambassadors received a Studio 180 Ruler as the new "tool". The guidelines were to make a quilt using at least 16 of the units with the new ruler.
I received the Corner Pop ruler. This ruler helps you to make blocks with pieced corners with very little wasted fabric. You can sew blocks in 22 different sizes with this ruler. There's a helpful video demonstration available, too. You can view the video here: Corner Pop Ruler Video
I used the Prairie Skies collection by Kathy Engle for my project, plus a large cut of Island Batik solid white fabric.
The instructions for the ruler show you how to cut the corners the correct size for your block. Then, instead of sewing on a corner square and cutting away the extra triangle as waste, the square is cut in half and used to make two corner triangles with very little waste. The chart showed me I needed to cut 4-1/4" squares for my blocks. I cut 4-1/2" squares instead, so I could use my Accuquilt Go to cut them out super fast.
As you can see, even cutting the squares 1/4" larger than called for, there was very little waste to trim off. Using the Corner Pop ruler is a two step process. First you use one set of markings to cut away the background corner. Then you use the other set of markings (as shown) to trim up the newly sewn corner.
I made 8 three corner blocks and 8 four corner (snowball type) blocks for the Snowflake quilt.
This is one of the four corner blocks, more commonly known as a Snowball block.
I tried Hobbs Heirloom Fusible Cotton Batting for this project. It was easy to press the quilt sandwich together, and the fusible part of the batting is quite forgiving. If you make a mistake and press in a wrinkle, you can simply re-separate the fabric from the batting, smooth it out, and re-press.
I quilted in diagonal straight lines out from the center with white Aurifil thread and Schmetz needles. It was easy to quilt this small size project on my Janome Memory Craft sewing machine.
Lovely folds on my front porch rocking chair.
I chose to use Island Batik solid gray fabric for the backing. It blends nicely with the cool blue and snow white on the quilt top.
I used this blue Aurifil thread for the piecing and to sew on the binding.
I used two fabrics from the Prairie Skies collection to make the binding.
Fun folds.
The Snowflake Quilt
Quilt Stats:
Finished Quilt Size: 37" x 37"
Finished Block Size: 8" x 8"
Fabric: Prairie Skies by Kathy Engle for Island Batik
Batting: Hobbs Fusible Cotton
Thread: Aurifil
Ruler: Corner Pop by Studio 180
Be sure to visit the other Island Batik Ambassadors to see what they're making here:
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.
