ISLAND BATIK MARCH CHALLENGE PART 2

This quilt has been a learning experience for me. Not only did I make a block that I have never made before, I used some stitches on my new sewing machine that I don't use, and tried a new binding technique.

I did have to draw a new name for the last drawing. Mona Phelps of Versailles, Kentucky won the mini challenge prize. Congrats Mona! Your prize went in the mail today.

After making the Dresden plates (one whole center and four corners) I placed them on the background fabric. I chose black, not only because I like black in quilts, but I thought it would accent these fabric better than a light background. I over-cut my center square so that I could square it off after attaching the plate to the fabric.

I didn't want to sew the tips down, so I used some decorative stitches on my new Janome sewing machine. I purchased this machine at the AQS show in Grand Rapids, MI after teaching a class with it. It had some wonderful features and I really liked the way it sewed.

Before sewing on the actual block, I had to figure out which thread(s) and decorative stitches I wanted to use, so I played around on some blades that I had sewn together just to play on. I had to determine how wide to make the stitch and the length of the stitch to use. Once I found what I liked I made a chart of the stitch, width and length number. I ended up using Superior's Rainbows thread. It is a very fine variegated polyester thread. I didn't want the stitches to overpower the quilt.

Before sewing the plates down, I pinned them in every blade to hold it down to the backing. Here I sewed down along all the seam lines on the blades. Since I had 6 different blades, I used 6 different decorative stitches.

After stitching all of the blades down, I trimmed the center square and sewed them together. I didn't need to trim the triangles since I cut the long edges to match the edges of the square. (The finished size of the square plus 7/8" cut into 2 half-square triangles.)

Now I needed to put the small circles (and quarter-square circles) on the centers of the blocks. I like to use a freezer paper method of making my appliqué circles. I wasn't doing raw edge appliqué so I added 1/2" to the center circle and cut out the fabric. I then cut a circle of freezer paper that was 1/2" smaller. I placed this shiny side up on the back of the fabric circle, centering it.

I then used a hot iron and slowly pressed the edges of the circle down on the freezer paper making sure that I didn't press any pleats as I went along. Because the shiny side is up it stuck to the paper. I did the same process with the quarter circles for the corner units but only had to press under the curved edge. 

                                       

Since the shiny side is in the center I can press it onto the block so that it is stabilized before I started to stitch it down.

I used a blanket stitch.

After sewing, I cut the center out of the back and pulled out the freezer paper. If a few pieces of paper remain, it won't be noticeable. Now I could sew all of the sections together.

I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted to put a border on it so I played with a couple options on my design wall and came up with a small border print that matched one of the fabrics. I was directional so I had to cut it both lengthwise and crosswise. I mitered the corners.

I layered my quilt top, batting ( I used Quilter's Dream Black poly) and backing and started to quilt it on my longarm machine. I just quilted a quarter inch inside the blades with the new Superior MicroQuilter thread. You can see information about it here: Superior MicroQuilter.
I don't want my quilting to overpower the quilt so I like that it is a very fine thread. I also used that thread in the border. I started to echo stitch with a black thread around the petals, but realized that it would not be as accurate as doing it on my regular sewing machine since I wanted to stitch it in 1/4" intervals, so I took it off the machine and proceeded to finish it on my regular sewing machine, using the edge of my quarter inch foot as my guide.

Since this was a month for trying new things, I decided to try a new method of binding. I watched Sharon Schamber's YouTube video on both bias binding and straight binding and tried her method. I really like the way she sewed her seams when connecting the strips and her finishing method. It really increased the accuracy of the binding. You can watch both her videos here (no affiliation). If the videos don't work, try the links under the images. 

Straight binding

Bias binding

Here is my finished quilt.

Thank you for reading! I hope that you also learned some new things along with me. 

Again I will be having a prize drawing of some fat eights of this collection and my personally designed acrylic "Binding Minder". To be eligible please leave a comment as to what you learned  from this blog. Don't forget to leave some way of contacting you. I will have an extra prize for anyone who can give a name to this quilt that I like.

As always, do what you love and love what you do. Feel free to forward and share this blog with your quilting friends.

ISLAND BATIK AMBASSADOR MARCH CHALLENGE

Island Batik supplied me with the fabric for this project and Hobbs supplied the batting. This blog contains affiliate links that I may receive compensation for when used.

The first month of my responsibility as an Island Batik Ambassador is under my belt! I realized that the reason they are called challenges is because they are asking us to stretch our skills and imagination and create things that we would not normally create.

First I want to announce the winner of my last Island Batik challenge. Her label is VWoman87. She did not leave me her email so I am unable to contact her. If she is reading this blog, please fill out my contact form with your address and email. If she does not respond, then I will choose a different name. This is why I STRESS that you need to leave me some way to contact you in your comment so you don't lose out on winning a prize!

March's challenge is to do something that we have never done before. I have to admit after crafting for over 50 years and quilting for over 30 there are very few things that I have not tried! When I started quilting in 1985 I wanted to learn everything there was about quilting. That included, traditional piecing, paper piecing, foundation piecing (sometimes the two are interchangeable), English paper piecing, machine appliqué. hand appliqué including needle turn, rouching, raw edge appliqué, curved piecing, hand piecing, machine quilting, hand quilting, seminole piecing, and freezer paper appliqué. Not sure if I left anything out, but the point is I had a lot of difficulty finding something I have not done or tried!

Wracking my brain, I finally realized that I have never made a Dresden Plate quilt! Aha!!!! I have to admit I had to look on the internet on how to make a Dresden plate block and found quite a few videos and blogs that showed a couple different ways to make one. I went to my computer and my EQ8 program, found the block and decided on a layout and size. I then printed out the templates and made them with heavy template plastic. 

So now that I figured out what to do, I had to pick my fabrics. Normally I don't have any problems picking fabrics when I am doing a quilt because I always start with a focus piece and pick colors from that. This time I had to pick a color way that I wanted to do this quilt in and had to use the fabrics that I was given. I didn't realize how hard that would be. I'd put 2 or 3 fabrics together and then look for others and I didn't like all of them together, so I would pick another 2 or 3 fabrics and again, not happy with the results. What I decided was I was trying too hard to find matching fabrics. I had to just make a decision and live with it. So here are the fabrics I chose with the blades cut out. Not my normal color palate.

Then I had to make the pointy ends of the blades. That was a piece of cake! All I had to do was fold the blade in half lengthwise right sides together and sew a 1/4" seam across the wide end. I did realize that in order for it to remain sewn together I had to use a shorter stitch (with a 2.4 being average, I used a 1.9).

I decided to trim where it will turn so that there is very little bulk at the corner tip.

Fold the tip down matching the center of the seam to the center crease and finger pressed it.

Turn it inside out, using my stylus to poke the corner out, and to get the point sharp, again lining up the center seam on the center crease and pressed it with my iron.

Here it what it looks like from the front.

Now sew the sections together. To get the tops to match perfectly I made sure that when I put them right sides together, I can not see any of the bottom petal peeking outside of the top petal.

Press seams open.

                                               Sew the remaining petals together to equal 6. Make 8 like sections. (The remaining four will be used in the corners of the quilt.)

Sew quarters together, then halves.

The completed petals.

View of the back.

Baste the center at 1/8" with a longer stitch.

Now it is ready to attach to a larger square. Be sure to read my blog next week, where I will show how I chose threads, the stitches I used to attach it to the background fabric, what kind of layout I used, and how I quilted it. I will have another drawing then so be sure to come back.

As always; do what you love and love what you do. Feel free to share my blog and leave a comment if you like. Thank you for reading. Toby

Want to follow other Island Batik Ambassadors? Use the links below.

Alison at Little Bunny Quilts

Amy at Sew Incredibly Crazy

Anita at Quilt in a not-Shell

Anna at Ark Angel Creations

Anne at Sweetgrass Designs

Barbara at Bejeweled Quilts

Bea at BeaQuilter

Carole at Carole Lyles Shaw

Connie at Freemotion by the River

Connie at Kauffman Designs

Dione at Clever Chameleon

Geraldine at Living Water Quilter

Jackie at If These Threads Could Talk

Janet at Whispers of Yore

Jeanette at Inchworm Fabrics

Jen at Patterns by Jen

Jennifer at Curlicue Creations

Jennifer at Dizzy Quilter

Jennifer at Inquiring Quilter

Jessica at Desert Bloom Quilting

Joan at Moosestash Quilting

Joyce at heARTs Creations

Karen at Sew Karen-ly Created

Karen at The Quilt Rambler

Kathleen at Kathleen McMusing

Laura at Slice of Pi Quilts

Leanne at Devoted Quilter

Mania at Mania for Quilts

Maryellen at Mary Mack Made Mine

Michelle at Creative Blonde

Myra at Busy Hands Quilts

Nancy at Masterpiece Quilting

Pamela at PamelaQuilts

Sally at Sally Manke

Sandra at MMM Quilts

Sarah at Sarah Goer Quilts

Sharon at Yellow Cat Quilt Designs

Sherry at Powered by Quilting  

Stephanie at Steph Jacobson

Suzy at Adventurous Applique and Quilting

Teri at Lizard Creek Quilts

Tina at Quilting Affection Designs

Craftsy class

Save 33% On A Full Price Craftsy Class with code INSTRUCTORENROLL at Craftsy.com through 3/31/18.

Exp 3/31/18 11:59pm MST. Save 33% off the full retail price of any Craftsy class. Not valid for classes from our our partner, The Great Courses. Limit one item per customer and cannot be combined with other coupons.