Marvelous Mini’s with Island Batik

island batik

Hey ya’ll, I HAVE A FINISH and it’s a marvelous mini. One project down and 4 more to go before the middle of next month.

August Challenge

In case you didn’t know the August Challenge for Island Batik was to make a mini quilt…

Use any technique you like! 

Post any day in August

Can be no larger than 24″ x 24″. Dimensions can vary.

Any fabric.

Shooo, so glad the dimension could vary because I had a 24″ square mini and thought some pieced stitches across the bottom would be awesome, making it 24″ x 27″.

Island Batik fabric

sewing room wall quilt

I pulled scrap fabric of various collections from Island Batik. In the beginning I made individual blocks and the appliques were too far apart so my mini was growing too large, I started again. Next I cut a 26″ square of the background fabric I received last year from Island Batik and have been hoarding it.

I am so lucky to be an Island Batik Ambassador and receive all these beautiful fabrics to play with. I have discovered that so many of them blend perfectly with fabrics from past, present and future collections.

hobbs batting
island batik, hobbs batting, studio 180, quilt fabric, for the love of geese, wool pressing mat

Using Hobbs Batting Thermcore I sandwiched my mini and quilted it with pebbles. The Thermcore is wonderful when you want a something lightweight. Since this will hang on my wall I definitely needed lightweight.

Using Sewing Room Applique 1 and Sewing Room Applique 2 from Designs by JuJu I picked my favorites and began with the sewing machine. Then added the other designs willy nilly. Oh yes, I had a plan and drew a grid on the background fabric but after the machine was finished I just placed at random. Love this star fabric from Island Batik, it looks dreamy and leaves me wishing I had more.

sewing machine

Applique was my first true load of quilting and I love this applique technique too. So, if you are like me and can longer do needle turn applique and do not like the look or trust the adhesion of fusible, this may be for you.

Basically, load you background fabric into the hoop. I like to add batting with that first hooping as my stabilizer. Place your hoop into the machine, press start and the machine will stitch a guideline. Rough cut your fabric, just make sure it covers the guideline stitch and place it on top. This step I also like to add batting behind the shape because it adds more dimension. Hit start and the machine will again run an outline stitch.

Trim the excess outside the outline stitch, place it back in the machine and hit start. That’s it. The machine does it all for you except the trimming and choosing your fabric.

thimble

More designs from Designs by JuJu Sewing Room Applique. The tomato is red and green solids from the Island Batik Foundations. While the colors don’t really fit with my other chosen fabrics let’s not forget that tomato’s do not belong in your sewing room anyway. Unless of course they are a pin cushion.

sew WHAT? Lettering is a built in font in the Bernette B79.

sew what

You have to thread up those bobbins too. Here’s a tip if you want or need to make a bobbin or something with circles…

thread up

AccuQuilt has a die for that

Well okay, not necessarily a bobbin. The GO! Emojis Die was perfect to make my bobbin. First I downloaded the embroidery files that are free with purchase of the die and almost every other applique shape they sell. Using the large and small circles in the emb. file I arranged and layered them on my machine and stitched it out. What is great about machine applique and AccuQuilts dies, the embroidery file. Each file includes a blanket stitch, satin stitch and a decorative stitch.

accuquilt bobbin
dress form
sewing room quilt

Patchwork

My sewing quilt also needed a little patchwork. The idea was to make a bottom border that resembled quilt stitching.

sewing room quilt

Another built in design from my machine is the red leafy scroll. If you are like me you’re thinking to yourself, “she said she quilted bubbles and I don’t see them”, that doesn’t look like bubbles. When I added the backing to finish off the piece, the extra layer of batting under the applique shapes would not cling to my backing. So, I loaded it on the frame, traced around the designs and just rolled my machine over the piece from one design to the next.

thimble

Now I just need a way to hang it. It was really hard to make it stick to this board.

schmetz needles

All piecing and embroidery was done using Microtex Sharp Needles. I’ve not looked to see if they have longarm needles but if they do and perform as well as their home sewing needles I will love them. But my Gammill is more finicky with needles than it is thread.

sewing room finis

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you found a little inspiration. If not, be sure to click on the logo below to see a list of other Island Batik Ambassadors.

island batik ambassadors

14 Comments

    1. Oh yes, more than you could imagine. For days I have been running back and forth between the sewing room and my office to answer phones and make calls. The sewing room is a disaster area so it can double as my office right now.

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