March's Island Batik Ambassador Challenge was "All Up To Us". A wide open challenge with any size, any type of project, etc. I decided to play with a block I'd worked on creating in February - a variation of Carpenter's Star quilt block.  Here's the one I made in February  It was a reworking of my antique Carpenter's Star Quilt  I had a grand time playing with the new Flutter Wings Collection featuring lots of butterflies, birds, and flowers. It is perfect for Spring! I also played with the block and flipped the corners to make more of a Churn Dash Star. The quilt has ..read more

 This month's challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors is make a Log Cabin quilt with a brand new fabric collection. I received the awesome black and white word play Zen Funk collection designed by Kathy Engle for Jackie Kunkel of Canton Village Quilt Works. I do love a great black and white collection and fabric with words is a special joy of mine! I also really like Log Cabins and have made several wonky little Log Cabins and also have a couple in my antique quilt collection. I decided to work with this one. But I chose to focus on the center.   Antique Log Cabin c. 1880s, Star ..read more

 I'm excited to announce that I am a brand ambassador for Island Batik again for 2024.  Here's my unboxing photo gallery. It is really fun to get a box jammed full of beautiful fabrics from IB and wonderful tools for our industry sponsors. Above is the full box of treasures revealed. Let's start with the beautiful Island Batik fabrics. The new Fall Gatherings Collection  10" squares with coordinates of Flour and Bluegrass 2 collections of IB Gradations - Glorious Greens 1o" squares and Naturally Neutral 2.5" strips plus 4 yard cuts of solids in black, white, and grey. A Su ..read more

In honor of the many holiday celebrations that occur in December, this month's Island Batik Challenge is Celebrations. We could do any holiday from New Year's, Easter, Diwali, Channukah, etc. I do love Christmas and the traditional red and green color scheme along with the classic Churn Dash quilt block. If you've been following me at all, you know I really like recreating and giving new life to old blocks and I really enjoy using batiks to give a modern look to traditional blocks. Churn Dash is one of my favorites and I really like my variation of the Double Churn :)  Double Churn ..read more

Welcome to Week 2 of the "It's In The Bag!" Blog Hop!!! After you read about my adventures be sure to visit Island Batik's Blog each week this month for links to all the stops on the BLOG HOP and for weekly GIVEAWAYS !! Night and Day -Green version of Tote and  Purse Night and Day -Blue version of Tote and Purse This month's Island Batik Ambassador challenge is a partnership with ByAnnie Bags and Island Batik with the Ambassadors receiving new IB Collections and a pattern  and all the hardware and supplies to make a bag from ByAnnie.com From our par ..read more

 Since it is Fall -this month's challenge is "Falling For AccuQuilt". A partnership with Island Batik and AccuQuilt. As Island Batik Ambassadors, we received the AccuQuilt North Carolina Star Die for cutting with our AccuQuilt Machine. Here's our brief:  "You don’t have to make a North Carolina Star block, feel free to come up with a new block design using the pieces of this die! There is no requirement to what kind of project you make: table runner, wall hanging, throw quilt, sleeping bag, tote bag - let your imagination run wild!" To start, I cut out the pattern/die pieces from ..read more

 This month’s challenge for Island Batik Ambassadors is “Pieced to Perfection”. We each had a specific new fabric collection to use and were to make a lap size or larger quilt using paper piecing - either foundation paper piecing (machine) or English paper piecing (hand). I used foundation pp which is one of my favorite techniques for accuracy and sharp points. Look at these beautiful fabrics! I love the yellowy butterfly print. . I received the Buds and Blooms Collection by Kathy Engle for Swan Amity Studios.  Such yummy garden prints. I usually use paper piecing for tiny p ..read more

 For the 4th year, I'm joining in on a fun project run by Jen of PBJ, Patterns By Jen; her awesome free mystery quilt - the 2023 Monthly Color Challenge.  ***SEPTEMBER PATTERN LINK. The Star Pattern is free during September so visit her page after you look at my cute little star block and learn more about it and the Challenge. This year the inspiration is something totally different: Classic Cars.      September's palette is Mustard   Of course, my mind and color palette always goes to a more Cheddary Orange color.   Here I'm tryin ..read more

 This month's Island Batik Ambassador Challenge is an open challenge - It's All Up To You. Each ambassador gets to decide the fabrics, the technique, the size of the project, etc. etc. I decided to make a pillow inspired by my garden and featuring pumpkins and gourds that I am growing  now. The new Celtic Fields Collection just screams Autumn Garden! I was able to use all  of the yummy colors to create my paper pieced pumpkins (a set of 5 for each gourd) and I repeated a few for a mini center pumpkin.  Here's the 20 different fabrics in the collection. I drafted six inch ..read more

 Since I first discovered this special zigzagging Flying Geese quilt top years ago, I’ve wanted to figure out how it was made and make my own version. The June Challenge for Island Batik is Fly Away Flying Geese - the perfect excuse to finally figure out this antique top! Note- I’ve studied it many, many times before and always ended up with a headache. I knew discovering how to recreate it would definitely be a Challenge. We could use any of our precut fabrics and with the red zigzag sashing of the antique, I had to choose this super happy "Make A Wish" Collection. It has cheery b ..read more