It’s June and that means another Island Batik Ambassador project!
This month Ambassadors are creating quilts to donate to Sleep in Heavenly Peace as part of the Quilts Across America initiative started by Deb Tucker of Studio 180 Design in 2023. Here is some information about this organization and their goal:
Quilts Across America is a program that relies on the generosity of quilters everywhere to provide a quilt with each bed that is delivered. Quilts Across America was initiated by Studio 180 Design and Tucker University in July 2023. Help make this the largest quilting project in America and complete the process of getting kids, Off the floor, Into a Bed, and Under a Quilt.
All children deserve a safe, comfortable place to lay their heads. Across the US, too many boys and girls go without a bed—or even a pillow—to sleep on. These children end up sleeping on couches, blankets, and even floors. This can affect their happiness and health. That’s where Sleep in Heavenly Peace comes in. A group of volunteers dedicated to building, assembling, and delivering top-notch bunk beds to children and families in need.
As one of the Island Batik Ambassador sponsors, Studio 180 Design have provided each Ambassador with a tool to use to create this month’s challenge quilt. I received a Wing Clipper I tool and a Quilter’s Magic Wand tool (thanks, Deb!) so I needed to create a design that had flying geese in it. I loved that challenge!
Wing Clipper I makes flying geese up to 5½” x 10½” unfinished. Photo courtesy of Deb Tucker’s Studio 180 Design
The challenge for all Island Batik Ambassadors for June was to create:
a lap size or larger quilt
a project using a Studio 180 Design tool (the one that was sent to us)
a project that included at least 30 of the units we created with the Studio 180 Design tool
a project using any of the fabulous Island Batik fabrics that we have received
I was ready for this challenge so all I needed to do was to create a design and then dig into my Island Batik fabric stash to pull fabrics for it.
When I’m creating a pieced project such as this one, I turn to EQ8 to create my design and created “Flying Diamonds”.
I used a combination of Island Batik white solid and several fabrics from their Blenders and Neutrals in their Foundations line. I wanted three “flying diamonds” on the quilt so chose a green, turquoise, and red fabric from Island Batik’s Foundations line.
When creating the flying geese blocks, the Quilter’s Magic Wand tool was very helpful in marking the stitching lines that I needed on the fabrics. Did you know that these come in different colours? I love that!
Quilter’s Magic Wand available in lots of fun colours! Photo courtesy of Deb Tucker’s Studio 180 Design
The flying geese construction technique made 4 flying geese at one time and then they were trimmed down using the Wing Clipper I tool. This resulted in very accurate flying geese and very little fabric wastage.
The unit size I chose was 3” x 6” finished and, as my quilt blocks were 6” square finished, I needed two flying geese to create this size block. This meant that I needed to piece two flying geese units together to create one quilt block before I could stitch these into the quilt top.
Flying geese units ready to be pieced into quilt blocks
I made “mirror” flying geese units - one where the neutral fabric was the “goose” and the other where the printed fabric was the “goose”. When stitched together, they created a 6” square finished unit like this:
Flying geese units stitched together to make a 6” finished quilt block
My Oliso iron was integral to this process as there is a lot of pressing when making flying geese.
Once all of the flying geese were made, blocks created and rows stitched together, I added two borders: one in a neutral Island Batik fabric (Sprinkles) and the other in a teal from the Foundations fabrics.
We were asked to quilt the project with an all over design and I chose some swirls and circles and used a cream polyester Glide thread to do the quilting. We were also asked to do machine binding which made doing this final step very quick.
Here’s the finished Flying Diamonds project!
And some close-ups of the 3 “flying diamond” blocks.
If you haven’t tried Deb Tucker’s Studio 180 Design tools, you can find several of them at Missouri Star Quilt Company. use my affiliate code to get 20% off your order of over $50.00 (it will automatically kick in when your cart exceeds $50.00).
I used Aurifil thread for piecing Flying Diamonds as well as a Schmetz (80/12) needle in my sewing machine. I used Hobbs Premium Heirloom 100% cotton batting for creating the Flying Diamonds quilt sandwich.
I hope that my quilt will provide comfort to a little one and that they will enjoy it. ❤️
Be sure to check out my Chatterbox Quilt’s Facebook page to see all the other wonderful quilts created by my fellow Island Batik Ambassadors during this month’s Create for a Cause challenge.
Also, be sure to check out the other Island Batik Ambassadors’ blogs to see what else they’re creating. You can find them at:
Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs
Renee Atkinson ~ Pink Tulip Quilting
Megan Best ~ BestQuilter
Pamela Boatright ~ PamelaQuilts
Susan Deshensky ~ Lady Blue Quilts Studio
Brittany Fisher ~ Bobbin with Brittany
Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts
Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for quilts
Jane Hauprich ~ Stitch by Stitch Custom Quilting
Victoria Johnson ~ Forever Quilting for You
Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs
Connie Kresin Campbell ~ Freemotion by the River
Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood
Denise Looney ~ A Quiltery
Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights
Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack Made Mine
Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa’s Quilting Passion
Sarah Pitcher ~ Pitcher’s Boutique
Lana Russel ~ Lana Quilts
Julia Schweri ~ Inflorescence Designs
Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail
Carol Stanek ~ Stitch with Color
Sandra Starley ~ Textile Time Travels
Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations
Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt
Be sure you’re following me on Facebook and Instagram so you won’t miss out on what I’ll be creating next with Island Batik fabrics!
Note: The products featured in this blogpost were given to me by Island Batik. Thank you!
#islandbatik #islandbatikambassador #createforacause #loveislandbatik #createwitholiso #olisoconnects #schmetz #aurifil #studio180design #hobbsbattinginside
