Happy Thankgiving!

 Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving craft inspired by "Thanksgiving Activities for Children"

Today I am grateful for all the goodness in my life even in 2020.

Here's to happiness ahead!

Stay home and stay safe!

Get Cozy Over at Thermoweb

 It's getting colder and colder.

My newest pattern over at Thermoweb will help you to stay cozy. 

I was so happy to play with one of my favorite color combinations in

Art Gallery Fabrics “Merry & Bright” collective by AGF Studio.

To make Cozy you'll need these products from Thermoweb:

HeatnBond EZ Print Lite  iron-on adhesive – no tracing, the pattern is ready to print

StitchnSew Sew-In fleece, High Loft – for a super cushiony pillow

SpraynBond basting adhesive - no pinning 

The free pattern can be found HERE.

I have a quilt pattern coming next week.
 It's the perfect complement to the Cozy pillow.

The Warm quilt pattern will be available for free over at Thermoweb too.

Next week we'll be Cozy and Warm!

Inspired by Nature Island Batik Blog Hop - A Cloudy Rainbow

 Today is the 1st day of the

Island Batik Ambassador

Inspired by Nature Blog Hop

where all the new fabric collections are being showcased.

What better way to show the gorgeous new Island Batik fabric collections

than with a fun blog hop?

I'm thrilled to share my quilt today,

"A Cloudy Rainbow"

featuring the new summer 2020 Island Batik collection, Bliss by Barbara Persing.

During the next three weeks of the Inspired by Nature Blog Hop,

 the team of twenty-five Ambassadors will be sharing projects made with new Island Batik collections we received in our second Island Batik Ambassador boxes. 

 I was so thrilled to find the Bliss Collection in my box.

The rainbow of colors made my nature inspiration easy.  

Rainbow is my favorite color!

In western Kansas, we don't have mountains, ocean, or a lot of trees, but what we do have are gorgeous sunsets, sunrises, and rainbows. 

 Wide-open skies with lots of colors.

The colors of the Bliss collection were perfect to make a rainbow effect,

so I designed the quilt in Electric Quilt 7 

with a pieced orange peel design.

PIecing in curves can be challenging.  

Here are a couple of tips from my experience:

I made all 80 blocks

by marking the center of each "cloud" with one small bite of a pin.

Next, I pinned the first edge to make sure it fed into the machine straight.  This made it easy to just ease the pieces together.  Each was stitched with the "cloud" down and the color on top so no folds happened.

Once all the blocks were made, I found that pressing the seam allowances with one side away from the "cloud" and one side towards it made the construction of the quilt a lot less bulky.

The clouds and sashing are Island Batik Foundation fabric in solid white.

Each block was stitched with Aurifil 50 wt and a Schmetz Microtex (Sharp) Chrome 70/10 needle.  If you haven't tried these needles, they are perfect for the tight weave of the Island Batik fabrics.

I had so much fun watching this quilt come to life with each row
and
love that it's colorful and bright.

It's a great throw size at about 58" x 72"

I did the quilting edge to edge with my

 Handi Quilter Avante long arm pro-stitcher (pre-loaded pattern - swan song)

using Glide Trilobal Polyester 40 wt white thread.  

Hobbs Heirloom Premium Cotton batting is in the middle.

The Bliss collection will be in stores this month.

Be sure to ask your local quilt shop for Bliss!

I hope you have a chance to check out all the new fabrics by Island Batik and the beautiful projects made by the Ambassadors.

November 9:

• Carla Henton, Creatin’ in the Sticks
• Jennifer Fulton, Inquiring Quilter

November 10:

• Carolina Asmussen, Carolina Asmussen Designs
• Denise Looney, For the Love of Geese

November 11:

• Janet Yamamoto, Whispers of Yore
• Alison Vermilya, Little Bunny Quilts

November 12:

• Megan Best, Bestquilter
• Jennifer Strauser, Dizzy Quilter

November 13:

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 1 and Giveaway

November 16:

• Joanne Hart, Unicornharts
• Maryellen McAuliffe, Mary Mack Made Mine
• Jennifer Thomas, Curlicue Creations

November 17:

• Gail Sheppard, Quilting Gail
• Mania Hatziioannidi, Mania for Quilts

November 18:

• Sharon Riley, Sew Riley Designs
• Sandra Walker, mmm! quilts

November 19:

• Carol Moellers, Carol Moellers Designs
• Emily Leachman, The Darling Dogwood

November 20:

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 2 and Giveaway

November 23:

• Connie Kauffman, Kauffman Designs
• Suzy Webster, Websterquilt

November 24:

• Pamela Boatright, PamelaQuilts
• Michelle Roberts, Creative Blonde

November 25:

• Vasudha Govindan, Storied Quilts
• Leah Malasky, Quilted Delights

November 26:

• Sally Manke, Sally Manke Fiber Artist
• Gail Renna, Quilt Haven Threads

November 27:

End of Blog Hop and Round-Up

Island Batik is giving away Bliss and Just My Type

You can enter here

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Thanks to Island Batik for these gorgeous fabrics

 and

 to you for visiting!

Framed - Island Batik Ambassador October Challenge

 The August Challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors is

Thread Painting with Aurifl

and

today I am excited to share

Framed.

As Island Batik Ambassadors,

we received Aurifil 50 weight cotton thread in our second ambassador box

to use in this month's challenge.

My decision on what to use was made easy because the threads I received matched

the fabrics from the Island Batik Spring 2020 collection,

William's Garden, designed by Kathy Engle.

These fabrics should be in your favorite local quilt shop now

and the 50 weight Aurifil threads are (left to right)

#2021, #2545, #2692, #1148, and #2890.

The blocks are Hawaiian applique designs from Electric Quilt 7

that I printed and cut out with HeatnBond EZ Print Lite. (no tracing!)

Next, I framed the blocks with Island Batik Foundations Solid in White

and "painted" thread "frames" with black (#2692) Aurifl thread.

Once the frames were finished, I stitched them together and added a pieced border.

The top was spray basted and pinned with Hobbs Premium Heirloom Wool batting in the middle

and Island Batik Foundation Neutral - Yolk for the backing.

I chose wool batting to show off the stitching of the frames a bit more

and

the quilting went super smooth with a

 Schmetz Microtex Chrome Professional Grade 80/12 needle.

I stitched the frames one more time and free motion quilted all the blocks with my Aurifil threads

on my domestic Janome MC 6600 sewing machine.

This direct sunlight picture really shows the quilting.

Framed is a 24" x 24" wall hanging and takes me back to vacation time

 and visiting quilt shops in Hawaii.

This month's Ambassador challenge was a lot of fun.

I always enjoy creatin' with thread and Aurifil makes it easy with all the colors and weights.

Check out the 

2020 Island Batik AmbassadorsHERE.

From the Heart Blog Hop - A Gift from My Heart

 Welcome to the first day of the

From the Heart Blog Hop.

I'm happy to kick things off with

my

Pink Remember Bear.

Carol of Just Let Me Quilt invited bloggers to make a small gift that you would give to someone and share a pattern, tutorial, or link if you have one for the gift idea.

Thank you, Carol, for inviting me to join this super fun blog hop!

This has been a very tough year for all of us.

When the pandemic shut down happened, I was scheduled for my annual

mammogram and had to cancel it.  Now it's way overdue and it's time to schedule it, but the covid numbers are so high here that I keep putting off going anywhere.

The gift from my heart to YOU is this pink Memory Bear that I'm calling a Remember Bear.

I hope you aren't like me and you have had your annual check-up.

But if you haven't, this is a gentle reminder.

It's October and it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Think of my Pink Remember Bear and schedule your mammogram today.

To make my bear, I gathered all my pink Island Batik fabrics and the pattern is the

Melody Memory Bear by Pauline at Funky Friends Factory.

I just love stitching Pauline's Funky Friends Factory soft toys

and this one was super fun to do.  

All the toys are so super cute.

Pauline's patterns are clear and easy to follow with checkboxes as you go.

During the lockdown, Pauline gave away the Calico Memory Bear pattern for free.

In fact, she still has the info on her blog HERE.

She is super generous and has great tutorials on her blog to help with all her patterns.

This bear is not small.  

It sits 12 1/2" tall from the table.  If you stretched his legs he would be over 16" tall. The perfect size, really.

Remember to take care of yourself!

Be sure to check out all the From the Heart projects over at these blogs today:

October 26

Creatin' in the Sticks - YOU ARE HERE :)

Ms P Designs USA

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Websterquilt

Selina Quilts

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Quilting Gail

Scrapdash

Ridge Top Quilt

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

That Fabric Feeling

Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

Here is the rest of the schedule:

 October 27

MooseStashQuilting

Just Because Quilts

Day Brook Designs

Karen's Korner

Quilt Schmilt

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Karrin’s Crazy World

Words & Stitches

Vroomans Quilts

Sew Many Yarns

Songbird Designs

Samelia's Mum

 October 28

Just Let Me Quilt

Quiltscapes

Beaquilter

Seams To Be Sew

Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

Bumbleberry Stitches

Days Filled With Joy

Quilted Delights

Den Syende Himmel

Life in the Scrapatch

Storied Quilts

Kathleen McMusing

Food for Thought

I'm sure by the end of the blog hop, you will have more ideas than time.

There is so much talent in this line-up.

Giveaway Time!

I have 2 Island Batik stash builders of pink strips left

and

I would love to send them to one of you!

(bear not included)

UPDATE:  Congrats to Shirley as the winner of the Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm covering the postage so this giveaway is limited to U.S. only.  (sorry)

Entries are open until November 2nd

I'll announce the winner by November 3rd.

You'll never regret giving from your heart and a stuffed softy is perfect for everyone.