Goin' Through Time - Time in a Bottle Blog Hop

   Welcome to the first day of the

Time in a Bottle Blog Hop!

I'm happy to kick things off with

"Goin' Through Time"

Carol at Just Let Me Quilt presented bloggers with the challenge to make something

with an hourglass block.

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

I hinted back in November about this quilt and what I had in mind to make

when I made this mug rug for the

No Ring November Blog Hop. 

I'm trying to use as much of my stash fabric as possible this year

and I cut strips of varying widths to fit with the hourglass blocks.

It was so fun to design and put together this 

Rainbow Hourglass quilt

that I call

Goin' Through Time

because the strips go "through" the hourglass blocks.

I have a free tutorial to make hourglass blocks that I made several years ago.

Click HERE for that.

Goin' Through Time

 is about 40" x 50" and is quilted with a simple meander.

The backing is a grey Minky fabric for coziness.

I love to make quilts in rainbow colors.

Want some more

Hourglass block inspiration?

Here is the full schedule:

March 14
Creatin' in the Sticks (you are here)
Vroomans Quilts
Patchouli Moon Studio
Samelia's Mum
Days Filled With Joy
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Stitchin At Home
 
March 15
MooseStashQuilting
Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel
The Darling Dogwood
Quilting Gail
Time 4 Stitchn
Beaquilter
 
March 16
 Inflorescence
Lynn's Blog
Karen's Korner
Stitching Farm Girl
Scrapdash
Familypatchworks
 
March 17
Ms P Designs USA
Quilt Schmilt
That Fabric Feeling
Quilted Delights
Words & Stitches
Selina Quilts
 
March 18
Just Let Me Quilt
Bumbleberry Stitches
Karrin’s Crazy World
Lianne Makes Stuff
Crazy'boutquilts
Songbird Designs

It's so fun to get inspiration from Blog Hops.

I'm sure we will have way too many ideas swimming in our heads by the end of the week.

See you next month for Joan's

Wonderful World of Color 

(my kind of hop for sure...)

Official sign-ups for the May Blog Hop will start soon 

(after the Time in a Bottle blog hop is over).

Stay tuned for the announcement here at 

Creatin' in the Sticks.

Framed - Island Batik Ambassador October Challenge

 The October 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.

3D - Float Your Hills and Valleys

The December Challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors is

3D

and

today I'm excited to share

Float Your Hills and Valleys.

As an Island Batik Ambassador for 2019

every month there is an ambassador challenge.

December's 3D Challenge is all about using

optical illusions,

textures, trapunto, or whatever else makes

a quilt pop into life.

For this month's project, I started with a block pattern

I had designed for the

A Time For All Seasons Block of the Month

called Waving Stripes.

I added another column to make the block
12" x 12" finished.

Next, I picked Island Batik fabrics for the 3D effect.

The dark green (BE31-G1) and dark blue (BE21-D2) are batik foundations in the blender collection and the grey and white fabrics are in the solid batik collection.

The light blue in called Bluebird and is in the Freedom collection by Kathy Engle.  

The light green (111932612) is from the Petal Pushers collection also by Kathy Engle.

I cut the pieces for the blocks with the Accuquilt GO! Half Square Triangle-2" Finished square (55712)  from the Accuquilt Go! Qube Mix and Match 8" Block

This is my favorite way to make half-square triangles
and
the accuracy is amazing.
Then I chain pieced all those half-square triangles with
Aurifil 50 wt thread in white.

I designed the quilt in Electric Quilt with 3 of the Wavy Stripes blocks 

I quilted the background of Float Your Hills and Valleys on my Handiquilter with

 Glide thread in white.  

The blocks were quilted with straight lines following the wavy stripes with 

Aurifil 50 wt variegated #4670

The binding is Island Batik foundation blender fabric (BE21-D2).

I love the way this quilt looks against the white wall in the bedroom 

and 

that is where it will stay.

You can find the full list of Island Batik ambassadors posting for the 

3D Challenge

by clicking HERE.

This is my last post as an Island Batik Ambassador for 2019.

It's been a super fun year and I want to thank 

Island Batik and the industry partners, Aurifil Thread, Accuquilt, and Hobbs Batting,

 for the great products and super fun challenges.

The experience has been priceless!

Stacked Pumpkins Wall Hanging

I just love working with low volume prints or using unexpected colors.

Do you?

I created the Stacked Pumpkins Wall Hanging pattern with this in mind.

This 8" x 16" wall hanging is perfect for the front door for fall.

The fabrics are Meriwether by Amy Gibson for Windham Fabrics..

I just love her fabric designs.

The pattern is raw edge applique with Heat N Bond Lite.

I free motion quilted this one with meandering and leaves.

The pattern is free in my pattern shop HERE for 1 week

so hurry!

You'll want to get this one finished before those Thanksgiving guests arrive.

Hope you are staying warm, it's been so cold and cloudy here...

Are You Ready For Some Football? - Project Quilting Season 8, Project 3

Are you ready for some football?

I've been working on one all week for Project Quilting.

Kim at Persimon Dreams hosts Project Quilting.

She announces a challenge and you have one week to create something quilty.

Prizes can be won and it's a great way to meet new blogging friends.

This is the third challenge of 6 for Season 8.

Challenge 3:  Tune in to Texture

Inspiration for this challenge was everywhere, but I finally zeroed in on one.  This week has been all about getting ready for the big game here in the USA and football, for me, is always fun.  (Even when I could care less who wins.)

The Rules:

1. Your project must be inspired by a pattern or texture you find "in the wild" this week 

2.  Incomplete or unfinished does not qualify. Every challenge piece must be a FINISHED project seen through from INCEPTION to COMPLETION during the challenge timeline (January 29 through February 5, 2017). Each piece must stand alone as DONE to count toward prizes. 

3. Please remember that these projects need to be created during the week of the challenge (started on or after January 29, finished by February 5). 

4.  Your project does not need to be a traditional quilt, but must meet at least one of these requirements:

1. Include patchwork.
2. Include appliqué.
3. Have 3 layers stitched together by hand or machine.

5.  Link up a blog post, flickr image, instagram post, or public facebook post  by Sunday, February 5th, 2017, at noon CDT.

I started with a dark brown fabric, a white fabric, lots of shades of my favorite Aurifil 50 wt thread and a picture of a football in which I had cropped down for lots of detailed texture.  My goal was to transform the cottons to look like the leather of a football and try a little photo realism. 

The laces and stripe were cut as fusible appliques with HeatNBond Lite and then the marking of the shadows and lines.

One layer of STITCH n SEW™ Hi Loft sew-in fleece underneath for lots of volume, then the texture of the pig skin began.

Here's the process of all that free motion quilting that made the texture of the football.  Ignore my overdue manicure and TV in the background, this is my first video.  ANOTHER FIRST!!

A little thread painting (new to me)  and a little Deco Foil (I could put this stuff on everything) for the black accent.

More thread painting and more thread painting then the borders were stitched on, sandwiched the quilt with more fleece in the middle to add dimension to the football, and quilted the project with a mixture of free motion, lines, and yes, more thread painting. 

A mitered faux piping was added.  (Another new to me thing).  The intention was to make the quilt look like a matted picture.

It was so fun to build texture and I experienced so much by trying new things on this challenge!

My mission was accomplished.  My first photo realism try is a success.  I would change a few things, but isn't that how we learn and grow?

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Project Quilting Season 8, Challenge 3 - Tuned In to Texture

Made by Carla in Dodge City, Kansas

http://www.createinthesticks.blogspot.com/

Size:  15" x 15"

Fusible Applique, Foiling, Thread Painting, Mitered Faux Piping, 
Freemotion quilting - pebbling (about a million)  by me

Finished and posted a day before it's due, oh yeah. 

Bring on the Super Bowl.

You can see all the other challenge projects and vote for your favorites starting at noon central on

January 8th

by clicking 

HERE

This one is #44. 

 In the process of making this quilt, I watched Ink Masters - Season 6 on Hulu.  Yes, the whole season plus Season 5 too.  Ironically, episode 13 had a flash challenge where super fans of football teams received photo realism tattoos of footballs.  After watching that, I have so much more to learn about art and shading.  Let's keep growing.

 Now you know more about me and what I like to watch.  lol