October is the By-Annie challenge month. Each Island Batik Ambassador was given the opportunity to choose the fabric and pattern that they would like to use/make. I chose three fabrics from Twilight, a signature collection designed by Kathy Engle for Claudia Porter. I have made one By-Annie pattern using Twilight and I am making a second project. I am also participating in the Twilight Blog Hop and October 19th is my turn.
First up, is the project that I made for the Twilight Blog Hop. I had three fabrics to use and I needed to use it for my By-Annie projects as well. I designed a small project in Electric Quilt 8. It was designed as 25" by 25". My design uses the nine-patch and 1/4- square triangle blocks. I love Twilight, because it just blends so well with each fabric in the collection; the deep blues, golds and yellows.
For the 1/4 square triangle blocks, I cut 6-1/4" blocks and cut them into quarters. I used two of the prints, mini daisy blue cornflower and rock orange vermillion. I chain pieced the blocks together. Next, I cut the strips for the nine patch blocks. I used all three fabrics, including petals gold acorn. I cut the strips at 2-1/8" and I strip pieced them together and then I sub-cutted the pieced strip sets. I trimmed both sets of blocks to
5-1/4".
I alternated the blocks and sewed them together in rows. I was really liking how the design and the mini project came together. It is wonderful to sew with such a high quality fabric.
I used By-Annie Soft and Stable for my "batting" and I quilted the mini-quilt on my Bernina 990. I stitched in the ditch using Aurifil and Schmetz needles, then I cross-hatched, using the 1/4 square triangle blocks as the guide. I trimmed the mini-quilt to just over 24" x 24". I made a backing with a white 30" double zipper from By-Annie. I admit I need some help with zippers; but the more I sew with zippers, I think I am getting better at it.
I sewed my front and backing together with a binding. I brought the binding around to the front and carefully sewed it down using a darker blue Aurifil thread. I inserted a 24" pillow form and then I had a pretty big comfy pillow to lay my head on.
It is great to sew and make projects that are not always so big and that you can finish yourself. Stay tuned for my By-Annie blog post. I have made one By-Annie project so far, the large i-case to use with my i-pad. Here is a sneak peak of it.
Comments