StitchWithColor

Sunday, October 26, 2025

Sew Stylish October Batik Challenge with ByAnnie

Welcome to the October Island Batik Challenge with ByAnnie!

This month we were challenged to create a bag from a selected ByAnnie pattern using our Island Batik fabrics by Lumin Fabrics.

Here's the fabrics I received in July for this October Challenge

With a closer look at the three fabrics which I loved for this project!

I selected the Catch All Caddy 2.0 pattern from ByAnnie and it comes with an add in video at no extra cost to watch which really helped me with the cutting and assembling of this project.

I started the project cutting out all the sections and adding the label tags which are included in the pattern. Then sewing all the sections in the order of the instructions. The instructions were easy to read with lots of graphic pictures to help with layout and assembly sewing, plus the add in video was invaluable!

After putting on the bias binding the caddy is completed and my #1 sewing inspector, Cooper, loved the finished caddy. He had to test it out while I tried taking my wrap up photos!

We'll see you next month with the results of a brand new challenge!

💖

A very special thanks to all the sponsors of the Island Batik Ambassador program.

@islandbatik @aurifil @accuquilt @oliso @Schmetzneedles @hobbsbatting @byannie.com

@funkyfriendsfactory @debtuckersstudio180design

Make sure you are following along with the other 22 Island Batik Ambassadors for inspiration and tips!

Brenda Alburl - https://songbirddesigns.blog

Renee Atkinson - https://wordpress.com/posts/pinktulipquilting.studio

Susan Deshensky - www.ladybluequilts.com/blog

Tina Dillard - https://quiltingaffection.blogspot.com/

Brittany Fisher - www.bobbinwithbrittany.com

Kimberly Flannagan - https://www.kimberlysquilts.com/blog

Preeti Harris - https://sewpreetiquilts.blogspot.com

Mania Hatziioannidi - www.maniaforquilts.com

Kim Jamieson-Hirst - https://www.chatterboxquilts.com/blog

Connie Kauffman - Kauffmandesigns.blogspot.com

Connie Kresin Campbell - https://conniekresin.com/

Emily Leachman - https://thedarlingdogwood.blogspot.com/

Denise Looney - https://quiltery.com

Leah Malasky - www.quilteddelights.com

Susan Michaels - https://dragonflyfiberart.blogspot.com/

Lisa Pickering - https://lisasquiltingpassion.blog/

Sarah Pitcher - www.pitchersboutique.com/blog-1

Gail Sheppard - https://quiltinggail.com/

Carol Stanek - stitchwithcolor.blogspot.com

Solomae Stoycoff - https://cuddlecatquiltworks.com

Jennifer Thomas - https://curlicuecreations.com

Suzy Webster - www.websterquilt.com

Be sure you’re following me on Facebook and Instagram so you won’t miss out on what I’ll be creating next!

#islandbatikambassador #islandbatik #Iloveislandbatik #luminfabrics #byannie #patternsbyannie #aurifil #aurifilthread #oliso #createwitholiso #olisohome #olfacreates #bernina #followers #everyone

Monday, September 22, 2025

September Island Batik + Aurifil Threaded Chaos Blog Hop

This month’s Island Batik challenge is the Threaded Chaos Blog Hop, a creative adventure in partnership with Aurifil thread. This challenge gave me the opportunity to use all those fancy stitches that come with my Bernina sewing machine! I'm going to challenge each of you to do this challenge too. I found it to be fun and learned a lot about those unused stitches and find many stitches I love and will use them again!

This challenge started with the fabric collection provided to me to use in this challenge, Island Batik's GEODE GLOW Collection.

I love these fabrics and the rich colors!

Then there's the threads provided by Aurifil, a great selection of colors that go really well with these fabrics! Aurifil is the only thread I use when making quilts. Here's the color information on the 4 thread colors used for this challenge: #1100 Red Plum, #2135 Yellow, 2545 Purple, and

#2785 Dark Navy

I pressed and cut my fabrics into 7 inch squares to start and used a plastic template to cut my uniform pieces for the 6" finished blocks. After the fabric squares were stacked and cut with the templates, i then shuffled each stack so each of the blocks would have different fabrics in each block.

Now the sewing beings... I did a lot of chain stitching which speeded up the process of sewing the units together. Thirty-six individual blocks were made, pressed with my Oliso iron, and then placed onto my design wall so I can play with block and color placement. Once I had every block in place, I started to sew the blocks together into a small quilt, 6 blocks across by 6 blocks down.

And now the real fun starts! I layered the quilt with HOBBS Thermore Ultra Thin Batting and a backing fabric and was doing all the creative stitches also as my quilting stitches. I tried almost every special stitch that I thought would be interesting in a Crazy Quilt. Here's some close up photos of several of the selected stitches. It did took several days of of working on this quilt using the creative stitches as my quilting!

I'm sure many of you out there when working on finishing a quilt find that your feline quilt inspector has to test out the quilt and let you know they're approval of these quilts. Well, I stepped away for a moment and came back to find Cooper totally satisfied with this month's challenge quilt!

Now for the BIG REVEAL ... Here's the finished Crazy Quilt!

We'll see you next month with the results of a brand new challenge!

💖

A very special thanks to all the sponsors of the Island Batik Ambassador program.

@islandbatik @aurifil @accuquilt @oliso @Schmetzneedles @hobbsbatting @byannie.com

@funkyfriendsfactory @debtuckersstudio180design

Make sure you are following along with the other 22 Island Batik Ambassadors for inspiration and tips!

Brenda Alburl - https://songbirddesigns.blog

Sarah Pitcher - www.pitchersboutique.com/blog-1

Gail Sheppard - https://quiltinggail.com/

Carol Stanek - stitchwithcolor.blogspot.com

Solomae Stoycoff - https://cuddlecatquiltworks.com

Jennifer Thomas - https://curlicuecreations.com

Suzy Webster - www.websterquilt.com

Be sure you’re following me on Facebook and Instagram so you won’t miss out on what I’ll be creating next!

#luminfabrics #islandbatik #iloveislandbatik #islandbatikambassador #Aurifil #Aurifilthread #oliso #createwitholiso #olisohome #hobbsbatting #hobbsinside #threadedchaosbloghop #olfacreates #bernina #followers #everyone

Monday, August 11, 2025

Island Batik Ambasador's Oliso Hot Stuff Challenge

August brought some fun with decorating our Oliso iron travel bags. We received the Oliso mini-pro irons with travel cases in our January shipment.

I started the brainstorming process with trying to decide on what I wanted to do with this decorating challenge. I had so many ideas came to mind. I wanted to select one that would be different. I finally decided on making three dimensional flowers.

I started the process by choosing some strips from the Island Batik Stash Builders and then I started cutting my circles in two different sizes.

I laid out the 5 large and small circles shown below by overlapping them so I can sew two running stitches with 12 weight Aurifil Thread through all of the circles.

If you look closely at the photo below, you will see the two rows of running stitches towards the center of the circles.

After doing the running stitches I make a cut right down the center in the middle of the running stitches. These stitches will be used to gather the group of circles which will form the flowers.

Below I gather the stitches and tie a know with the thread so the gathers do not come loose.

Once all my circles have become flowers I then used white buttons (provided by my friend, Sandi) in the center to sew them onto the Oliso iron travel bag. Here's the result...

And those who follow me monthly may be waiting to see my assistant, Cooper, who is always involved with ALL my sewing projects! Life in my sewing room would be a lonely place if not for Cooper and my other fur babies who make life a lot more interesting when sewing for hours!

We'll see you next month with the results of a brand new challenge!

💖

A very special thanks to all the sponsors of the Island Batik Ambassador program.

Make sure you are following along with the other 22 Island Batik Ambassadors for inspiration and tips!

Brenda Alburl - https://songbirddesigns.blog

Sarah Pitcher - www.pitchersboutique.com/blog-1

Gail Sheppard - https://quiltinggail.com/

Carol Stanek - stitchwithcolor.blogspot.com

Solomae Stoycoff - https://cuddlecatquiltworks.com

Jennifer Thomas - https://curlicuecreations.com

Suzy Webster - www.websterquilt.com

Be sure you’re following me on Facebook and Instagram so you won’t miss out on what I’ll be creating next!

#luminfabrics #islandbatik #iloveislandbatik #islandbatikambassador #Aurifil #Aurifilthread #oliso #createwitholiso #olisohome #hotstuffchallenge #followers #everyone

@islandbatik @aurifil @accuquilt @hobbsbatting @oliso @Schmetzneedles @debtuckersstudio180design @byannie.com @PatternsByAnnie @funkyfriendsfactory

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Island Batik Ambassador July 2025 Unboxing

The second half of the 2025 Island Batik Ambassador's year starts in July with a shipment of boxes full of fabric, thread and batting so we can continue working on our challenges.

We have some really fun ones coming so follow my blog and my Facebook page if you want to stay up to date with the new Island Batik fabrics and what we are doing with them and our sponsors products!

Here's a quick peak at all the items that were in the two boxes I received for the upcoming monthly challenges the 2nd part of this year.

Cooper always makes himself a star in my blog!

A very special thanks to all the sponsors of the Island Batik Ambassador program.

Make sure you are following along with the other 22 Island Batik Ambassadors for inspiration and tips!

Brenda Alburl - https://songbirddesigns.blog

Sarah Pitcher - www.pitchersboutique.com/blog-1

Gail Sheppard - https://quiltinggail.com/

Carol Stanek - stitchwithcolor.blogspot.com

Solomae Stoycoff - https://cuddlecatquiltworks.com

Jennifer Thomas - https://curlicuecreations.com

Suzy Webster - www.websterquilt.com

Be sure you’re following me on Facebook and Instagram so you won’t miss out on what I’ll be creating next!

#islandbatik #iloveislandbatik #islandbatikambassador #Aurifil #Aurifilthread #accuquilt #accuquiltgo #hobbsbatting #hobbsinside #oliso #createwitholiso #schmetz #schmetzneedles #Studio180design #byannie #patternsbyannie #funkyfriendsfactory #funkyfriendsfactorypattern #followers #everyone

@islandbatik @aurifil @accuquilt @hobbsbatting @oliso @Schmetzneedles @debtuckersstudio180design @byannie.com @PatternsByAnnie @funkyfriendsfactory

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Island Batik Ambassador June "Funky Friends Factory" Pattern Challenge

The Island Batik Ambassador Challenge for June was sponsored by Funky Friends Factory. We had our choice of one of their patterns and I chose the Baby Bunny.

The Baby Bunny pattern is a beginner pattern and available to download so you can start working on one yourself! Here's the link below...

Baby Bunny Rabbit

You can also see all of the Funky Friends Factory patterns available for purchase in the link below...

Funky Friends Factory website

I used Hobbs Simply Stuffing inside the Baby Bunny and two Island Batik fabrics, Lavender and Eggplant, for the bunny's body fabric.

It didn't take long to cut the fabrics using the templates provided in the pattern. I marked all the registration points so I could place the legs, arms and ears in the correct position on the fabric pieces. Sewing was was easy and I used Aurifil 50 weight thread and Schmetz Microtex Needles.

The legs and arms are stuffed first, and I put some stuffing in the ears too. After attaching the legs, arms and ears the body is sewn together and gets stuffed, leaving an opening to hand sew at the end. This was an easy project and I high recommend it be one you choose to start with!

And the Baby Bunny was approved by Cooper, my #1 quilting inspector!

A very special thanks to all the sponsors of the Island Batik Ambassador program.

Make sure you are following along with the other 22 Island Batik Ambassadors for inspiration and tips!

Brenda Alburl - https://songbirddesigns.blog

Sarah Pitcher - www.pitchersboutique.com/blog-1

Gail Sheppard - https://quiltinggail.com/

Carol Stanek - stitchwithcolor.blogspot.com

Solomae Stoycoff - https://cuddlecatquiltworks.com

Jennifer Thomas - https://curlicuecreations.com

Suzy Webster - www.websterquilt.com

Be sure you’re following me on Facebook and Instagram so you won’t miss out on what I’ll be creating next!

#luminfabrics #islandbatik #islandbatikambassador #loveislandbatik #funkyfriendsfactory #hobbsbatting #hobbsinside #aurifl #aurifilthread #schmetzneedles #oliso #bernina #followers #quiltersoffacebook #quiltersofinstagram