StitchWithColor

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

December Island Batik It's All Up To You Challenge

Welcome to the final challenge of 2025!

The Island Batik Ambassadors had one final challenge in December and we were free to choose any theme, size or technique. I choose one of my favorite pattern designers, Deb Heatherly and her Scrap-Tastic Pattern which uses Cats Cradle blocks. I needed a new quilt for my quilt guild trunk shows and teaching samples.

The fabric I choose to use was Island Batik's Flowing Meadow layer cake (currently available) for this quilt, along with a neutral and blue and gold batiks. I actually started making this quilt in June while I was in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

You may already know that I'm an Authorized BeColourful Instructor and was attending my annual class with Jacqueline de Jonge in Tennessee. The class just happened to be the week prior to the Pigeon Forge Quilt Show, which I have never attended. If you get the chance to go, I highly recommend it. There are classes, lots of quilts, quilting vendors, food vendors, and there is NO FEE charged to attend the quilt show.

Deb Healtherly (who I know) was teaching her Scrap-Tastic class at the quilt show. I thought this was perfect... catch up with Deb, create another one of her patterns, get a head start on my December challenge quilt and see the quilt show! A WIN-WIN!

This quilt uses just two blocks (pictured)!

Since I am not a longarm quilter it's been challenging, to say the least, to get my challenges quilted quickly and I thank my long arm quilter, Pat Yearwood for working miracles for me these past few years. My December challenge quilt was quilted by Pat and she did an amazing job choosing the pattern! She never disappoints!!

And now for the reveal of the finished quilt front and back!

By now, my blog followers are probably wondering where my quilting assistant, Cooper, is. Well, I couldn't take him to Tennessee with me but he does do his best work from home testing the quilts as you can see!!!!

I had to make a difficult decision... I am not continuing with the Island Batik Ambassadorship and will be spending more time working on my teaching, retreats, designing my own quilts, and completing many UFO's and quilts waiting to be created. I hope you'll continue to follow me and I'll see you here in the New Year!

I wish everyone a very happy and safe holiday season.

💖💖💖

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 #aurifil #aurifilthread #oliso #schmetzneedles #createwitholiso #olisohome #olfacreates #bernina #electricquilt #debheatherly #debscatsnquilts #scrap-tastic #gridsgirls #followers #everyone

Thursday, November 13, 2025

November Island Batik Timeless Tradition Blog Hop

Welcome to the November Timeless Tradition Blog Hop!

Island Batik Ambassadors were challenged with using 5 different classic, traditional quilt blocks.

First we received the Secret Bundle to be used in this Blog Hop with our July shipment.

The fabric collection in the surprise bundle was Paisley Parade, designed by Jerry Khiev. This collection is shipping to stores now!

Let's see if you can guess which quilt blocks I chose to make!

As a foundation paper piecing instructor, I chose to paper piece most of my blocks printed out from Electric Quilt.

Foundation paper piecing creates precise and perfect star blocks!

Then there are some blocks you can just sew the fabrics together and cut to size. These were my Four Patches.

During this challenge project I was supervised by my favorite quilt inspector, Cooper. He kept me company and somehow managed to keep me on schedule too!

And here are the 5 blocks I completed. Trust me, your eyes are not playing tricks! There are 5 traditional blocks... the pinwheel, flying geese, star block and I combined the half square triangle with the four patch as one block! I made a total of six 4" blocks for each one below.

After playing with the blocks on the design wall, I ended up adding a 6th traditional block to my quilt, the Churn Dash. I took 2 of my 4" blocks and put them in the center of the Churn Dash blocks turning them into 8" blocks. After playing with the blocks on my design wall, this is the final order I decided to go with.

Once these blocks were all sewn together, and I added the border fabric, sandwiched the backing fabric and quilt top with Hobbs Thermore^®Batting, which is a low loft batting and perfect for miniatures and runners.

I turned these blocks into a beautiful patriotic table runner that measures 20-1/2" X 52-1/2".

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!

#timelesstraditionsbloghop #islandbatikambassador #islandbatik #Iloveislandbatik #luminfabrics #aurifil #aurifilthread #oliso #createwitholiso #olisohome #olfacreates #bernina #electricquilt #followers #everyone

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

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