This blog entry is a two-fer. Island Batik asked for a project using our tools. That’s easy – every quilter has a lot of tools and I am no exception. Narrowing down which tool to focus on, that took more time. The second purpose of this blog is that I am also hosting Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday (although you may see this on Thursday when I am celebrating Thanksgiving due to international friends). There is a linky party for the TGIFFers and it goes until mid-day Saturday (at the bottom of the page).
Disclosure: Island Batik along with their partners, Hobbs Batting, & Aurifil Thread have provided me with some of the items used in this quilt, free of charge.
Now, a little bit about how this quilt came about. Part of the description for this month’s project mentions the need for “the right tool for the right job”. I loved these tools and am so excited to share them with you – the Hex N More* ruler and the Sidekick* ruler by Jaybird Quilts.
Years ago I made the above quilt, Park Bench*. I always loved this one block (top left corner) and decided to go back to it. The piecing was so easy with these rulers. It is not often I want to revisit a block….
I would make the inner blades pink/red and the other blades yellow/gold. A multi colored batik would finish the hexagon and black would be my background. This was helpful as the collection I had was in strips so it was already prepped for the first stage of cutting.
I cut pieces according to the pattern, using the Hex N More and Sidekick rulers and the pattern. Now, some things are easier than others, and I could easily cut the additional black triangles with the Hex N More ruler, but not the filler pieces for the center and sides. I realized that I could use 1 o 2 strips cut at 8 1/2″ to do the fillers and it all worked. Did you hear that sigh of relief?
So I made a plan in Electric Quilt 8. But it evolved as, all quilts do. You will see above a couple of iterations of the quilting. There were also borders, at one point, but it was going to get much bigger than I wanted, so I eliminated them.
The final quilting plan came together. I didn’t really want to fuss so much in the center and decided following a hexagon would be perfect, and outside straight lines would also work.
All of this would be done during meal prep on Wednesday and Thursday. Yup it will be finished by the time you read this! I finished the pie and the major quilting around 7 pm on Wednesday.
I also wanted to share with you this stencil. I made it! I used my Brother Scan N Cut to do it. I was able to pick up my ScanNCut* at a reduced price this summer and boy am I glad I did! I have used it to cut out letters/shapes – so fast and accurate. I found a video on how to do make a quilting stencil and boy was I glad I made it. As I started quilting,
I also wrote the path I would use and which way I wanted the stencil to face as I quilted around the quilt (once was right in the center triangles and left in the outside). I used an Aurifil 28wt in Pink and Beige in the bobbin to quilt the quilt. There is some quilting in the ditch in the hexagons, too, and some black in the center hexagon and outside triangles.
Just for fun, I thought I’d list some of the other tools used in the project:
Olfa Rotary Cutter & Mat #olfacreates
Bernina 440 QE Sewing Machine #Bernina
Schmetz Topstich needles #Scmetz
Hobbs 80/20 Black Batting #hobbsbatting
Aurifil for 50 wt white for piecing, 28 wt #2479, #2310. #aurifil
505 Spray Baste #505Spray
Oliso Iron* #oliso
Quilt Stats:
52″ x 60″
Hexagon Block from Park Bench by Jaybird Quilts
Island Batik Carribean BreezeCollection and Black
Aurifil #2479, #2000 and #2310 in 28 wt, white #2021 in 50 wt.
Mettler #1282 in 5o wt for the quilting in the black
Hobbs 80/20 black batting
Join in the linky party for the TGIFF! Remember to link to this blog, too if you have a chance.
Coming Up on the Blog
Barn Quilt BOM on 12/4
Awesome Ocean SAL on 12/7
Island Batik Ambassador 3D Challenge
End of the Year Wrap!
Linking up:
Free Motion Quilting Mavericks
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Finish
Finish or Not Friday
Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup
Friday Foto Fun
Put Your Foot Down
What I Made Monday
2019 FAL Q 4
Hi Kathleen, what a great way to quilt your lovely quilt. It looks great! Please consider linking up to Free Motion Mavericks this week with Muv.
Thank and I did link up! I’ll try to keep you on the list of linky parties!
Pretty fabrics, love the pattern and the quilting design too!
Thank you!
Pretty! I love how the bright colors pop against the dark background! The quilting in contrasting thread is lovely! This is bright and fun.
Thanks, Emily. I am very pleased out how it turned out…maybe some pictures in the wild, but I was rushing to finish everything yesterday – the quilt and the turkey!
Beautiful quilt, Kathleen! I love the quilting, too!
Its very pretty! the colors pop and make me wish for summer!!
Thanks, Alycia. They really are terrific colors and very summery.
Awesome quilt, and a fantastic job coordinating the quilting!
Thank you, Susan. I enjoyed quilting this one!
Those points are perfect. Wonderful job and quilt
Thanks, Barb. The rulers are fab for this!
Love your Tool Time finish!
Thanks, I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.
Hi Kathleen! This turned out just as well as your first quilt. And your quilting choice – woot woot. Thanks for sharing your quilting path – it really helps me a lot to see how others chose and then quilt their quilts. That pie looks delicious!! ~smile~ Roseanne
Thanks, Roseanne. I have to say I may have quilted it differently on the frame, but I wasn’t going to be near it until today. I think it wound up being a great plan for this quilt. The pie was good, my son has the remainders – a good thing!
Great quilt! I love those rulers.
They are terrific aren’t they – really make the blocks so simple to put together!
Great quilt and I love the bold quilting thread and quilting.
It really called for the bold thread! It’s nice to base a quilt on a pattern but figuring out some of the fillers was a good challenge.
The is a great post and even better finish. I’ve come to admire quilts using black as the background fabric. I love the way you chose to quilt it too. Thank you for linking up to Put your foot down.
The black is fun and with the black batting a real charm. I never would have gone out of the way to get it but love that we got it as ambassadors.
I just love this quilt, and isn’t it the coolest (great minds of course!) that we both used the same rulers without even realizing it! I love how you’ve quilted it, and bonus for the Scan n Cut stencil-making ability. Did you use chalk to mark the lines or a pounce? I have a Bohin fine pencil that is pretty good on black, but I do love the Clover wheelie chalk markers. You’ve made me contemplate my binding again…always so many choices! Just like figuring out which tool to feature. I was going to use my purple, but I’d also considered using some of the 2.5″ strips as a rainbow binding. Yours looks wonderful. Sorry it’s taken me so long to get over here; no, my own November project is not quite done but it will be today.
Not to worry, the time gets away from us! I thought I would have mine ready for the end of the blog hop, when the social media stuff calms down, but I didn’t do that. Using the strips was just so easy – I highly recommend it. For this quilt I used the chalk wheel, as it was easiest to mark as i went along. I wasn’t ready to mark before sandwiching so that was perfect.
First and foremost, your quilt is gorgeous, Kathleen. But when I got to the part where you showed the quilting stencil you made with your Brother Scan N Cut, my jaw dropped open!! Can you please do a blog post explaining how you did that? I’ve not seen any reason to buy one of those cutting machines until now, but I’ve been doodling some feather motifs for an upcoming quilt that I feel like I MIGHT be able to quilt, only if I can mark them on my quilt ahead of time and have lines to follow. Please share your process!
Oh gosh Kathleen, I love those blocks. So bright and neat points. Beautiful quilting and love the scrappy binding.
I have just acquired a sidekick ruler and I am so very tempted to try this block.
Hello Kathleen,
What a great quilt, so colourful and cheerful. Love the scrappy binding! There is something very quilty about that pie, too.
Thank you for linking up with Free Motion Mavericks,
Love, Muv