Recap of Week Two of the Tool Craze Blog Hop and Giveaway!

In Ambassador Feature, Ambassadors, Blog Hop, Challenges, Content, Designer Feature, Events, Fabric Collections, Giveaways, Images, Inspiration, Interviews, Island Batik Updates, New Fabric Features, Programs, Projects, Promotions + Giveaways

Posted May 12, 2023

Hello, fellow quilters!

We’ve come to the end of another exciting week of the Island Batik Tool Craze Blog Hop, and it was truly remarkable! Our skilled Ambassadors had a great time exploring the creative possibilities with tools from Deb Tucker’s Studio 180 Design. They impressed us once again with their stunning quilts, each one more inventive and vibrant than the previous. Sadly, the Blog Hop is ending next week, but we still look forward to the striking creations it will bring! So, get your fabric, thread, and sewing machines ready!

If a specific collection, featured during the Tool Craze Blog Hop is calling your name, check your local quilt shops this month – they might already have it in stock! To see what quilt shops carry Island Batik in your area, please visit our store locator and type in your zip code.

Don’t fret if you missed any of the quilts showcased during this week; we’ve got you covered with a brief recap! Under each quilt image you will see a note on the Studio 180 Design tool used as well as direct links to learn more about the designer’s process. Additionally, some of the Ambassadors are doing bonus giveaways, so make sure to check them all out!

This week’s projects featured the following Island Batik collections:

Maple Island by Kathy Engle

Sandalwood designed for Kari Nichols at Quilting Renditions by Kathy Engle

Sea Cookies by Kate Colleran Designs

Sorbet by Claudia Pfeil

Walking Through the Woods runner by Sandra Starley, Textile Time Travels + BONUS GIVEAWAY, made with the Four Patch Square Up tool

Island Pop runner by Reed Johnson, Blue Bear Quilts, made with the Corner Pop tool

Quilt by Gail Sheppard, Quilting Gail, made with the Wedge Star tool

Star Shadows by Lana Russel, Lana Quilts, made with the Wing Clipper I and Quilter’s Magic Wand tools

Quilt by Anorina Morris, Samelia’s Mum, made with the Square Squared tool

Shore Break by Claudia Porter, Create with Claudia, made with the Split Rects tool

Sea Cookie Sparkle by Emily Leachman, The Darling Dogwood, made with the Corner Pop III and Diamond Rects tools

Quilt by Brenda Alburl, Songbird Designs, made with the Corner Pop tool

Brilliant Bijou by Jennifer Thomas, Curlicue Creations + BONUS GIVEAWAY, made with the Diamond Rects tool

We’re really hoping that after seeing these stunning quilts, you will feel inclined to give Studio 180 Design tools a try! But we get it – sometimes we need an extra push! So, we wanted to let you know about our FINAL giveaway for next week’s highlighted collections. Two lucky winners will each get one of the two Fat Quarter bundles, each featuring a complete set of new Island Batik collections – Summer Twilight by Tamarinis or Sunny Meadow by Kathy Engle. Sound exciting? We think so too!

To enter for your chance to win one of these these stunning batik bundles, please follow the easy-to-use prompts on Rafflecopter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway ends on May, 19th at 11:59 pm PDT. Two random winners will be notified by email on May, 20th and announced on our Facebook page on May, 23rd. If the winners do not respond within the first three days after being notified, two new random winners will be chosen. Please check your spam folders!

There is still time to get your last minute entry in for the chance to win a Fat Quarter bundle of Sea Cookies or Sorbet collections by visiting our previous post!

Make sure to follow Island Batik on Facebook and Instagram, so that you always stay updated on the beautiful quilts and home decor items from the talented Island Batik Ambassadors and Designers:

Facebook: Island Batik

Instagram: @island_batik

Check our social media pages on Monday for more projects from Island Batik Ambassadors on the Final Week of the Tool Craze Blog Hop!

There Are 31 Comments

I designed a Little Women quilt for my daughter, which proved very challenging. I used a variety of techniques, including embroidery, applique, 3 dimensional embroidery, quilt as you go. I learned so much in all of those techniques, including what works, and how to do somethings differently. So much fun.

One of the most challenging projects I’ve done was a table topper by Quiltworkz. I decided to quilt it with feathers, which was good practice for then quilting feathers on a queen size quilt!

Thinking a longarm was the solution to getting more quilts done. I rented one locally at a cheap rate, and used it 5 times, 7 hours each, improved each time. HOWEVER, I had just got the Janome M7 and in comparison with same time on each…I was QUICKER on the M7! I was shocked. So maybe what’s good for one quilter is not the solution for another.

I recently completed the Alaska quilt with a focus group in my quilt guild. So much to be challenged by and so much to learn! Learning how to use a “tool” correctly was not only eye opening but a game changer. I certainly understand why they cost as much as they do!

I love these gorgeous fabrics and the projects. I’ve never sewn with batiks but I’m anxious to try!

One challenging project I worked on recently was Sewcialites block of the week. Each block was a different skill level and I learned a ton of new techniques. I’m excited to put all of the blocks together!

My first and only project with curves was a Double Wedding Ring. This one was very hard for me. I didn’t know how to sew the curves. I would sew on it awhile and then put it away. It took me seven years to complete, but I am so glad I did. It is very beautiful and I love it so much.

I wanted to make a postage stamp quilt with my scraps… In an Easter egg shape…. well still working on it and my sister is pitching in to help me with the shaping and smaller pieces that I have worked w/ before. It is a real challenge but we will get it done! All scraps of island batik fabrics!

Beautiful quilts and fabrics. I can’t decide which I like the best! I think I’ll use 1 of the table runner patterns.

I was making half rectangle blocks. I measures, pressed and trimmed dog ears. I was ready to sew them to the rest of the block when I realized that they were a tad too small. Trouble is, you can’t make seam narrower when you have trimmed dog ears. Moral, measure more than once before trimming when tired, AND don’t cut anything, anything!, late at night!!!

I had some challenges on a quilt recently that were unrelated to the quilt pattern itself, which was not very intense, but were related to some physical challenges which have been plaguing me for months. When I had finally nearly reached the finish line–putting on the final border, I was incredibly dismayed to see tiny tucks. No!! I was so tempted to rip that border off, slap a new border on without measuring it, ensuring that it would eliminate tucks because it would be as long as it needed to be. But I pulled myself together, summoned my quilter’s pride, measured the quilt again, three times, put the border back on, and tried to “ease” the tucks in. In the end, it came out okay. With the help of my incredible longarmer I am sure all will be well. The challenge was more to me: to do things right, to not lose my temper or grow discouraged, to not abandon my standards. I feel good about how I met that challenge. When I am donating the troublesome baby quilt, I’ll be glad to see it go, but not because I am ashamed of its creation story.

I try to do something that challenges me for the blog hops. I like creating some new designs and to learn something new, so that my skills grow with each project. I’ve had a few times when I forgot to double check directions, cut something, and then had to come up with an alternate idea for the fabric, or blocks. I have one in time out until I figure it out, lol. Otherwise, I try to push forward and keep learning. Okay, maybe more than one in time out, lol.

I made a Twisted Log Cabin Quilt. It was truly difficult. Turned out to be my husband’s favorite quilt. It hangs on the wall in his office. Never, never again.

I recently made a lone star mini quilt with one inch strips. I got a lot of practice with precise cuts, accurate piecing and lots of pinning to match all the points. Definitely a challenge for me.

These Batik fabrics are luscious. I am partial to anything blue. I am mostly challenged when using colors I am not attracted to such as browns, oranges and reds. I’ve completed some quilts in these warm colors and am proud of my courage to step outside the box.

Learning to sew curves was always on my list to challenge myself. I watched a few well-made video tutorials and started cutting, pinning and sewing! Yes, lots of wonkiness occurred, but to my delight, I continued on to make a few Drunkards Path projects and they are among my favorites! We can do hard things!

I picked Tennessee Waltz as my first quilt. You learn by pushing yourself.

I once made a mystery quilt and it was a challenge for me because even the very first step (picking fabrics) was something I had never done without knowing what the final product would look like. I was thankful that the local quilt shop owners helped me choose some great coordinating fabrics and the quilt turned out well! Someday maybe I will try another one!

I just recently finished custom quilting a king size quilt on my domestic machine,…it took forever. I reminded myself that I just needed to do a little at a time…just like eating an elephant! I just love it, it turned out so very lovely!!

I worked on a quilt that was a block a month that I could not get the blocks to consistently turn out the right size. I could certainly have used some Studio 180 tools. Love all the quilts so far.

Learning to piece curves has been a challenge for me, still working on getting the wonkie’s out.

I made a beautiful hand turned appliqué quilt that took much too long to finish in between other quilted projects… but it is my pride and joy!!

I finished off two quilted projects in large quilting hoops. It was challenging figuring out the mount in the hoop so they would be tidy, tight but not permanent .

I belonged to a group that did block swaps. One of the swaps was for solid color blocks with black background fabric. Trying to figure out a layout with the blocks was a challenge. I had to work to get the colors evenly through the top as well as figure out sashing and cornerstones. It took a while, and I made more blocks to make it bigger, but it was a good learning experience.

One of the most challenging quilts I have made was the Dear Jane quilt it really wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be though and I ended making 2!! Both hand pieced and I hand quilted both

I was making a baby quilt for a friend & ofc, i pick patterns based on possibilities. This one required making templates & i didn’t factor in the width of the lines into the template. so, all the pieces were just a bit on the small side. The challenge then was getting the end block the correct size, with the pieces not quite the right size. i ended up decreasing the seam allowance to make it work,

One of my most challenging quilt projects I made was many years ago when I first started quilting. I cut out all the pieces by hand, sandwiched them with the leg from a nylon stocking (that’s all I could afford for batting-how I got enough to use is a story itself), tied with set with yarn, machine stitched rows of them together on the front and hand stitched them together on the back. I was 16 at the time. It was slow going but I finished it and used it for many years. Now, I wish I had that quilt yet rather than the dollar I got for it years later at my yard sale.

My most challenging quilt – started 10 years ago! I am still working at it. It is a red and white pineapple quilt. Washed and starched fabric. Cut pieces- which took forever. I have three rows left.
The fabric has bubbles which you don’t see from a distance. The red is more raspberry. It reminds me of a raspberry pineapple drink.

Thank you for this beautiful blog hop! My most challenging quilt so far has been a 50 x 65″ landscape art quilt that hangs in a church sanctuary. I used lots of small batik pieces. After I hung it up, I wasn’t satisfied with it after looking at it from a distance. Many of the colors seemed to blend together and I wanted more sparkle and pop in places. So I took it down again and layered on more tiny pieces. It’s on the wall again and now I’m looking at it with thoughts like “It needs a sliver of yellow there . . . . .” It might undergo one more transformation. 🙂

One of my most challenging projects didn’t go quite the way I wanted it. After being a UFO for a long time I gave myself permission to change the focus from perfection to comfort and made it into a baby quilt to give away!

When my mother, sister and I were clearing out the linen closet at home as our mother was getting ready to move to a smaller place, we uncovered a stack of Dresden plate circles, with one sewn to a ten inch square of muslin. She said, “Oh, that’s the quilt my grandmother started in the early 1930s, and neither my mother nor I was interested in working on it, so it has just sat here.” I was interested, though. But wow! It was my first attempt at making a quilt, and I did a lot of hand sewing, but it was very enjoyable to get to when I had the time. I quilted each plate section by hand using a big embroidery hoop, sewed the top edges together with the machine, and hand-sewed all the backing pieces together. I figured there was no rush when it had been sitting in the closet for about 65 years! Although it took me a few years, I did find some fabrics that went with what was there (thank goodness for reproduction fabrics!) and it is now on our bed, keeping us and the cats warm.

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Recap of Week Two of the Tool Craze Blog Hop and Giveaway!