The June challenge for the 2018 Island Batik Ambassadors is to make a Modern-style quilt. 
This is proving to be a bigger challenge for some of us than for others. Personally, I consider my project, The Highland 9-Patch, a “splendid failure.”
You see, I had purchased a copy of fellow ambassador Carole Lyles Shaw’s book Madly Modern Quilts. I’ve always loved the 9-Patch, so her “Fractured Disappearing 9-Patch” project really appealed to me. Check Carole’s blog post and you’ll see how she works her magic.
It seemed simple enough… make a 9-patch, slice it up, sew it back together, slice it again, insert a strip, and voila! Nope. Didn’t happen. My muse likes to know where a pattern is going before we begin construction, and having just spent months trying to work through an improvisational project, he would not cooperate. So we compromised, my muse and I, and came up with the Highland 9-Patch. It’s still sliced and spliced, but looks nothing like Carole’s.
I did begin with a 9-Patch. Mine has an 8″ square of navy blue in the center, 9″ squares of a bright green in the corners, and the side “squares” are actually 8″ x 9″.
Then I added a 2″ border all around the block.
Next, I sliced the block vertically 2.5″ outside the center seam on both sides of the center squares…
…and spliced in a 1″ strip of navy blue.
Then I did the same thing, slicing and splicing in 1″ horizontal strips.
After that, it was a simple matter to add wide borders of the background fabric. My friend Kathy at the Creative Needle quilted it in an all-over leafy pattern, and I bound it in navy.
The Highland 9-Patch is 56″ x 72″, so it’s a nice lap-size quilt.
I began quilting in the early 1970’s, so I have pretty much seen it all, as quilting has developed from a scrap craft revival to a celebrated artistic genre, from Grandma’s hand-quilting frame to computerized longarm quilting machines in nearly every quilter’s studio. I have to admit, I dismissed the Modern Quilting Movement early on as a “fad”, but I’ve always loved big, bold, graphic art, and since it seems Modern Quilting is here to stay, I’m in!
The fabrics used in my Highland 9-Patch are from Island Batik. Thread was provided by Aurifil, and the batting by Hobbs.
Check out the Modern Quilts my fellow Island Batik Ambassadors are making:
Quilting Affection Designs
Adventerous Applique and Quilting
Actually, this post is on time. It’s still May, and this month’s 
To make the Time Shift pattern, I started with four 4.5″ squares each of blue, green and cream Island Batik fabrics.
Cut each square diagonally twice, to make four triangles from each square.
Lay the Tucker Trimmer on your square, with the solid diagonal line along the SW-NE seam line. I’m cutting 3.5″ QSTs, so you’ll notice I have the dashed diagonal line labeled “3-1/2″ lined up with the NW-SE seam line.
Now rotate the QST, and lay the tool down again, aligning the same diagonal lines with your seam lines.
You now have a perfect 3.5″ QST, with no dogears to trim later!
Lay your QSTs out as shown. Sew into three rows, then sew the rows together into a block.
For the back, I cut two 12″ x 16.5″ rectangles of the cream fabric. I hemmed on long edge of each rectangle, the pinned them wrong-sides-together, to the pillow top, so that the hemmed edged overlapped. I sewed all the way around the perimeter of the top, then trimmed the corners and turned it right-side out and stuffed the pillow form inside.
In the case of this 45″x 54″ quilt/wallhanging I designed for Island Batik’s “Looking Back” challenge, the title is sadly ironic.
For the last week of her earthly life, I slept in a recliner next to Mom’s bed at Peace Hospice in Great Falls. One night I dreamt of her passing from this world into the next, and into the welcoming arms of my grandparents and a host of friends and family members who have gone before.
“Mini Love” is the theme for my second project as an ambassador for Island Batiks Fabric. For this project, I wanted to make a mini quilt, which is usually defined for competition purposes, as a scale model version of a full-size quilt pattern, usually a scale of 1/4″ = 1″. That means a miniature version of a 12″ traditional quilt block would be just 3″ square.
For my mini quilt, I chose a version of the Ohio Star, and chose to celebrate the Irish portion of my DNA by using greens and oranges from the “Stash Builder” collection of 5″ strips that was included in the lovely box of fabrics that Island Batiks sent me. I’m using Aurifil 50-wt thread, courtesy of the company, and Heirloom batting provided by Hobbs.
I have a friend who likes to count the number of pieces in a block, and she would be quick to point out that there are 29 pieces in each of these mini Ohio Star blocks. I prefer to think in terms of units. Each block has four quarter-square triangles, and four half-square triangle units with a little accent corner. Plus, of course, the center square. It seems not quite so intimidating. Still- that’s a lot of pieces.
There are nine blocks in this quilt. When I have blocks with those accent corners, I will usually carry that out into the border. To do this for this mini quilt, I cut sixteen 3.5″ squares. I added orange on two corners of twelve of the squares, and one orange corner on the remaining four.
It took me a while to decide how to quilt this little gem. I decided to trace around the octagons in each block, and crosshatch the border, using the star tips as my starting points. To keep my lines straight, I used a square ruler, with the diagonal line placed along the border seam, drew a very (very) light line with a #4 drafting pencil.
You learn something new everyday.
Setting aside the larger triangles, I sewed six of each of these pieced units.
Then, those three units are stitched to the multicolored triangles to make six matching triangle segments.
Now you can sew the segments together. Sew two half-hexagons, with three segments in each one, then sew the halves together to complete your hexagon. At this point, it measures 8.5″ top to bottom.
I quilted 1/8th inch around the outside of the lighter pink center star, and the larger multi-color star, then inside the beige and green diamonds on the outer edge of the mat. I also decided to go back and quilt inside the center star.
I used a 2″ folded binding in the beige and green print to finish my Galentine’s Day mug rug.
For a 10″ (finished size) block, you will need:
For a 10″ (finished size) block, you will need:
Step 1: Use the Stitch-and-Flip method to put colored corners on lower right corner of half of your background rectangles, and on the lower left corner of the rest.
I have a large zip-lock plastic bag for each project. On it, I write the title of the quilt, and the number of blocks I need to make the quilt. I also keep a running tally of how many blocks I have completed for that quilt.
I am participating in the “Best of 2017” link party, hosted by 
May 3 – 
August 9 – 
September 14 – 
June 4 – 
For each Wild Goose Chase block, you will need:
Step 1 is to make sixteen Flying Geese units, using the white squares and print rectangles. I used the same Stitch-n-Flip method as in the 
Step 2 is to sew the Flying Geese units together. I sewed my green geese into pairs, and sewed the red geese into strips of four.
Step 3 is to sew three rows.
Step 4 is to sew the three rows together to complete your Wild Goose Chase block.
Now, who wants a free copy of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, vol. 16? Leave a comment below, and you’ll be entered into a random drawing, which will take place Sunday evening, Nov. 19.
