Thursday, February 22, 2018

Amish Mini Love - Island Batik Ambassador - Project #2



Island Batik Ambassadors had two assignments our first month (Island Batik provided the fabrics for this mini quilt).  Minis area so much fun - they are fast.   You can hang them or use them on a table as an accent.  Having just downsized to an apartment, I have a little more wall space!  So some of my minis are hanging on a closet door and some hanging on sides of my storage unit.   The requirements were fairly simple.  Less than 24" on a side, use any fabric except our surprise fabric, and any design and post any day.

Today’s mini is an adaptation of an Amish Hex sign.  I grew up in Reading, Pennsylvania where there are many Amish and Mennonite communities.  I loved seeing the hex signs, which are traditionally a sign of welcome and many had hearts on them.  I haven't always loved the colors, so I thought why not do it my own way.  Hearts - mini love - batiks - my home town melded into this little quilt.

I did a little work in EQ8 to see what I could do.  Two problems arose - time and not enough of the background to make larger pieces.  What to do….  AH - make a drunkards path to get the circle - which could use the fabric I choose.  Furthermore, I could solve problem two by  hand-piece while waiting for furniture fabricators to finish up a job.  Brilliant!  

Hand pieceing while waiting
The rest was easy.  I did do machine appliqué as my quilting - again a time saver for this project. 
A mini tutorial:

1.  Make a 4 Drunkard's Path Blocks (size was 6 1/2" unfinished)
2.  Sew blocks together to make a circle or use this method if you have more fabric
3.  Iron fusible web - per instructions - to fabric for points, hearts, and petals
4.  Cut out shapes
5. Iron shapes to background (for a limited time you can download the shapes here)




6.  Sandwich quilt (quilting will be done as you finish the edges)
7.  Use your choice of finishing for raw edge applique


8.  Bind and label
Up next for Island Batik projects:  A new technique for me and a rep sample of our secret fabric. 

Other quilting:
  • Quilt and bind Fancy Forrest by end of February
  • Bind Squiggles during week of March 5
  • Plan March One Monthly Goal project 
  • Design a few more quilts
Linking up with:  Let's Bee Social
                             Sew can She Show Off Saturday
Happy quilting.