Island Batik Adventurous Applique Blog Hop – September 2024

For September 2024, the Island Batik Ambassadors are doing a Adventurous Applique Blog Hop with Aurifil Thread!!

Our task was to do a raw edge applique and finish it with more of a thread painting or fun stitching around the edge of the applique vs a traditional type of applique treatment.

I received the Playful Posies fabric line by Designer Kathy Engle. This will ship to shops this month. It really is gorgeous!!!

A few years ago, I learned a applique technique that I could do right on the longarm, so that is what came to mind for this project. I knew it would compliment the fabric and thread, all at the same time. I had beautiful fabrics and thread to work with!!!

First, I designed what I was thinking about to see if it would work. I used my Accuquilt and the orange peel die to create petals of the flowers. I had a fun time playing around with these.

I did use a fusible webbing on the underside of the petals, as I knew I needed them to adhere to the backing, so that I could take the entire quilt to my longarm and complete all of the stitching there. The fusible webbing that I decided to use was Flexifuse. This is a paper backed light weight fusible web. This was my first time using this and I absolutely loved it!!

My first challenge was to group the fabrics into groups of two, as I knew I wanted each flower to have two different colored petals. The remaining fabrics from the collection were used for the centers of the flowers.

I chose Island Batik Foundations fabric called Ghost, for the background fabric. Once I had the flowers arranged and fused (my Oliso iron worked great for this!!) to the backing fabric, I sewed the blocks all together to make the quilt. My Schmetz needles worked great for the piecing section of this quilt!!

I decided to leave the center block open, as I had an idea to showcase the thread some more.

I loaded the quilt onto my longarm. I used Hobbs Tuscany Collection.

My technique for securing the applique down was kind of a scribbling circular motion. I did all of this on my Handi Quilter Amara.

I did switch out Aurifil thread colors, to match each flower. I was so thrilled with how it worked out!!

I left an empty spot in the middle so that I could showcase the Aurifil thread some more than just the applique stitching. I am typically a free motion quilter, but decided that I needed to use a design in my computerized program (ProStitcher) for this center block. I had this idea that I would start with one size of the design and use one thread. Then I would switch to another thread, increase the size of the design by about an inch, and stitch it out again. I did this with each color thread, increasing the size of the design as I switched out thread. I love how it turned out.

Here is a video on the entire quilting process!! Click here!!

All in all, I am loving how this quilt turned out. I loved the fabric and I love the quilt!!

GIVEAWAY!!!!!

I am having a giveaway!!! I am giving away an entire Fat Quarter Stack of this fabric line!!! Head over to my Facebook page or my Instagram Page to enter to win. Winner will be chosen on September 16, 2024. USA addresses only due to shipping costs.

Don’t forget to head over to the Island Batik blog for a chance to win a prize from them also!!!

Thanks for following along!! If you would like to see the other Ambassador projects, here are the links to their blogs.

WEEK 1

September 3:

• Mania Hatziioannidi, Mania for Quilts
• Sarah Pitcher, Pitcher’s Boutique LLC

September 4:

• Connie Kauffman, Kauffman Designs
• Denise Looney, Quiltery

September 5:

• Connie Kresin Campbell, Freemotion by the River
• Brittany Fisher, Bobbin with Brittany
• Lana Russel, LanaQuilts

September 6:

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 1 and Giveaway

WEEK 2

September 9:

• Brenda Alburl, Songbird Designs
• Lisa Pickering, Lisa’s Quilting Passion

September 10:

• Megan Best, BestQuilter
• Gail Sheppard, Quilting Gail

September 11:

• Kim Jamieson-Hirst, Chatterbox Quilts
• Jane Hauprich, Stitch by Stitch Custom Quilting

September 12:

• Carol Stanek, Stitch With Color
• Julia Schweri, Inflorescence Designs
• Victoria Johnson, Forever Quilting For You

September 13:

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 2 and Giveaway

WEEK 3

September 16:

• Suzy Webster, Websterquilt
• Jennifer Thomas, Curlicue Creations

September 17:

• Preeti Harris, Sew Preeti Quilts
• Emily Leachman, The Darling Dogwood
• Leah Malasky, Quilted Delights

September 18:

• Sandra Starley, Textile Time Travels
• Susan Deshensky, Lady Blue Quilt Studio

September 19:

• Pamela Boatright, PamelaQuilts
• Renee Atkinson, Pink Tulip Quilting
• Maryellen McAuliffe, Mary Mack Made Mine

I want to thank the following companies for contributing to making this quilt: Island Batik, Hobbs Batting, Aurifil Thread, Schmetz Needles, and Oliso.