Reach for the Stars - June Island Batik Challenge

The fabrics for this project were given to me by Island Batik as part of their ambassador program.

Edited October 11, 2018 to say, the pattern for this quilt is now available! Get your copy in my Payhip or Etsy shop.

I'm sneaking in under the wire with this quilt, which has actually been finished for a full week. Getting pictures was nearly impossible though. It was the last week of school, so there were events 3 evenings, I was sick most of the week and the weather was not at all cooperating. I finally got the pictures this morning, despite the wind (thank you beach rocks for weighing down the edges!).

The June Island Batik ambassador challenge was to create a modern batik quilt, which "must incorporate one of the characteristics of modern quilts as defined by the Modern Quilt Guild (the use of bold colors and prints, high contrast and graphic areas of solid color, improvisational piecing, Minimalism, expansive negative space, alternate grid work)."

Here's my quilt, which I'm calling Reach for the Stars. There's lots of negative space and bold colours in there 😊

I designed this quilt during the most recent 30 Quilt Designs challenge with Sandra at Musings of a Menopausal Melon and I knew right away it had to go on the "make it soon" list. This is the second of my 30 designs from that challenge that I've made (the first one was my April IB challenge project) and I have a third well underway.

The background fabric is called Buttermilk and it's from Island Batik's Foundation Neutrals. I seriously wish I could have a whole bolt of it. It's such a gorgeous cream colour, just right for setting off the bright fabrics of the stars. The fabrics for the stars are all from the Elementz line. The Elementz fabrics have geometric prints in bright colours, giving them a fun, modern vibe.

I used Warm and Natural batting and Aurifil thread. I wasn't sure I'd have the right colours in my Aurifil stash, which still isn't very big, but I was pleasantly surprised to find exactly what I needed. I used 2311 for the background and 1231, 2530, 5006 and 4140 for the stars.

This quilt is a gift for my mother in law, who has often commented on how much she likes the detailed quilting I do, so I definitely wanted to do lots of fun quilting. All while I pieced the quilt, I kept thinking about how I'd quilt the negative space. I wanted it to be something pretty, but not too time consuming (so no flow quilting, lol) and I didn't want the quilt to end up really stiff (so not a lot of traveling back over the same lines). I finally settled on swirl hooks and tried to make myself stitch them big, with varying levels of success.

They ended up being consistently inconsistent in size, but at least some of them are big, lol. I still seem to default to tiny stitching if I'm not paying attention. I really love this design and I'm not sure why I don't think to use it more often.

In the Ohio stars, I quilted arcs from corner to corner, with the swirl hooks in the center.

In the friendship stars, I quilted these swirly flowers. I've only used these flowers once before, in my Happy Birthday banner quilt, and it was nice to use them again.

For the binding, I used this fabulous aqua from the Foundation Basics, and I really wish I had a bolt of this one too! Isn't it pretty? I love the way it frames the Buttermilk background of the quilt.

My in-laws are celebrating their 50th anniversary tomorrow, so we're giving them His and Hers quilts. This one is hers and my April IB challenge quilt will be his. I hope they both enjoy their new quilts.

As my contribution to the anniversary celebration, I made this cake using the topper from their wedding cake. I don't usually make fancy cakes like this, so I was a little nervous about how it would turn out.

Just ignore the mess in the background, lol 😊

My grandmother used to do wedding cakes and I remember sitting beside her while she made dozens of roses, sometimes plopping a newly formed one straight into my mouth. I still eat a little of the icing whenever I make a cake...old habits die hard! And yes, I did eat a rose, too 😊

I am working on the pattern for Reach for the Stars, which will be available sometimes over the summer. I'd love to have a couple of pattern testers, so if you're interested, just let me know!

Edited October 11, 2018 to say, the pattern is now available! Get your copy from my Payhip or Etsy shop.

I'm linking up with Sarah's Show Me Something with Stars party.

Being Ready

Devotion for the Week...

I love to bake. Breads, brownies, muffins, cakes and cookies are all fair game. Even the occaisional pie makes its way into my oven. Because the urge to bake can hit at any moment, there are some things I make sure to always have in the house. There's always at least one unopened bag of sugar so I can be sure I'll never run out. I buy the biggest bag of flour I can. Chocolate chips and vanilla are always in the cupboard and I make sure to keep baking soda, baking powder and brown sugar stocked. There's nothing worse than starting to bake something, only to realize I don't have enough of an ingredient.

Likewise, I love to be able to sew something from my stash, even if it's something I don't usually sew, like the tag blankets and fidget blankets I've made recently. That's why I keep random bits of ribbons, old buttons and other bits and pieces. You never know what will come in handy for some new project.

Whether baking or sewing, it feels good to be ready for whatever I want to make.

Isn't it interesting that even the Bible talks about being ready? "If someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way" (1 Peter 3:15, 16).

Always be ready.

First of all, I love that Peter assumes people will be curious about this hope we have. That means he's also assuming that we will seem different enough from other people that they will notice we have something they don't.

Then, when they do notice that we're a bit different, we should be ready to explain why. That means we should be able to explain what we believe. I believe that God loves His people. I believe that Jesus really lived, that He died on a cross to take away my sins and that He rose again. I believe that because of His death and resurrection, I have the hope of spending eternity with God in heaven. 

Sometimes, there will be more questions. Maybe people will ask why we believe. Maybe they'll ask if even their sins could be taken away. Or maybe they'll ask if God could still love them even after what they've done. Or they might ask why God allowed some awful thing to happen.

Whatever the questions, we should be ready to answer. Sometimes, unfortunately, the answer will simply be "I don't know," because sometimes we just can't know why things happen. But the more we know our Bibles, the more ready we'll be and the more questions we'll be able to answer.

It's not that we have to be experts or have advanced degrees in theology or anything. But if people are genuinely curious, wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to answer their questions and maybe help them understand how much God loves them?

Comment Problem Fix!

As many of you probably know, those of us who blog on Blogger have been experiencing a problem with comment notifications no longer being emailed, which has made it incredibly difficult to respond to comments. But there is finally a fix!!

On your blog dashboard, go to Settings and select Email.

Delete the email address you have listed in the Comment Notifications Email box and then click Save Settings. It's very important to remember to click Save Settings!

Then re-enter the email address into the Comment Notifications Email box and click Save Settings again. You'll get a confirmation email asking you to subscribe to get the comment notifications by email. Just click subscribe and you should be good to go.

I sent myself a test email right away and it worked! Insert happy dance!!

And just so we don't have a whole post with no pretty picture, here's a shot of some of the quilting I've been working on. It's finished now, so I just need to get the quilt washed and take pictures so I can finally share it 😊

I hope you're enjoying your weekend!