It’s done…. my dragonfly/garden/lattice Great Outdoors Island Batik quilt is done and is ready for show and tell tomorrow. Just in time!
Tomorrow is my turn on the Island Batik Ambassadors blog hop and my job is to showcase the freshly released Victoria and Albert batik collection. I am sharing the day with Barb from Bejeweled Quilts, who was allocated the same fabric line as me. I can’t wait to see what Barb has done with them. And I can’t wait to see you back here! Because……
I have a problem to solve and fabric to give away. All you have to do to try to win the fabric is tell me what I should name the new quilt after I show it to you tomorrow. My daughter, the quilt’s recipient, will pick her favourite name from your suggestions and the winner will receive a taste of the Victoria and Albert fabric line as a reward. And there will be a runner-up fabric prize as well. International entries welcome……. I shall tell you all about it tomorrow, but there is some intelligence you can gather from an earlier progress report if you’d like to get a head-start.
In the meantime… do you like my finished dragonfly?
Do you remember, last week……
How I told you all about my new favourite method for marking out quilting motifs that need to be repeated and accurate? And how I had some dragonflies that looked like this?
Well, thankfully everything went to plan and they now look like this…. with no un-sewing involved 🙂
The new marking method worked a treat. If I didn’t like the alignment of the wings I just rubbed them out and marked them again.
I thought that since last week’s colours were called Dragonfly Dance, then with the sparkle added now, this weeks colours must be Dragonfly Disco. The wings are free-motion machine embroidered with Madeira Astro 3 40wt metallic thread. The colours in this variegated thread go perfectly with the Victoria and Albert palette.
Always messing with a design, even when it’s my own….
In hindsight, I am wondering whether I should have put some fabric in behind the wings…. either a less busy batik from the Victoria and Albert collection, or some organza……… yup, organza! I seem to be using this stuff nearly as often as Elmer’s washable school glue in my quilting lately. And that’s pretty often!
Anyway, I didn’t think to put anything in behind the wings, obviously. And up close they look really lovely regardless. Main thing is, my daughter is happy, so they are fine. My only concern is perhaps they get a little lost in the background fabric from a middle distance. The green fabric is busier than the plain fabrics I usually quilt dragonflies onto. I do see an opportunity here to experiment a little 🙂 …. perhaps a pillow to go with my daughter’s new quilt? Or some more mug rugs. Anyone interested in a dragonfly mug rug giveaway if I make some from trial pieces? Not this week though, I need a rest!
And for now, with my only-finished-this-morning quilt reserved for tomorrow’s post, I have nothing more to show you. So, shall we just move onto our features from last week’s linky party? Yes, totally, I agree.
Last week at the Clever Chameleon’s linky party there was something for everyone! But especially for those people who like it hot!
First cab off the rank last Tuesday was Jean of All Points of the Compass. I will confess to loving Jean’s thoughtful, interesting blog and her Kiwi humour as well as her delightful sewing. Jean shared her red skull quilt this week in her trademark delightful manner complete with some underworld mythology tidbits.
Next iteration of this quilt, Jean, I want to see some conductive thread and red LED eyes……..lol, how awesome would that be! Thanks for sharing with us Jean!
On to something only nearly as hot as the underworld……. Watermelon weather!
Come January, I will most certainly want one of these table runners for my summer picnic table!! Last week Susan at Quilt Fabrication shared her latest pattern, cleverly called “Whatamelon”. Susan also shared a sweet tip on how to get all those seeds cut out quickly so you can get on with the sewing before the appliqué preparation gives you the pip. Tee hee.
And to cap off our mini-theme of hot quilts I want to show you Wendy’s version of the Wayward Transparency quilt. Wendy blogs at Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life and has called her latest stunner “Solar Flare”. I reckon you could get toasty just looking at this quilt……. I also think that Wendy’s next quilt will have to be aurora-themed, as that’s what happens after a great solar flare! 🙂 Fabulous Wendy, thanks for sharing!
Head on over and find out more about each of these quilts in their respective original blog posts.
My sincerest thanks to everyone who linked up last week. If you were featured you can find a badge of honour here.
And now, your invitation to link up to the Chameleon’s Linky Party and show us your projects……
What are you working on, or have recently finished in your sewing room? Link up a blog post, a Flicker pic, an IG post or simply a photo from your computer. See if you can get the Chameleon to turn quilted with happiness. We’d love to see your quilting colours.
Guidelines (more detail here):
- Link up your latest or recent quilt excitement. All construction stages welcome.
- You have 100 characters in the link description…. tell us who you are and what your fantastic project is.
- URLs are not necessary to link up…. non-bloggers 100% welcome! If you don’t have a URL, simply link up with just a photo.
- Do it now……. before you forget!
[inlinkz_linkup id=793919 mode=1]
And don’t forget to visit all the other Great Outdoors blog hop posts this week, showing more of the latest Island Batik fabric collections.
You can find the whole schedule for the blog hop here on the Island Batik blog, but here are the participants for the week just started (with the fabric collections in bold):
Week 2 of the Island Batik Great Outdoors Blog Hop
Monday, August 13 – Safari
Sew Incredibly Crazy, SweetGrass Designs
Tuesday, August 14 – Spring Blossoms
Mary Mack Made Mine, If These Threads Could Talk
Wednesday, August 15 – Victoria and Albert
Bejeweled Quilts, Clever Chameleon
Thursday, August 16 – Wild Things
Freemotion by the River, Kauffman Designs
Friday, August 17 – Petting Zoo
Den Syende Himmel, Sarah Goer Quilts
Come join me tomorrow for my full quilt reveal and the fabric giveaway.
See you then!
Conductive thread, I admit, I had to Google that. Maybe metallic might do, but the eyes, can I get some that will sparkle? Or turn on when touched? I will research them some more. Your dragonflies, beautiful. Waiting till tomorrow to see it all done. So far, I am SO FAR behind with the latest bear, have just printed out his pattern and found some fabric, guessing I might just sneak home at the last minute. Thanks so much for including ” Me and my Skull” in your post today.
Oh! Aurora-themed — I might have to think on that one, since the Northern Lights (as we call them) are a favorite thing of mine. I do favor your little dragonflies too, and your method is so clever! Thanks for the highlight, and I can’t wait to see your quilt tomorrow!
Hi Dione,
Love the dragonflies, and looking forward to seeing the whole quilt tomorrow. I get what you’re saying about the organza, but sometimes it can make things too fussy, and you don’t always notice the wings until close enough. It’s the detail that made them look just right. As for the template you made – brilliant idea, and I just got an email from my sewing machine store that they are getting the new model in September, so it is my hint for my birthday! Thanks to you! Looking forward to how you use it next . . . Take good care.
Hi Dione! I love, love, LOVE how your dragonflies turned out. And that was just brilliant cutting the template with your new gadget. I’m going to try to come up with a fabulous name for tomorrow’s quilt. It will be fun to see what everyone comes up with! Happy Tuesday! ~smile~ Roseanne
A Trellis for my Damselflies (except it looks like selfies so I’ll add a dash) A Trellis for my Damsel-flies.
But if she picks it she must pick another. Love the adventures you are recording. There is almost always something in each of your entries that makes me smile. I kind of like the lacy-ness of the wings and now you get to experiment with more techniques!
I can’t wait to see the whole quilt tomorrow! Those fabrics are beautiful. I love the little detail of the dragon fly wings.
Very nice, the wings are perfect. I’m certain they dance right off the fabric when viewed as a whole. Sometimes one can add too much detail and adding organza might be one of these instances. IMO of course. Waiting anxiously for the reveal and thank you for the linky party. Now off to view coulour inspiration.
Dione, I love your dragonflies. From where I’m sitting the wings stand out really well. I do like the way you experiment and think outside the square, so it would be really good to see the comparison with organza under the thread.