It's Never Too Early To Start Planning For The Holidays

This month's challenge as an Island Batik Ambassador challenged us to make end of the year projects or holiday projects in July. I made two wall hangings. For this challenge, I chose to use fabrics from the Foundations line, Farm Fresh and Vincent's Garden from Island Batik.

I had to think quite a bit about what I wanted to make because I didn't really have many traditional end of the year colors that one may think about such as reds, greens or blues. I had some blue, mostly oranges and a mix of other colors that didn't quite read end of the year to me but I was up for a new project. I put my thinking cap on, as they would say in school, and went to work by coming up with a design.

I'm a little untraditional myself so I figured, I could surely come up with something that would catch my eye and ignite my creativity. I decided on a play on words for a Christmas themed wall hanging and a Disney inspired wall hanging. Each were made using piecing techniques, appliqué, free motion embroidery and free motion quilting.

I love the freedom to draw and design something then translate it to a fabric piece. I recommend trying this as well. Take out some fabrics that you may have struggled to use or come up with a plan and play with the colors.

Since I live in Florida and it is quite tropical, I wanted something tropical or ocean themed. I decided on an underwater holiday theme using an octopus, fish and underwater plants. I decided to call it Merry Fishmas. It's weird, I know, but I'm weird and it fit perfectly with my plan. My second project is based on the Disney Film Nightmare Before Christmas. I also love Disney and wanted to make something that combined Christmas and Halloween, so I made fan art that depicts Jack and Sally's silhouette.

I hand drew each design including the octopus, fish, sea life, plants and holiday decor. I then transferred the drawing to fabric by using Misty Fuse. I cut out each piece and fused them with the Misty Fuse. For Jack and Sally, I was inspired by several movie scenes and hand drew the silhouettes. I used a plate to cut out the moon.

Both wall hangings utilize wavy pieced fabric borders going across them from left to right. Wavy piecing sounds scary but actually it is not and it can be easy.

Video TutorialTechnique:Wavy Piecing

I used Misty Fuse for both pieces to adhere my appliqué pieces to the background. I then used free motion embroidery and a raw edge straight stitch, satin stitch, decorative stitch or blanket stitch for the lettering, animals, scenery and Jack and Sally.

I used free motion quilting to complete the quilts and added a hanging pocket on the back of each quilt. Hobbs polyester down batting was used as well as Aurifil threads and Schmetz Needles.

All fabrics, thread, batting and needles were provided by Island Batik, Hobbs Batting, Aurifil Threads and Schmetz Needles.

Copyrighted Material Information:

It is legal to make fan art of copyrighted characters as long as they are depicted in a positive manner. It is not legal to sell the fan art as the image is the ownership of the company that created it. Fan art can be displayed, given as a gift, kept for personal use and shared but not sold for profit. This piece will become a favorite holiday decor item in my home from Halloween all the way to Christmas.

Thank you for reading my blog and stay tuned for next month as I will have another giveaway coming. Take a look at all the other Island Batik Ambassador blogs as well. They have made some beautiful things.

Megan Best ~ Best Quilter Pamela Boatright ~ PamelaQuilts Elizabeth DeCroos ~ Epida Studio Jennifer Eubank ~ Archipelago Quilting Jennifer Fulton ~ The Inquiring Quilter

Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts Joanne Hart ~ Unicorn Harts Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania For Quilts Jane Hauprich ~ Stitch By Stitch Custom Quilting Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs. Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood Denise Looney ~ For The Love Of Geese Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights Sally Manke ~ Sally Manke, Fiber Artist Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack Made Mine. Claudia Porter ~ Create with Claudia Gail Renna ~ Quilt Haven Threads Brianna Roberts ~ Sew Cute and Quirky Michelle Roberts ~ Creative Blonde Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail Andi Stanfield ~ True Blue Quilts Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt Janet Yamamoto ~ Whispers of Yore