Spread Love & Joy By Giving A Quilt Of Comfort

This month, our Island Batik June challenge was to make a quilt using the Accuquilt die system. I was given the Arkansas Traveler Block On Board Die. We were challenged to use the block on board die with the 8" Mix and Match Cube set. I chose to use the 4" square die and the 4" half square triangle die with the Arkansas Traveler die.

We are making these quilts to give to someone to provide love and joy. I chose to give this quilt to my hair stylist as he has recently in the past year been sick with kidney disease. Ultimately this resulted in kidney failure and he is now on kidney dialysis. I figured a quilted hug would be a nice gift of joy.

I was familiar with the Accuquilt system and have used it before. Accuquilt so graciously provided all the Island Batik Ambassadors an Accuquilt Ready Set Go Bundle and a block on board die. I also used Vincent's Garden Island Batiks designed by Kathy Engle for the Quilt Rambler and some foundation Island Batik fabric in the colors of vanilla and red.

The Accuquilt system was so easy to use and it makes piecing a breeze. It is accurate and precise. The ambassadors were challenged to design a quilt of their own while using these Accuquilt dies. I had fun playing around with a design and decided to make a linear design using the blocks I chose and was given.

Since I wanted a linear look, I chose not to make the block on board as pictured on the die set but split it to form a zig zag pattern with each four-piece diamond created with the die. With this same die, I cut out several diamonds to form vertical diagonal striping for each side of the quilt. I also used the 4" finished squares and half square triangles to make 4" finished squares in the quilt and laid them out in a linear or vertical fashion as well.

I wanted to bring in other colors beside the oranges, yellows and reds. I decided to do this by adding a blue green border and embroidering each open space on the quilt with positive messages in blue, green and red. I figured when someone is sick or down, they can use a little positive pep talk to brighten their day. I embroidered 13 different positive mini messages on the quilt using Aurifil thread. All of my piecing, quilting and embroidery was done by using Aurifil thread.

Now onto quilting this little bundle of sunshine. I chose to free motion quilt it on my BERNINA 560 QEE. I pieced it and embroidered it on my BERNINA as well. I used 80/20 Hobb's batting and Schmetz Needles.

It was such a joy to make this quilt and share it with someone who may need a warm hug wrapped around them when times are tough.

I want to thank my sponsors Island Batik and their partners, Hobb's Batting, Aurifil Thread, Schmetz Needles and Accuquilt for providing all of these wonderful supplies so that I can be creative and share some love and joy with others.

On a side not and to bring a bit of humor into this post, I wanted to take some nice beach scene pictures of the quilt. As life would have it, the wind was blowing tremendously the day I went to take pictures. I could not stop laughing the whole time because the wind was wreaking havoc during picture taking. I included some of these pictures to share with you. I call the third one to the right, "The Flying Squirrel" and below that, "The Burrito".

Please check out my fellow ambassadors June challenge quilts too. They made some awesome projects.

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