This month’s Island Batik Ambassador Challenge is partnered with Aurifil in the spirit of Crazy Quilts!

Let’s have some fun, and enjoy a FREE Pattern!

Materials:

• Island Batik Breathtaking Browns 10 inch fabric stacks
• Accuquilt GO! Crazy Quilt Die
• Recommended Matching Piecing Thread – Aurilfil 50 wt. thread in Dark Antique Gold
• 1 1/4 Yards Backing – Island Batik Solid Black
• 1/4 Yard Binding – Island Batik Foundations Smoke, cut 4 strips at 2.5 inches.
• Recommended Batting – Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Black Batting
• Recommended Quilting Thread – Aurifil PassionFlower Set and Aurifil Black
• Schmetz Needle size 80/12

Accuquilt Dies can easily cut 6 layers at a time, but we have 10 pieces to join for each block, so I organized my piles into two sets of (5 and 5), and two sets of (5 and 6) to process the 42 squares. From there, I moved the layers around to scramble the color.

Tip! The cardboard the fabric is packaged with makes for a great temporary display board!

The die is labeled to clearly join together pieces A through J, and creates an unfished size block at 6.5 inches square.

lay out your blocks into 6 x 7 grid to your liking. I didn’t put much work into this since all these fabrics coordinates together. There really wasn’t much to think about.

Then, a pause. I spent a week with the quilt top hung up, toying with quilting/thread ideas. I knew I wanted to use the deepest contrasting blue variegated thread from the PassionFlower set from Aurifil to move around the light fabric areas of the quilt like a little path of puddles sunk into the earthy browns.

At this point, I’ve taken a lot of easy shortcuts. I used a precut fabric in a curated collection of fabrics. I got all my cutting done in less than 10 minutes using the Accuquilt Go Cutting System and Die. I used a range of thread volumes in a single spool! Here was my challenge–The mismatched top and bobbin thread colors.

I’ve been working on mastering my tension on my Handi Quilter Capri. I have tried a range of thread brands, thread weights, and pre-wound bobbins, this was the master-level course to put Aurifil 50wt Black thread in the bobbin to match the solid black fabric on the back.

Through this exercise, I learned a lot about tension hiccups!

1. Tension problems are a sound before sight. The machine’s rhythm changes, and it’s time to stop right away to assess the situation.
2. Tensions problems don’t work out; you have to fix them. It’s not a car problem where you ignore the check engine light, and it bumps back into working order. All tension needs to be attended to, even if the machine goes back to its usual rhythm.
3. When a tension problem is discovered, the amount that needs picked out is several inches. A few loose loops on top is more like 5 inches of problems.
4. A bobbin at 75% is the point of happy trails. I knew there was longarm advice to pull off a significant amount of thread for testing and practice off a full bobbin, and that is proven true for me. One of my issues was the bobbin thread bouncing right out of the spring, which was very loose, then tighten around the axil to the point of breaking.
5. Matching weights is a balanced option. Many quilters I talked to recommend the same thread in the bobbin, or thinner thread in the bobbin. With this exercise, I was successful quilting with 2 Aurifil 50wt threads, even though they were different colors. Using an embroidery thread in the bobbin previously seemed to be too slippery, shifting the tension around. It works well to have a little grip between the two threads.

As I worked through all the light areas with a pebble quilting design, I really loved how the browns popped from the dense quilting. I looked at the top and was immensly happy with the texture and hints of blue throughout.

Crazy Quilts typically have lots of decorative stitching, but I didn’t want to cover any more lovely fabric, or compete with an already brilliant thread. I put the binding on, which my black thread blended to as well, and that was the finished project!

Of course, the post isn’t done without my husband’s interesting insights. When I asked him if he liked the new quilt, he reached over and touched the pebble quilting, commenting that it look like the leathering cover for a large book… I see it, haha.

You can check out more details on the construction through my YouTube video! Island Batik Ambassador Chsllenge with Aurifil Thread – Crazy Quilt Video