It’s the final month of the 2024 Island Batik Ambassador program. I’ve enjoyed sharing a large range of projects from stuffed animals, to bags, to quilts with beautiful fabrics and learning some new techniques along the way. A huge thank you to Island Batik, Oliso, Schmetz, Hobbs, Aurifil, and Hab and Dash for Fil-Tech for sponsoring my projects through the year!

This Alphabet quilt has been on my mind for a few years. It never seemed to fit in the lineup, but with December being a free month, and this quilt being delayed for several months, it was time to wrap it up!

The alphabet blocks are created with machine embroidery. I tried using my brother scan and cut to cut out all the applique shapes, but after a while it was faster to trim each fabric after the placement stick than to get everything setup, and still have some issues along the way with alignment, accidental reshaping, and the added thickness that heat and bond adds to the fabric along with the stabilizer.

The design files called these “6-inch” which required my 6×10 embroidery hoop. I thought the longest part of the design would be 6 inches, be that ended up being the height of the design, with the length being around 8 inches! Luckily, I cut out 10 inch squares with plans to trim down. I ended up only trimming them to 9 1/2 inch blocks. It made for a bigger baby quilt than I visioned, but the large designs are very fun.

With 26 letters in the alphabet, I went for a 5 by 6 block layout, and 3-inch finished blocks as the border. The result is a 51″ x 60″ quilt.

I took a few months to plan the quilting. I wasn’t sure if I should quilt over the designs. I asked some FB groups and the answers were mixed. It was Helen Godden who gave em the tough love that I did so much work on the applique, I needed to let it shine with an echo outline around it. To leave the center unquilted, I used Hobbs Theramore batting. It has a generous quilt gap allowance of 11 inches! It’s also white, which helped blend the cut-away machine embroidery stabilizer that was still showing on the back.

A fun yellow thread on the finish and this quilt is ready just in time for Christmas for my 3 year old! I know in light of the other toys, this wont be the favorite for the day, but hopefully it’s more exciting than the new toothbrush in his stocking!

Project List for this 51″ x 59″ quilt:

• Fabric
  • Background – Island Batik Foundations solid white
  • Main fabrics – Island Batik Chickadee collection, and various scraps
  • Binding – Island Batik Juniper Green Cheerio
• Pattern – Designs by JuJu – Animal Alphabet (6-inch blocks)
• Thread
  • Piecing: Aurifil Thead 50 wt Mako in2024 and 4129
  • Quilting: Hab and Dash for Fil-Tech Glide 40wt in Lemon Ice
• Batting: Hobbs Thermore
• Needle: Schmetz 75/11 universal sewing needle
• Iron: Oliso Pro Plus in Yello

Make sure to tune into the other Island Batik Ambassadors to see their mini quilts this month!

Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs

Renee Atkinson ~ Pink Tulip Quilting

Megan Best ~ BestQuilter

Pamela Boatright ~ PamelaQuilts

Susan Deshensky ~ Lady Blue Quilts Studio

Brittany Fisher ~ Bobbin with Brittany

Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts

Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for quilts

Jane Hauprich ~ Stitch by Stitch Custom Quilting

Kim Jamieson-Hirst ~ Chatterbox Quilts

Victoria Johnson ~ Forever Quilting for You

Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs

Connie Kresin Campbell ~ Freemotion by the River

Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood

Denise Looney ~ A Quiltery

Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights

Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack Made Mine

Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa’s Quilting Passion

Sarah Pitcher ~ Pitcher’s Boutique

Lana Russel ~ Lana Quilts

Julia Schweri ~ Inflorescence Designs

Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail

Carol Stanek ~ Stitch with Color

Sandra Starley ~ Textile Time Travels

Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations

Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt