Cheryl Lynch Quilts: island batik

Showing posts with label island batik. Show all posts

Monday, January 8, 2018

Modern Batik Sampler Quilt and a Giveaway

As most of you know, I usually head to Key West for a couple of months during the Winter. This year we are staying home in PA. Of course, it has to be the coldest Winter ever, or so it seems to me. When it is 3 degrees, I just don't want to go outside, but when you need groceries, there is no other choice. It gives me a new appreciation for those of you that live in climates where the temps hit -30 degrees.

I always look for the silver lining. Staying home has given me lots of time for working on my last project as an Island Batik Ambassador. I've been admiring Modern interpretations of traditional quilt blocks that I've seen on social media (Instagram) as well as improvisational blocks. They really intrigue me. For this final project, my fabric collection is called "Blue Moon".
Island Batik Stack Blue Moon 40 Ten Inch Squares

Island Batik Stack Blue Moon 40 Ten Inch Squares

It's quite a coincidence that the theme for this month's project is The Four Seasons and that I was given this icy blue palette of colors.
I love blue and I'm so happy to see this color return. This collection plus white was my playground for these blocks. I started with this block:

Then:

And:

And a bunch more:

And a few more:

I really enjoyed making these blocks and searching for ideas. But the most fun part for me was rearranging, adding and subtracting to create the final quilt. It's this puzzle aspect of quilting that appeals to me the most. This is the next to last step in my process of putting all of these blocks together. You can see I had to add some fill ins.

I decided to spend a day conquering the tension issues I have had as a newbie with my longarm. Oh boy, do I love YouTube. I watched many videos with instruction ranging from how to oil it, how to load the backing and the quilt, how to baste it and how to thread it. I reached out to other IB Ambassadors asking them about quilting with IB batiks and I have to thank them. Those with longarms encouraged me to do it. And then voila! it worked.

All of the Island Batik Ambassadors are participating in a blog hop to celebrate the culmination of a year's worth of projects. Today Jennifer at The Inquiring Quilter is also sharing her amazing quilt that she created from the Blue Moon collection. It's so interesting to see what the two of us have created using the same fabrics.

To celebrate the blog hop there are 2 giveaways, one hosted by me and one hosted by Island Batik.
I have been trying (key word trying) to do a bit of studio organizing and came across some of my swag from Quilt Market and other odds and ends.

My giveaway is limited to continental US addresses. You can have several opportunities to enter:
1. Leave a comment here with your email address
2. Like me on Facebook or leave a comment if you already have.
3. Follow me or leave a comment on Instagram and for every friend you tag, you'll get another chance
I'll pick a winner on Weds, Jan 17th by noon, EST.

Island Batik is also hosting a giveaway on Rafflecopter. Here's the LINK.

Don't forget to check out the other blogs in the blog hop. You'll have the opportunity to see all of the collections just arriving at your local quilt shops.
Tomorrow:
Carol Steely - Fun Threads
AlisonVermilya - Little Bunny Quilts (Alison has shared the links for the entire blog hop!)
Tina Dillard - Quilt Affection
Jean-Sophie Wood - Sophie Junction

And how did I spend last night's chilly temps while writing this post?

With my puppy on my lap and a warm fire.
Stay warm my friends, enjoy the hop and I hope you win some goodies.

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

AHAVA means LOVE

The December challenge for Island Batik is Table Scraps, Quilty Table Toppers. Finally, I am not behind and have my project finished! I was motivated to have it available as a free pattern for Chanukah. I love blue and white. Blue had disappeared from quilting and Home Dec for a while, so you can imagine my delight when I found out that this is a new fabric line from Island Batik, coming to your local quilt shop soon.

I was so excited to get started on the project. I have had this idea in my head for almost a year. One year ago, I designed my Philly Love wallhanging.

I made a few of them and the pattern is now available as an inexpensive download.

You can get the pattern HERE. I had so much fun doing the spiral quilting.

At the time someone asked me if I could make the same pattern, but in Hebrew. The Hebrew word for love is AHAVA. It is read from right to left. It looks like this:

To stack it like the Philly Love quilt

and I quilted it just like the original:

The challenge was for a table topper, not a wallhanging, so I added border triangles,

beads and sequins.

It's the perfect time of year to share AHAVA. Although it would be perfect any time of the year , it Chanukah starts Tuesday night.

If you want to make your own, you can download the pattern HERE . It does assume knowledge of paper piecing. You can add any border that you would like. It's a table topper and is a great twist on the LOVE statue in Philadelphia.

I've been enjoying this fabric line, getting ready for the Island Batik Blog Hop in January, creating a few blocks a week. If you'd like to see my progress, I've been posting the blocks on IG (CherylLynchQuilts) and Facebook (Cheryl Lynch Fiber Arts).

If you would like to receive my monthly newsletter full of quilty goodness, including ideas for road trips, free patterns, inspiration and great recipes, click HERE.

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

4 Cakes Are Better Than 1

This post will be short and sweet as I'm heading out to Quilt Market in Houston tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn. It's the largest trade show for the quilting industry. I'm introducing my Mini Mosaic Quilts patterns and kits. It's a big deal and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

In the meantime, the challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors this month is creative borders and bindings.

Of course I had to use my Curvalicious to create my border. It is such a versatile template that makes the most intricate looking borders using fusible applique.

It looks complicated, but it's very simple. If you want to see how to create these borders, I made a video that you can find at www.Curvalicious.net. You will also see many other ways to use Curvalicious.

I cut and stitched the border before attaching it to the quilt. That made it less cumbersome to stitch. Then I attach it to the body of the quilt.

This is the quilt before it is quilted- a beauty shot.

I chose to use my walking foot for quilting and I chose a curvy pattern - just like Curvalicious.

I matched the thread to the background so it only showed up on the cake and cake stand.

The final quilt is adorable and perfect as a celebration or birthday quilt. I named it "If 1 cake is good, 4 cakes are better!"

Yum!

I am offering a free pattern for the cake block. I will share a link in my November newsletter.

To get the free block pattern, sign up for the newsletter, by clicking HERE.

and

Remember life is short, eat dessert first!

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

We Have A Winner and My Key West Home

I have received many inquiries about our home in Key West and I appreciate every body's concern. There have been bits of news coming out of the island, but there is no cell service (nor water or power) and information is scarce. It appears that Key West did not suffer the devastation that some of the other keys experienced.

From NOAA we have been able to see satellite imagery of our courtyard. It looks like the roofs are in tact. That's good news. Now we are anxious to hear if there has been any water damage. I imagine it will be several more days or maybe a week, before someone actually checks our place.

Key West has been the inspiration for much of my fiber art.

I am trying to keep myself busy while waiting for news.

On to happier news. The giveaway for my Island Batik blog hop is over.

And the winner is:

Sylvia Jackson

Congrats Sylvia. The stack of batiks will be on the way to your fabric stash as soon as I get your address. Many people commented and it was so fun to hear your back to school excitement. By far, most of us looked forward to new clothes and that beautiful, big box of crayons!

Thanks to all those that entered,

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Back To School Blog Hop & A Giveaway

The summer seems to get shorter and shorter the older I get. School has started for almost everyone already. Since I no longer have children in school, it is not as stressful/joyful for me as it used to be. "Back in the day" I used to look forward to family dinners when school started, since during the summer we hardly ate dinner together with every one's active schedule. It was great to hear what transpired during every one's day. Do you have a favorite Back To School Memory?

As an Island Batik Ambassador, I'm participating in a blog tour to celebrate Back to School and to showcase their new lines of fabric that will be arriving in the local quilt shops any day. I was given "Country Dozen". As soon as I opened my box filled with these wonderful batik fabrics, I thought of my DIL. She has a bunch of chickens and loves to cook their eggs.

The Country Dozen fabric comes in several colorways and the prints feature roosters, eggs, chicken wire, lemons and kitchen utensils. Perfect for my DIL who also loves to be in the kitchen.Ask for it at your LQS.

With that in mind, I thought I would get a jump on the holiday season and make a gift for my DIL. Shhhh - don't tell. What would she get a lots of use from? Something for entertaining! I created a tabletopper and a bunch of napkins for entertaining.

The napkins were like potato chips, I couldn't stop at just one. They were so much fun to make.

I dug deep into my old blog posts for a technique that I used a while ago. It was perfect for this. Click HERE for details to make the self-binding napkins. I love how the miters come out in the corners:

I also enjoy napkin folding, so I've played with these:

Or just a plain fold

If you want to impress your guests with some fancy napkin folding, head to YouTube.

As part of this blog tour, I am having a giveaway of lots of the Country Road batiks. Island Batik has been so generous and I'd like to share that generosity. Here's the stack:

It's a bunch of very generous fat quarters and assorted pieces of the Country Dozen fabric line. The giveaway is open to anyone in the Continental US. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment here about your favorite Back To School memory and for more chances head over and follow me on IG @CherylLynchQuilts and for even another chance, like my FB page @CherylLynchFiberArts. The winner will be chosen next Tuesday, Sept 12.
MY GIVEAWAY IS OVER

The blog tour has just begun. There are lots of other blogs, fabric lines and GIVEAWAYS!!! Here are the dates and links: