A Quilt for a Cause!

This month Island Batik joined hands with Deb Tucker from Studio 180 to help make quilts for Sleep In Heavenly Peace organization.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace believe that "all children deserve a safe, comfortable place to lay their heads. In Idaho and across the U.S., too many boys and girls go without a bed – or even a pillow – to sleep on. These children end up sleeping on couches, blankets, and even floors. This can affect their happiness and health.

That’s where Sleep in Heavenly Peace comes in. We’re a group of volunteers dedicated to building, assembling and delivering top-notch bunk beds to children and families in need. Our organization has grown steadily over time, and we’re working on opening more chapters in different states to serve more people. NO KID SLEEPS ON THE FLOOR IN OUR TOWN!®." Deb Tucker with Studio 180 provided us with some unique tools such as Corner Pop, Wing Clipper, Rapid Fire Hunter Star, Corner Beam and the one I received, the Tucker Trimmer.

When I saw this ruler I was excited that once again, maybe this ruler would help with my points. If you have been around long enough, you will know that getting points on my blocks is a huge challenge for me. I struggle to maintain the points on any block; any stars, HSTs or really anything. The last tool I used (last year) from Deb Tucker Studio 180 was the Corner Beam. That tool absolutely took a little trial and error for me to use correctly. However, the Tucker Trimmer was extremely easy and absolutely made HSTs and the hour glass blocks really easy. I was shocked at how quick my stars came together. It was such a quick process, because you have both diagonal lines and the trimming lines. This helped me while lining up the two diagonals in the hour glass block.

I haven't made too many hour glass blocks in my quilting years, so I really wanted to try them. I had an idea of doing a dark background with bright bold colorful island batik fabrics. I was lucky enough to have a layer cake of Pin Dot Floral and some fat quarters that matched (to help add in a little more fabric). My background fabric is Charcoal from Island Batiks Basics collection.

I really wanted to make a star of some sort. I was thinking some hour glass shapes and maybe some four patch squares, or some kind of chain. I just wasn't sure. I did end up designing a few different blocks and ended up with this:

Which I did end up removing the charcoal square in the middle and replacing it with a colorful piece of fabric to help connect the chain, but also to show off the beautiful Pin Dot Floral. Once I got started on the blocks, the hour glass blocks came together extremely fast. I had them all made with in the first day! This was shocking to me because I honestly thought it would take me well over two days to make them. (Listen, I make a lot of FPP blocks, traditional blocks are hard for me, okay).

Another handy tool to mark your sewing lines is The Quilters Magic Wand, by Studio 180 and again, such a great tool to have on hand.

Lots of chain piecing and sewing.

I mean just look at those points! It was shocking to see how well they all came together. I quickly added the four patches to the corners and finished getting all 12 blocks together.

So many of them ready to sew. I did keep the four patches scrappy and some of those fabrics are not part of the Pin Dot Floral line, as I used a lot of scraps I had on hand. However, they all worked so well together, wouldn't you say?

I then chain pieced all the blocks together. I love doing this because they all stay in order, connected together and it makes sewing the blocks so much easier.

I spy The Quilters Magic Wand in the background!

I was pretty much out of the charcoal island batik basic fabric once I had the squares all together. So I had to sit and do a little math to see how much more I could squeeze out of it. I was able to add some strips in-between each block and row as well as add a small square of colorful fabric, and this really brought the chain together. At the end of it, I was left with a piece of charcoal fabric that was about 3 x 3 inches. I would say I did pretty well with that math!

I decided the best batting to use was probably the Hobbs Cotton as it can be warm when it needs to be but not so hot during some of the cooler nights. I love the cotton batting as well because its so easy to quilt with.

I again wanted to keep the quilting simple and uncomplicated in case this quilt gets washed a lot, I just wanted to make it cuddly but not overly quilted either. I did a simple straight line, in the ditch style quilting but also added some diagonal lines with in the four patches.

If you recall I did not have much of the charcoal fabric left for the binding so I had to get creative with the binding, and use up all my scraps from the layer cake and the random other fabrics I used. This, I think, really makes the quilt. It's colorful, it's fun and it keeps the eyes busy with all the fabric changes.

Thank you again to Oliso for the iron that helped make this project a breeze,

I then sat and finished my binding by hand, as I always do; and tada its done! Now lets check out the many photos I took because I just love this quilt. I hope some lucky child somewhere will love it just as much.