Row by Row Blog Hop

For the month of February, Island Batik Ambassadors are having a Blog Hop introducing the Fall/Winter 2021 collections that are in shops now. They are beautiful! Be sure to hop over to all the Island Batik Ambassadors blogs so you don’t miss any of the new fabric lines!

I received Mountain Gems fabric, designed by Kathy Engle – beautiful fabric that took me down memory lane. Hummingbirds, dragon flies, trees, and moose, are all represented in this fabric line. When I saw the fabric, I was reminded of my grandparents lake cottages, named, “Timber Haven”, in Three Lakes, Wisconsin, where I spent the best part of my summers and vacations with family. I was also able to watch my children go there and discover the same love of nature and quiet times I had as a child. So for my Row by Row, I wanted to represent the good times of Timber Haven.

by Ka

Mountain Gems

I began my rows with trees using my Studio 180 Design Wing Clipper. I wanted the trees to be a main part of my quilt, representing the woods that were on my grandparent’s property and all around. The Wing Clipper gives you perfect points and perfect sized Flying Geese units. I never tire of making quilts with the Studio 180 tools. Ahh… perfection!

I tried to mix the blues in my tree rows, but the darker blue didn’t have enough contrast and I ended up redoing with just the light blue in the collection.

For my next row, I wanted a block that would represent the lake. Little Fork Lake, the lake on which Timber Haven sits, is part of a chain of 27 beautiful lakes! It was awesome! I have memories jumping off the pier in that freezing lake! I never put my toes in first to test the water, it was cold. It was always cold, or maybe refreshing is the right word. I would go down to the lake and run and jump in the water. That way there was no turning back; I was committed!

The block I came up with was the Lady Lake block. Making a 6″ block was a little challenging since the Half Square triangle blocks were not an easy size. I printed a paper piecing pattern using EQ, but decided to still use the Studio 180 Tucker Trimmer, I just needed to mark a few guidelines for cutting.

Other blocks I made, also, were the Card Trick block representing all the fond memories of cards with cousins, and aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

I made star blocks, using the LeMoyne Star tool, to represent all the stars you see in the country that we miss when we are in the city.

The final row was made up of the Bear Paw block. I have vivid memories of seeing bears – oh so many stories! I also remember running into a moose in the woods!

I used Aurifil thread to piece my quilt, with a Schmetz microtex needle. Lots of colors of Aurifil thread were used for the quilting on Hobbs Premium Cotton batting.