Cozy Cabins with Island Batik

I have been so busy lately, my head is spinning.  The Christmas rush is on, and I have to keep my head down and plow through.  Unfortunately, my Island Batik project fell behind schedule.  Luckily, I found a great pattern that worked up quickly.

Mariner’s Cabin, by Gotham Quilts, is beautiful.  It works up so quickly, with nice big pieces.  You know I usually go in for super complicated pieces, so this was a refreshing change of pace for me.  And the best part?  The pattern is available for free!

I pulled out all of my purple fabrics from my Island Batik stash.  I’ve been wondering what to do with these checks, and I was inspired to play with them when I saw Sherry, at Powered by Quilting’s project this month.  They are so cool in her quilt!

My tips for this pattern are to print it out, and pay attention to how much fabric you have.  I kind of half assed it – I just pulled out all of my purples, assumed I had enough, and zipped out the door to my guild sew-in.  I forgot to print the pattern, so I had to pull it up on my phone.  I made a few cutting mistakes, which would have been avoided if I had a printout to check off.  Gabbing with all of my friends probably didn’t help.  It took me less than an hour to cut out the whole thing.

Whenever I was short on a fabric, I subbed in an extra print.  I just made sure I would have enough to do both “legs” of the block in the same color.

I about lost my mind when I noticed this fabric matching up so nicely on a seam.  Jeremy is so lucky I didn’t run upstairs and wake him up to show it off.

When I got home, I stole a couple of evening hours from my usual family time to put it together.  All together, I went from stacked pieces to pieced top in less than four hours over two evenings.  I’m seriously in love with this pattern.  Need a quick Christmas quilt?

I chose to back it with a wide back in (also available at Gotham Quilts.)  I used Peppered Cotton in Aubergine, a personal favorite.  Can I say that I love wide backs?  They make it so easy to get to the quilting, and they load up onto the longarm like a dream.

I decided to use a new quilting pattern I just purchased – Modern Curves, by Anita Shakelford.  I’ve seen it around for a while, and I love the movement it brings to straight quilts.  I actually ordered it for a customer quilt, and it is nice to be able to try it out before I put it onto someone else’s quilt.  It’s a good thing I did, too, because the pattern is a bit of a pain in the butt.  I’m not as expert with my computer as I could be, and this pattern takes a lot of interaction from me.  It is gorgeous, though.

For binding I used this solid black that was included in my last ambassador box.  It has the same hand as batik, but it is totally solid.  I like the permanence of the black frame.  Between the wavy quilting and the breeze, the quilt looks very wonky.  It is quite flat, though.  I promise.  And those colors.  OMG.  Maybe Santa will bring me new studio lights.

I used some Fairfield Toasty Cotton batting on this piece.  It isn’t my favorite, but I’m trying to use up the rest of my roll.  I got it from a large retailer before my longarm arrived, when they had a good coupon sale.  It is a bit thinner than I like.

The light and shadows on the neighbor’s shed stopped me in my tracks this morning.

I wish I had gotten my act together and finished this project on time, but other than that, I am really happy with it.  Any time I spend playing with Island Batik fabric is time well spent.

And, because his fans are clamoring for him, Oscar agreed to pose on this quilt.