Back - Welcome to the Island Batik Ambassador Alumni Blog Hop!

 Welcome to my stop on the Island Batik Use it Up Blog Hop. As a quilter who participated in the program for 3 years, I have tons to use up, and I use it whenever I can.For my project on the hop, I combined a project which I was working on for a shop sample with the theme of the hop, and added a new to me set of tools for using it to quilt with.  I hope you like what I came up with... Won't you say hello to my Little Friend?  - I call him Gnomie.  He's actually one block from the Scandinavian Tomte pattern by Sherri Noel.  One of my area quilt shops will be having me teach a class on it this summer - cue the Christmas in July theme music - and  we both thought this would be a good introduction to the pattern (keeping me within the bounds of the blog theme.A little fabric modification, and the traditional tomte became a garden variety gnome.  I used basics from Island Batik for the little guy, and I think he's awfully cute.Here's the fabric pull I used.... well, maybe not so much a picture of the fabric as a picture of the pattern.  It's one that I've been attracted to for a while, and I do like it a lot. I have become more interested in garden gnomes because my friend Pam has a whole collection. Won't she be surprised with how this came out? The pattern came together well, and I can't wait to put it together in Christmas colors as well.Now, onto the tools which I used to quilt this newest item - I have all 4 of the AngelaWalters rulers that came out from Creative Grids, and after practicing with them over the winter, I knew that I wanted to work with them on this quilt.  There are four distinct styles, and I found ways to work with all 4.  In the picture on the right, I put the rulers on the quilt once it was done, to show how I which I used to quilt what sections.  The straight edge is Slim, and I used that for the outline of the blue body.  The next one I used was Squiggy (my favorite - I used it to create the wavy lines for the beard); next was Archie, and I used that one to give some definition to the hat.  Finally, I used Shorty to create the background.

I found the rulers very easy to use, and I felt comfortable enough to 'play' with them after about an hour or so.  I am leaving on retreat next week, and I am looking forward to bringing all 4 with me to play with some more.

I really enjoyed participating in this blog hop, catching up with old friends and meeting new ones.  Thank you, once again Island Batik to feeding my creativity.  To follow along with all the posts on this blog hop, please visit the links below!Monday, April 16, 2018| Lemon Tree Snippets |Tuesday, April 17, 2018| Seams To Be Sew | Mary Macks Blog |Wednesday, April 18, 2018| One Quilting Circle | Seams Like a Dream |Thursday, April 19, 2018| Tammarinis | Kathy’s Kwilts and More |Friday, April 20, 2018| Inspired Layers | Kissed Quilts |Saturday, April 21, 2018|  Purfect Spots | Patchwork Breeze |Sunday, April 22, 2018| For Quilt’s Sake |If you have played with these rulers on your quilting journey, please let me know how you like them.  Until next time!