Blooming Artsy Fartsy Challenge

Jul 29, 2019
3 min read

Island Batik Ambassadors faced a “Arsty Fartsy” challenge for the month of July. I do love creating an arty quilt and thought I’d have this one done way early this month. It turns out that didn’t happen! But I did finish in plenty of time so I feel like that is a win.

This month we are highlighting Aurifil Threads. Aurifil is a co- sponser of the Island Batik Ambassador program and sends thread for us to work with in each of our Ambassador boxes. This challenge was to use at least three different Aurifil Threads in some way in our project.

I added another challenge for myself to also incorporate a photo I took at Biltmore Estates to my quilt using ThermoWeb’s EZ-print Transfer Sheets. I’ve used these photo sheets in the past and really like how realistic the picture looks when transferred.

Using Aurifil 50wt thread, I free motion quilted around the details of this plant (I have no idea what it is so if you know the name feel free to comment!).

Blooming Artsy Fartsy Mini Quilt by Kim Lapacek

I then used Aurifl 28 wt. thread to quilt straight lines around each of the images. I ended up making four different mini quilts with the photo on Island Batik fabrics.

It took me a bit of pondering to decide on the layout I wanted but eventually I just started to sew them together. Using Aurifil 12 wt I hand stitched the four mini quilts together. I also stitched a fun paper pieced hexagon flower together using Aurifil thread 80 wt. Other fun embellishments using fabric yo-yo’s, buttons, ribbons, rick rack, and angelina fibers finished off the piece. The hardest part of this whole process for me was to edit down the design – there were almost tassels on this!

The vibrant Island Batik fabrics accented the gorgeous flowers wonderfully and I think the bits of “pop” from the embellishments created a piece that would be fun to hang on any wall.