Island Batik Back to School Blog Hop

Welcome to my blog! This is my first blog hop. I will be hopping along with you to all the other Island Batik Blogs this month. This is sure to be fun and educational too! Please read all the way to the end to find out how to participate in my GIVE AWAY. Don’t forget to tell your friends about these blogs too. One can never have too much inspiration. In February of 2017 I received my first box of fabric from Island Batik. There was a large bundle of fabrics from the Country Dozen Fabric Line. To see the whole line click here: Country Dozen Fabric Line . There are browns and blues and some teals and blacks too.  What was so fun, was to see chickens, eggs, kitchen utensils, eggs, lemons, silverware and did I mention eggs? As many of you know, my biggest supporter for my quilting business is my grandmother, Esther. I call her, “Grammie.” She raised chickens.  I have a favorite photo imprinted in my mind of “Grammie and her girls.” She was feeding her chickens and thanking them for the eggs she harvested every morning. When Grammie would visit our home to celebrate Easter, she would bring a dozen eggs for each of us. I have two older brothers with families and a younger sister with a family, so 5 dozen eggs came to Westwood, MA where my folks used to live. These eggs were so fresh and tasted so much more flavorful than the ones from the grocery stores. They were such a treat! Before I digress too much, remember the theme this month is “Back to School.” Grammie was homeschooled in Vermont with her sister, Pearl.  Grammie then traveled to Boston to get a nursing degree at Mass General. She was the youngest girl in her class. Her sister, my Aunt Pearl went on to teachers college and became a school teacher in a one room school house in Vermont. Two generations later, I find myself homeschooling our son, Tyler. We transformed every day into teachable moments. I learned so much about how children learn, had fun going on fabulous field trips, learned how to write a myth, and even how to make chain mail from wire and needle nose pliers.  Our field trips were all year long including a Baseball Bat company on Cape Cod which made bats for the Boston Red Sox, Amish country in Pennsylvania, and Hebert Candy in Massachusetts.  Tyler learned to build conveyor belts from k’nex, formed boxes in which he placed homemade chocolates and handed them out to the ladies at St. John’s Bible Study. He learned about farming, different eggs, colors, sizes, cows, stomachs, black-smithing, and so much more. Our daughter did attend public school in a French Immersion program.  She learned to read and write in French before English. Bethany is now a high school Math teacher in NH. What does “Back to School” mean to me?

1. A fresh start on a new quilt!
2. Getting organized!
3. A love for learning and experimenting!

For this challenge, I took some graph paper and looked at my fabrics which I sorted by lights and darks. I started with the drunkard’s path block….Then decided not to choose one of my favorites… I decided that since chickens and especially the roosters wake us up in the morning, whether we slept at Grammie’s house, or living in the suburb of Holliston, I was going to find a way to make squares and half square triangles into chicken coop wire. Then looking through the wire, I’d fussy cut some of the chickens. For those of you who know that I love collage quilting technique, rest assured that a collaged rooster is in the works with the left overs….stay tuned! Whether you are studying engineering courses or English courses or quilting courses, on the first day, the teacher usually reviews the basics. Here’s my chicken scratch on paper. The size requirement for this challenge was, “bigger than 36″ x 36″.” Since I had used some of this collection in previous challenges, I had to be a little creative where figuring out the border. Do you remember my Chicken Dance quilt? There is some egg fabric in that one.  The pineapple quilt has some of the tan fabrics from this collection too. I just couldn’t wait to start cutting it up. If you would like to know how to make this quilt, step-by-step, go to craftsy.com for FREE pattern instructions, “Back to School Chickies.” I used the small Sew Easy Guide to make half square triangles.  It’s fast, fun and accurate. I quilted it with Superior Threads Fantastico thread #5090. I used my HandiQuilter Sweet Sixteen. The thread did not break once!

“Back to School Chickies”

I used my floor for a design wall because my wall was full of my Row by Row quilt. That quilt must be done by Sept. 5th too! Yikes! I best get back to work. Simply follow my blog, leave me a comment on this blog post and you will be entered in a drawing to win the fabrics pictured below. I made 6 1/2″ squares for you to get started on making this project. I’ve added some extra 3″ squares too! The winner will be announced on September 30th. Now don’t forget to hop along to tomorrow’s “Back to School” blogger,  Alison Vermilya at http://www.littlebunnyquilts.blogspot.com. Different fabrics are shipped to various ambassadors. It’s so exciting to see all the solutions to the monthly challenges. Welcome Back to School! Enjoy learning something new. Linda Ramrath