Adventure Dash with London Calling...Great Outdoors Island Batik Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the Island Batik Great Outdoors Blog Hop. Coming to you right now as I sit on the shore of Elbow Lake in Northern Minnesota at The Jolly Fisherman Resort. The day is drizzily and cold--seems quite fitting for the London Calling line of batik fabrics!!!

They can be found here on the Island Batik website. Look for them in your local quilt shop!!

London Calling is a collection of blues--from dusty light to deep dark navy including multiple steps of blue inbetween. The collection of 20 half yard cuts along with 2 yards each of a light and dark were supplied to me by Island Batik as part of their Ambassador program.

I have been in need of a new quilt for our little pickup camper--this was the perfect line of fabric to design a new quilt for that purpose. I envisioned a giant churn dash type block using all the fabrics of the collection.

I just love pretty stacks of fabric all cut with the GO! 12" Mix & Match Qube. I have  a written up a small tutorial sheet for cutting instructions with the Accuquilt Qube system along with a coloring page to make your own Adventure Dash quilt. You can find that here on my Craftsy site as a free download.

Chain piecing....and piecing.....and piecing!

Loaded on the longarm...ready to quilt...

...while the butterflys enjoyed the zinnias in front of the studio window.

Adventure Dash...72" sqaure...on the dock outside the cabin!! There was a very small break in clouds yesterday to let sunshine through. Creating the perfect opportunity to catch all the great colors in the London Calling collection from Island Batik. I also used the Hobbs 80/20 batting and Aurifil thread to do the quilting that were provided to me in the Ambassdor box earlier this year.

A couple of cute grandchildren creating a path of leaves for catepillars to eat--so it can make a cacoon in the house they made for it, to eventually become a butterfly. Oh the joy of creating in the Great Outdoors!!!

Enjoy my view as I write this post!!!

I do all of my quilting freehand on an APQS Millie. The design I used for Adventure Dash I call Wind Map. I love the great background texture it gives to an outdoors type quilt. If you have ever seen a topographical map of lakes, it will look kind of like this quilting design. Each line representing different depths of the lakes' water so that fishermen who know what they are doing can find the fish.

Benches on the end of the dock make for a great place to watch and listen to the loons. Such an erie yet beautiful sound!!!

Love me a reversible quilt!! I had planned to use the flying geese rows on top and bottom of Adventure Dash--but it felt too big. And after cutting, sewing and pressing all of the blocks--there was no way that they weren't going to be used!! So perfect on the back with the 2 yard cuts of light and dark!!!

Thanks for coming along with me on The Great Outdoors Blog Hop from Island Batik. The photo above shows all the fabrics I have left of London Calling. Please like my Lizard Creek Quilting Facebook page and leave me a comment there telling me your favorite place to vacation with your family and I will randomly choose a winner!!

Make sure you check out all the other Ambassador posts!! There may be more giveaways on them!!
You can find the list of blogs here on Island Batik's blog. Along with a great giveaway from Island Batik!!

It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature's gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever. --Jimmy Carter

The Quilter's Planner.....block 6....

....what a fun and easy block this was!!! Only 2 shapes needed...sqaure and half sqaure triangle.

The 12" GO! Mix & Match Qube will have the right dies for block #6.

Die #2 is the square--will use 6 background
Die #5 is the HST--will use 2 HST of 5 colors and 10 HST of background

If I don't use the seam guide that came with the 97D Bernina foot--I will washi tape an angle guide to the sewing table and then can just chain piece those HST in no time!!

Oh so pretty....those fabrics from the City Culture 2 line of Island Batik!!!

Have you heard all the hype about the wool pressing mats?? Well, I caved in to buying one....and guess what--they do really work nice. The wool retains heat from the iron so I will arrange the pressed pieces and leave them on the mat until it is full. The residual heat does it's job in giving a nice crisp press!!

The great slatey blue colors in this block have a galvanized steel look to me...

...so off to the farm I went. These are the big gray grain bins that are seen all around the Midwest farming country. Grain is stored in the bins until it is sold by the farmer.

Wow!! How different it looks set on point!! Still in the thinking stage for how to set all these blocks--but on point is really starting to look like a winner here!!

My dear farmer husband is taking a well deserved couple of days off. Fishing in northern South Dakota with our son. That walleye should make for some good eating!!

While he is gone...that leaves me in charge of the chores. Here are the building on the farm. Isn't that sky just gorgeous?!? Actual color--no photoshopping here!!

And the other set buildings were we raise hogs.

Thanks for stopping in and can't wait for the next Quilter's Planner block in this sew along!!

THE IGLOO...

This past fall--after football was finished, Josh and his friends had to find some other activity to fill their time with--they decided to build an ice shack--not just any shack--but one large enough for 7-8 people!!

So for several weeks they would meet in K & O in Hull to build this thing--they each brought scrounged items from home and pooled about $20 each for insulation and came up with a great finished product.

The first Saturday after it was finished, some of the builders pulled it out to Lake Pahoja and used it for 1 hour--with no fishing sucess--they put out the fire in the wood stove they built and went home. Sunday morning in church someone told Chad that his ice shack was a burned up pile of rubble...
...this wood stove they built--possibly the culprit?!?! When Josh and 2 other guys arrived at the scene--there was little left but the steel. He was quite upset for a while--as he never even got to use it..but there is always the possibilty of building something else with those guys.