Raindrop Love...Island Batik Style...

February 13 is a Galentine's Day unofficial holiday. A day meant to celebrate your gal-friends. I spent today with my gal-friend doing our once a month sewing adventure day.

The morning started out with my usual cup of Yogi tea--the quote was too good not to share in this Valentine week.

Our once a month sewing adventures have been happening for almost 20 years!! We have talked, laughed and cried through all the seasons of our childrens' lives and are now starting on our grandchildren!! Gal-friends are definitely something to celebrate--especially sewing friends!!

Today we went to our local sewing shop--Heirloom Creations--for our monthly dose of inspiration. The topic was Scrappy Bits Applique. A technique based on Shannon Brinkley's work--see her blog here.

The idea is to make snipit bits of fusible web backed fabric.

Fuse the bits onto the non-bumpy side of lightweight fusible interfacing.

Then cut out the shape. I chose to use my AccuQuilt die for this step. The umbrella by Edyta Sitar. I have had the die for a while--but never found just the right project. Until now!! You can use the AccuQuilt affiliate link on the side bar to find these dies.

Look at that gorgeous wonderful scrappy bits wonderfulness!!!

I also used the Simple Shapes die and the heart from the Serendipity Qube--all also by Edyta.

Adding more shapes to create the little design.

Adding the wavy free motion lines was so relaxing--and actually took the most time of the whole little project.

So much texture and movement--just fills my heart with the raindrops of love!!

Such a super fun, quick and easy little project!! Thank you to Island Batik for the fabrics and the challenge on Galentine Day!!

"Being soaked alone is cold. Being soaked with your best friend is an adventure!!!" 
--Emily Wing Smith

Using Silhouette to cut Island Batik fabric applique for Galentine's Day

Galentine's Day--yeah not a typo, but apparently a made up holiday for the day before Valentine's Day to share some love with your BFF's or any other women in your life....so going with that theme, I have a few gals in my life that are going through some serious health struggles. They were on my mind and in my prayers as I made these little mug rug type quilts for them.

Isn't this just a great palate of colors to work with--the apple one was too cute to cut up this time but keep an eye out for it in future projects!!

I have had my Silhouette digital cutting machine for a couple years and while I have used it for many paper crafting projects, I had never tried to cut out my applique pieces with it...until today. I drew up a couple arrows and some hearts in the machine's software, applied Steam a Seam 2 to the back of my fabric pieces and sent it through the machine with the suggested settings.

And then this happened!! The fabric pieces stayed on my mat nicely..but it didn't cut through the fusible. It took some tugging to get the heart out--and since the arrows where much thinner and more fragile, I had to rethink my approach.

So I tried again...this time with Heat and Bond Lite. And look at the wonderfully cut applique pieces!! Oh wow, a whole new world has just opened up to me!!! If you are interested, the settings I used to achieve these results are:
Blade setting of 6
Speed setting of 2
Thickness setting of 33
As a side note--my blade is pretty old and getting dull, so I probably should have put a new one in..but I like to live life on the edge and just went for it!!

Next, I cut 2--5" squares from these fabrics, making this a charm pack friendly project!! Sew them together to make a four patch. Make sure to "spin" the seam allowances on the back, making for less bulk.

After applying the applique pieces according to manufactures instructions, I layered the batting and backing pieces and took it to my sewing machine. I have recently added a Bernina sewing machine with the BSR attachment to my workspace. I have not played with it much, but when I do, it is super fun and so easy to do small intricate quilting. I like to applique down my pieces with a doodle type quilting design. Going around the designs twice for a sketchy doodly look!! Since the applique arrows were quite narrow, I used a 60 wt Bottom Line thread by Superior for the sketching.

Add the binding to the back and bring it around the front to topstitch down.

And there you have it!! Two gifts of love and prayers to be sent to a couple friends in need. I plan to write an encouraging note and a scripture passage on the back of each before I send them off.

Thank you so much to Island Batik for jump-starting me into creative gifts of love again!!