Welcome to day three of the Island Batik/Studio 180 Design Tool Talk Blog Hop!! I hope you’ve visited my fellow ambassadors Tuesday and Wednesday! I have very much enjoyed seeing the different Studio 180 Design tools and new fabric lines that have been demonstrated. How fun it is to learn about new quilting tools! Don’t you agree?

For this blog hop, we were challenged to use a new to us tool from Deb Tucker’s Studio 180 Design. I have a few of these tools but have never used them. This was my opportunity to use them and see just how great they are! We were sent one of the new lines of fabrics from the Island Batik Spring/Summer 2022 collections, which should be arriving in your favorite quilt stores now! I am loving every one of these collections and can hardly wait to see what all the ambassadors create with them! Now on to the fun!

I was sent the Corner Beam tool from Studio 180 Design. I love that it has more than one use. Not only can you make that kite shape shown in the picture below, but you can also make different blocks by using the Sliver Technique Sheet also available in the Studio 180 Design shop!

Here is the collection I used for this quilt. It’s called Bee Kind and is a signature collection by Kathy Engle for Swan Sheridan of Swan Amity Studios. I LOVE these bees, hummingbirds, florals and leaves!

I watched Deb Tucker’s video on how to use the tool, then got busy on designing my quilt in EQ8 and designed a block I wanted to use.

I used the Sliver Technique Sheet and tool to figure out how to make the blocks I wanted. Everything started with a half square triangle (HST). So first thing was to chain stitch them. I worked on one section of the quilt at a time. I used the Magic Wand tool to draw the stitching lines. I loved that I could make two HSTs at a time with the instructions provided.

And using the tool, I slivered off the corners. Depending on the way I wanted to place the block. Some of the HSTs were slivered from the wrong side and some from the front, as shown below.

I loved using my Alpaca Wool Pressing mat from Prairie Spirit Alpacas to press my blocks. This really helped all my blocks to lay VERY flat! I have wool mats, but this combination of Alpaca wool and regular wool works SO well!

And now, I present to you my project which I named “Cosmic Jewels: One to Beam up Scottie!” Yes, I’m a Trekkie, but I also named it this because the center of the block in the left lower corner isn’t going in the same direction as the other three. This shows you how using the sliver technique in a different way can give different results. He figured he didn’t belong with the rest of them, so he was ready to return to the “mother ship!!” LOL Anyway, I had so much fun with this!

This bundle was so great I wanted to make the back using a couple of the fat quarters left over and the gorgeous Parakeet Teal basic from the Tantalizing Teals collection. The other beautiful green is called Lemongrass and is from the Glorious Greens collection. These basics are available year round. I also used Lemongrass in the front and for the binding.

Quilt info: All piecing was done with Aurifil 2420 from my stash, using a Schmetz 80/20 needle, which is my go-to choice for just about everything! The batting used was Hobbs 80/20 Cotton/Wool, and let me tell you I absolutely love this batt. It is so light weight and yet gives just the right amount of loft I was looking for! It was quilted on Ms. Mattie, my HandiQuilter Avante using Superior Threads, #401 So Fine 50 wt for the top and Silver Bottom Line for the bobbin. I used an edge to edge design from the Christies at My Creative Stitches (no affiliation – just a happy, satisfied customer!) called Rhapsody (Morning Star).

Many thanks to Island Batik, Schmetz needles, Hobbs Batting, Prairie Spirit Alpacas, and Deb Tucker Studio 180 Design Tools for this awesome challenge and providing the products used. And thanks to Aurifil for making such awesome thread!

To celebrate the Tool Talk Blog Hop, Island Batik is giving away a Fat Quarter bundle of the complete Island Batik Baroque or Bee Kind collections by Kathy Engle, designed for Quilt Basket and Swan Amity Studios respectively. Just complete the Raffle Copter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Visit my fellow ambassador, Jennifer Fulton, the Inquiring Quilter, to see the project she made today with this same bundle of Bee Kind fabric! You can see all the projects made this week by the other ambassadors by viewing this post which contains the schedule for each day.

Thank you for visiting today. I’ll see you next Sunday with the schedule for next week! Until then…keep on stitchin’ and grinnin’!!