It's July and time to be fancy with Island Batik and Aurifil Artsy Fartsy Challenge!

"The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik"

#islandbatik #islandbatikambassador #thebestfrombali #iloveislandbatik #summernightsquilt #aurifil #aurifilthread #aurifil50wt #forty3 #aurifil12wt #aurifilfloss #julychallenge #hobbsbatting #accuquilt #pellon #wonderunder #handiquilter #hqamara #berninausa

Twice a year the Island Batik Ambassadors receive boxes filled with a variety of Island Batik collections, stash builders and precuts (Don't forget to check my second unboxing video with some of the Spring/Summer new Collections!). We also receive goodies from industry partners for the upcoming challenges and this month it's Aurifil Artsy Fartsy Challenge! We had the green light to get fancy with Aurifil threads and to create a one of a kind art quilt using three different thread weights.

My idea started actually in March... When I was using my Accuquilt GO! for the very first time and did cut ALL my dark navy prints from my Stash Builders Precut... yep, I was in a "cutting spiral" for sure. So, my plan was use the 2 1/2" squares for the April's Challenge but my in house quilt police team stopped me, because it was "too dark for a baby background quilt, even if you bring the entire ocean to the quilt, mom". So "Amen" the squares were in stand by mode.

Because July is the last month of my first semester as Island Batik Ambassador, my fabric's resource were also limited, so the navy 2 1/2" squares become perfect to be the background's project!

My inspiration was one of the panels, from a "family" of panels that I designed a couple years ago on my Ipad pro with Procreate. The panel was in stand by too, like most of my ideas, waiting for the perfect fabric and time to come to live.

How cool as an artist it is to have 270 cotton colors to coordinate with all your creative ideas? Aurifil 50wt thread, one of the most versatile and popular Cotton threads of the market (the iconic orange spools) can also be used for quilting & topstitching, English Paper Piecing, Needle Turn Appliqué, Bobbin and Machine Lace, Machine Appliqué (Straight Stitch, ZigZag, Blind Hem and Blanket Stitch,) Machine Embroidery, Dense Machine Quilting, Subtle Machine and Longarm Quilting, Basting, Whole Cloth and Micro Quilting, and Dense Background Designs.

Why Aurifil Forty3? Because this 3ply cotton thread was made specifically to handle the rigor of high-speed and high-tech Longarm machines (like mine!) and I also wanted to highlight all the stitches from the background. The Forty3 is currently available in 50 cotton colors and I hope the family just keep growing, long live the Forty3!

The next step was my most expected one, embellish the flowers with other thread weights and some hand embroidery magic! For this, I used Aurifil 12wt in cotton variegated colors 4657 and 3840 and Aurifil Cotton Floss colors 1133 and 2435.

And finally the result of this "Thread Marathon"! My Summer Nights Quilt! I hope you liked it and see you next month!