It’s time for another month of quilt eye candy! Let the May 2023 Island Batik ambassador blog hop begin. This month I was given the absolutely gorgeous new Island Batik fabric line called Sea Cookies. The challenge was to use a tool from Deb Tucker’s Studio 180 Design. I got the Split Recs rulers which has been on my wish list for a while now. Welcome to my beach themed quilt blog hop. Enjoy!

I call my quilt “Shore Break”. This design has been floating (no pun intended) around in my head for quite some time. My new ruler was perfect, as were the beach-themed fabrics. Using my Electric Quilt 8 software, I came up with the quilt and I’m so happy with the way it turned out.

Disclosure: Items in the post were generously provided by Island Batik, Deb Tucker’s Studio 180 Design, Hobbs Batting, Aurifil Thread and Schmetz Needles.

The Fabric

Sea Cookies was designed by Kate Colleran of Kate Colleran Designs. Filled with beautiful pinks, blues, teals, yellows and greens, it is a wonderful collection. Many of the fabrics incorporate a beach theme. You can find starfish, sand dollars and flowers scattered among the fabrics.

In addition to the pack of 20 half yard cuts from the fabric line, I received 2 yards each of more fabric from the line, the dark and light versions of the starfish fabric (pictured on the left). I paired that with one of Island Batik’s neutral foundations called Ghost (the cream colored one in the photo on the left).

For my quilt I alternated a row of one of the new fabrics with a row of the neutral. Using the ruler I tried to make it look like waves breaking on the shore. For the borders I used the two off-white fabrics from Sea Cookies and combined them with the two darkest blue ones to form the waves around the outside.

Finally, for the back I used the lighter yardage from the quilt combined with other Island Batik yardage I had on hand.

The Ruler

I have always wanted Deb Tucker’s Split Rects ruler. Half rectangles can be tricky to make and this tool makes it much easier. As a quilt pattern designer it opens up a whole new world of designs for me.

The tool comes with a handy instruction pamphlet and once I tried it a couple of times I was off and running. Best of all, each one of my units came out perfectly. I can’t wait to use it again.

I used two different sizes for my half rectangles. The waves around the border were about an inch larger than the center ones.

Other Quilt Specs

For the batting I used Hobbs Bleached Cotton It had the ideal drape that I was looking for. To piece it I used Aurifil thread (Butter) which matched the background fabric perfectly. The needles I used were Schmetz Microtex 80/12 which are ideal for sewing with batiks.

I sent this out to my longarmer Melinda Keppler of Scottiebelle Designs. She did a wonderful job quilting water and dolphins into it! It adds a fun touch to the piece.

My Beach Themed Quilt Blog Hop and Giveaway!

Thank you to all of the sponsors for this month’s blog hop.

I am doing a giveaway of some charm squares of this fabric line on my Instagram and Facebook page. Look for the post with the photo below and it will tell you how to enter.

Sea Cookies Is Shipping to These Stores Soon!