Top it Off! A finished Quilt

I made it!  Even in the midst of crazy apple season I was able to create a fun table topper featuring island batik fabrics for the October Island batik Ambassador Challenge.

This month’s Island Batik Ambassador Challenge is to create a table topper with applique celebrating a season.  The fabrics showcased in this post were given to me by Island Batik as a part of the ambassador program.  I chose to celebrate Apple Season with my table topper!

This table topper started off as a square and then I realized it needed to be circular.  I folded the fabric in half and marked a quarter circle with a radius of approximately 20”.  The four layers of fabric were held together securely with SewTites.  Using a sharp fabric scissors I was able to cut the circle out and it turned out fabulously!

I then pieced together a set of 2.5” Little Sir Little Miss strips along with some brown Island Batik 2.5” strips to create fabric I would eventually use for branches.

The next step was to fuse HeatNBond Lite onto the back of Island Batik fabrics.  I used my circular olfa rotary cutter to cut perfect circles and then I free motion cut leaves out of the greens.

Then I sandwiched my circle top with Hobbs 80/20 Heirloom batting in the middle and a pieced Island Batik backing.  Once the quilt sandwich was prepped, I pressed a few apples (circles) and leaves onto the quilt top.  Over those I layered branches and stitched them down with a zig zag stitch and aurifil thread.  I kept layering branches, apples and leaves until I felt like the topper was where I wanted it.  Once all the leaves and apples were fused on, I free motion stitched around the edges of them all to secure them into place.

My goal with this quilt was to have it look like you were looking straight down at the top of an apple tree.  It’s a bit artsy but I think I accomplished it!  I finished it by binding it with a binding cut on bias and pulling it under for a faced binding.

I’m happy with this 40” diameter table topper and I think it gives you the idea of celebrating apple season!