Secondary Pattern Challenge With Island Batik

July's challenge in the Island Batik Ambassador program was 'Pattern Play, Secondary Pattern Challenge'. This is my completed piece, a baby quilt of 36" square.

In January when I received the Ambassador Box, I also received a "secret" collection, London Calling . The collection had it's public debut in Spring Market in May.

For my project I chose two fabrics from this collection (the two blue on the left on the picture above), in addition to three Batik Foundations plus my neutral, Sprinkles.

My design is inspired by the Blueberry Swirl Quilt pattern.

I chose a 3 by 3 block layout for my baby quilt. The specifications for the challenge quilt was 36"x36" or larger, and that is perfect for 12" blocks.

The first block is a traditional Sawtooth star block, with the star points in Batik Foundations Rain, the 'geese' fabric is London Calling Fountain Storm and the corner blocks in Foundations Marble Smoke. The center of the stars is the batik neutral, Sprinkles.

The second block shows a pinwheel with a little swirl. The blue fabric in this block, Floral Vine Universe from the London Calling collection, is such a rich and intense color, and it contrasts well with the Foundations Dot Sky.

The magic happens when the blocks are sewn together, they merge into each other, there is a blueberry swirl effect, and in addition there are cute four patches in white and grey appearing.

For this quilt I decided to do the quilting a little different from my previous quilts. Walking foot quilting has always been a safe haven for me, but this time I wanted to challenge myself with FMQ and ruler quilting.  Since the center of the star blocks were quite big with a light fabric, I quilted a cross hatch pattern in white Aurifil 40wt thread. I used Aurifil 50wt thread in the bobbin.

 The fabrics make me long for going picking wild blueberries later this season, the blueberry forest is just a five minute walk from my house! The binding fabric, Bubble Hole Tin, is from the Batik Foundations, and I think it looks like like tiny blueberries spread all over!

The finished baby quilt spread out on my lawn. I did free motion quilting (with swirls) in the blueberry swirls and ruler quilting in the sawtooth stars and the four patches.

Quilt stats:

Size: 36" x 36"

Fabric: Island Batik London Calling, Batik Foundations, and neutral Sprinkles. Binding is Foundations Bubble Hole, Tin.

Thread: Aurifil 50wt 2024, and Aurifil 40wt in 2024, 2715 and 2785

Batting: Hobbs Cotton Batting

All the fabrics, thread and batting were given to me by Island Batik.

Happy Quilting!