Try It! With Island Batik

June's challenge in the Island Batik Ambassador program was to try a technique that we hadn't done before.

Last year I got very inspired by a mini quilt by Twiggy and Opal , using both fabric weaving and a piping-like piece in the quilt.

There are always leftovers and scraps from making quilts, and I tend to keep all usable pieces. Here is the colorful bundle of  batik scraps from the Southern Blooms collection that I used in a quilt made last year. It is perfect for June's challenge.

Note:  All products in this post were given to me by Island Batik as part of their Ambassador program.

I cut batik strips 1/2" wide and fed them through the bias tape maker. The strips were pressed well for the weaving.

Strips of 1/4" width are then carefully weaved together, I made one warm and one cool palette .

I used interfacing to keep the woven pieces together before incorporating them into the quilt.

Then there was the piping-like part. With all the gorgeous scraps from the Southern Blooms collection I decided to make a rainbow-like gradation. One inch strips of colored batiks are pressed in half and sewn in between white batik strips.

I used Aurifil 50wt in white #2024 for the piecing.

Here are all the strips sewn together, and the fabric weave pieces ready with interfacing.

Then I cut the gradation strip set in two and arranged the pieces into a pleasing design. As you can see, pressing of the colored strips gives life to the quilt.

The top is finished and I want to stroke the beautiful colored strips all the time! The woven pieces are approximately 2 1/4" square. each.

The backside a gorgeous display of colors against the solid white batik!

I kept the quilting simple, machine quilted with Aurifil 50wt in white #2024, and as a final touch I hand quilted two stripes of Aurifil 12wt blue #2815 and green #2890 on the right hand side, and last but not least a cross stitch row in Aurifil 12wt pink #2479 on top.

Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Bleached Cotton Batting was used in the quilt sandwich.

The binding is a neutral batik called Sprinkles.

The quilting shows off best on the backside. Hanging pockets are made, and this quilt will definitely brighten up my sewing room! Then I can pet it every day!

The finished mini is 12 1/2" x 15 1/2".

Low sun rays makes a dramatic effect on the quilt.

This concludes my June challenge; I didn't only try one new technique to me, but actually two! Fabric weaving with tiny strips and incorporating piping-like piecing in a quilt is now a part of my experience, and I wouldn't be surprised if there will be more of this in the future, because this was fun!