Modern Batik Challenge

 

The June challenge in the Island Batik Ambassador program was a fun one, create a modern quilt crib size or larger. This is my resulting quilt, made from the Southern Blooms collection including a neutral, almost white batik.

 

I used quite some time searching the internet for examples of modern quilts, weighing the designs up against the fabrics that were available to me. The instructions were as stated below.

  

Must incorporate one of the characteristics of modern quilts as defined by the Modern Quilt Guild (the use of bold colors and prints, high contrast and graphic areas of solid color, improvisational piecing, Minimalism, expansive negative space, alternate grid work).

 This is the collection of batiks that was my starting point, the Southern Blooms collection. I wanted to use as many of these fabrics as possible, I had 30 different fat eight cuts. I used the same collection for the challenge in May, but still had plenty left over.

I wanted to showcase all the 30 beautiful batiks in one quilt, and after some searching I landed on this relatively simple block, inspired by Jenifer Dick and her book Nine-Patch Revolution.

The magic comes when you put the blocks together. The white/neutral batik in the crosses form a color consistent grid over the background colors.

I wanted a gradation effect in my quilt, from the lightest colors in the top left color down to the darkest in the bottom right corner. I used quite some time working with the value of each color and the placement of the blocks. There were "zillion" pictures taken, making them black/white to see if the value gradation was correct. It was amazing to see how my initial interpretation of the colors didn't always work out with the value. The picture above shows the final layout of the blocks.

 Here the quilt top is sewn together. It looks like a white lattice hovering over the background colors.

I am very fond of spiral quilting, and what would be more appropriate on a modern quilt than that! I used the walking foot and Aurifil 50wt in white 2024 for the quilting.

I started the spiral in the red/orange block and just continued from there until I reached the outer edge. Then I started filling in smaller spirals in an improvisational manner, there was no specific plan plan.

 I used Paisley Dot Sky for the binding. The quilt gives a very summery feeling,

Naming the quilt is always difficult, Summer Sherbet was a name that came to me during the process of making the quilt. Due to the gradation of the color blocks you get a new interpretation of the color scheme when looking at different sections, from cooler to warmer colors. I love the optical illusion in this quilt.

 Ikea Britten Nummer was used as the backing.

It looks like a yummy Summer Sherbet, doesn't it?

 Quilt stats:

Size: 52" x 63"

Fabric: Island Batik Southern Blooms for the colored background, neutral is Sprinkles in white, and binding is Paisley Dot, Sky

Thread: Aurifil 50wt white 2024

Batting: Hobbs Cotton Batting

The fabrics, thread and batting that was used for making this project was given to me by Island Batik. One of the biggest joys of being an Island Batik Ambassador is to get to play with the fabrics they send me.

Happy quilting!

Another Table Runner Made

There's quite a lot of specialty rulers available for quilters, and I wonder how many un-used ones are lying around. For my own sake I have had the Mini Quick Curve Ruler from Sew Kind of Wonderful for a fairly long while, and it wasn't before it was demonstrated at my quilt guild that I "dared" to start using it myself.

I started with the pattern that was included with the ruler, just to get the hang of it. I used fabrics from Connecting Threads; Birchtree Lane in brown and green, and Heather's Garden as the background print.

My frozen deck is a good background for the table runner.

The cutting of the curves was absolutely no problem, but it was kind of intimidating to get all the points to match. Next time I use it I have to try to be more accurate in the cutting/assembling process.

Nevertheless, I don't think there's anybody but me that can see the small "beauty spots" in the runner.
The birch tree outside the fence is fitting very nicely with the fabric line.

The quilt that was shown at the quilt guild meeting was beautifully quilted on a long arm, but I wanted to quilt the runner myself on my domestic machine.

I have done spiral quilting once before, on this baby quilt , and I thought that would be perfect for the inner circles. The "leaves " in green and dark brown were free motion quilted. The background outside the leaves were quilted with dense stippling such that the leaves would "pop" out to a certain extent.

The fabric on the back of the runner is the least busy of the fabrics in the Birchtree Lane line, and this one shows off the quilting very well. The picture was taken before the binding was attached, but you can see the binding fabric on the outside of the runner.

I am very pleased with my quilting on this one, and it gives me more incentive to try out even more quilting designs in the future!

Keep on quilting!