Our challenge this month for the Island Batik Brand Ambassador's was the Modern Batik Challenge. This challenge started out rather challenging for me (hmmmm, maybe that's why they call it a challenge :) )
Stereotypically, I normal design Modern Quilts with yards of white fabric, some random splashes of bright solids and lots of intricate quilting. So the challenge for me was ME - I had to get outside my box and think PURELY about the design - and then plug the fabrics into the equation. It took about a week for me to come up with the design... I had another design sketched that I kept playing with but it just wasn't coming together - then one night, right as I was getting ready for bed, this design materialized in my mind. So I quickly grabbed a pencil and sketched it on graph paper. In the morning I took one look and was sold on it! At the studio, I started plugging in fabrics. I had been saving my Lake Life collection of fabrics for this project and they fit effortlessly! (which was a good thing since I had spent a lot of mental effort on the design!)
So without further adieu - I present to you Modern Chain ....
The design has many of the same features as any other modern quilt - lots of negative space and a very strong design element.
From the precut 2-1/2" strips, I sorted out the blue strips for the binding, the dark green strips for one chain and gold strips for the other chain and the perfect muted green for when the two chains crisscross each other. The background fabric features beautiful fish motifs that appear to be swimming around the quilt.
And in true confession style - I actually designed and pieced the quilt back in April and it has been sitting patiently waiting to be quilted. While I had a very custom quilt plan in mind, I knew I didn't want to overwhelm the batiks with by quilting them to death - so instead I opted for an overall design that mimics the swirls in the background fabric.
As I was catching a few photos tonight, I decided to drape the quilt on the swing on our patio. I hadn't even thought about how inviting it would look there!
Like most things in my life, the "paw of approval" is very important and Miss Zoey says this quilt is a keeper :)
Very pretty! I love the way the swirly quilting contrasts with the pieceing!
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