The March Island Batik Ambassador Challenge is called It's All Up to You. This month we could create anything we desired with our wonderful selections of Island Batik fabric.
I like how the blues gradate in color with the flying geese. I received a 10 Stack package of Tantalizing Teals in my January Island Batik box and thought it would work really well with this pattern.
So----I ordered the pattern online. After a couple weeks of delays and no pattern I finally decided I needed to work on a different design.. The pattern finally arrived - having traveled coast to coast and finally back to me. Whew! What a trip! This was challenge one for me.
So I decided to go ahead with this pattern. But - I wanted to make this a wall size quilt. The pattern gives directions for three sizes which is really nice. The sizes are Queen, Twin and Lap. No wall size, so I had to reduce the pattern sizes. This was challenge two for me.
Next I had to decide which teals to use from my stack. The teals are beautiful but come in a range of sort of blue teals and green tint teals. I picked 5 of the blue/teals to work with. This was challenge 3.
Next I had to decide the lily colors. I loved the blue and yellows used in the pattern, but yellow just didn't work with the teals I picked out. After trying several different colors I finally decided on a light peach. I didn't like the peach with blues on either side like in the pattern, so I auditioned more fabrics and finally picked a darker peach/orange for the inner petals on the lily. Now what to use for the center of the lily. More pulling fabric and auditioning colors. I finally picked an even darker peach/orange fabric that had little blue dots. Whew- that was a lot of thinking and experimenting. Challenge 4 and 5!
By now I was not excited about this quilt and all the time it had taken. Not fun to work on a project you aren't in love with, but I plugged along. Not any photos at this point due to frustration and so many fabric pulls.
I made the flying geese with paper piecing and I added the peach colors in the outside rows like in the pattern and I liked that.
When I got to making the lilies I just didn't like using the blue teals for the petals under the lilies. It was too light and looked washed out. More auditioning and looking at all the teals in my stack package. I finally picked out a greenish teal for the petal leaves and a very dark green/teal for the stem and stamens. Another challenge! Am I up to 6 challenges now?
The stems and stamens were fusible applique.
I used a solid white Island Batik for the background so the colors would pop, and added buttons to the flowers instead of appliqueing so many circles. I like how the buttons add a shine to the lilies.
I used Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Bleached Cotton batting which added a nice low loft.
An assortment of Aurifil Thread matched really well to the fabrics and Schmetz needles made sewing a breeze.
