Look at these beautiful batiks that BrendaLou at Scottie Dog Quilts has sent me. She is too kind! BrendaLou offered to send me some of her batiks but I didn't expect the lovely assortment that came in my mailbox! Look at those beautiful purples and blues! Thank you BrendaLou! Part of me wants to cut into these right away and make something, part of me wants to keep these to finger and admire as is. Oh, I have to find a pattern that will do these batiks justice!I just love batiks and all the natural patterns. They often have leaf and fern like patterns on them that make them seem all the more part of nature. And the mottling and blending of colors seems like something one would find on a flower petal or on the bark of a tree or in the sky at sunset. Batiks pull up in me mental images of woods and forests and open seascapes and the deep ocean.
When Tetsu and I got married I really didn't want cut flowers decorating our wedding reception. I wanted ferns and green plants (we got married in July. If it had been in the fall I probably would have wanted orange and yellow leaf arrangements). God's natural garden has always seemed so much more beautiful than anything I could coax to grow in my own. Even when I lived in a dormitory in Oregon, I decorated with ferns and ivy and exalted in the beauty of the forests surrounding the Portland campus. These beautiful batiks fill my mind with places I've been and places I have yet to explore.
I'm looking for a quilt pattern that will show off these batiks to their absolute best! Any suggestions? Should I try for something with big pieces to show the patterns to their best? Should I chose a pattern with small pieces so that the batiks will blend? What to do? What to do?!
10 comments:
Those are beautiful and aren't you lucky. I do have some Batiks in my stash, but I've never made up a quilt with them yet, so I have no suggestion for you on what type of pattern to use. I think you should do with them what you think you'd like. Rae Ann
sounds like the dreaming started by the batiks is a real gift from Brendalou as well. :-)
And just as well you like green foresty kinds of plants since you have a woods right outside your door!
Scottie Dog Quilts is the cutest quilt shop! I little far from your family in SoCal, but worth a little trip up north???
The fabrics are beautiful!
Kathy B
Yolo, CA
just my two cents but I would use something that lets the batiks shine through. They're beautiful designs.
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Here's a suggestion for a quilt that I keep saying I will make - even bought the rotary templates. It's called Winner's Bouquet by Atkinson Designs:
"http://www.atkinsondesigns.com/patterns/patternDetail.asp?productid=501"
I've seen one made up in batiks and it was stunning. It really shows off the fabric and the curved piecing is striking. I could loan you the template set if you can't find it there. Postage would probably be cheaper than buying it. Or I could draw it on template plastic to send you and you could do the old-fashioned trace and cut. Let me know if you're interested.
Excuse my deleted comment above. I messed up typing in the link.
Tanya, a challenge in applique is a beautiful quilt here: you have to google quiltersguildnsw.com/quiltshow2006
Look for "The Quilters' Guild of NSW. Inc. - Quilt Show 2006 Winners"
Click on "Amateur" und scroll down to "Fragile Beauty" by Karen Malone.
I'm already collecting animal patterns.
Tanya, I'm so glad you got the package of Batiks....I mailed them on Dec. 30 so they really didn't take very long to arrive. Enjoy them!
I found a basket design free block of the month at
http://www.quiltersguildofplano.org/bom/bom.shtml
It has been going since July last year but all the blocks are still posted. They are doing the blocks in batiks, so I thought you might be interested.
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