The December Island Batik challenge is to make a medallion quilt. The instructions said “A medallion quilt is all about a center block and borders.” Easy peasy … right?
So, I went to EQ and designed a great medallion quilt using “Sundance” fabric collection (a 10″ stack), as well as “Marble Blackberry-BE” and “Copper” that I received as a companion fabrics. Aren’t these fabrics great? (And, as the quilt progressed several other fabrics were incorporated from other fabric lines).
The EQ pattern I designed had paper pieced stars and I started out with a bang. I made all of the paper pieced stars and then promptly decided to change up the design and put the centre block on point. I felt that it would be shown off better if I put it on point and framed it with my favourite dark fabric in the pack.
From there on, the measurements did not fit at all. And I had to do a lot of fudging. The quilt I ended up making is formally called “Sundance Fudge.”
I came across a tutorial from Deb Tucker with migrating geese. Oh … those look like fun and so, after figuring out that the width, with a bit of a border would work … I went to town and made them. They were a LOT of fun to make. However, I needed more light background and I used “121935500” from the Santa Fe collection.
The final pieced border was also fun to make. I’d used up all of the lighter fabrics for the Paper Pieced stars and migrating geese … so I used “Custard,” a neutral. The yellowish hue was perfect for this quilt!
Making the back
I took the copper fabric that I had left over and sliced it diagonally. Then I placed it over the quilt, leaving about 3″ beyond the edges of the quilt. I like that extra amount for handling the quilt on my domestic sewing machine. Next, the distance between the 2 copper pieces was measured (27″) and I cut a length of Marble Blackberry to form the stripe in the middle. Joined the 2 copper triangles to the middle stripe and called it “done” for the back.
Sorry, I didn’t take a picture of the back until after it was quilted. Here’s a picture of the finished back … taken outside so that you can see the front peeking through …
The Batting
I received a queen-sized fusible 80/20 bag of batting in my July Island Batik box. I took it out of the package and needed to let it “breathe” for 24 hours. No, putting it in the drier to fluff it up, no ironing to make the crinkles disappear. It was wound very tightly in the bag and I needed to gently pull it apart.
To read more about Hobbs fusible batting visit the Hobbs website HERE. (Picture was taken from the Hobbs website).
I layered the quilt back, the batting and the top on a queen size bed. The batting was cut about 1/4″ larger than the quilt top. When I pressed the layers together, I was very careful to avoid the edges. It adhered nicely. The back didn’t adhere very well, so I turned the sandwich over and ironed from the back. It was perfect! I loved how the fusible batting did not shift at all! No wrinkles in the back. Loved it!
The Quilting
Here’s a picture of the centre star – from the back … (I’m showing you the back because the quilting shows up much better on the Marble Blackberry!)
Here’s a picture of the centre star – from the front…
And the quilting on the back of the meandering geese and the squares from the outside border. As you can see, the quilting has a lot of stippling … (the colour is off in this picture … the yellow is actually the copper fabric … true colour above!)
The Quilt
Now that you’ve seen the back and close-ups of the quilting, here’s the quilt:
Quilt statistics:
- size 54″ x 54″
- Hobbs 80/20 fusible batting
- Quilted with Aurifil #5021
- Schmetz needle: Microtex Chrome 80/12
Thank You!
Disclaimer: This quilt would not have been possible without Island Batik and the wonderful co-sponsors.
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