Great Outdoors Blog Hop with Island Batik - Globetrotter

Welcome to the Island Batik Ambassadors Great Outdoors Blog hop!

It's my day to share with you the project I made as an Island Batik Ambassador starring the Globetrotter line.  I was blown away by the variety and intensity of color in this line.  So gorgeous, and the fun globes, luggage and world landmarks add great interest to them!

 One of my goals as an Island Batik Ambassador this year was to create a bed size quilt with the fabric I received, so I knew this was my opportunity to come up with a great large scale project!  And with so many different fabrics, it really played into my love of a good scrappy project.

Well, if you know me at all, you know that I have a definite thing for all things Paris - so that was my inspiration for my project.  It took me a lot of thinking, and playing around with these fabrics trying to figure out what to do.  Maybe something like this lovely tile floor?

I started cutting some triangles, and sewing them together, thinking that maybe I could come up with a kind of mosaic or tile design and decided that I loved mixing up all the fabrics together.

Keeping it simple and sticking to triangles in light/dark pairs seemed to work best, and would make a great border so I can do something that really stands out in the center.  The addition of a three part border with the dark "blurple" globes and a bit more of the fabric I used for the background of the center set it off beautifully.

It's so big it doesn't fit on my swing!  Are you curious to see what I did with the center of the quilt yet?  Or have you guessed?
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You see, I definitely had the perfect inspiration for the center of my quilt!
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The Eiffel Tower!  Yes, it's great, and it's outdoors - what could be more perfect?  I even had a pattern to use.  (unfortunately, it's now out of print, so I can't pass a link for it along.)  "La Tour Eiffel" by Metropolitan Quilt.

As you can see in the picture, the Eiffel Tower is actually a lovely soft brown - so I chose this fabric for the tower:

So gorgous!  I love the results, but you can see how much work it was to cut out!  It only took a half yard to cut it out in three different sections, but it was close.

And here is the finished quilt with the triangle borders:

Well - as you can see one of the challenges of making a queen size quilt is being able to take a decent photograph of it!  Outside on the lawn.

Here it is on my bed:

I love how the quilting shows in this picture!  I used the Hobbs Thermore batting in this quilt that was sent in my ambassador box, and it was perfect.  It's so light and thin that it really makes machine quilting a large quilt on a domestic machine a piece of cake.  I also used some of the Aurifil thread I received  for this - a light and medium brown, both in 50 wt.  I stitched all around the edges of the tower, then did a hook and swirl in the background around it.  For the triangles I stitched 1/4 inch on each side of the seams - I thought this would echo the gridwork look of the tower.  The border got loops and more swirls. Here's a peak at the quilting from the back side:

This quilt is the perfect size for a queen size bed, so I can say that I officially met the challenge that I set for myself.

And aren't the colors just gorgeous?  Frankly I was a little worried about how they would play together, but as I often say, one of the nice things about working with batiks is the way that they blend together and always look great!

Would you like a chance to play with all these fun colors?  I've cut 3 sets of 5 inch squares to give away.  Anyone can enter, I will ship internationally for this one!  I have a plan for a little project with these, so the winners might have to keep their eyes open for ideas on how to use them next month.


a Rafflecopter giveaway


My giveaway will end next week.  If you haven't already entered - Island Batik is giving away three different prizes as well:


a Rafflecopt er giveaway

Thanks for following along on our blog hop!  We still have a lot left, so here is the list once more:

Monday, August 6 - All A Flutter - Yellow Cat Quilt Designs, Creative Blonde

Tuesday, August 7 - Birds N’ Bees - Ark Angel Creations, Patterns By Jen

Wednesday, August 8 - Canterbury Manor - Sally Manke, Powered By Quilting

Thursday, August 9 - Eclectic Garden - Desert Bloom Quilting, Sew Karen-ly Created

Friday, August 10 - Vintage Morris - MooseStash Quilting, Devoted Quilter

Monday, August 13 - Safari - Sew Incredibly Crazy, SweetGrass Designs

Tuesday, August 14 - Spring Blossoms - Mary Mack Made Mine, If These Threads Could Talk

Wednesday, August 15 - Victoria and Albert - Bejeweled Quilts, Clever Chameleon

Thursday, August 16 - Wild Things - Freemotion By The River, Kauffman Designs

Friday, August 17 - Petting Zoo - Den Syende Himmel, Sarah Goer Quilts

Monday, August 20 - Ocean Odyssey - Gateway Quilts, The Quilt Rambler

Tuesday, August 21 - British Rose - Busy Hands Quilts, Mania for Quilts

Wednesday, August 22 - Dear William - The Inquiring Quilter, MMM Quilts, Living Water Quilter

Thursday, August 23 - Dragonfly Dreams - Inchworm Fabrics, BeaQuilter

Friday, August 24 - Fur-ocious Friends - Quilting Affection Designs, Dizzy Quilter

Monday, August 27 - Globetrotter - Pamela Quilts, Curliecue Creations

Tuesday, August 28 - Jungle Cruise - Vicki's Crafts and Quilting, Little Bunny Quilts

Wednesday, August 29 - Lavendula - Carole Lyles Shaw, Masterpiece Quilting

Thursday, August 30 - London Calling - Quilt in a Not-Shell, Lizard Creek Quilting

Friday, August 31 - Spirit Rhythm - Steph Jacobson, Whispers of Yore

Monday, September 3 - Sweet Tweets - Kathleen McMusing, Adventurous Applique and Quilting

Tuesday, September 4 - Whatnot - heARTS Creations, Slice of Pi Quilts

Make sure you leave a comment when you visit the blogs - we love knowing that our friends are visiting and enjoying our projects and posts. And don't forget to tell your local quilt shop which of these lines from Island Batik you would like them to carry.  Thanks for visiting my blog!