Wednesday, May 05, 2021

Quilt Modern - Day 3, Glacier Bay and my project!

 I'm excited to share my project for the Island Batik Ambassador Quilt Modern blog hop!  Every year that we have had a modern quilt challenge I have been stretched and learned so much.  Some of my modern quilt projects have ended up being my favorites, and this one is no exception!  The fabric and notions used to make this quilt were provided by Island Batik and their industry partners as part of their ambassador program.


My surprise package for this hop contained a collection that I love!  It's Glacier Bay, and is a beautiful collection of blues with lots of trees, bears, snowflakes and nature designs.  It was designed by Kathy Engle, and is one of my favorite ever collections for sure!  Like the rest of the winter collections you will be seeing this month, these are shipping out to local quilt shops now.

I felt like this collection really lent itself to an interesting modern quilt because it is monochromatic.  



My first idea for my quilt called for cutting the fabric into 1 1/2 inch strips, but I finally decided that cutting the fabric up so small would not show all the fun designs to their best advantage.  At that point I turned to the internet for some inspiration and after looking at several ideas I found this tutorial for a Square in a Square quilt that used 10 inch squares - perfect!  Plus, it worked out nicely for using all the directional prints in this collection as well!


Aren't these wonderfully wintery fabrics?  I put a brand new Schmetz Microtex size 10 needle in to do the piecing - along with a pale blue Aurifil thread (50 wt).  Those along with a brand new blade in my Rotary cutter made the work of cutting and piecing a breeze!  In no time at all I had the quilt top finished.  I really liked that the design of the quilt worked so well with the different fabrics.


Since the top was 51 by 60 I needed to piece the backing.  I used the yardage of the light print with polar bears and added a strip of the darker blue to make a wide enough piece for the backing.  I even managed to get the directional print right side up when I layered it with the top (I seem to end up with my backing going the opposite direction from the top more often than not!)  

For this quilt I used Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 batting.  It's a lovely soft batting with a nice hand and is so easy to work with.  I auditioned a couple of different Aurifil colors from my stash and ended up choosing the darker blue, which I really liked because you could see the quilting on the lighter fabrics.  I also switched to a size 12 Schmetz needle.


I quilted it using a spiral design, then used the dark blue with moons as the binding.  I tried something a little different - it was a tip that my fellow ambassador Gail shared with us.  She does not press her binding in half before attaching it to the quilt.  It sounded interesting so I decided to try it, and it worked out really well, I have to say!  You can check out her binding tutorial and give it a try yourself!  I did not have any glue, but next time I plan to give that a try as well.  You can see the rounded edge on the binding in the above picture before I pressed it away from the back and stitched it to the front.

Aren't all the blues lovely in this quilt?  I love them!  I was so glad to have a lovely day to take an outdoor picture or two as well!


The back really shows the quilting off!  Swirls are such a fun and easy quilting design - they make me think of wind and water.  Such a nice way to add texture to a quilt using all straight lines in the piecing.

It was so much fun choosing pairs of fabric to make the blocks out of!  Bears with trees was a natural choice, don't you think?
I'm very happy with my modern quilt!  To see another quilt made using this line, visit the blog of Jane Hauprich, Stitch by Stitch Custom Quilting who is making a project with Glacier Bay as well!



Thank you to Island Batik, Hobbs Batting, Aurifil Thread and Schmetz needles for the supplies I used to make this lovely quilt, as well as the inspiration!








11 comments:

Jennifer Schifano Thomas said...

Beautiful quilt, Pamela! It does showcase the fabrics well and from a distance it looks like falling snow to me. Have a great day!

Sally said...

Love all those beautiful Blues Pamela!

For the love of geese said...

Oh this is so beautiful, such a pretty collection.

Emily said...

I love all these blues, and what fun animals! Lovely quilt, Pamela! Such fun!

Cindy Shelley said...

Gorgeous

mumbird3 said...

I love blue quilts! This one is gorgeous!

Quilting Gail said...

I absolutely LOVE this quilt!!! Blue is my favourite colour! Sew, any time you want to give it away, you now know where to send it!
I'm SEW glad that you tried out my binding technique ... it'll save you tons of time in the future!!
Happy Quilting! :-)

Μοιρούλα said...

Love all those beautiful Blues

GranChris said...

My favorite quilt color, blue. Your quilt is lovely.

Elizabeth said...

Great use of the beautiful fabrics

Sue D said...

Very pretty. I like the square in a square.