My Bali Love Affair
I've never been to Bali but I do enjoy working with fabrics that share the same name. My love affair started when I decided to make this Karen Stone hibiscus quilt design for my my sister Chantel:
As my sister Amy will testify, I traipsed all over the [State] Victorian countryside, in my quest for bali and batik fabrics which are not readily available in Australia. (These days I know better and would go straight to Chandlers Cottage, equilter or Hancocks of Paducah.)
I like bali/batiks for their textured, hand-dyed appearance and the range of colours available. I'm not so keen on the "muddy" variety of batik fabrics but often even these can be redeemed by strategic colour placement. For example, the dowdy batik used in my fishnet quilt was positively transformed by combining it with black blocks:
Shelina has some interesting thoughts on buying fabric on her blog together with some useful insights for first time quilters. On the subject of beginner quilters, I found that baby quilts were an ideal way to learn and experiment with new techniques. You'll be pleased to know that my sister Amy was not too traumatised by the experience of our road trip being hijacked by a quilt shop hop and she later made this quilt:
And lest you are worrying that Amy does not have one of my quilts, she actually has TWO. I was already well advanced with Amy's China Blues when Amy got married and I got to indulge may passion for bali fabrics all over again in the Confetti Wedding Quilt:
As my sister Amy will testify, I traipsed all over the [State] Victorian countryside, in my quest for bali and batik fabrics which are not readily available in Australia. (These days I know better and would go straight to Chandlers Cottage, equilter or Hancocks of Paducah.)
I like bali/batiks for their textured, hand-dyed appearance and the range of colours available. I'm not so keen on the "muddy" variety of batik fabrics but often even these can be redeemed by strategic colour placement. For example, the dowdy batik used in my fishnet quilt was positively transformed by combining it with black blocks:
Shelina has some interesting thoughts on buying fabric on her blog together with some useful insights for first time quilters. On the subject of beginner quilters, I found that baby quilts were an ideal way to learn and experiment with new techniques. You'll be pleased to know that my sister Amy was not too traumatised by the experience of our road trip being hijacked by a quilt shop hop and she later made this quilt:
And lest you are worrying that Amy does not have one of my quilts, she actually has TWO. I was already well advanced with Amy's China Blues when Amy got married and I got to indulge may passion for bali fabrics all over again in the Confetti Wedding Quilt:
posted by Brenda at 8:54 am
2 Comments:
I found this post really interesting as in building my stash I've been ignoring batiks as the one's I've seen have been highly patterned and I wasn't sure how to use them but yours seem much more subtle and textured rather than patterned or is that just the effect of a photo? Either way I love the quilt - like all your others its just so cheery!
Have you a use in mind for the batiks from Harrogate yet?
nice, it remembers me the cutting papers, i mean the collage of matisse series.
http://paintisnotdead.blogspot.com/
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