When the fabric is the star and you want to keep the quilt pattern easy, quick and simple - but still interesting!
These batik fabrics have been around in my local Spotlight for a while, and I finally purchased some of them in a recent sale. Spotlight named this fabric line "Indonesian Batik" but according to the labels, they are made in India. Regardless, they are the most delicious combination of my favourite colours and I have never enjoyed a quilt project more.
I had a few criteria while figuring out the pattern for this quilt. First, I wanted to keep the patchwork pattern very simple so it doesn't take anything away from the beautiful batik prints. Second, I wanted it to have a little modern look, which ruled out all the simple traditional patterns like the square patchwork and the rail fence. Lastly, I wanted it to be quick and easy.
I found my inspiration in this blog post by Lincolncrafts.com, where you will find a very nicely written pattern for a similar quilt. But since my Easy Batik Quilt is somewhat different in colour placements, block arrangement and size, I will include below a pattern guide on how to make my Easy Batik Quilt. You will also notice that I have used some pink, red and maroon accent fabrics to give my quilt a little modern look.
Batik fabric cuts and sub-cuts.
My quilt backing is this soft pink fabric also purchased from my local Spotlight (we really, really don't have that many choices of quilt stores).
As usual, I used the pool-noodle method to baste my quilt sandwich.
I chose simple diagonal parallel line quilting at 1-inch intervals. I used pale purple threads that blend very nicely into those batik fabrics.
I used the same red accent batik fabric for binding. This is a 9 cm wide fabric strip folded in half.
DESIGN
The center panel is made of 49 (7 by 7) nos. of 26 cm square blocks. My border was 13 cm wide all around (including the binding part, which was about 1.5 cm wide). The quilt finished at 208 cm x 208 cm - my biggest quilt yet.
The 26cm square blocks are made of sub-blocks, which I shall name Sub-Blocks A, B and C as shown below.
THE FOLLOWING DIAGRAM SHOWS FINISHED SIZE OF THE SQUARE BLOCKS.
THE FOLLOWING DIAGRAMS SHOW CUT AND SUB-CUT SIZES OF THE SUB-BLOCKS:
Note that Sub-Block A is made up of two pieces of rectangles pieced together along the shorter edge. Since my seam allowance was 1 cm, I pieced together 2 rectangles of 13 cm x 15 cm along the 13 cm edge to get my Sub-Blocks A.
After preparing all the sub-blocks, simply piece them to make the 26 cm x 26 cm square blocks, and then piece the square blocks to form the center panel. It will be helpful to have the design illustration either displayed on a tablet or printed out for reference while cutting and piecing.
Once the center panel is done, sew on the borders to complete the quilt top. Finally, as usual, baste the quilt top to your choice of batting and backing fabric, quilt as desired and bind - and the quilt is done!