Batik Love

As I look back on my previous blog posts, I noticed how many of my recent projects have involved batik fabrics.

The more I use them, the more I love them.

Some of the reasons are practical - because of the higher thread-count base fabric, they are crisp and flat and stable, so they finger-press very nicely.  I can get nice accurate results in my finished quilts.

The other reasons are more aesthetic.  The colors are just glorious, and the shading and prints are beautiful.  I feel like an artist when I'm creating with batiks and the batiks are my paints.

But it's more than that...

While I was pressing the fabrics for this latest set of batik placemats to list on Etsy, it hit me...

It's the smell!

Have you ever noticed the odor of hot pressed batiks?  When heated with an iron, the residual wax left in the fabric from the manufacturing process smells exactly like a new box of

CRAYOLA  CRAYONS!

It takes me back to my childhood and the thrill of opening a brand-new box of crayons.

One of my favorite things...

A Stitch In Color - a new quilt!

I have a new quilt project to share with you today.  I spent a snowy afternoon yesterday arranging all the units on my design wall.  Looks like my design wall is just the right size for this one!

My DIL sent me a jelly roll that she bought, and asked me to make her something with it.  Together, we picked out the pattern, and after auditioning several background fabrics, finally decided on Kona White.  It keeps the quilt very fresh and modern-looking.

The fabric collection is A Stitch In Color by Malka Dubrawsky for Moda.

The pattern is Hexie Framed by Quilty Love.

I sewed all the white strips on to the half hexies at a quilting retreat a couple of weeks ago.  Each piece had to be sewn, pressed, then trimmed.  It's very repetitious - perfect for working on at a retreat while talking and laughing with friends.  Yes, I whined a little, but it was so satisfying to know that I got them all done!

Now they are all stacked in rows and ready to sew together.  Guess I know what I'll be doing for the next few days.  (I write numbers on flower head pins with a sharpie to keep track of my rows.)

And as an add-on, for those of you following my placemat progress, I shared pics of upcoming fabric collections in a previous post (here) and I have finished both sets and have listed them in my Etsy Shop, Cotton Cellar.  You can click here to view the listings.