It's All About You for Island Batik

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April Island Batik Challenge is, “It’s all up to you!”. It’s a free month for Island Batik Ambassadors to determine our own project, any size, any theme, any technique! I’m delighted to have an opportunity to express my creativity without guidelines.

Island Batik along with their industry partners, Hobbs Batting, Schmetz Needles and Aurifil Thread provided the batik fabric, batting, sewing machine needles and thread used in this project for my role as an Island Batik Ambassador.

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So many of my art quilts are created from the thousands of photos I take while out in nature. Although it is springtime in Michigan, I selected a lone pine tree photographed while out on cross country skis last winter. The work will be built on Hobbs Thermore batting leftover from another project. The background is layered with a sky, snowy background and a hill. Custard and Moo Milk were selected from the Island Batik Neutrals with the sky from a previous collection. Cloud or Mystic would also make a great sky.

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There are so many fabrics with nature prints on the market but I prefer to use batiks that suggest nature. Your eye naturally blends or blurs the colors and texture at a distance. The above selection of batiks work well and trees in the background. My stash of novelty fibers and threads are also added to the mix. Branches created with my gnarly thread ball. My frugal goal to ‘use the entire yard’ extends to ‘use the entire spool’!

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Background forest is covered with tulle then quilted on my Handi Quilter Amara. Pine tree of thin torn batik strips, sari silk ribbon, novelty yarns and roving is quilted to the woodland background.

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Two white neutrals create snowdrifts in the foreground. Free motion quilting with white Aurifil thread completes the bottom portion. The binding is stitched machine stitched with my Bernina 770 using a Schmetz needle.

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This project was a delight to create. I’m in my happy place when working with fabrics and fibers. I’m considering adding this one to the list of classes that I teach at quilt guilds, quilt shows and art centers. This art quilt finished as 28.5” X 29” and has hanging tabs so it’s ready to hang.

A few detail shots.

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Hats off to Island Batik for the generous supply of fabrics supplied for the ambassador monthly challenges along with professional yet warm support. Thank you as well to their industry partners.

Sally Manke's mission is to delight others with textile art that exemplifies her passion for joyful, creative expression through color and texture. She is a speaker, teacher, pattern designer, Island Batik Ambassador, and fiber artist. Contact her to book a workshop or trunk show at her here.