The inspiration for this quilt was simple – start with three predominant neutral colours, then mix in a bunch of coordinated batiks and improvise based on a few (3) large 16 1/2″ blocks, a dozen or so (in the end I had 13) 8 1/2″ blocks, two 4 1/2″ blocks from each fabric, and a large number of 2 1/2″ blocks.

I began by laying out the three large neutral blocks, next the 8 1/2″ coloured blocks, the 4 1/2″ blocks, then the small blocks which I’d created by sewing short strips of two batik fabrics then cutting pieces 2 1/2″ wide block pairs. I couldn’t sew long strips together because I wanted more colour combinations than that would have given me. So I mixed and matched shorter strips to get 4-5 pieces from each. The few small block pairs I had left over were incorporated into the back.

I quilted the whole using a 200 X 200 embroidery hoop with an open flowing embroidery design that just about filled the hoop. Before I did that, though, I gave some thought to simply stitching randomly spaced vertical and horizontal lines across the quilt surface. It may look simple, but stitching those lines is a manual task, quite time consuming, and hard on my neck and back. So in the end I opted to embroider the quilt blocks with an 8″ X 8″ design.

Final dimensions: 48″ X 64″. A good size for a lap quilt. I bound the quilt using the same fabric I used for the accent strips on the reverse side. As usual, this is a reversible quilt.