Plant-Based Batiks

I’m very quickly becoming a HUGE fan of the batik collections coming from Riley Blake Designs! My latest favorite collection is Plant-Based from Sew Yeah Quilting

This collection is a more “simpler” collection. While it has several prints & patterns (22 to be exact), there are really only four colors! You’ll be working with blue, pink, green & purple with this collection. There is one print that is predominantly a cream color but it has hints of purple, green and pink throughout.

For my quilt project, I selected 8 prints from all four colors, including the one creamy colored print (second in on the left in the below pic). I also decided to do something a bit out of my wheelhouse. For the background fabric, I selected Riley Blakes Designs Expressions Batiks Hand-Dyes Amethyst. Depending on the lighting, this fabric can appear as pink OR purple!

I picked the Sawtooth Sparkle quilt pattern from White Plains Quilts. This is a fun pattern that looks slightly more complicated than it actually is.

Once I had all my blocks sewn it was time to decide on the layout. This pattern requires you to cut several blocks in half, because of that, I put a LOT of thought into the layout for my quilt.

Even with all my planning, I will admit, I was second guessing including the bright blue (Denim Bijou) and bright green (Green Apple). Even though these two prints are from the same collection as the other prints, these two colors are much more vibrant than the slightly more “muted” colors I selected. They don’t look bad, they just really stand out!

For the back of the quilt, I decided to do a pieced backing. I added two bold strips, one to the top half and one to the bottom half of the quilt. This was more unplanned in that I didn’t measure to determine where they would be. I just randomly picked two spots, and went with it!

For the quilting pattern, I selected Bauhaus from Urban Elementz. I wanted something completely unexpected and I think it was a great choice!

For the binding, I selected a very bold, very dark fabric, Batiks Hand-Dyes Teal Waterfall. I think this dark color really framed the quilt and stood out against the light background fabric.

I’ll for sure be making at least two more quilts using this beautiful collection!

If you’ve been hesitant to try working with batiks, I highly recommend you given it a try using this beautiful collection. The possibilities are endless and you won’t regret it!