Welcome to my stop on the Island Batik Great Outdoors blog hop!
Once every six months, Island Batik Ambassadors get to showcase one of the latest fabric collections from Island Batik. Today is my first time on an Ambassador hop, and I am really excited to be able to show you these wonderful fabrics in action.
The fabric collection I was allocated is called Victoria and Albert. There are 30 fabrics in this huge collection and they make me think of an early spring garden. Lots of green, with just a few things starting to bloom. Or perhaps even a formal English garden, with manicured hedges, sandstone retaining walls, fountains and a sprinkling of roses. There is no mistaking the influence of William Morris here.
The colours in this collection are mostly reserved, but pretty. Many of the designs are floral, but there are also fountains, dragonflies and dotty blenders. And I have used them all to make a new quilt for my daughter’s bed.
Come on over and I’lll show you these terrific fabrics in more detail and give you a chance to win some to make your own small project.
Please note: The Island Batik fabrics, HOBBS batting and Aurifil thread featured in this post were given to me for use in my role as an Island Batik Ambassador. The designs and opinions presented herein remain all my own.
The Victoria and Albert Island Batik fabric collection
Here are the fabrics I started with. Half yard cuts of each print in the Victoria and Albert collection, plus 2 yards each of the Whip Cream Cherwell and Olive Cherwell batiks.
Here’s some of my favourite pieces up close.
To be able to feature the whole collection for you today I chose a design that would accomodate a lot of smallish patchwork pieces in a random configuration. Inspired by a vintage Australian quilt, I cut hexagons from all but the darkest green-olive Cherwell floral.
I pieced the hexagons together using Aurifil 50wt thread to make doughnut shapes. Then I appliquéd squares of the dark green-olive fabric into all the holes, and added a panel of dragonflies to end up with this garden-themed quilt for my daughter….
Some of the quilty details
The dragonflies are created from scraps of the Victoria and Albert fabrics, with Madeira rayon thread stitching on the bodies and Madeira metallic thread wings. You can read more about the construction of these dragonfly motifs here and here.
Each dragonfly is an individual, although part of an extended family that very much enjoys the Great Outdoors.
Around the dragonflies I stitched free-motion stippling in Aurifil #2890 50wt thread.
At one point this morning, the dragonflies were trying to take off with my quilt. There are signs of spring here, but the weather is still pretty wintery.
Anyway, back to the quilt….
The colourful lattice pattern is quilted in the ditch with Aurifil #2912 50wt thread to allow the colours to come forward. In contrast, the green squares are relatively heavily quilted with a simple back and forth motion in Aurifil #2890 50wt dk green. Remember these thread samples from my most recent box?
They were the perfect colour.. When I ran out of the 50wt 100% cotton sample, I switched to the same thread in 40wt without a hitch, and with little perceptible difference in the stitching. I know where the change over is but I bet no one else finds it.
The heavier quilting helped move the green squares visually further into the background by flattening these areas.
The quilting direction was alternated between horizontal and vertical to keep things interesting. Here it is on the back.
I use Decobob by Wonderfil in my bobbins – this is a great combo on my HQ Sweet Sixteen – Aurifil 40wt or 50wt on top and Decobob in the bobbin…… they play so nicely together with no tension or breakage issues, even at speed.
Would you like to see the whole back?
Here it is. I used left over pieces of the Victoria and Albert Fabrics to create a back. This is a good way for me to be able to show my local people more of what these fabrics look like on the bolt.
Inside this quilt I have HOBBS batting. Specifically, the twin-size 80/20 Cotton/Polyester Heirloom Premium batting from my first Ambassador shipment.
It has given this quilt a lovely soft texture. Although, I did run into a bit of trouble because of the way I constructed this quilt. I like to add appliqué features before the backing. Because this batting has no scrim it is more fragile than my usual choices. And it didn’t like my abusive construction methods very much. I imagine it fairs better in a longarm situation. Or even just an ordinary quilt sandwich.
Anyway, the resulting quilt is lovely to hug, and I would use this batting again because of that. And because I love cotton…. But next time just remembering about the lack of scrim and changing my approach a little (quite a bit) to accomodate this. Always learning…..
As you can see the final quilt has not suffered. If I didn’t tell you, you wouldn’t know.
Thank you to Island Batik for the opportunity to test drive their wonderful fabrics. The Victoria and Albert are colours a bit outside my comfort zone, but I revelled in the challenge and ended up making two quilts I really love from my samples (this one and my White Christmas quilt). And my 10 year old is super happy too. I love being an Island Batik Ambassador!
A parting shot…..
Even though this quilt was designed the way it has been presented in this post, I realised yesterday that it looks great on my daughter’s bed upside down as well. So, the lucky girl has options. 🙂
Now my friends……. it’s time to give someone some fabric
Actually, it’s time to give two someones some fabric!
I have cut two fabric strip sets from my scraps. Both sets contain twenty four pieces of Victoria and Albert fabric that are 5″ wide and 11-12″ long (depending on what I had left). There is enough of each fabric to cut 2 charm squares if you wish, but I have left them as bigger pieces to make them more versatile.
The set in the foreground has one piece of each of 24 different Victoria and Albert batiks. One piece from every fabric I had left with a scrap remaining large enough.
I didn’t have enough scraps left to make a second set exactly like this, so instead, I curated 24 pieces from the more demure Victoria and Albert batiks. I had slightly more of these left over, as I had favoured the brighter fabrics for my 10 year-old.
How to win
To win your choice of these two fabric sets, tell me in a comment below, what you think my daughter and I should name this quilt. Entry is open world-wide – everyone is welcome at Clever Chameleon! If you like my blog and my quilts, you are definitely worth the postage!
You have until the end of the Great Outdoors blog hop to enter, and I will accept two entries per person. So don’t panic too much about whether you have thought up your best entry….. enter before you forget!
My daughter will choose her favourite quilt name suggestion to win the prize.
The unclaimed prize will then be awarded to my daughter’s next favourite suggestion, but only from an Australian or New Zealand resident. As the proud Australian Island Batik Ambassador I would like at least some of this fabric to remain Down-Under. So If you currently live in Australia or New Zealand please mention this fact in your comment to be considered for both prizes.
Terms and Conditions
This is a game of skill and the entry judged most suitable will win a choice of the two fabric sets pictured. International entries welcome for the first prize. The second prize will be awarded to the next best entry with an Australian or New Zealand postal address only. Postage will be by untracked economy letter via Australia Post, and no responsibility or liability will be taken by Clever Chameleon for lost or delayed mail.
Over 18 year old entrants only, and only where your local law permits entry. First time commenters will need to have their comment moderated, so don’t be alarmed if your comment is held temporarily. Judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. In the event that there are multiple identical entries, the earliest instance of the name wins. Current Island Batik Ambassadors (IBA) are welcome to compete for quilt naming rights but should an IBA win, the fabric will be awarded to the next best entry.
This competition runs from when this post goes live until 23:59 6th September 2018 Australian Central Time. Winners will be announced on the Clever Chameleon blog on the 7th September 2018 and contacted for their postal address by email. Failure to provide a valid email address or answer your email within a week will render your entry invalid and a replacement winner will be chosen.
Clever Chameleon values your privacy. Email addresses submitted in the course of this competition will not be used for any purpose beyond running this competition. Quilt name suggestions that infringe upon a third party trademark or copyright will be ineligible. By submitting a quilt name, the entrant agrees that Clever Chameleon can use that name without royalty and in perpetuity without further reference to the originator.
“I’ve left a quilt name suggestion, what now?”
Be a good friend and share this opportunity with all your quilting buddies!
If you are new here, why not take a moment to have a look around. There is a free Teddy Bear BOM in progress that you can still join. And a growing list of other free tutorials. Join in on Tuesday’s in showing off your latest creations – the Chameleon has his own linky party! Perhaps you’d like to join our fun community more regularly and follow my blog? Following the Clever Chameleon is not required for competition entry, but your support is very much appreciated. You’ll be the first to know about all the freebies and competitions coming up. I post on average about twice a week.
Then go visit Barb at Bejeweled Quilts, because she is the lovely Island Batik Ambassador sharing today’s blog hop spot with me, and she has several great quilts to show you also made with the Victoria and Albert fabric collection.
And then check out the rest of the Island Batik Great Outdoors hop.
If you reside in the US or Canada, head over to the Island Batik blog to enter for more fabric prizes via their Rafflecopter app.
And check out all the other Island Batik Ambassadors in the hop this month! The fabric collections being showcased each day are shown in bold
WEEK 1
Monday, August 6 – All A Flutter
Yellow Cat Quilts, Creative Blonde
Tuesday, August 7 – Birds N’ Bees
Ark Angel Creations, Patterns by Jen
Wednesday, August 8 – Canterbury Manor
Sally Manke, Powered by Quilting
Thursday, August 9 – Eclectic Garden
Desert Bloom Quilting, Sew Karen-ly Created
Friday, August 10 – Vintage Morris
MooseStash Quilting, Devoted Quilter
WEEK 2
Monday, August 13 – Safari
Sew Incredibly Crazy, SweetGrass Designs
Tuesday, August 14 – Spring Blossoms
Mary Mack Made Mine, If These Threads Could Talk
Wednesday, August 15 – Victoria and Albert
Bejeweled Quilts, Clever Chameleon – that’s me!
Thursday, August 16 – Wild Things
Freemotion by the River, Kauffman Designs
Friday, August 17 – Petting Zoo
Den Syende Himmel, Sarah Goer Quilts
WEEK 3
Monday, August 20 – Ocean Odyssey
Toby Lischko, Karen Overton
Tuesday, August 21 – British Rose
Busy Hands Quilts, Mania for Quilts
Wednesday, August 22 – Dear William
The Inquiring Quilter, MMM Quilts, Living Water Quilter
Thursday, August 23 – Dragonfly Dreams
Inchworm Fabrics, BeaQuilter
Friday, August 24 – Fur-ocious Friends
Quilting Affection Designs, Dizzy Quilter
WEEK 4
Monday, August 27 – Globetrotter
Pamela Quilts, Curliecue Creations
Tuesday, August 28 – Jungle Cruise
Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting, Little Bunny Quilts
Wednesday, August 29 – Lavendula
Carole Lyles Shaw, Masterpiece Quilting
Thursday, August 30 – London Calling
Quilt in a Not-Shell, Lizard Creek Quilting
Friday, August 31 – Spirit Rhythm
Steph Jacobson, Whispers of Yore
WEEK 5
Monday, September 3 – Sweet Tweets
Kathleen McMusing, Adventurous Appliqué and Quilting
Tuesday, September 4 – Whatnot
heARTS Creations, Slice of Pi Quilts
That should keep you busy! 🙂
P.S Sharing on these awesome linky parties: Cooking Up Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt, Fiber Tuesday, Freemotion by the River, Midweek Makers, Inquiring Quilter, Needle and Thread Thursday, Foto Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict.
P.P.S. Thanks for the feature!
So beautiful, I love the dragonflies ♥
My name suggestion is “Dance of the Dragonflies”, and I would choice the first bundle of scraps.
My name suggestion would be “Dragonfly Whispers”, I would choice the first bundle of scraps.
Fascinating to read how you formed the lattice, Dione. You have created a stunning quilt. No wonder your daughter claimed it – lucky girl.
My first suggestion for a name is Seven Dancing Dragonflies.
I’m an Aussie.
… and my second suggestion – Dragonfly, Dragonfly, Where Do You Fly?
Aussie
Dione, would you like me to share this on Facebook, mentioning the giveaway?
“Lattice fly dragons!”
I am in New Zealand. And knowing that the Wattle is Australia’s national floral emblem, and also the word ” Wattle” is the term for a fence with woven flexible green saplings between upright posts, my name is ” Through the Woven Wattle Fence”. Prize one would be my choice. And the finish, a quilt to treasure all her life. Made with love.
The quilt is beautiful, and your 10 yr. old daughter has a cover that will grow with her. I had been thinking yesterday about your comment whether the wings would show or be overshadowed, and while this was on my mind, dragonflies were zooming round my deck. As I watched them, two varieties at least, I realized that although the bodies have sufficient density to stand out, the wings are pretty much transparent with just shimmer visible to my eye. It makes sense then for your dragonflies to be similar. Heavy wings would not fly well. I think if I were naming the quilt, I would choose, On Gossamer Wings, as my name. There is something mystical, yet real about that name for me. I hope your daughter gets a bundle of names to consider.
Does your almond flower have the promise of almonds later?
Dragonfly Parade is my suggestion. I love the colours of the quilt, so Spring like……almost Spring here in NZ.
I suggest calling your gorgeous quilt “On Gossamer Wings”
Oops! Should have read the previous comments first! So now I’ll suggest “Fly Away Home”
Dragonfly Garden Dance
Good Morning Dione! I guess I should have expected the dragonflies in that area of the quilt you kept hidden, but I didn’t. What a beautiful surprise and your template worked great. My title is Time for a Change, as the dragonfly usually signifies evolving maturity and such. That picture of your daughter wrapped in your love in the new quilt is just priceless. Happy Wednesday! ~smile~ Roseanne
Name your beautiful quilt Fly Away Home.
From the United States. The quilt is lovely. It re.onds of the beautiful outdoor gardens her in America. A great name would be playing in my garden
Dragonfly Dreams – that is just what your daughter should be having while snuggled under this beautiful quilt, those carefree times spent outside with no worries and nothing to do but enjoy life and flit with the dragonflies.
I love the design, the colours are stunning, and as usual it is such a wonderful surprise to see the finish after sharing the journey with you. I love to start my day with your email and clicking through to the blog. Thanks Dione.
Your quilt is beautiful and I love the subdued colors in this collection. I’d name the quilt “Summer Memories”. Thanks for sharing.
“A Dragonflies Garden”
This is such a beautiful quilt. I love your top quilting. And your dragonflies are lovely. So very creative. Thanks for sharing.
Because a dragonfly is associated with fairies, “Fairies Path”. Perhaps they are “Dancing down Fairies Path” on their way to visit the Magical Isle where fairies dance and sing and kiss our dreams.
Regardless of its name, it truly is a great finish. I can envision her jumping into her bed all smiles and too excited to sleep as she climbs under it. Little does she know she will soon be drifting down the Fairies Path into her own Magical Isle of Dreams.
This is such a beautiful quilt and the dragonflies are a perfect addition…love it! It looks so amazing on your daughter’s bed. I’m terrible at naming quilts, but it looks like some great names in the comments.
Love the addition of the dragonflies! Such a pretty quilt.
Dione, this is a very pretty quilt for your daughter. I’m sure she will love it and have sweet dreams under it (whether it’s upside right or upside down!). So many name choices, I was simply going to say Dragonfly Dance.
“A Dragonflies Picnic”
Now following your blog
Wow! What a gorgeous quilt!! I love it. The dragonflies you stitched look amazing! I would name the quilt “Dragonflies in the garden”. I love the second set of strips. Thanks for sharing with us.
I choose Victoria & Albert Set 2 – love this quilt – dragonflies are wonderful – great job
Since dragonflies are in our garden in the summer, I think I’d name the quilt Dragonfly Summer.
Beautiful fabric and quilt, no good name suggestions but I like some of the above names. I like fabric bundle 2.
The little glimpses during this quilt’s creation had me more than intrigued. I have not been disappointed. Stunning. Your daughter is one very lucky girl. Now for a name suggestion…Fly Me Away (to dream land of course.) With such gorgeous dragonflies taking us to dream land who could have anything but beautiful, colourful dreams?
Stunning quilt – I love the way this turned out. Funny about how the batting behaved! Your daughter looks adorable in it and it looks adorable with her!
Loooove your Quilt! How about ” Mystical Dreams”? 🙂
This just feels so peaceful! Love it and love the dragonflies!
Dragonflies Delight! The quilt turned out great. Lucky daughter!
My suggestion is Dragonfly Dreamland. Since she could dream of them when sleeping under the quilt. Great Quilt by the way.
The other suggestion is Dragonfly Garden. Since they are surrounded by a lattice design that could be found in a garden.
Names are so personal. I would name it Dragonflies Playground. Great quilt with wonderful color scheme.
Dragon fly fancy. .. very pretty quilt great job… happyness04431@yahoo.com
Well, it must be named “Dragonfly Adventure” of course! I like the dragonfly detail you put into it AND the dragonfly batik print.
I hope to become an Island Batik ambassador on the next go-round.
I too have photographed my quilts upside down but no one is usually the wiser …
tvonzalez at gmail dot com
Such a beautiful quilt! Maybe a good name would be Spring Awakening.
Where dragonflies play! I like set 2, no set 1, yes 2!!! Like picking your favorite child…ugh.
What a lovely quilt, those dragonflies are just fabulous!!
USA – Dragonfly Garden
USA – Magical Dragonfly Dreams
I love your quilt and the lovely details of the dragonflies. That is a fun quilt for your daughter for sure. One suggestion for a name is “Spirit of Spring”
My second suggestion is “Whimsical Dragonflies”
I believe, “Daisy Dragonfly” would be a good name. I favor the first strip set but both are beautiful. Your quilt is my favorite project I’ve seen on the Bloghop.
barbkaup(at)(yahoo)(dot)(com)
My second name suggestion is–“Fly High, Dragonfly”. I like the first strip set, but the second one is also beautiful!
barbkaup(at)(yahoo)(dot)(com)
What a beautiful quilt!! “A Maze for Dragonflies” Set 2 is awesome.
What a lovely quilt! I am thinking Damselfly Dance!
Because your daughter is a young unmarried lady, and because one French word for dragonfly is the same as young unmarried lady, I would call it La Demoiselle. It’s a very beautiful finish, and she is very fortunate to have so talented a mother! Thanks for the chance to win some beautiful strips of the collection. Either one would be a treat!
Beautiful quilt.
Dragonfly Line Dance.
Winging My Way to Sweet Dreams.
Dragonfly dreaming…
Brusbane australia🌻
Lovely! I Dragonfly Garden is a good name, or Dragonfly Trellis, or maybe winged trellis. Don’t count me in for a prize, though, as I’m also an Ambassador. I can’t wait to see what you come up with next.
Such a lovely quilt, and with the dragonflies all over, ahhh. And your photoe are great, real outdoor. My day is Friday, and I’m just now writing my post.
“Shimmer Light, Shimmer Flight” is my entry.
Fly high – USA
Dreaming in the Garden
This quilt is FABULOUS !!!
seeing as dragonflies can be seen as a symbol of harmony and good luck, “sweet dreams garden”.
I’d be thrilled with either prize.
I’m on the computer sew I can not add green hearts, <3 <3 <3 this will have to make do.
Second choice, inspired by the picture of quilt hanging from tree
Flutter on a breeze
💚💚💚💜💜💜
Delightful Dragonflies in the garden!
So beautiful ! I love the dragonflies.
I think “Dragonfly Dance” would be a good name for this awesome quilt!
I’m a little late to the party…but finally my internet is back up and running. I’m so excited. Almost as excited as I am about seeing this gorgeous quilt. WOW, you did an amazing job. Love love love it!
Name for the beautiful quilt: Flying Trellis
Lovely quilt, lovely story! I really enjoyed reading about your process. Thanks for sharing this on Wednesday Wait Loss.
What an awesome quilt! I don’t know your daughter’s name, but I’d call it “Love and Wings for (her name)” because your daughter is clearly wrapped in love!
The stitching of the dragonfly wings is great.
Fabulous dragon fly design. Love the quilting. Dragon flies always hitchhike along as I paddle my kayak, on both rivers and lakes. Love them!
I love the delicacy of this fabric. How about Delicate Dragonfly or Dragonfly Journey
I’m not good at coming up with names. How about “Twilight Dreams”?
I love your quilt, it looks beautiful. My husband suggested the name “Dragonflies Through The Fence”. I thought it rather interesting to hear what he saw when he looked at the quilt. I am sure your daughter will have many years of wonderful dreams under the quilt.
That has turned out sooo pretty! I am bad with choosing names, so I am not even going to try 🙂 I’ll just admire your quilt! xx
Great quilt, you have done an amazing job, and I am with Joy, and not even going to attempt a name, I have enough trouble working out names for my own quilt designs!!
Dragonflies Flight of Fancy
Stunning quilt! I love everything about it!!! Beautifully done!
My second name suggestion is ” Come Fly With Me” as those delightful fairy like dragonflies hover on the bed. NZ reader, again. All well here, spring has sprung, warmer days, 3 frosts in a row. Not cold enough to kill the weeds though. Guess it’s getting warmer for you as well.
“Dancing Dragonflies” is my name suggestion. It’s beautiful!
I would call it Dragonflies on the garden trellis.
“Dance of the Anisoptera” is my suggestion! Beautiful quilt and I love that it can go either way on your sweet girl’s bed!!
Your quilt is gorgeous! I love the dragonflies, especially. It looks great on her bed and it’s fun that she can turn it whichever way she likes 🙂
Beautiful quilt! I love your dragonflies! My suggested title would be “Dragonflies in my Garden”.
Beautiful design. It’s gotta be “Dragonfly Kisses” for when you tuck her in at night!
Damsels in the Garden, as another name for dragonflies is damselflies, and I like the imagery of damsels–ladies in their shimmery dresses–in the garden.
Shimmer and Shine in the Garden Light
Hier Dionne !
The quilt is wonderful ! I like the Spring- like colours. Your dragonflies are stunning. Dragonflies remind me if a pond I that Washington close to my grandmother house. Si I would name thé quilt Spring by the pond.
I should stop commenting using my phone : the stupid thing continues to guess what I have tried to write… in french and makes it almost unreadable in english!
my name proposal was : spring by the pond.
I would name this quilt Persefanee just because. It’s what comes to mind when I look at it. Also GardenView.
Hi,
Dragonfly dreaming or
I danced with a dragonfly.
I don’t mind which fabric collection, maybe to batiks.
I am an Aussie in QLD
Thanks for the inspiration and the free patterns.
Love love love these dragonflies!! This really turned out so stunning. I might name it Dancing dragonflies. USA
Well it’s taken me long enough! Okay I’m back – I had to go see that dragonfly construction post, just wow! Well, this quilt–! Another wow! Oh how beautiful it is! And it can go two ways?! I made Mum a quilt like that and she painstakingly reversed it regularly for the 12 years it lived on her bed, sniff. I haven’t looked at any of the names and I can’t win since I’m an ambassador but something you said about the dragonflies being individuals yet part of a family makes me think the name should reflect that…plant the seeds of tolerance, acceptance, individuality, yet togetherness in our kids at a young age. Something to do with harmony… Harmonic Flight? Harmonic Opalescence! I thought Harmonic Shimmer or Shimmer in Harmony, (but why not use big words with a 10-year-old?!), Flitter in Harmony… anyhow you could KISS and just call it Dance in Harmony too!
Dragonfly Fancy Down Under. Beautiful quilt!
On Gossamer Wings is another suggestion. If your daughter should choose my name, I have a quilting friend in Australia I would like to have the fabric instead of me. Thank you!!!
Hi Dionne. I am in love with this pattern and the Island Batik fabrics just give it so much light and movement!
My suggestion for a name is Flights for Fancy. I so enjoy watching the Dragonfies dancing flights in my yard and garden so seeing them dancing on your trellis blocks makes me think of hot sunny days. I’m in Canada and fall is setting in under smoky skies so I will have to wait for next year to see the flights again.
Carol Andrews
Don’t know why, but this name just popped into my head:. “Here We Go Round the Dragonfly Bush.”. The circles (sort of) go round and round, and the dragonflies in the middle look like they’re on a bush…. I’m usually horrible at picking out a name but this one just popped right out. Hope you like it!! 😁. I like both choices for the winner so I wouldn’t be fussy about what you sent. 🙂
It is a very beautiful quilt! I love the brights on the green. Here are my 2 suggestions: Sneakin’ Through the Garden Gate; Dragonfly Garden Party. Thanks!!