DWM: the allure of batiks

Last week I wrote that I needed to make two wall hangings. They're for the staff of a community agency that has concluded its ten-year grant funding. They've done a lot of good work and the agency board (on which I've served since 2003) will miss them. I began the design process by realizing that I have no idea what either woman's home decor is like. Batiks go with everything, and I have a lot of them in my stash.  The Cake Stand block is a  favorite (here, too).  The efficient way to cut the pieces provides enough for two blocks.  You can see the duplication between the two.  I quilted loopy flowers in the blocks, zig-zag in the sashing, meander in the setting triangles, and three parallel rows of zig-zag in the borders.   The cake stands are 4" (finished).  Each wallhanging is 33 x 33 and used 2.5 yards of fabric. 

But wait! There's more!  I can't throw away batik scraps.  I have a sweater-size box full of pieces that are too small for the fat-quarter boxes....squares, triangles, half-square triangles, strips.   While I made the wall hangings I used 2" squares from that box as leaders-and-enders which I then sewed into four-patches.  I cut 1.5" strips (using many of the 6" and 6.5" squares in the sweater box), cut those into 3.5" and 5.5" strips, and framed the four-patches.  One block led to another, and here's the result.   The blocks are 5" (finished).   I was going to set them so the darker squares would all be going in the same direction, but keeping track of that was too bothersome. The mixed orientation looks livelier! I will add a pieced border -- piano keys, I think -- partly because I don't have enough of any one batik in the right color for a slab border.  As shown, this is approx. 56 x 51 and used 2-7/8 yards.



P.S. No evening meetings this week provided a lot of sewing time!

See what's on other design walls at  Judy's Patchwork Times.