Pattern Play - July Secondary Design challenge from Island Batik

I was really glad I got my top pieced early this month - because it's taken forever to find the time to get it quilted!  This challenge was issued for all of us Island Batik Ambassadors and the goal was to create a quilt with the fabric they provided that highlighted secondary designs and was larger than 36 x 36.

 I used the rest of the fat eight bundle of the Blue Moon collection from the February Box.  I used three of the fabrics earlier to make a pillow in May.

 I started out making the units for the two blocks I wanted to use, but instead of sewing the blocks together I played with turning the units different ways to see what kind of secondary effects would happen.  When I was happy with my results, I completed the blocks.

Because I had a limited amount of fabrics I could only make five blocks total.  I decided to set them on point and use the yardage for the setting triangles.  Since the light purple looks like wood grain I took some care to make sure they all faced the same direction!

At this point I thought the quilt needed some kind of a border.  I had a fat eighth of four different tree trunk fabrics, so decided to use those and make each border in four sections.  I LOVE the way this came out!

I got it layered and basted and even doodled some quilting ideas, but the July just got busy!

So this weekend was "now or never" time!  I got out my stash of Aurifil thread and got to work.

It was fun to quilt each unit - notice the "envelope" which is where the two blocks meet?  One good way to emphasize your secondary designs is with quilting, it really helps blur the line where your blocks meet and helps the illusion!  I love the slight loft of the Hobbs batting, it really makes your quilting look awesome!

And here is the finish!  

Leftovers on the back - where you can really see the quilting!

A closer look at the center.  My finished quilt measures 38 x 38 and features Aurifil Thread as well as Hobbs batting.  Definitely one of my favorite projects!  Now on to August, our semi-annual blog hop will be starting, and I need to get that project done - more about that later this week!

What are you quilting today?  Something fun, I hope!