Rainbow Illusions Quilt
What do batiks, rainbows, and 3D illusions have in common? They make a fantastic new quilt pattern!
Rainbow Illusions is now published in Make Modern magazine issue 67.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I get a small commission when you make a purchase through these links, at no extra cost to you. To find out more, click here.
Inspiration
This quilt was originally inspired by a piece of gift wrap I saved from a birthday party.
As you can see, the original doesn't look like the quilt at all, but this is what happens with many of my patterns. The inspirational spark takes a rather long and winding road, sometimes sits for a little and "marinates" as I like to call it, and I take it through many different iterations until the final design emerges.
Working with Batik Fabrics
This quilt is my first batik quilt. I've always tended to stay away from the batik shelf at the quilt shops because the fabrics just didn't really speak to me. Earlier this year, Banyan Batiks asked me if I would be interested in helping them bring batiks into the modern quilting world by using some of their new, modern designs in my quilts.
Banyan Batiks has this wonderful line called Hexies that's just perfect for a rainbow quilt, so of course I said yes to that. Not having any experience with batiks, I didn't really know what to expect when working with them, so I was pleasantly surprised at how well the fabric handles, and how the quilt turned out.
Isn't this rainbow gorgeous? I love how saturated the colours are.
I actually put a little blog post together about the 5 things I learned working with batiks for the first time. Go have a read if you're curious what stood out to me, or if you're also a batik newbie.
Rainbow Illusions details
I called this quilt pattern "Illusions" because it plays with the slight 3D effect from the blocks, creating the illusion of 3D blocks, but then disappearing again if you look too closely. The design is largely made up of HSTs, with strategically placed split HSTs to create the illusions.
To make your own Rainbow Illusions quilt, you can get the pattern in issue 67 of Make Modern magazine.
Quilting design
I sent this quilt to Heather at Red Willow Quilts for her fabulous longarm treatment, and as usual she came through with a wonderful design that worked perfectly on this quilt.
The hexagon and diamond shapes of the pantograph play perfectly off the hexies in the fabric and the angles from the HSTs, and add another level of interest to the quilt.
