I hope that you enjoyed the Bellingham Bay blog hop last week. I was blown away by the creativity of my Certified Instructors! Over the next couple of weeks, as the Bellingham Bay fabric starts to arrive in shops, I’ll be showing you some of the other quilts we have created for the collection.
Often when I design a quilt I just play around with units and shapes until I find something that I like, and then develop the finished design from there. Sometimes there are new techniques, or a combination of techniques, like what happened here in Meteor Storm. I never design for a fabric collection specifically; I work in greyscale so that the design will work with any fabric. Once I’m happy with the design I begin to add the color.
I knew Bellingham Bay was the right collection for Meteor Storm with all the different shades of green and the pop of purple. It was wonderful to see it come together just as I’d imagined. In fact, I’m so happy with how it came out I’ll be using it on my own bed once it retires from traveling. That honor only goes to a few of my very favorite quilts. LOL!
So, what is it about this design that I love? The darker purple at the center of the stars moving into the medium and then lighter green draws your eye outward in a movement that is then halted by the deep green banding. This type of value play adds interest to a quilt for me and you’ll see it in many of my patterns. I played with value on the background, too, using a slightly darker background at the edges of the center medallion, then adding the lighter background to draw your eyes there and highlight the full star. I love the shape the light background makes in this design, too.
There’s one other terrific feature of our Bellingham Bay collection that I haven’t mentioned yet. We collaborated with Aurifil to put together a 6 spool thread collection in luscious colors that coordinate with the line, so you’ll be able to have just the right colors for your piecing and quilting. I love to work with Aurifil Thread and was thrilled to have the opportunity to curate this thread collection for Bellingham Bay.
I hope you’re as excited about Bellingham Bay as I am. I know it’s already arrived in some shops, so for those of you itching to pick up some of my first original Island Batik collection for yourself, you can check with your local quilt shop to see if they have Bellingham Bay (and the Aurifil thread collection!) coming in. We here at Studio 180 Design can’t wait to see what amazing projects you will create with my Bellingham Bay collection! Please don’t forget to share them on Instagram with the hashtags: #BellinghamBayFabric #Studio180Design #MeteorStormPattern180. We’ll be watching!
