Thinking Tropical with Batiks

It's July and we're thinking tropical!
Thinking tropical means surrounding yourself in color-saturated batiks! With so many batiks (in so many colors and designs!), how do you decide where to start? We can help.

Those beautiful sunny summer days are calling your name, so now is the perfect time for a quick and easy small project! Wendy Sheppard had exactly that in mind when she created the "Song of Praise" pillow for the August/September issue of The Quilter magazine. 

"Song of Praise" pillow by Wendy Sheppard;
featured in The Quilter magazine Aug-Sept 2014;
photo by Wendy Sheppard

Why do you like working with batiks?

I like that batiks shows different colorings and textures all across a certain piece of fabric.  Batiks sure give a project great visual interest when used.

Do you have any applique tips to share?

If you haven't appliqed before, this is a great introductory project! I have written about machine fusible applique (that's what I used) here and here.

How did you come up with the design?

I wanted this pillow project to be a quick-and-easy-to-finish design because quilters have more going on in the summer months.  Thus the minimal piecing as well as applique.  I thought stitching countless numbers of leaves around stems is not "quick" -- so, I cheated by substituting the leaves with buttons around the stems for a fun and different look.  How's that for quick and easy?! :)

Why do you love making pillows?

Pillows are great as they make great gifts, and home decor accents!  I actually have amassed quite a few pillow cases that I have made over the years to fit pillow forms of the same size.  I am able to easily achieve quick seasonal makeovers for my pillows with a quick change of the pillow cases.

Tell us about the bird you appliquéd.

 So, my husband noticed the bird was "feet-less".  My bird is feet-less because I wanted it to look "artistic", but to my husband, the bird looks exactly that, "feet-less"!  He pointed out a feet-less bird is more appropriately call a martlet.  Things one learn being in a family who loves trivia.  Click here if you want to read more about the significance of martlet!  It is actually quite interesting.

See all of the Rainbow Bright Bali collection here.

Learn more about Wendy and read more about her Song of Praise pillow here.

Find The Quilter magazine here.