March is a very special month to me, it is my birthday, many other artistic people's birthday, International Women's Day, The Worldwide Quilting Day and even better... March is National Quilting Month! So... I believe all this "March Vibe" was very inspiring to the Island Batik team to create this month's Ambassador's challenge! February and the Island Batik Ambassadors event is about "Magnificent Minis", but this month is also all about Valentines... So, can you guess what my Mini is about? (it's funny because in Swiss German "mini" means "mine")

"The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik."

#islandbatik #islandbatikambassador #thebestfrombali #batikcrush #aurifilthread #hobbsbatting #electricquilt #EQ8

When I first saw the calendar with all the monthly challenges (yes I have this information!!!), Vintage Reimagined was one of my favorites! Of course, because of all the reasons above, but especially because I NEVER did a real vintage quilt and I love new creating opportunities.

Before I start, I need to confess... I totally lost my mind with this one...

When I think about vintage quilts, the first idea that comes to mind is a composition of flowers and leaves appliqué border, then something coordinating in the center quilt. Then for me it was pretty clear that I was searching for a medallion structure quilt.

I think the "Reimagined" part of my inspiration is about the fabric choice, the purple shades of the Crystal Ball collection from Kathy Engle are the most perfect choice for my project!

I like to design my quilts with the Electric Quilt software (I had the version 7 and recently upgraded to the version 8), it is a lifetime saver with all the scales, measures and amount of fabric for your project. But what I really like is the precision!

After a playing a little my quilt was 42" square size and looking pretty much like this:

Because of the gorgeous fabric designs I chose to use some of mine own doodles to create the appliqué flowers and leaves.

For the quilting, I decided to use a main thread and weight color for my bobbin (believe me, this is also not the standard "modus operandi") Aurifil 50wt color 2510 and also for quilting most of the areas of the top quilt. I also used Aurifil 28wt color 2568 (from my Island Batik Ambassador's stash) to highlight the flowers details around the center and also some random metallic thread that I found moving some boxes on my studio.

a little bit more of quilting...

and finally my Island Batik Ambassador's month challenge, "Purple March"!

See you soon and happy quilting ;)