Quilt Finish – Batik Mountains

I’m pretty sure I was tipsy topsy turvy when I was taking these series of photos of my Batik Mountains quilt. That’s not just some pretty foliage I’ve used as the backdrop, those are Shiraz grape vines ready for the picking! A few minutes before this I was day drinking wine tasting at the beautiful Bunnamagoo Winery in Mudgee, NSW. I’m pretty sure I sampled every wine on the menu, and then proceeded to buy a bottle of each! That’s how wine tastings normally go, right? Well, I’ve learned they should always include quilts!

This Batik Mountains quilt was born out of my desire to make another Delectable Mountains quilt, as the last one I made, Shudder, is still an all-star. I hadn’t made anything with my stash of batik fabrics in such a long time–it seemed the logical place to start. I love a bright and bold batik, (as much as I love a bright and bold lip) and as you can see from this quilt I wasn’t afraid of using them all! If you’re new to batiks, or find them too traditional, check out Alison Glass’s many Handcrafted ranges for batik-style fabrics that keep it modern.

I’m pretty sure there was wine involved when it came time to figure out how to piece this together too! Most Delectable Mountains patterns construct mountains with a designated background fabric–usually of the low volume variety. Additionally, constructing mountains out of duplicate, facing-HSTs speeds up the process, but doesn’t allow you to join the mountains with four other different, surrounding mountains. So basically, I had to deconstruct the most common pattern instructions, and then rewrite them to suit my needs. The end process means making HSTs one at a time, careful rotations, and a lot of visualisation!

I used Alison Glass Mariner’s Cloth in Grasshopper for this special binding moment. I found it on sale at my LQS recently and bought a meter of it just to experiment. I haven’t used it in any patchwork yet, but I thought the texture and tone-on-tone stripe would make an excellent tactile binding. Note for y’all: I wasn’t wrong! If you look closely, you can also see my glitter-flecked binding–my signature trademark for each quilt. This time though, I took extra pains to line the flecks up with the adjacent mountain so the line created was easy on the eye. I know a few things about that, indeed! Meow.

I backed it with Newsprint wide-backing by Carrie Bloomston, and it was quilted by my fave, your fave, everyone’s fave, Leanne at Mount Vincent Quilts. Gold thread, she said! (Like I was gonna say no to that!) Once I started seeing this quilt come together, I knew it was just a practice piece for what would later become my Rainbow Mountains quilt. The twists and turns required to get the mountains placed correctly was a bit of a mind-fuck, but once you understand how the layout and fabric works, you can gather momentum to get right ’round those peaks and valleys.

Title: Batik Mountains
Size: 44″ x 46″
Pattern: Based off Mischi Kichi’s Delectable Mountains, but resized for purpose
Fabric: Alison Glass Handcrafted and Molli Sparkles stash batiks
Piecing: Machine stitched on Juki TL-98P with Aurifil 50wt, 2024 White
Quilting: Long arm quilting, by Mount Vincent Quilts
Binding: hand stitched with Aurifil 50wt, 4093 Jade
Backing: Newsprint wide backing by Carrie Bloomston
Timing: April 2020 – February 2021
Favourite Part: Using this quilt as a learning experience for my Rainbow Mountains quilt.

Photos taken with permission at Bunnamagoo Winery in Mudgee, NSW.