Batik Shadowbox Quilt Finish

Today is my birthday and I thought I would share one of my most favorite quilt finishes. I had come across a photo of a quilt on the wall of a quilt shop that was featured in one of the Better Homes and Garden’s Quilt Sampler magazines from 2008-2010. I could not find a name for the quilt in the magazine and had not come across it online. This was before Pinterest.

The quilt design was a Shadowbox that appeared to be constructed from something in the 5 to 8 inch square range. I have since seen numerous patterns that have squares, rectangles or even a combination of both. Mountainpeek Creations has a very popular pattern for a rectangle shadowbox.

Since I did not have a pattern, I chose to draft up my own. I had a stack of batik fat quarters that I had cut 10 inch squares from for another quilt so from the leftovers I decided to base my design on a 6 inch square. I layed out 2 1/2 inch strips alongside my 6 inch square to determine what size I needed to make the shadow strips. A few calculations later and a test block and I cut out all my fabrics and pieced my blocks.

Please forgive the sour looking face. This was one of those late 2 AM quilt finishes and I was exhausted.

I used up extra pieces of the batiks to make a pieced border. I used the idea of the pieced border from Moda Bake Shop tutorial Easy As Cake quilt pattern. I had used this pattern to make a quilt that I had cut the 10 inch squares from this fabrics for. The quilt went to my best friend.

My sewing room is also our office, so after a big quilting project it can be extra messy.

For the back, I pieced a simple striped back with a really fun batik that packed a lot of color punch.

Making this quilt taught me that I could be fairly confident in drawing out a design and calculating how much fabric it might take to make what I had in mind. It would have been much easier if I had known if there was a pattern out there and what it was. This was also before finding my trusty Quilter’s Fabri-Calc calculator. I had made numerous quilts before this one, but making this one seemed to help fuel the fire or quilt making obsession. I made this quilt as a birthday gift to the Mother of my daughter’s then boyfriend. She was a family friend as our husbands worked together. She did truly love it. My daughter and that boyfriend broke up after 4 years together.

This quilt is my favorite and it has been the favorite of all that I have made when seen by other friends and family. It seems that most of my best work goes out the door as gifts. I do have  some regrets of this one getting away . I would chalk this up to being similar to knitters and the “boyfriend sweater curse”. Never make a boyfriend a sweater as by the time it is completed, the relationship may have or be ending. My daughter’s previous boyfriends received rag rug style quilts. This boyfriend had even helped us make his and helped man the scissors to do all rag cutting.

I have come across a couple tutorials on making shadowbox quilts. There is one that is in 8 inch squares, MaDan’s. And also a tutorial that uses squares and rectangles over at Ludlow’s Quilt and Sew. Some day I may have to make myself another version of this quilt.

Thanks for looking. I will be sharing this quilt finish with various linky parties this week.