High Tea Quilt : Batik Version Pattern Tested

Hi, I would like to share the quilt I finished up today. I was given the opportunity to pattern test a new quilt pattern, High Tea  that was self-published this week by New Zealand quilt designer and blogger, Adrianne Reid, who blogs as On The Windy Side.  Please check out her blog to see all the lovely versions of her new quilt design. It is charm pack or layer cake friendly.

I chose to make my quilt with a set of batik charm squares that I found last year on Etsy. There were 100 squares with a few repeats and I cut down some extra batik squares to size from fabrics that I had leftover from my batik Shadowbox quilt, that was still in my stash. I think I ended up with upwards of 70 different batiks. I choose to use a light gray and black solids as my sashing strips that were cut and sewn into a checkerboard type pattern. One of my fellow pattern testers describes the pattern as similar to a disppearing four patch. This describes this pattern quite well. I loved the creative ideas some of the other quilters came up with, substituting some of the four patches for layer cakes makes endless ways you can work this pattern.

I took a photo of my quilt flimsy last week on a rainy day, so used my bed to lay it out for size.

I decided to try something different for me when quilting this quilt top. I attempted to use what I think is a serpentine stitch or it may be a four step zigzag that I adjusted out to the size I wanted. I used this stitch over all the seams. I used my walking foot.  I have not used the walking foot with Mom’s machine much yet, so it was a new experience. I was spoiled when I could sew and quilt with my Pfaff as it had the IDT feed automatically and no walking foot was needed. I guess I need to put the Viking walking foot to use, since that foot alone cost over $100 when Mom purchased it. This special stitch took way more thread and I had to wind extra bobbins. Many times I would only manage 3 rows of quilting per bobbin. I quilted with a medium gray colored thread.

Here is a photo of the back of my quilt. I had misread the number of gray and black strips I was to cut, so I used a couple of them to piece my stripe center in the back. I used some extra batik squares, that ranged from 4-7 inches each. The black really showed off the gray zigzag quilting.

I have decided to use this quilt finish as one of my quilts I planned to give as Christmas gifts this year.  This person really loved my Shadowbox quilt so hopefully she will like this quilt. It has many of the same fabrics.

Thank you for looking at my version of High Tea. If you would be interested in attempting your own version of this quilt, please check out Adrianne’s blog. Her pattern went on sale this week..

I will be linking up my quilt finish with various linky parties this week.