Indigo? Really?

Okay, the title is Indigo. Why, you ask? When I received the prompt International. A whole bunch of things went through my mind. Then I thought of indigo. Indigo dye was used all over the world. That's international. I also have some indigo fabric pieces I bought in Africa years ago. I even bought a book on indigo. (Indigo: The Color that Changed the World).

Then I thought why not use some denim scraps, too. Although denim isn’t dyed with indigo, we still think of them as indigo colored. So I got out my fabric and scraps.

And I started piecing. And piecing. And before too long I had a large batch of blocks. And it was way on its way to being larger than 40” high (the specified height). I decided I didn’t want to waste all these good blocks on a 40” quilt when I could have a lot more fun making a larger quilt.

What to do? I took a photo of the blocks on my design wall and started playing with the image in Photoshop. Then I thought of adding images of the indigo plant. Swirls are one of my favorite shapes, so I drew a swirl on the plant.

When I added the photo of the blocks, things got really interesting.

Then I played with the colors some more and came up with this sphere-like image. If you look closely you can still see the belt loops and side seams of the denim blocks.

I hemmed and hawed and finally decided to have the lighter image printed on Silk Crinkle Linen by MyFabricDesigns.com. I wouldn’t really call it a crinkle. It is a gorgeous, 20% silk/80% linen fabric with a tiny bit of slubbiness. More like a drapey silk shantung. When I received the fabric I was head over heels in love. I really had to talk myself in to making the quilt instead of immediately cutting it up and making a blouse. It is absolutely stunning.

This fabric is also a dream to stitch on. I used various colors and weights of perle cotton (from #6 to #12) and hand stitched the entire piece. Here’s the completed quilt and a few detail shots.