O beautiful for spacious skies,
“America the Beautiful” By Katherine Lee Bates
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
This beautiful poem by Katherine Lee Bates is my inspiration for this quilt, Purple Mountain Majesty. Bates was inspired by her visit to Pikes Peak in Colorado.
Welcome to my turn on the Beat the Heat Blog hop. Early this year, Island Batik sent each ambassador samples from one of their spring or summer 2019 lines. This month, all of us who got the spring collection are showing off our projects. I view this as a capstone project of sorts and wanted to make something very special and unique.
I’ve come to love this line of fabric with its muted tones and elegant, low-volume prints. But this is way out of my comfort zone. I usually work with bright, saturated colors with high contrast. By April, I had started panicking since I still didn’t have an idea for this collection. Then one day, on my drive home, I heard this short segment on NPR called American Anthem on ” songs that rouse, unite, celebrate and call to action“. Everything fell together with this beautiful song – the muted purples, yellows and greens, sunrise and early morning mist, cool mountain air, hope for better times for America, our family trips to National Parks over the years, quiet and cool mountain hikes, escaping the Houston heat, Beat the Heat blog-hop…. Please listen to the NPR clip if you can. Also listen to this beautiful rendition by Ray Charles. Or my favorite – the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. I am sure everyone – American or not – can appreciate this beautiful song.
Back to quilting. Most of my design work was on grid paper. I decided to use half-rectangle triangles (HRT) for the purple mountains, quarter-square triangles(QST) for the sunrise and the sky, and half-square triangles (HST) for the vegetation. I cut some pieces from several fabrics in the collection and “built” the quilt on the design wall.
I used AccuQuilt GO for most of the cutting. Given the number of HSTs and QSTs in the quilt, it was a real time saver. I could cut six blocks at once and absolutely no trimming HSTs and QSTs!
Hobbs Batting had sent a silk blend batting in with my Island Batik box. I had not used silk before and I wanted to try. Silk blend batting is very lightweight and even after I quilted this heavily, it drapes nicely and lies flat.
I used swirls, pebbles and McTavishing-like lines for the early morning sky, slanted lines for the mountains, and vertical wavy lines for the greens. I used two Isacord threads from my collection – eggshell for the light sky and light green for the forests. I used two Aurifil threads – the purple for the mountains and the orange for the brighter parts of the sky. With the design reaching all the way to the edge, I did not want to mess with a pieced binding. I sewed on a facing for this quilt and I love the way it looks. I’m going to consider sewing a facing instead of binding for modern quilts in the future.
Disclosure: The fabrics for this project was provided by Island Batik, the batting by Hobbs batting, some thread by Aurifil threads and the AccuQuilt Go! by AccuQuilt, all as part of the Island Batik ambassador project. I want to thank IB and all its partners for the opportunity to play and work with their products.
I have a giveaway for you. I have some leftover fabric from my project. This bundle includes two fat quarters (18″ X 22″) and about 5″-6″ X 20″ cuts of all the other fabrics in the collection. I will be happy to mail this for one lucky winner anywhere in the world. To enter, leave a comment and tell me what’s your favorite mountain town (my favorite is Banff in the Canadian Rockies!). Follow me on Instagram or Bloglovin or “Like” my page on Facebook or by email and leave comment telling me how you follow me for an additional entry. I will pick a winner on Sept 1st and announce on Sept 2nd. Please make sure you are not a no-reply blogger or leave me an email when you comment. Your email is only visible to me and NOT visible publicly. Linking to Giveaway party hosted by Slice of Pi Quilts.
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Visit the other ambassador blogs this week to see how they Beat the Heat!
Monday, August 19 – Petal Pushers
Joanne Hart
Carla Henton
Tuesday, August 20 – Quiet Shades
Connie Kauffman
Vasudha Govindan
Wednesday, August 21 – Seedlings
Vicki Schlimmer
Mania Hatziioannidi
Thursday, August 22 – Soil & Seeds
Gail Sheppard
Monday, August 26 – Steam Engine
Maryellen McAuliffe
Jennifer Strauser
Tuesday, August 27 – Sunny Side Up
Connie K Campbell
Joan Kawano
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I’m in NC so I would say Chimney Rock is a favorite around here. Of course anywhere in Blue Ridge is great.
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My favorite mountain town is Gatlinburg, TN!
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I am a new follower of yours on IG and Bloglovin! Looking forward to meeting a new quilting friend and catching new inspiration!
I’m not exactly sure they are are mountains, but the red rock of Sedona, Arizona has stolen my heart the half dozen times I’ve been there. It is a magical place and has such great beauty! I am in awe of your powers to quilt your gorgeous quilt…those waves and swirls are so perfect…love it all!
They are mountains! =) Yes, The red rocks all around Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon are SO beautiful! I’d love to live there again.
This quilt is stunning and made more so by the beautiful quilting you did on it. You are a wonderful ambassador for the fabrics!
Ooops, I forgot to mention the Great Smoky Mountains! There is nothing like driving down the hills on an early morning as the sun rises and seeing the mist coming up like smoke from the valleys between the hills.
Mountain town – somewhere with great views and clean air.
love your quilt especially the lake as the back drop.
My favorite mountain town is Radium Hot Springs, also in the Canadian Rockies on the British Columbia side, and not too far from Banff. Thanks!
I am a new follower on Bloglovin. Thanks!
Following with Bloglovin’.
Colors of first mornings light.
Your quilt is just beautiful. I love it, and it’s meaningful because right now I am vacationing in Buena Vista, Colorado in the San Isabel Range of the Rockies. My very favorite mountain town is Silverton, Colorado.
This is amazing! You did an awesome job. Yeah for the Canadian Rockies!!
This is a lovely quilt. I rarely make quilts that depict something, but I always find them lovely. I personally love the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area in Tennessee. It’s not a terrible drive from where I live, and you can stay in a cabin in the mountain, completely avoiding people, or pop into town for a wide variety of entertainment options.
June Lake, CA might be my favorite mountain town. We spent some great vacations there.
I follow you on Bloglovin’. Congrats on making a wonderful quilt. It does justice to its inspiration–a song which I think should be our national anthem.
Such a wonderful quilt from a great inspiration!!! Some of my favorite mountains are in the Santa Fe National Forest….spent my honeymoon there MANY years ago!!! And, I happily follow you thru WordPress.
Your quilt and quilting are stunnung! I love the Smoky Mountains.
Absolutely FABULOUS quilt as per usual. I am fascinated by your skills in math, but why should I be when you are an engineer, to get all those shapes (HSTs HRTs etc) to work together! My favourite town in the Rockies is Jasper which is about four hours north of Banff! Both cities are in my home province 🙂 (Don’t enter me much as I’d love that fabric…)
Beautiful quilt! I love how you used the muted tones and still made a quilt with a lot of contrast. My favorite mountain town is Helena, MT
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Gorgeous Quilt!!! I follow you on Bloglovin & thru Email 🙂 Thank you for chance to win your Give-a-way too 😀
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My favorite mountain town is Bergen, Norway, the town between seven mountains.
Gorgeous quilt! I follow you on Instagram.
I follow you on Blogger. My favourite mountain down here in New Zealand is Mt Tarawera, and there is no town nearby, The closest would be Rotorua. This mountain shows off that startling pink at sunset on a cold frosty night, and looks over Lake Tarawera, home to the largest trout.A stunning quilt, and with a facing, perfect finish.
Thank you for linking up with Put your foot down, I’m still enjoying looking at your quilt.
Colorado Springs, Colorado has some beautiful mountain areas.
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what a very beautiful quilt. I love the mountains in places we have visited. Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire. Tennessee, Georgia… don’t know any town names.
thanks for the chance at some great fabrics.
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Love your Mountain Quilt! Yeah for the Canadian Rockies – love Canmore! Thanks for sharing.
You did a great job on your quilt! Love the fabrics too!
Wow.. what a stunning quilt! The quilting is perfect and really gives life to the pattern and fabrics. Great job!
I loved my visit to Loveland, Colorado, but I think my favorite would be somewhere in the Smokey Mountains, Cade’s Cove was beautiful when we visited. (Also follow on Facebook.)
Lovely mountain quilt – the fabrics were perfect for this!
Your quilt is stunning. I do love mountains! I had the great privilege of hiking up Phu Chi Fa in northern Thailand this summer. Definitely my favorite. Thanks for the beautiful giveaway!
I follow you on Instagram. Thanks for the inspiration!
It may be out of your comfort zone, but you hit it out of the park with this one. Your quilt just glows in that last photo. Favorite mountain town is Asheville, NC.
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Your quilt is so awesome and creative. You are talented. Every since I saw the Smokey Mountains in TN I have wanted to parasail there.
Wow! This quilt is absolutely gorgeous – look at the way it GLOWS!
I love your quilt, and the quilting makes it even more stunnig.
I loved the view in Sedona when we vistited last year
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That is a fabulous quilt – thanks for linking up to FInished or Not Finished Friday!! I am so glad to be able to see this post!! And glad that you worked outside of your comfort zone on the fabrics – it turned out amazing! Yor quilting was fabulous!!
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Absolutely gorgeous! Such a pretty collection and what a perfect way to showcase it. So glad you shared this on Wednesday Wait Loss.
Those low volume colors are so nice in this mountain scene. Better that that is the fun silk batting to show off your lovely quilting.